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| My perfect race! |
Pre-Race
Ironman Barcelona was to be my 10th Ironman (or Iron Distance race) and I had high hopes for it! I had a race plan and some goals - with the dream goal of finishing in less than 10 hours. Training since a disappointing Ironman UK had gone well. Lynn gave me unbelievable support throughout the build up and was really encouraging me to do the best training I could possibly do before the race. I could not have wished for more. As well as some great training sessions under my belt, I had lost more than 4kg's in the month before the race, so I was feeling physically ready.
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| Iron fit? |
I flew out on Thursday morning - Lynn and the girls and Nicola and Daniel were flying out on Friday night. I kept myself busy, going for a swim in the sea, a solid hour on the bike and then a 25 minute run.
Friday morning consisted of another hour on the bike with Gregg, Stuart and the Raceforce guys. A sea swim in late afternoon rounded off my pre-race training. Lynn and the girls arrived on Friday night. All that was left to do now was relax.
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| Some of the support crew! |
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| Ironkids! |
Saturday brought the Ironkids race. Great fun for the girls, all of whom received a backpack and a finishers medal. Dropped off bike and bags in transition later in the day before meeting up with everyone for dinner.
I had a decent nights sleep before waking up at 5.45am to
thunderstorms and torrential rain. Two
hours later, it was still the same. In
that time, I had breakfast (two pots of porridge and a cup of coffee), walked 2k
to transition, pumped my tyres on the bike, sorted out nutrition and bike
computer, put on my wetsuit and walked 1.5k back to Gregg, Paddy, Stuart &
Steve’s hotel. I was so wet and cold.
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| Quick pre-race photo with the Race Force guys |
The race start was
delayed by 30 minutes to allow the thunderstorms and torrential rain to pass! Gregg, Steve, Stuart, Ash and myself huddled
up by the beach bar and had a cup of coffee whilst we were waiting.
It was cold, wet
and miserable.
Swim
I did my pre-race warm
up on the beach, doing some vigorous arm swings, a few jumps and some other
stretches. I was too cold to venture
into the water for a proper swim warm up.
Instead, I joined the hundreds of other athletes awaiting their turn to
enter the water.
I was in the 40-44
year olds wave, 20 minutes after the professionals, 3 minutes after Gregg,
Steve and Will (35-39) and 9 minutes after Paddy (18-29). I couldn’t get near to the front of the beach
for our start, instead I had to line up on the 4th or 5th
row. When the gun went off we all
charged into the water. Bodies
everywhere! I decided to take no
mercy. These guys had put themselves on
the front row knowing they were not super swimmers, I wasn’t going to sit and paddle
behind them. I kept my head up, spotted
tiny gaps and just went for them. I swam
over legs, knocked into people’s arms, bustled my way past. It felt brutal but within 100m or so, I was
free! Clear water. Well, bouncing water. It was choppy out there. It was very easy to swallow lots of really
salty water – so I was very conscious of my breathing. I changed technique for this swim to combat
the waves, having more of a high arm recovery than high elbow. There was no gliding at the front of the
stroke either.
The swim was made
all the more difficult by the wave starts that had been organised. Effectively, I had about 1500 people ahead of
me – most of whom had between a 3 and 9 minute head start on me. This was going to be carnage. I bumped into so many swimmers. The blue caps of 35-39’s were first, then the
green caps of the 30-34’s, then the white caps of the 18-29’s. I reckon I swam through / over / around /
into most of them. It was a very
disrupted swim.
Not once in the
swim did I feel tired. Not once. Usually the last 800m is a bit of a slog,
with heavy arms. Not today.
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| Focus! |
I exited the water
after 54 minutes, 5th from my wave out of the swim and 62nd quickest
overall. The fastest time of the day was
just under 50 minutes. Given the
conditions, I was quite happy with that.
Transition
1
I ran up the sandy
beach and into the transition tent, stripping my wetsuit as I went. Surprisingly, the wetsuit came off easily for
once. Emptied my transition bag onto the
floor and put socks and shoes on, race belt on, salt tablets into my pockets,
helmet and glasses on and then a quick dash to the bike.
Bike
The first couple of
kilometres are along a narrow road, with speedbumps, a chance to settle onto
the bike and not go off too hard. The
road was slippery though. I felt my back
wheel slide a couple of times during this section. Easy, easy.
My HR monitor
refused to work at all on the bike. Perhaps
from the salty water of the swim?
Whatever the reason, I was going to have to rely solely on my power
meter - and my perceived effort.
As per my plan, I
rode pretty 'easy' for the first 39k up to the turnaround point. I didn’t put any real pressure on the pedals,
and backed off when I felt my power rise.
That said, I was still riding pretty quickly. I didn’t sit in any pace lines, just riding
on my own (being overtaken a lot!), yet averaged over 35kph for this section,
with a Normalized Power of 168w. Gregg
was one of the guys who overtook me on this section. I was riding at 42kph on this bit of road and
he flew past me like I was going 20kph.
Go on dude!
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| Starting off easy - it's a long day ahead! |
At the turnaround
point I had decided to put a bit more effort into the bike, increasing power
slightly and building into the race. My normalized
power for this section was 175w but average speed for the return leg was
34.2kph. Will passed me after about 60k,
obviously in a good mood, singing "Do You Want To Build A Snowman". He was looking good!
At the end of the
first lap, amongst the crowds, I spotted Lynn and the girls for the first
time. It was a great feeling! I love seeing them out on the course.
