Ironman Wales - Tenby

One that has been on my list for a long time, because it looked awesomely hard. Sadly, the day didn’t go to plan…

Tenby - Goscar rock

I had a couple of weeks of rest post IM UK, but then re-focused quickly on my Kona qualification goal. I felt fantastic until about 10 days to go, where I caught a bug someone nicely brought to work with them… I’ve been there in the past (a bit ran down right before a race), and resting it up always worked.

However, this time, nothing did it. No amount of rest, meds or layers did anything, and I reached race morning feeling like I had swallowed razor blades, with tight and sore throat from inflamed glands, and feeling cold and weak. Basically, exactly the opposite of what you’d want before the start of a crazy long race.

The weather was not helping either. It had been perfect until the day before the race, but in typical Wales fashion, the wind was up AND blowing in the bay, raising a rather large swell. It was now cold, it rained overnight, and the forecast was for rain at some point in the day too…

I still decided to start because I wasn’t completely dead, I had trained hard, and Wales was on my bucket list of races to complete some day. With rumours of it not being here next year, I wanted to tickle the monster regardless. And whatever happens, happens!

I tried to seed myself appropriately for the swim, but for some reason the barriers in place were hampering everyone, and no one really knew where the pens were. I guess I was towards the middle of the 1:00-1:10 pen, but given the weather, it didn’t make much of a difference. The rousing Welsh anthem I saw so many times on the previous years videos got straight through to my bones, and although feeling a little bit like in a rugby stadium for a 6-nations match, I just loved the feeling and got the goose bumps alright! Paul Kaye kept echoing what I’ve been told many times: “there are ironmans, hard Ironmans, then, there’s ironman Wales”. The hooter went, and after what felt like an eternity, it was my turn to go through the rolling start pen, and commence my journey around the hills of Pembrokeshire.

There are no two ways around it: it’s hilly everywhere. Even in the swim. Period. I’m not the best of swimmers, but this swim was brutal. The swell was so big that I felt worse than a boat in a storm: not seeing a thing when in the through, and being launched forward when on the crest. I landed twice on lifeguards canoes as I simply didn’t see them until I was ON them, and I managed to be so close to all the buoys that I got dunked under because of how much they moved in the wind and swell. The sea being so low on the day, we didn’t have to swim and run around Goscar rock in between the laps, and that made sighting a little more difficult. On the other hand, it meant less running on deep sand at the end of lap one. This was a relief too, as exiting the water half way, I knew I wasn’t in a good shape. Feeling tight chested and a bit nauseous, the only relief of that swim was that the salt acted as a good analgesic for my sore throat! The second lap was getting progressively worse weather wise, with bigger swell, and the long length of the triangular loop became extremely slow. 1h13 out of the water wasn’t what I was after, but given the conditions, I wasn’t too disappointed. That however, spurred me on to push for the rest of the race.

Swim out

Wales has this funky twist after the swim that you have to run to T1 for about 1Km, after climbing the steep ramp from beach level to street level. This calls for a second pair of shoes left at the bottom of the ramp, and a spectacle run, where everyone is carrying a heavy wet suit towards the T1 tents.

My legs felt surprisingly ok at that point, and I was encouraged by Steven Lord shouting at me from the top of his voice from the other end of the street! For the second time this year, he’d have to stop early in the race because it wasn’t his day. Still, he was there supporting after an amazing swim where he was out of the water 15th overall!

cold at the start of the bike

Given I had a cold and it was Wales, I had packed a pair of thin full finger gloves and a long sleeved fusion speed top. Those were a saviour for the first half of the bike where I was feeling the cold. Nevertheless, I felt all right, and subconsciously pushed the paced to make up for lost ground in the swim. I was feeling good despite the cold, passed some friends from my old tri club. To my surprise, passed Emma Pooley, and was on my way to one of my craziest come-back rides to date.

While Bolton was a strange ride, mostly lonely bar a few hotspots, the people of Tenby and the area go completely nuts on race day. There were people absolutely everywhere along the bike loop! Up or down, open road or twisty back country lanes:, the weather didn’t matter, there were people everywhere!

I really had a load of fun out there and although it’s a tough course, I absolutely loved it. In fact, I loved it so much that nothing felt too hard, and I really thought at the time that the reputation of some of those hills was way over-exaggerated. Others, however, weren’t on the map, but are a lot harder! The climb out of Wiseman’s Bridge for example, is on another level than the supposedly hard heartbreak hill that I barely noticed.

Unknown to me at the time, I had made a massive amount of ground on the top of my AG, and I came off the bike in 4th place, and 33rd overall!! And there’s only one way I could do this: by pushing too hard! I loved the bike course, and knowing my time in the swim and what I wanted out of the day, I had to try and push a little bit to see if I could hang on. I had an amazing run in bolton, so I was clinging to the thought that I could push through and hang in there. However, being ill didn’t help, and after about 6-7km on my target pace and managing the first hill, it was game over to be in the slots. Every lap, I heard Steven shout before I could see him and that helped me speed up a bit while in town, but on the uphills at the far end of the course, there was much walking happening.

Resigned to my fate, I still tried to take on the cheers, and give some encouragement to whom I recognised on course: a lot of my fellow Ealing D3 Triathletes friends, Andy Greenleaf for the few times I saw him smash the run in 2h55, and of course, the famous Alan Grove on his epic conquest. I wish I had not been ill, and had the foresight to not push too hard on the bike to give the run the respect it deserves, but I didn’t, so I managed with what I had left in the tank which wasn’t pretty. For the second half of my last lap, I clawed back a bit of energy to finish in 10:50 with a dreadful 3h50 marathon. Still a decent performance in the grand scheme of things, of course, being 71 overall. But only 13th in my AG, far from the slots, and a poorly executed race indeed.

Roll on 2016 and IM South Africa!

IM Wales has to be the hardest race I’ve ever done by far. I doubt I’ll do it again to try and qualify given how hard the swim is, and it’s just a shame my health didn’t allow me to be in the right place. But this is also the most awesome race I’ve ever done. If want to do it: go for it! The people on course, and the sense of achievement at the end will surpass anything you’ve experienced until now!

There are ironmans. There are hard ironmans. Then there is ironman Wales…

time GPS data
Swim (3.8Km) 1h13'39" data
T1 8'29" data
Bike (180km) 5h34'54" data
T2 3'26"
Run (42.2Km) 3h50'12" data
Finish 10h50'50" 71st overall, 13th in M30-34

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