Mark Goodhand - My big day out at IMWA
 
This is IM # 11 for me and my eleventh attempt to get a Kona spot.  Also which is just as important for me is to break the 10 hour barrier.
 
TRAINING: Had a few little problems here with my swim training, our local pool has been closed since June for repairs so all swimming had to be done in the ocean in winter, not the best training but I did what I could,  normally 30' and then I would come out shivering.   The bike and run training went well this time around. Did a lot more hill work and intervals than before and felt a fair bit stronger for it. Practised my race nutrition plan in all my long sessions also put far more efort into my recovery with more stretching and eating the right foods after each session. Found by doing this that I trained at a higher tempo and lost a couple of extra kgs, got down to 61kg  (hight 170cm)

I go into each race as a race to race walking in the marathon is failure if you race with this in mind some times you fail and end up walking. If you never fail you are just not trying hard enough.
 
RACE PLAN 

Swim: 3.8k in   60'
Bike: lap 1  60k in  105'; lap 2  60k in  105'; lap 3  60k in  105'
Run: lap 1  14k in  75'; lap 2  14k in  75'; lap 3  14k in  75'
Total: 10.00 Hours
 
RACE DAY: Alarm went of at 4.45am got up had a bowl of porridge with a cup of tea.  Went across the road to T1 checked tyre pressures and put my 3 biddons of carbo drink on the bike, I had enough carbs in each bottle for a 5.15 bike time (one biddon per lap) and would pick up my water biddons from the aid stations as I felt I needed them.  Still had an hour up my sleeve until race start so I went back home to put my feet up and have another cup of tea. Race start for the Pro's was 6.00am and the age groupes 6.15am. Was not long until the starting gun went for the pro's so I then slipped into my wetty and made my way down to the swim start, got down there with 2' to go so I slowly made my way out through the crowd so that I could get a front row start in the middle.
 
SWIM: Gun went off and the madness began, had half the field swim over the top of me and then after only 200m die in the ass and block me for the next 30' this seems to happen in every IM that I have ever done.  IMWA has got one of the best swim course in the would, you swim straight out to see for nearly 2ks around the end of the old timber jetty and then back to shore. Normally once you have turned the end of the jetty the biff and bash stops and you can find room to do your own swim. Today I felt strong in the water and even started to think all the swim sessions that I had mist would not make any differance, but this was not to be as I exited the water I had  a quick glance at the clock and it was just passed the hour mark.  3 minutes slower than last year and in perfect conditins. Got myself changed and across the park at T1 in a fast time ( 3' ) managed to get down 1 carbo shot and 2 cups of water to get rid of the salt water taste in my mouth.
 
BIKE: Out on the road soon settlled into a nice pace felt very strong and this is going to be a good day.  Down side was that my HR moniter had decided not to work, I had used it all through training with no problems and on my big day out it decides to let me down.  I was planning to run a HR of 80% at a cadance of 90-95, cadance was still working though so I decided to go by feel for the HR side of things.
End of first lap I came in on 103' so I had a credit of 2' and I had downed my first bottle of carbo drink. Out onto the second lap things are still going well and the weather is still perfect, drank my second bottle of carbo drink and one of water this lap took me 107' so I had lost my 2' credit and worse still I had a fade out over the first lap of 5' this is not I good sign and I knew it.
Out on the 3rd lap I decided to back of a little so I would have a bit left in the tank for the run, finished off my 3rd bottle of carbo drink with another biddon of water, came into T2  10' down on my race plan, not what I wanted but my legs still felt strong. Another fast transition (3') and out onto the run with 4 carbo shots and the plan was to take one at each end of the run course and switch to coke on the 3rd lap.
 
RUN: It was starting to warm up a bit now and already there were several people walking.  The heat was starting to get to some, down in the wooded area of the run it was very hot and once you got back on the cycle path next to the ocean it was not to bad. First lap went by quite quickly and I soon found myself starting lap 2. I got around the first in 72' so now I was only 7' of my target time. By now there was almost 30% of the field walking, the heat was really knocking them around. I got a bit of a lift from my 1st lap time and pushed on it was still getting hotter out there but I could see a big PB coming my way if I could keep this up. End of the second lap, I came through at 77' dropped a few minutes on that one and the mind games had begun I was now down 9' on my goal of the 10.00 hour IM so I knew at this point that goal was gone, but I still had a chance of a PB as my 2004 time was 10.21.12  out onto the final lap the little demon in my mind was telling me to walk, it kept saying go on walk look around everybody else is.  I had to get rid of these thoughts and focus on somthing positive like my darling wife and how much I loved her (had you all going then a'h shit IM's not that hard)  3rd lap I concerntrated on my run form and what I needed at the next aid station to get me to the next one, everything else around me I shut of to, did not see anyone I knew on that lap, on the odd occasion I heard my name been called but never put a face to the person.  I was starting to suffer now and I was determend not to walk but push harder and this seemed to work, I felt like I was running better than I had all day and I was now gaining strength.  I came in over the finish line in a time of 10.16.23 a new PB of 5'  all that strength I found towards the end of the 3rd lap went as I crossed the finish line and now I felt very weak and old but very very very happy.