Challenge Barcelona 2012

Take 20 minutes off time - due to start wave

Let me start by saying what a super race Challenge Barcelona is! This could be my favourite Ironman race out of all six that I have done.  It wasn't just the PB that made it a favourite, I really enjoyed the course too.  I had energy almost all of the way through the race, feeling super strong in places.   

It is easy to get to from the UK, there are plenty of places to stay to suit any budget and the weather (eventually) is perfect. The racecourse itself is a fast one - flat and straight - giving people the opportunity to go for a PB. It is also ideally placed at the end of the year to make it an ideal second Ironman in the year.

Build Up

That said, the race build up for me was far from ideal. My bike was broken in transit, with the rear dérailleur coming off the bike.  After being reassured by a few people on twitter that it was not a major problem and several trips to race HQ to try and sort it out, I eventually got it fixed in a local bike shop the day before the race.  That was the best 12 euros I have spent!  Oh yes, the day before the race and the main (only?) talking point was the weather.  And what weather!  It was awful.  Bouncing rain, howling winds and it was cold.  Not quite what I'd signed up for.  Bike check in was actually postponed until race day morning.

Race day arrived after a pretty good nights sleep.  Up at 5.30am for two porridge pots, a couple of pieces of toast and a coffee.  I was all set.  Lynn and I made the 1k walk to transition with my bike, following the masses through the darkness. Bike racked and ready just as I met up with two clubmates who were also racing - Gregg Jones and Will Turton. Gregg was doing his second Ironman (and second of the year) and was starting 5 minutes ahead of me, and Will was in my start wave and doing his first Ironman. They both seemed very relaxed.

Swim

The pros were off at 8.30am. I was in the fourth wave at 8.50am - a much nicer start time than the usual Ironman starts of 7am!  The swim seemed a bit long - a 55 minute swim tells me that. Other people who were wearing Garmins during the swim measured it at 4.1k. I don't mind a long swim - I guess that's where I can put time into others.  However, when you're going for a good time, the last thing you need is extra distance to cover!  It was choppy too. We had none of the weather of the day before (thank goodness), but there was still a bit of swell in the water.  Swimming in the sea is very different to swimming in the pool or in a lake or canal like Roth.  I was not going to be able to swim with a normal, long, smooth stroke. For this reason, I decided early on that if there was a draft to be had in the swim, I was going to take it!

After setting off on the left the course, I made my way to the pack just after the first turn buoy.  It felt pretty easy.  I looked up ahead and saw two guys about 10-15 metres ahead.  I went after them, determined to get onto their feet and have a faster draft than I was currently getting.  I bridged the gap quite quickly and sat on their feet for the next 2000m or so!  I passed so many swimmers from the waves ahead.  First the silver caps, then the green, then the gold.  It was really quite busy out there!  Probably with about 1200m to go I felt as if my swim was a little too easy and relaxed, so I took over the two blue caps in front of me and swam my own swim from there.  I actually felt better going on my own and in hindsight probably would have had a quicker swim if I'd just swum my own race.  Who knows?  I was out of the water in 55 minutes - initially a little disappointing - but an easy swim, which was probably a little long and 44th fastest of the day (inc the pros and the relays, coming 2nd in my age group and being beaten only by a handful of age groupers).

Into transition.  The weather was really miserable the day before, and the forecast for the race was mixed, so I had decided to wear arm warmers and gilet for the bike.  It took so long to put these on though!  I was in and out of transition in over 5 minutes.

Bike

Onto the bike. I was a bit nervous about my bike, not having ridden it since it was assembled and then fixed by the local bike shop.  I needn't have worried though.  It was fantastic!  Aside from having stop within the first kilometre to tighten my ankle timing chip, the bike was trouble free.

Super straight and flat bike course

It was an easy first couple of k's on small roads with speed bumps, followed by a couple of small hills to get out of town.  After that it was aerobars pretty much all of the way!  I was sticking to my plan of taking it relatively easy for the first hour - to make sure my HR was under control and to start my nutrition plan.  Within no time, Gregg came past me, looking very fresh and looking like he was enjoying himself.  After a little chat, he took off.  I was tempted to go with him, but I really wanted to stick to my easy plan.  I hadn't done any long rides since Roth - except one 4 hour ride 8 weeks earlier.  Most of my bike training had been turbo sessions of 1hr30 to 2hrs.  I had no idea how I would feel after 100k on the bike, never mind 180k, so I wanted to be quite conservative early on.  I fully expected to be behind Gregg and Will after the bike so didn't panic here. 

After 20 minutes I started my new nutrition strategy - one zipvit caffeine gel every hour, supplemented with some energy drink from the aid stations and some water.  The roads were super smooth and dead straight.  The only braking I did in the whole race were at the turnaround points (and one roundabout which I completely misjudged!).

At the first turnaround point, Gregg was about 1k ahead of me and Will was about 3k behind me.  We were all pretty close - this was going to be a good race!  On the way back into town I think we started to get a bit of a tailwind.  The riding was quick and it wasn't using much energy either.  There was a little bit of drafting going on as pelotons of riders came past me - but I figured there were plenty of draft busters out on the course who should stop them.  Anyway, I was concentrating on my own race and my own time, not really competing with other people, so I didn't mind them drafting.

