An Ironman Report...not mine....

Sosa

Copied this from a triathlon site...i know the guy who wrote it...its a great read...enjoy

Most people when they go on holiday they tend to rest, the more energetic might have a swim or even a game of golf, so when we, as a family, decided to go to France, I decided to do an Ironman triathlon. An Ironman triathlon is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile cycle and then a full marathon i.e. 26 miles 385 yards to be percise. I had already completed the U.K. Ironman last September in a time of 14 hours 52 mins. so I thought to myself with a little more training, and maybe losing some weight, surely I could better that time.
There were 8 people altogether from Waterford heading to France for the race and congrats to all of them for completing the race in very respectable times but this is my story.
Booked race in October 2008, picked up knee injury in Nov. '08, continued cycling and swimming throughout Dec. and Jan 09, had knee surgery in February, an old back problem came at me in Feb and so in March had a rhizotomy in Whitfield Clinic, continued training throughout March, April and May including leg exercises to strengthen the knee. Diet was always going to be hard because I love my food but still managed to loose a stone, and more importantly, tone up. In June I was feeling great, training well, and finally on the morning of Sunday 28th June at 5.15 am I found myself along with hundreds of others walking through the square of Nice (a beautiful city, highly recommend it for a visit), like zombies in a horror movie, heading towards the transisiton area which was on the promenade. By 5.45 am 2,500 athletes were doing last minute checks on bikes or in my case queing for a portaloo. Everybody was nervous but then again why wouldn't you be? I try to relax and take in the atmosphere. The one thing that is very obvious to me is the physique of everybody, they are all well toned athletes, each and everyone looks as if they could win the race and then there was me, but my race wasn't about beating anybody else, it was about beating the clock. You have 16 hours to finish or else you go home empty handed, no medal, something I thought about a lot that day.

