(Attention: This race report contains blatant bragging)
This time I’ve really earned it!
Ironman UK the last annual qualifier fort he Ironman World championships each year took place in picturesque Sherborne, Dorset, UK on Sept. 7th. The race venue is Sherborne Castle built by Sir Raleigh about 300 years ago. I had come over there as a late entry (just like in 06) but with far less training under my belt than that year.
Half the training makes you faster! Me, at least!
Starting my new job with the law firm in Munich in March, my training had been reduced to an average of eight hours per week this year. Almost all of it was spent on the bike preparing for the relay at Challenge Roth where I put together a surprisingly fast race, clocking 4h 30min for the 180k. After this I succumbed to delusions of grandeur and signed up for Ironman UK von July 28th. England saw me arriving with a mere 8 miles of swimming and about 400 miles of running done in 2008. What I was planning to do try not to drown in the water, go all out on the bike and then hold on for bare survived on the marathon.
Race week
I flew in Thursday before the race (as in ’06) stayed with the Potts family (as in ’06 – a BIG THANK YOU to Kathy, Hayley, Andy & Dan!!!) and it was raining cats and dogs Thursday and Friday (as in ’06). So, everything was going according to plan as I always perform best in cooler conditions. Everything seemed very familiar to ’06 as you might have noticed so I was very much looking forward to the race. The race in ’06 had to date been my best Ironman race ever with a time of 9:51h and a 32nd place overall.
Spencer who?
One episode worth mentioning: When I checked in my bike a guy standing behind me had his Xentis front wheel in the wrong way and I made him aware of this. His answer was that he always put it in this way (with the pointy end in rotating direction). I tried to convince him that, if this were true he’d done it wrong all the time. I did, though, mention that he should take a look at the Xentis rear wheels in transition in order to check who of us was right. At the end of the argument he seemed a little angry at me but I did not give it any further thought. Nonetheless I kept his race number in mind. A quick look at the race programme let my face turn a bright shade of pink: I had just pissed of ex ITU World Champion Spencer Smith… well… so much for enemies… I thought. It has to be said that on race morning the wheel was in the right way. ;-)
It has to be noted that on very short notice the Potts family made room for another athlete, Claudio from Italy/Germany/Norway who had been staying at the flooded camp ground and gotten totally soaked whenever he went out to the race venue. So at least Claudio could spend the night prior to the race inside a dry home.
Race Day
We both got up at 3am (the race starts at 6am) to have our very different breakfasts. I tried to consume the ridiculous amount of 1.200 calories whereas Claudio made do with some fruit & toast. We then headed off to the castle and luckily there was no rain in the morning. As the race start drew closer, it became evident that we would not go off on time as at 5:45h it was still pitch dark.
The swim – DO NOT DROWN!
They kept us in Transition until 6:15h for a race start at 6:30am. I was very worries as to ma swimming abilities so did not dare to look at my split as I finished the first of two laps. When I exited the water I was surprised to see that only 1:01h had elapsed which was just 3min slower than in ’06. Everything going according to plan, I had survived! Good!
The bike aka "fly"
I took my time in transition to put on arm warmers and gloves it was about 12° Celsius at the time. Exiting the castle grounds my race began and I tucked into the aero position even when going up the first climb. Within the first 30k to the turn around of the three loop course I had overtaken at least 100 competitors but still had no idea as to my current position. When I overtook the leading women, Bella Comerford at around 55k I knew I was making good progress.
What surprised me was that as soon as I entered the second loop I began to lap slower athletes, as early as never before. The number of athletes that I overtook on lap two was significantly lower that on lap one so again, everything seemed to be going well.
Race nutrition – the “urgh”-factor
I had started out to “eat” one Power Gel every 20min and had taken 15 of them with me onto the bike as there were only bars supplied on the bike course. By the end of lap two I was really getting sick the gels so I tried to eat a few bars and bananas for a change. In the end I did consume a total of 20 Power Gels and do not want to eat any again in my whole life.
How do I do? I don’t know!
On the third lap I overlapping became my main job and the few athletes that I overtook mainly wore the X on their calf, marking them as pros. Even though I could not maintain the average of 36 km/h which would have resulted in a bike time of 5:00h, I still seemed to make good progress. But still I had no idea as to how I was placed within the men’s race. The wind picked up significantly in lap three and instead of what Andy had predicted did not help me on the Sherborne high road but was blowing right in my face. Then again: the harder the conditions, the better for me I thought. At the beginning of lap three a spectator told me that I was just 18min behind the lead. I did my math and calculated that today even the professionals did not ride faster that me. What did this mean… bad pro field or great performance by me, I did not know!
