Ironman South Africa

Coming close to qualification last year in Bolton, and after the disappointment of IM Wales, I was ready to pack it all up. But being so close, and keeping improving, I followed friends' advice, and I “followed the slots” with my ticket to South Africa. At a championship race with 75 slots on offer, and ageing up for one of the largest age groups, I hoped I could get close to the top like at IM UK, and if not in the slots directly, get myself a roll-down.

Winter training was pretty tough, with only 3 rides done outside before flying for Port Elizabeth, and the rest done on the the turbo. But running was going well, and swimming kept improving slowly too, albeit in the pool. Everything was indicating I could have a fantastic day. The unknown being the elements and the heat, but that was one of the uncontrollable things that everyone would have to deal with anyway.

The few days before the race spent reccing the course, which included a checkup of the full bike loop. It was so windy that it took me over 2h to get to the turnaround point, and I easily broke my 25mi PB on the way back… I was really hoping this would not be race conditions!

On the swim, I seeded myself just at the beginning of the 60-90min pen, but given the mess the rolling start was, I’m not sure I was actually swimming with fast-ish athletes. However, I had clear water pretty much all the way around, and unlike Bolton and Wales, I was dead on every single buoy around the course. The swell was pretty big, but “long”. Not as choppy, short and sharp as in Wales. I felt strong all round, and it really did feel fast. It wasn’t. But at least this time, I didn’t know. I intentionally swam without a watch so I wouldn’t know my swim time and therefore would not be tempted to absolutely hammer the bike like I did in Wales. In fact, I didn’t have any indication of overall time as I used my watch only for the run, and my Garmin edge for the bike. This was intentional so I would concentrate on only one thing at a time, and not faff about with buttons, modes, transitions in between legs etc… I quite liked that and I’ll do that from now on for middle and long distance events.

I turns out I had one of my slowest ever swims in 1h13' :/ Not a great start, really!

On the bike, there was almost no wind, or very little, to start with. So it was pretty fast on the first lap. I started with my target power of 220W but could not hold that for very long without my legs screaming and my HR going through the roof. 220W felt like I was working very, very hard, but without signs of feeling bad. So I think this was a power-meter issue, because at 151 BPM average for the whole ride, I should well be able to hold this power. I also had my Garmin vectors on the bike in case my main PM would pack up like in Bolton with readings all over the shop, but I chose not to switch to them because readings were still stable.

The wind picked up a little bit on the way back of the second lap, but it was pretty low, hence the slower 2nd lap, but still a fast ride. The NP slowly went down, but stabilised to 204W and I’ll take that. My new hydration system worked perfectly well, allowing me to get out of aero position very few times on the whole ride, and put my head down properly. I was pushing hard and it was relatively hot, though, as I could feel that my stomach was on the limit of accepting food. I’ll have to experiment with more savoury gels like peanut butter this summer. In hot climates, the passion fruit and caffeinated apple are a bit nauseating! The garmin recorded 32C max during the ride. Hotter than I ever did before, but other than a couple of twinges in my calves, it was mostly ok. I had a pretty tight right hip though. Not sure why, but that translated into a bad right foot position (or maybe the other way around?), and blisters on my right foot from soaked feet on the bike, which didn’t help on the run…

I was on for sub 5h for most of the ride, so I’m a bit gutted about the leg and hip problems and flailing towards the end. But still, I’m pretty happy with that one. I have finally beaten all those records set at my first IM on the pancake flat course that Barcelona is. (I did 5h05 back then, singing to myself on the bike because I was bored… But hobbled a 4h04 run :-p)

Other than one loo break at the start (I stupidly forgot to go in T2… argh!) and the special needs mess shortly after half way, I ran the whole bloody marathon! First time ever! It was over 30C to start with, and I was amazed to see how many people were already walking on their first lap. They may well have overcooked the bike (literally!). But I didn’t feel too hot, and was ticking Kms nicely, trying to keep as close as possible to my target pace. For some reason, I couldn’t quite match it. Maybe the heat, or the combination with the fast bike? I was looking forward to my nutella treat every lap (individual nutella pouch every 8-10Km, YUM!) and use coke + water all the time + a couple of gels over the first 25K.

The special needs facilities were very poor to dispose of bags, with nowhere to leave them from 20m after the station. I didn’t fancy a DQ for littering further down the road, so I had to take time to get the contents out. That was the first time I used the special needs, but it worked as a carrot for me to get more food and drive me forward. Next time I’ll plan it better to be a lot quicker through it, though.

My foot blisters were pestering me, running a bit crooked, and I had a bit of low time between 25Km to 35Km (HR data seems to confirm this), but managed to pick it up a bit more after that. The only guy that passed me was at 41km, but I couldn’t follow him. I tried, but immediately started to cramp, and had to stretch my legs 100m before the finishing chute to avoid doing a pirate walk down the red carpet.

Some mental calculations towards the end spurred me on, knowing I was well under 10h, which would give me a massive PB, and be close to my target of 9h45. I was elated to find out that I was exactly on that mark! Would it be enough to achieve the dream goal of getting my ticket to the big island, though?

After a nail biting night and morning before the slots allocation ceremony, it turned out it was enough to get the 10th slot in my AG! No roll-downs needed! Win!!

All in all, I’m happy with the result, and this race seemed strikingly similar to my 703WC qualifying race at Lanzarote 70.3 back in 2013: fast, hot, cramping, feeling utterly rubbish at some points along the way, so not the best race ever. But a top 10 in AG, and this time directly in the slots!

Kona baby!! Happy days.