The swim started at 6.30 am sharp.The 3.8 km swim was a 2 lap course of 2.4km and 1.4km with a small 6 yard run on the beach in between. With 2,500 swimmers in the water at the same time it was, I'm sure, spectacular to watch (see Ironman Nice on Youtube). I must say I enjoyed the swim and I felt I had a good swim in a time of 1 hour 13 min. Over 1400 of these fit looking athletes were behind me at the end of the swim and thats a nice feeling. The bike ride of 112 miles was going to bring us up into the Alps with some very hard climbs but they (the organisers) assured us that the scenery would make up for the hardship. The first 25 miles was relatively flat and fast but then you hit "the wall". We were warned about this first hill but man o' man it was like Patrick's Hill in Cork City. It was only 500m long but what a hill, with hundreds of cheering supporters on either sied of this narrow road I felt for a moment like I was in the Tour de France. At the top I realised for the first time I was in for a long hard day. The next twenty miles wasn't too bad but with temperatures now reaching 30 degrees C, hydration was playing a major part in this race. In England I ate an energy bar every 20 minutes on the bike (your body needs on average 1,000 calories every hour) but I found I couldn't eat in the heat. At the aid stations I would take on fluid usually the drink called infinit which had electrolytes and salt as well as carbs and I would try to eat a banana or at least half of one. At 45 miles we met the long hill. This hill is like the Mahon Falls but is 15 miles long and now the temperature was 32 degrees C. This is the hill that killed me. On the way up I noticed a blue bus picking up stragglers and so with 5 miles to the top I decided to swallow my pride and call it a day. I got off the bike, wrecked and deflated, both physicall and mentally and sat on the side of the road waiting for the "blue bus". Someone shouted at me to move into the shade which I did and this move probably changed the whole day, if not the whole holiday for me. A motor bike marshall pulled up beside me and asked if I was o.k. My response was "Im ?/*&ed, where's the bus". He said"no bus" and took out a map. He pointed at the map and said "hard bit done - easy bit left" allez, allez. Go, go. I got up and continued on. If the bus had come first I woud have taken it. With 50 miles or so to go I still had a lot of cycling to do and with the high temperatures, this cycle was far from over. I pushed on and then at the 75 mile mark I got a puncture and another 15 miles later. Am I ever going to see the promenade again, but I kept going and eventually after 8 hours 24 mins of a bike ride I enter the transition area totally exhausted and again thought to myself would I throw the towel in. With only 6 hours left on the clock and knowing that my plan was to powerwalk the marathon, the big question was would there be enough time. Basically I had to walk the equivalent of 42 laps of the Peoples Park at less than 8.5 min laps (try it for 10 laps before you knock me).
The marathon was 4 laps of the Promenade d'Angalise and so, on my first lap, I was mixing with really everyone else in the race except for the elite who had, by now, finished (winner 8 hours 30 mins) and gone home. By the third lap the numbers on the course were dwindling fast but the support from the spectators including my wife,children and friends kept me going. The scenery along the beach front wasn't bad either! By the time I hit the last lap 6.5 miles to go, I was hurting. I had blisters on my feet and another old injury was flaring up. A bone in my foot was hurting like mad, it was like a piece of glass stuck in my foot. The legs were heavy and at one stage I thought my calf was gone. At this stage I was 4 minutes down on finishing before the 16 hour cut off time so with 3 miles to go I started to run, something I hadn't done since last October and I didn't know how my body was going to react especially after what it had already been through that day. I struggled on and with 2 miles to go I could hear music at the finish line beating out. It was dark now but the lights on the promenade just made the whole place look fantastic. At this point a marshall on a bicycle pulled up beside me and shouted Allez, Allez, that French word again. With 800 meters to go there are marshalls running on either side of me and it's now I realise that if I make the cut off I will be the last person to do so. My legs are aching, my feet are in bits, in fact my whole body is aching but I mustn't stop. With 400m to go there are more marshalls running beside me, so also is my wife, Nora, my sons Robert and Ben and daughters Hannah and Sarah. The music is now deafening and so is the cheering from the crowds that have come out to see and support the last man home. I see familiar faces in the crowd, Rolf and Alan who finished hours ago and Noelle, Rolf's wife, who I dont think moved from the same spot for 8 hours. 100m to go and I'm filled with every emotion possible, the elation was indescribable. The last 50 meters is run through a corrale with a stand of people on both sides. The finish line is 10 meters away and I want this high to go on for ever but I want the pain to go away. I finish in a time of 15 hours 58 mins and 19 seconds, exactly 100 seconds to spare. I receive the honour of being "officially the last man home" and I'm telling you now if anybody ever gets on to me for being last I'll tell them to go and do better.
After all that the big question is would I do another Ironman? Never, well maybe. Actually, I've booked into Ironman Switzerland for next year. Watch this space!

BobMac104

Thats great i love reading stuff like that!

elvis jones

After reading that i don't feel so bad about my 13k run this evening:o

Oryx

After reading that I want to go and do one. Which is warped because all he does is describe pain!

elvis jones

Oryx wrote: »

After reading that I want to go and do one. Which is warped because all he does is describe pain!

Doesn't a majority of serious exercise cause pain............yet me keep coming back for more and more and more..........i think my mother in law is right........your mad, mad:)

nerraw1111

You'd almost prefer coming last and getting a hero's welcome than sub 14 etc. Great report

roco71

Well done to the Author, magnificent mental and physical performance.

Makes me want to give it a lash even more

hardCopy

Sosa wrote: »

A motor bike marshall pulled up beside me and asked if I was o.k. My response was "Im ?/*&ed, where's the bus". He said"no bus" and took out a map. He pointed at the map and said "hard bit done - easy bit left" allez, allez. Go, go. I got up and continued on. If the bus had come first I woud have taken it.

I love this bit. It's amazing how complete strangers can encourage/shame you into kicking on through a tough patch.

connundrum

hardCopy wrote: »

I love this bit. It's amazing how complete strangers can encourage/shame you into kicking on through a tough patch.

I remember on my first tri - I stopped a couple of times to walk as I wasn't able for it. There were 3/4 guys and a couple of girls who passed me, patting me on the back shouting c'mon!! Each one of them made me run 300-400m more than I probably would have.

Can't beat encouragement/shame

Oryx

As a constant paddy last, I get lots of encouragement. But it does help. I remember one particular one when I was struggling on the bike. 'Come on Wexford, just spin! spin! spin! So I did.

tHE vAGGABOND

Fantastic Report - found myself cheering him on when he was coming in on the end

Great work :cool: