2012 Ironman Race Report

It all came down to a few seconds …

	Overall Time	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	1st 5km avg	2nd 5kms avg	3rd 5kms avg	Last 6km avg	Overall Run avg
Andy	4:41:09	35:25	7:38	2:32:44	1:32	1:23:50	4:11	3:58	4:04	3:43	3:58
Susie	4:41:33	33:18	4:06	2:25:23	1:09	1:37:37	4:41	4:36	4:52	4:22	4:37
Ed	4:41:40	34:04	5:20	2:23:36	2:29	1:36:11	4:48	4:35	4:39	4:15	4:33

Where to start?

I could easily write a blog entry about the weather – a ‘weather bomb’ cancelled the full Ironman race on Saturday and the organisers held a half Ironman on Sunday.

I could also easily write about the emotions I went through, from the highs of going through registration and getting my number on Thursday to the lows of hearing the race was cancelled.  Sunday morning I woke and just wanted the weekend to be over as all my eggs had been in the ‘long slow distance’ basket and having to race a half didn’t excite me, very similar to one Mr Cameron Brown!

The key difference between this half, and other halves in NZ, is that this one was offering Kona tickets!!!!!

On race morning I went through the motions, got ready and racked my bike then headed down to the lake. 

The Swim – I don’t know what to say, I used to pride my self on my navigation skills, well not any more! I have been on the start line of the swim 9 times (5 halves and 4 Ironman races) and I have never ever been so disorientated.

I swam 1km out with the bunch on my left, turned at the two buoys and was swimming back to the start line when BANG, my bunch collided with a bunch of women swimming the other way!!!  To put that into perspective, there was a 70 gap of ‘no mans land’ so I can only assume that since the women had a kayaker guiding them, we swam 70m off course. 

Mental note; next time, follow the buoys and not the bunch.

The Bike – I’ll be honest, the ride was chaos too, as we all knew it would be. The organisers had even pleaded with the 1600 athletes not to ride in bunches, YEAH RIGHT!

Once on my bike, I figured, it’s only 90km so I’d go pretty hard right from the start.  Going out was fine, a guy was following me, then we teamed up and we began jumping bunches until one bunch wouldn’t let us go.  The strange thing was, people wanted to be at the front but they had no urgency to keep making up places or catching bunches up the road.  On the way back our group got whittled down to about 10.  A few times the marshals pulled up beside us and warned us to keep our 7m distance which I thought was the correct thing to do.

It’s really hard to keep the 7m gap in a large bunch because once the leader slows down, everyone bunches up.  At about the 60km mark, a guy in our bunch was pinged for drafting   He was 2^nd in line while I was 7m directly behind him.  Admittedly, he was wheel hugging going up a slight rise, but what would have really upset the guy was all the MASSIVE bunches going the other way riding two abreast!  CRAZY!

I rolled into town with a few of the leaders from our bunch, had a pretty quick T2 for me and set off on the run. 

The Run – energy wise I felt great and I ran the first kilometre in 4mins!!! I had trained for 5min kms so I thought it wise to back off a little.  I caught a guy from our bunch and started talking to him.  Turns out he was Deano Gaskin, one of, if not the best Ironman athlete in my age group and he is from Wellington.  It must have looked funny as we were running along chatting as if we were on a training run.  He was recovering from a calf injury (runs a sub 3hr Ironman marathon) while I was happy to be in the company of such a great athlete with every 2^nd spectator cheering him on.  What it must feel like to be a famous athlete?

I stayed with him until just over half way when a mate of his ran passed so he carried on with him.  Shortly after the 15km turn around,  Andy and I caught sight of each other and smiled, as we both knew he had just over 5kms to catch me.  I dug deep and even got cheered on by a few athletes I passed.  In the end,  Andy passed me with about 500m to go, all I could do was wish him well.

In the medical tent, Andy was sitting down with an ice pack on his head. Turns out he got stung in the head by a bee as he was running down the finishing chute. Unfortunately, Andy is allergic to bee stings, some may say it was karma for passing me so close to the end, I say it was just bad luck.  Were the 31 seconds worth it Andy?  ;)

After he got stretchered off, an old friend Susie crossed the line and collapsed in the arms of two people.   That's how champions race. Turns out I got ‘CHICKED’ by 7 seconds!!!

Overall, I can walk away from this race happy and confident that the operation and all the physio work has been well worth it.  My 1.36hr half marathon was a great confidence booster.
Dear I say it, bring on next year!!!