I had one simple goal at Taupo, I wanted to go sub 9hrs. Setting time goals such as this can be a tad dangerous as it’s easy to loose focus if you fall behind schedule. But the thing with Ironman is it’s such a long day that even if you do fall behind there’s usually “time” to make up lost ground on the run. I had my race plans in place but as we know race day can throw up some interesting challenges.
Anyway, here’s how the race panned out for me.
The swim:
Before race day I knew I was in grave danger of being in no mans land in the swim. I figured Brent Foster would blow off the front and there would be a lead pack with Bjorn, Doe, Sheldrake etc then another bunch with Cam and one or two others. If I had a great swim I thought I could hang on to Cam but if I didn’t there would be a big gap to the next swimmers.
As it turned out I got dropped pretty quickly; I accepted it and thankfully found myself a nice draft behind a guy in a yellow cap. I was swimming next to him for a minute or two but he clobbered me a few times. Not wanting to get into a fist fight I backed off and sat in for a free ride. After about 1km my lead out man began to slow considerably and I began to fret a little - the last thing I wanted was to start leading and wasting energy (plus my navigating is absolutely crap). Just as this thought came into my head my prayers were answered and an age-grouper came alongside me, I jumped on his feet and he towed me in for the remainder of the swim. Then with 300m to go disaster stuck and my left calf cramped big time. I managed to get rid of the intense pain but could feel the deep muscle damage was going to be there for some time. I was praying 180km on the bike would do the trick, so that I could run. If you cramp in the run you are screwed, simple as that.
So out of the water in 49mins, I was satisfied with that.
The bike
This was the big unknown for me. The last thing I wanted to do was blow my race by drilling the bike which is an all to common scenario for many of the pro’s. As I set off someone came flying past. I thought ‘god if this is the pace the others are going I’m going to be a long way back’. Luckily Gordo was the next to swing past at a more sedate speed so I tucked in behind (7m back) and settled into a fairly comfy pace. As we came through an industrial area a massive double carriage truck came out of a petrol station nearly taking Gordo out and creating a drafting nightmare for us. The draft marshals were straight onto us. Gordo proceeded to have some strong words with them as Cam was already 4mins up the road and pulling away fast, the last thing he wanted was to be held up any more. The moment passed and our group had grown to 6-7. From here to the first turn at Reparoa (approx 45km) I found the pace OK but what wasn’t OK was the temperature. It was bloody freezing (I’m picking 7-8 degrees c), I couldn’t eat any of my solid foods as my hands were like claws and thank god there weren’t any corners as my ability to break would have been minimal. When we made the turn at Reparoa I was gob smacked at the size of our group. I had thought there was just 6-8 of us but all of a sudden we were up to about 20+ guys. With another 8-10 guys up the road I was a little worried for a few minutes. I managed to block this out quickly as I was pretty sure most of these guys were going harder than they should (at least that’s what I was hoping). The stretch back to race HQ includes a good amount of climbing and the group began to splinter as the pace began to heat up. Thankfully the temperature was also heating up and continued to do so for the rest of the day. After about 80km the pace of Gordo, Chris Macca …. began to get a bit much for me and I made a conscious decision to back off. Those guys were racing for second and I was racing for 9hrs so I put faith in my race tactics and went alone. Mentally this was very good for me and I calmed down quite a bit and just got in my zone. Not surprisingly the further we got into the ride, guys started blowing up from the bunch ahead and I duly passed them with a big grin on my face. My fuel had been going in quite well throughout the ride but was struggling a little with some solids (I was aiming for 3 gels /hr + ½ Pro4 bar plus fluids + the odd banana).
As I rolled in town for the bike/run transition I was content. Then disaster stuck again with the end in sight. A fly came into my mouth and straight down my throat, I spluttered then wooosh I threw up all over myself which I am sure entertained the crowd. Not a huge calamity but not ideal.
The Run:
As I sat in transition putting on my shoes I was happy to be off the bike, 180km is a bloody long way. I had ridden the last 100km solo and only lost 5 ½ mins to Gordo, Chris Macca etc. I was stoked with that as I could make up big time on the stragglers during the run. More importantly I was still on time for sub 9hrs. The clock was reading 5:51 as I came in - I was going to have to run well but my aim was to run 3hrs. As I set off I felt very good which I figured was a sign that I had got the bike pacing about right. As the km’s clicked away I continued to feel great and was holding back as much as I could. Within the first 21km I had made my way from about 18th to 10th - I was beginning to think this was going to be very good day. I really thought that I was not going to hard, my pace was between 4min/km to 4.15min/km and my HR was fine. Then the reality of Ironman hit home. By 27-28km the wheels were falling off quickly. It was not so much that my energy was gone but my legs were killing me. The Taupo run course is quite hilly and this plays havoc with you muscles - my quads felt like bricks. No longer was I looking at my watch for km splits but just focusing on putting one step in front of the other counting 1,2,3 - 1,2,3 - 1,2,3. When we made the final turn I saw that I was flanked by the Sheldrake brothers, Stephen in 9th and Brent behind in 11th. I hadn’t written off catching Stephen and figured Brent was far enough back to be safe. As the km’s continued to click by my legs were getting worse and worse but I was determined not to walk one step. I thought as I got closer to the finish it would get easier but it didn’t, it was agony. Then to top it off with 500m to go I heard someone cheering for Brent just behind. ‘Bugger that’ I thought, I haven’t worked this hard to be passed in the finishing chute and loose out on 10th place. I threw in a sprint and held on by about 12 seconds.
I finished in 9hrs 04mins just outside my target time but I was well satisfied with my days efforts. The most satisfying aspect of the day was that I was back from roughly 2.5 years out of the sport and with only 4 months part time training under my belt I proved to myself I can be competitive at Ironman if I want to. All the guys in front of me are full time pro’s as well as plenty behind. It’s only been a couple of days since the race and the ‘what ifs” are already beginning to circulate but I’m still content with the result.
Splits:
Swim 3.8km – 49mins,
Bike 180km – 4hrs 58mins,
Run 42km – 3hrs 11mins
+ transitions
Total time: 9:04
Place: 10th overall out of about 1200 starters.
The result has qualified me for the Hawaii Ironman in October so it’s going to be a long winter training.
Thanks to everyone who helped with my journey.
We were told the race will be shown in NZ on TV2 on March 16th
Cheers
John
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