IMUK 2014

This year has been a strange one so far, I began the year hungrier than ever to smash last years races and put the time in to get some strong results. It all seemed to start off pretty well, my running was quicker than it ever has been (still slow by most standards) and my cycling had taken on another level with the use of a power meter. However it was about 4-5 weeks out from IMUK I felt like I just didn't want to be doing this anymore. Training sessions were a drag, and my only motivation seemed to be not wanting to embarrass myself completely on race day. This wrapped up with the fact that my peak weeks were mixed in with some unavoidable social events meant preparation did not go to plan, Instead of a peak week of 20 hours, it was actually 2 hours :( . In the end it looked like I was in a similar position to the year previous, having not quite capped off my long cycle or run sessions. Swimming was another thing altogether. Even post race I've only swam 29km year to date.

So after the peak weeks that never happened race week arrived, and so I was just hoping that I'd maintained some semblance of fitness in order to complete. My only saving grace was my own assurance that an extra years Ironman training endurance had to be worth something. The extra fitness had seemed to come through in my half iron warm up race, so this was positive at least. I only exercised up until the Wednesday prior to the race to keep myself as fresh as possible. On Friday I left to get up to Bolton nice and early in order to register, get set up and then relax Saturday prior to the race on Sunday.

I arrived up at the newly named Macron stadium at around 2pm after a long and slow car journey, to the new T2, and registration tent. All the usual expo stuff, and simple registration, a much better transition bag given out this year though which is always a nice touch. After registering I headed over to the stadium for the race briefing, which was much the same as the year before. I was made to feel like a bit of an old hand, being the only guy on my table who was coming back for a second serving! All the other competitors were Ironman virgins so to speak.

After registration I settled back at the hotel with some pizza, got to love carb loading prior to race day.

Saturday arrived and it was time to get over to T1 with my bike and bags. Sadly it was pretty much raining all day, so I headed over in the wet to rack my bike and get the rain cover on asap to stop c.£5k's worth of bike getting sopping wet. Had a quick look around to familiarise myself but pretty standard stuff. Wandered over to the lake in order to gee up some pre race nerves. Which as with most of my races this year had not been present, at least not until the start line. Breaking news though, the swim looked long. To add to which it would be the longest swim I would have done this year by approximately 1800 additional metres. Superb prep work! I was suitably nervous in that moment. Especially given my swim last year (Read last years IMUK report, not pretty).

After this I caught up with a friend also racking his bike. Since IMUK had changed the bike course this year for a 2 lap course rather than 3 shorter laps (more on this later) and I had not seen the new course (another prep fail) Jason and I wanted to take a look at the course and suss any dodgy points etc.

Well driving round the course at 60mph in the pouring rain probably isn't the best preparation, for course knowledge, nerves, or the body. It was kind of Jase to drive me round though, and I felt at least I had a better feel for areas of concern and just the course in general. Several sections I thought would be carnage, but actually riding them turned out not to be so bad, guess driving and cycling don't transfer too well.

Back to my hotel and I settled down for a night of sleep, not before applying a few layers of sun cream. Despite the unrelenting rain all day Saturday, Sunday was actually forecast to be sunny!

The alarm was due to buzz at 3:15am but I was awake at 3am. I whacked the kettle on to get some porridge on the go and while I waited applied my sexy number tattoos to my arms. Two porridges and an energy bar later I put my race gear on and got ready to head out of the door. With everything I needed in the car I drove over towards Pennington Flash once more. Parking at the Morrisons nearby necessitated a 5-minute walk through the back of the country park towards the flash. In what I hoped would be the scariest portion of my day I navigated my way along a pitch black path through the woods, alone towards the lake.

Upon coming out the other side I was greeted with a familiar train of nervous athletes making their way towards the lake, I'm guessing they were the sensible ones who took the well lit roadway. I got to my bike and set nutrition and Garmins up. Interesting to be racked adjacent to the pro field in order to oggle their bikes and them in general. :blushes: A quick hello to the parents who had made the journey to spectate and it was time to get the wetsuit on. Nice and early. Trouble with it being so warm was that it was tough to even slide the wetsuit on, but an absolute sweat fest when it was on! Needs must though as I wanted to get in the water nice and early to place myself exactly where I wanted.
Nerves build and I jump into the water, I swam over to the very far right and placed myself at the very front in order to try and avoid any carnage.

The buzzer sounded and they're off, in all my open water mass start experience, this was one of the cleanest start I'd had. Lesson learned, get to the front, maybe at the side! I settled in pretty nicely and was well on my way. The first lap went without incident, and I actually had the first lap done in 34minutes. Second lap was a bit choppier due to the volume of people moving through the water but the journey out to the far turn buoy also passed without incident, save for beginning to feel my neck chafe. On the way back in I began to fade pretty bigtime though, the lack of long swim training was showing now! I finally jumped out of the water with a 1:14 swim. Not too shabby all things considered.