I spotted Lynn and the rest of my supporters towards the end of lap one.  They were holding up some kind of printed banner or sign saying 'Go Bryan' - fantastic. In my beaming smile and waving arms I hope I managed to properly relay the amount of fun I was having.  75k done and all was well!  The second lap started into quite a strong headwind.  This is starting to get tough.  Rather than fight it, I dropped my speed a little and tried to stay in control.  My HR climbed to 160 on this section but I was barely doing 30kph!  I looked behind and noticed that there were a string of riders behind me, either drafting or staying just far enough behind not to be drafting but close enough to stay out of the wind and get a benefit!  I don't think I've had that before.  Usually, people just blast straight past me!  About 20k later, think the wind must have dropped again because my Garmin was telling me I was back up to 36kph, my HR was dropping and I was flying past people.  

Spot the section with the headwind?

At the next turnaround, the distance between Gregg and I was similar to the first lap, but I think Will was closing.  After the headwind on the way out I wanted to get the benefit of the tailwind on the way back so upped my effort slightly, starting to move past some of the people who had overtaken me earlier.  I passed Gregg who was still looking good and in control of his race.  I was loving this.  I felt strong and fast.  Very few people were overtaking me now - it was me who was moving through the field.  Up and over the climbs on the way back to Calella and I was still on my aerobars, still in the big ring, storming past people.  I started to get excited and think that a very fast bike split (sub 5hr30) was a real possibility - which would surely set me up for a sub-10 hour Ironman, particularly the way I was currently feeling.  Second lap done, spotted my supporters again (giving me an extra boost!) and just 20ish k's to go.  Boy oh boy I was having fun out here!   

Coming into town, the last 10k was really, really busy on the roads.  I took over lots and lots of groups of cyclists on this stretch, probably people finishing their second laps rather than on the last leg.  I also looked over the road at oncoming cyclists - cyclists that were behind me - who all looked like top triathletes riding super bikes.  I was ahead of these guys?!

I finished the bike in 5 hours and 17 minutes, an average of 34kph.

Run

Flat, four lap run course

Fast transition (1:06) and onto the run.  I zoomed out of there then suddenly realised I had better slow down!  I started at a steady pace of 4:50min/k but kept trying to slow down as I wanted first 10k to be relatively slow, conserving energy for later.  This didn't quite work!!  I was drinking coke and water on the run - except it wasn't coke it was some cheap cola doubled up as energy drink – and it wasn’t great!   

Lynn, my mum and dad, my sister-in-law Karen, her mum and my nephew Charlie were watching from Pineda, about halfway along the run course.  This was really good as it meant I would see them up to 8 times on the run - this would keep my spirits up throughout the race.  The first 10k felt super – bang on 50 minutes. I had a nice rhythm going, walking briefly through aid stations, then running well.  I was still on for a sub-10 hour race.  I was really confident about my run too.  Looking back, I'm not sure where this confidence came from, because I hadn't done many long training runs at all.  I had averaged about 34k per week of running - with no long runs of more than 2 hours - in the last 8 weeks.  Not quite textbook.

Gregg & Will both looked good on the run too - not far behind me.  I knew if I wanted to finish ahead of them I would have to have a decent run.  However, despite still running ok, at about 18k or so I thought I needed to throw up!  I stood by the side of road doubled over for a moment but nothing.  Off I went, back into a decent rhythm.  Whether I had been sick or not, I knew all about this from Roth and I wasn't going to let this ruin my race again.  I steered clear of the cola energy drink and stuck to water for the next two aid stations.  

Heart rate dropping as pace drops

 At about 24k I spotted Lynn and asked her to get me a Snickers.  I was desperate!  Off she ran ahead of me, straight into the shop, straight back out with snickers in hand, handing it to me without me breaking stride.  Wow!  Fantastic!  It felt so good to at and almost immediately I felt a bit better.  By this time I knew I wasn't going to run a sub-3.40 marathon, even if I suddenly felt great again, which meant I wouldn't do my sub-10hr Ironman.  To be honest, this goal only really appeared during the race, after realising what a fast course this was.  My original aim at the start of the year was to go 10:10 (plus transitions).  This was still on.  Also, I still had two other goals in my mind.  I wanted to PB my overall race (10:29:59) and also I needed to run under 4hrs for the marathon. This need was driven by my last two Ironman marathons - Wales and Roth - where both were disappointing.

All ok until 18-19k, then a couple of bad k's - the pace never recovered!

The third lap of the run was the hardest as I still had 21k to go.  The last lap, although more fatigued, only has 10.5k to go - mentally much easier.  After about 28k Lynn relayed a massage from Alvin - who was at home tracking the race - which made me chuckle.  "Tell Bryan to slam down a gel and wake up.  Sub 10hrs is on!".  Typical Alvin!  I couldn’t face a gel, never mind ask my legs to move any quicker.  The walks at aid stations were getting longer, with the running in between slowing down too.   

Onto the last lap and the pace was struggling to get anywhere near my pre-race ambitions.  The kilometres without aid stations were being completed in 5:20 - 5:35 whilst this slowed to anywhere between 6 & 7 minutes when I walked through the aid stations.  I'm sure some better run training (i.e. longer training runs) would have helped me avoid this mini meltdown.

Coming into the finish area for the last time was super.  The crowds on the gantries were massive and there was a fair bit of noise.  I stretched my arms out and took all the hand-slapping, hi-fives I could.  I kept on running right up until the finish.  Again with hindsight, I'm glad I did.  I managed a 3:59:55 marathon (my Garmin measured 42.35k!) and a new overall PB of 10:19:00.