TriTwins: Western Autralian Ironman 2007

[More photos to come]

Having gone to bed at 8:30 and asleep soon afterwards things were looking good but soon after midnight the boys were wailing and distinctly not well - poor things.

The next few hours were a fitful sleep until I was rudely awoken by the alarm at 3:30. Straight onto the throne and then the first of 6 espressos to get the system really revved up.

We left the boys to sleep and Shilpa and I drove down to the start to begin the adventure. Setting the bike up with computer, CO2, valve adapter, spare tyre, bars, gels, drinks, shoes, sunglasses etc... took much longer than I would have liked but once it was done I visited the throne room again, threw on some sunblock and squeezed into my wetsuit. Last minute photo, kiss for Shilpa and then I was on a rather chilly beach with almost 1,000 other equally nervous looking pieces of shark bait.

Chris was looking suitably confident and ready to go.

At 6:15 sharp the gun went off and the race had begun. I started in the middle of the throng, which proved to be a good choice as the rest of the Busselton Buddies chose to start a little more conservatively and got the worst of the crowd, causing them to stop mid swim multiple times. My swim was pretty uneventful and seemed to be going reasonably well - wearing a buoyant wetsuit added to the extra buoyancy of saltwater really helps disguise what an awful swimmer I am. I came out of the water in a rather surprising personal best of 1:06, even more surprisingly ahead of the other Busselton Buddies and only 3 minutes behind Chris "The Fish" Wayman.

Onto the bike and boy it was cold, it took me a whole lap to warm up. I have long since learned that THE ONLY WAY to race an Ironman is to watch your cadence and heart rate on the bike. If you've done the training and you're not ill then the speed will take care of itself. I normally spin at 107 rpm at a HR of 125. However, a minor disaster had struck - neither of my HR monitors were working and although I turned them off and on a couple of dozen times to get them working they were useless. I was going to have to do this ride a little blind - oh well eh, at last I could keep the cadence on track.

I saw Chris at the first turnaround just 1k ahead of me. I expected to pass him a few minutes later. Chris wasn't keeping to the script though and it was another 2 hours before I caught him - he was hammering it. I then expected to slowly ride away from him but once again he wasn't having it and we ended up riding the second half of the 180k together - keeping a legal distance apart of course. This greatly helped with motivation and speed for both of us.

I saw the rest of the Busselton Buddies a few times except for Sam and they all seemed to be riding well and enjoying themselves. I also saw Shilpa and the boys twice which is always a huge boost on such a long race. The boys looked a bit confused though and apparently they thought that every man on a bike was daddy.

Chris had threatened to rugby tackle me as we came into transition so I let him and his ego go first. He jumped off his bike, handed it to a helper and bounded towards the transition tent. I jumped off my bike, handed it to a helper and bounded after him. Unfortunately my bounding only lasted one stride, my hamstrings were so tight I nearly fell over. So I hobbled like and 80 year old man to transition and completely blanked out of my mind the fact that I'd now got a marathon to run.

Out of transition and there was Shilpa and the boys together with Chantal, India and Kofi. I gave the boys a kiss and Chantal asked me how I was feeling - I replied, "I feel absolutely awful and can hardly walk", I was pretty cheerful about it though. She replied, "You do know you have a marathon to do don't you".

"Mmmm I suppose so" and off I went to face the awful reality. The first two kilometres were excruciatingly painful and my hamstrings were very tight. After that the pain didn't ease up at all but at least my legs loosened a little. I don't really want to revisit the next 4 hours in too much detail but they were enjoyable albeit very painful. I ran the whole way just walking through the drink stations to ensure that I took on enough liquid.

Thankfully, I saw Sam on the run. He was looking great with a big smile on his face. He was having a good day. In fact as were the rest of the Busselton Buddies, Carmen, KK, Tom and Lisa were all looking very comfortable on the run and all were positively beaming.

With about 8k left the pain had burrowed itself into just about every sinew of my body but I had managed to work out that if I picked up the pace a little I could finish in under 11 hours and there might be enough time to grab Sid and Seb and go down the finishing chute holding their hands.

I decided that whatever happened I'd finish with Sid and Seb even if I missed the 11 hour time in the process. However, I picked up the pace because I'm greedy and I wanted it all, I wanted the perfect day! With 2k to go I knew I'd do it, the feeling of euphoria is indescribable.

I entered the long finishing chute and there were Sid and Seb. I held their hands fully expecting them to be scared out of their wits and not want to go to the line. On the contrary however, in between looking a bit bemused they had huge smiles on their faces and seemed to love every second of it. The time was ticking by but I just didn't care it was the proudest moment of my life, not proud of myself, I'd forgotten the race, I was just so proud of them, proud to be their dad and proud that they were there with me holding my hands and running to the finishing line, they were awesome. It seemed that just about everyone were reaching for their cameras, I can honestly say that was the happiest and proudest moment of my life.

Stats:
Finishing Time: - 10:56:58
Swim and 1st transition: - 1:07:29
Bike: - 5:28:08
Run and 2nd transition: - 4:21:20