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| Spotted having too much fun! |
This next section I
picked up the pace and power again, averaging 36.2kph and 179w NP up to the
next turnaround point. During this
section I started overtaking people.
People who had flown past early on were now staring at my back
wheel. It was starting to get hot and I
looked around and noticed a lot of people sweating heavily. I did a quick check on myself – no sweat. I was 110k into the race and I was feeling
fantastic. I passed Paddy on this
section and he looked like he was cruising.
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| Building into the race |
The return to
Calella was done in 34.5kph, with NP of 180w.
So that was 150k done and my power was still increasing as the race wore
on. I was eating and drinking well,
having Torq energy gels every 30 minutes (with a caffeinated one at 2 hours and
4 hours) and picking up one bottle of water at each aid station. I was dropping more and more people too.
Gregg and Will were
both flying! Gregg must have built up a
12 minute lead at this point, with Will not far behind.
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| Spotted Lynn and the girls, Mum & Dad and Nicola & Daniel |
Again, I spotted
Lynn and the girls, Nicola & Daniel, My Mum and Dad all out cheering! Awesome!
The last 30k ‘mini-lap’
was done in average speed of 34.3kph and NP of 183. I was finishing the bike having had no dark
patches or stomach issues and with energy still in the tank!
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Speed
(kph)
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NP
(w)
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Cadence
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Section 1 - Calella to Turnaround
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35.4
|
168
|
89
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Section 2 - Turnaround to Calella
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34.3
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175
|
85
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Section 3 - Calella to Turnaround
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36.2
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180
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85
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Section 4 - Turnaround to Calella
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34.5
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180
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83
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Section 5 - Mini-Lap
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33.7
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182
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82
|
There were lots of
people in the penalty tent. Drafting I
guess. There were so many ‘draft busters’
out on the course, so many penalties must have been given out. I imagine if you’re at the front end of the
field, trying to qualify for the World Championships or make the podium, the
sight of some of the drafting must drive you mad. As frustrating as it was to see, I wasn’t
going to let it affect my mood. I was in
my own race, looking for my own performance.
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| Riding to conserve energy for the run |
I rode into T2 with
a 5.10 bike split, averaging 34.7kph and NP of 177 (Intensity Factor of
0.74). I zoomed through transition as
fast as I could, including changing socks.
I grabbed a bag with my Garmin and my gels in and ran out.
Run
Once I’d fired up
the Garmin, I realised I 'only' needed to run 3.45 (ish) on the marathon to finish
under my Big Hairy Audacious Goal of 10 hours.
To put this into context, in the 9 Ironman’s I have previously done, I
have run under 4 hours twice on an Ironman marathon – a 3.59 here two years ago
and a 3.29 in IMUK in 2011 (on a short course). Also, my standalone marathon PB is a 3.22. However,
I had a strong belief in myself, in my running, and if I executed the run well
then I’d achieve it.
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| Start off easy - the race doesn't start until the last 20k of the run! |
I started the run
telling myself to slow right down and not to blow it on the first 10k. I was going past runners, but knew I was
running too fast. I forced myself to run
behind another runner, slowing me right down. I started running with a British guy but I
noticed my pace creep up a bit, so being sensible I slowed down, waved him off
and wished him well.
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| Nice rhythm |
I was feeling
fantastic whilst running - light on my feet and energetic. I was taking on energy – gels and not coke
this time – with just a couple of sips of water at each aid station. I passed Will after 6k and Gregg after 15k. Both of them looking good and on to great performances.
Again, my support
crew were out on the run, making all sorts of noise! Turbo-charged!
I went through the
half marathon in approximately 1:45. It
was here that I started to get a bit emotional.
I realised that the wheels would have to come off completely for me to
miss my sub-10 hour goal. I was still
feeling awesome and I had more than 2 hours to run 21k. This was on!
The support I had
on the run was outstanding! So noisy, so
emotional, so invested, so passionate.
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| Still feeling good! |
At about 25k I
started getting some stomach cramps – but a quick trip to the portaloo helped. I held back on eating too much then, only
taking another gel between 25k and the finish.
The only other time I broke stride was through the aid station at 36k
(ish) when I had a really acute stitch.
I walked a bit longer through that aid station, but soon picked up my run. Actually, the only walking I did in the race
was through the aid stations, and even then it was just enough time to have 2
or 3 sips from a water bottle.
Going into the last
lap, I made a decision to slow my pace down.
I didn’t want to get cramp or have any other mishap. I was so close to a sub-10 I wanted to take
no chances.
This was reflected
in the splits.
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5K Splits
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5k Average HR
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5k
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25:27
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151
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10k
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25:27
|
155
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15k
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25:10
|
156
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20k
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25:08
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155
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25k
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25:37
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152
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30k
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27:43
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150
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35k
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26:17
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150
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40k
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27:17
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148
|
For the last 2k I picked
my pace up. I ran straight past the aid
station, waving at the volunteers as I went.
This was joy. I turned into the
finish chute and high-fived as many people as vigorously as I could! I was delighted. Not relieved to finish or satisfied with the performance,
but genuinely delighted.
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| High-Five! |
I’d finished the
marathon in 3.37 – or 3.39 if you include the transition like the official time
did! What a run!
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| I love it when a plan comes together! |
I genuinely believe
that I could not have executed that race any better. It was perfect. Physically I was prepared. Mentally, I believed.
9 hours and 50
minutes of absolute perfection.