I jogged towards transition, and for some reason my attitude by this point was pretty poor, I was struggling to motivate myself to even get changed for the 112 ride. I slowly managed to sort myself but was then out on the bike after 7 minutes of faffing.

I jumped on and pedalled out of the country pack towards the main road, negotiating the speed bumps on the way, as well as every type of spilled energy bars, gels and drinks you could care to imagine (Do people purposely try and balance food on their top tube and hope it'll stay put for the durations?? or do they just not try using bottles and food on their bikes in training!?) I also passed a cyclist who'd decked it on one of the speed bumps, he looked ok though thankfully.

Out onto the main road and I went to apply some power but felt horrific! I had some odd pain in my left groin I'd never experienced cycling before, and generally felt sub par. I tried to get as much drink in me as possible hoping this was the solution. After 15 miles or so I was ready to drop my bike and wander off the course, but I had a word with myself and cracked on. By this point I was climbing sheep house lane, into the mist and rain, which did nothing for my mental state. My visor was so fogged by this point I had to tip the helmet right back and peer under the steamed visor. I climbed sheephouse steadily and without incident and was beginning to feel a little better by this point. I used the fast decent following the climb to try and air out the helmet which helped a touch.

At the top of the Sheephouse climb

Climbing Sheephouse, complete with very foggy visor!

I began to settle into the ride, but it wasn't until an hour in that I began to take on food, possibly  no definitely a mistake. 30 miles in I felt better for having nutrition and gels etc. and began to crack on a little. The nature of the course however is that its incredibly bitty. Loads of climbing, lots of dead corners, and bad surfaces to attempt to maintain speed over. Which all adds up to a huge variability in power output. Now my training rides I could usually pick a course I could settle into, getting a Variability Index (VI) of close to 1.00 (1.03-1.05 in most cases), I ended up with 1.30 here! This all added up to a mild blow up around 90 miles in. I started to feel pretty sick, and was probably dehydrated. I tried to force food down as I knew I'd need it for the run but it was seriously hard to swallow. My target for the bike leg had been around 200w, but I was struggling to get around 150w out by this point. Afer 6:12 on the bike T2 finally loomed and I wheeled my bike up to a friendly volunteer who relieved me of its presence, before tottering over to the change tent and my run bag.

Bombing towards Sheephouse for the second climb, love this section, approx 35mph at this point.

Same place, different angle

I grabbed my bag, then a seat in quick succession. At this point all the muscles in my legs began to spasm and cramp rather nastily, I ignored it at the time but I'm figuring it was down to not taking on enough water during the bike, which was in turn probably another reason for the 90 mile mini bonk. Run shoes on I headed out onto the run course, and surprisingly felt reasonable maintaining a very steady run pace. It was on now, there was no chance I was given in now. Numerous times during the day up to that point I'd considered quitting, but strangely as soon as I was running it never even crossed my mind.

Almost looks like a smile at this point, early days!

I jogged in towards Bolton and felt reasonable. After a couple of aid stations I arrived onto the remainder of the 3 loop course. The 1000 mile stare was well in use by this point and I just tapped away, walking the aid stations, the big hill and a few bits in between. The support was pretty monumental though, and that helped a great deal, as did the on course nutrition. A couple of times I came close to running out of food before just making it to an aid station for as much water, coke, gels and pretzels as I could stomach. After 3 laps of much the same I was finally able to make my way into the finish chute.

1000 mile stare in fine operation - IN THE ZONE!

I'm gonna finish it! Sucking up the atmosphere at the finish, and loving it

Still loving it...

I high fived my parents and a bunch of spectators on the way in and sprinted down the chute arms aloft with that feeling you just don't get anywhere else. Finishing an Ironman, with a healthy pb for good measure. I even managed to crack a 5 hour marathon. I should really try and do one without a bike ride first one day!

YOU ARE AN IRONMAN, again...

12:41 (40mins better than 2013)
Swim - 1:14
Bike - 6:12
Run - 4:58

So that was IMUK 2014. Plenty more lessons learned and things to take away in order to improve in years to come. On finishing happily I was reminded once more why I entered in the first place, and why I spent all that time training.

Finishing any triathlon brings a nice sense of accomplishment, but Ironman is something quite special, I realise how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to have done two now. However at this point in my life (I'm still only 26) I think I need to take a break from it for a year or two. Its a sport which does not lend well to having a social life, something which I like to think I enjoy having!

So watch this space, I'm sure I'll be back doing IM distance in the future (a nice fast flat course like IM Barcelona tickles my fancy at the moment) but I think for next year at least I'll be working on run technique, cycling more and maybe doing the odd sprint or oly distance tri for fun.