After the very enduring last bit of loop three with its rolling hills which took me right into the north westerly wind I could finally make my right turn towards the castle. Descending the hill I noticed that people were just starting to go down to the run course. The last kilometre of the bike course to the castle made me shiver as I noticed that somehow at least the bike had worked out very well today. People were cheering at me and I started sobbing from joy! See it here:
Support from back home
I have to insert a few lines on my support from home here: Usually the coverage of Ironman events lets you get all splits of your athlete if you just search for his race number on the Ironman website. Not this year for IM UK though. The service collapsed and the only thing working was the race updates on the top ten. My girl friend as she told almost went nuts because of this and could not believe it when the updates named me as the eighth athlete off the bike. From then on quite a few of my friends were informed by text messages and from then on glued to the Ironman website for further updates.
Top 10! Me?
The biggest surprise hit me when I entered the bike to run transition.
The run – hang on for dear life
I was overtaken by three pros within the first four miles but then no one else caught me through the rest of lap one. Running through town as one of the first athletes again made me sob as everyone was just cheering for me! I wore ma Tri Club of San Diego tri top and very often I heard “Go San Diego” shouted at me! At nine miles my legs still felt good and at mile ten another pro, Toby Radcliffe passed me. By now I thought, I was outside of the top ten. The rest of loop two went by uneventful and when I had finished two thirds of the run I began to ask myself just when I’d blow up. It seemed to happen when another German, Christof Schmidt, overtook me at mile 20 and I just could not follow him. So I increased my intake of Cola (thank Pepsi for producing “Pepsi Flat”) to get refuelled. Luckily I could dodge the “bonk” bullet and kept on running at a speed of just under an 8min mile. Soon I caught Christof again and from mile 21 on I started looking back! At the turn around in town (mile 23) I noticed two athletes about 1:20min back. I tried to push a little but just could not go any faster. By mile 25 both, a pro and an age grouper finally caught me. Kona slots were only up for grabs for the first two of my age group (30-34) and the age group guy was wearing compression socks. No chance to find out whether he was competition or not. But then again there was no chance of keeping up with either of them. They ran a marathon of 3:08h and 3:18h respectively which to me (3:26h) at the time seemed like flying.
Best ever! Period!
Then again I did not care too much aboput Kona at this point as I was preparing for the finish of my best ever Ironman race and did not really care about two places lost. (Had I known that this would cost me the top ten overall… nope that would not have made a difference!) Because at this point it was clear that I would neither bonk nor cramp up and finish well under my personal best time of 9:51h.
So I entered into an adrenalin rush as I had never before experienced! The last mile went by in a rush. I collected my last wrist band to prove that I was done and turned left for the finish. A final look back confirmed no one was coming and I really celebrated in the finish chute! I even pulled down the long socks for the finish photo.
When crossing the line I heard something about someone posting the fastest bike split of the day and winning his age group. Not sure whether it could really have been me I approached the event speaker and had this confirmed. I had really posted the best bike split overall (5:08h) and finished 1st in my age group, guaranteeing me the Kona slot I had not dared dream about before the race. I was totally blown away!
Kathy and Andy were there to greet me at the finish line. They will never ever believe anything I say about the shape I am in prior to a race. Never! ;-)
Calling home!
I then had to borrow a cell phone to call my girl friend as mine was not working and could tell her that we were all set to go to Kona again. This time, by the way, not by luck, but by performance! I was so spend after the race that for the first time in my Ironman career I did not go back to the finish line to cheer in the last finishers at 11:30pm but rather wanted to go to bed early. When I heard Claudio coming in very late I at first thought that he did make it in the end but after a bike split of just under nine hours and cramps in both legs he had called it a day after the second loop of the run. Next time he will get here with a better preparation and finish the race I am sure. Way too many things went wrong for him this year.
Awards ceremony, Kona here I come!
At the awards ceremony I had a blast again as the not only awarded me the trophy for winning my age group but also mentioned me posting the fastest bike split of the day. A strange thing happened a little later: I in fact smiled as I paid some $ 500 to sign up for a race… I must be nuts!
Kona in five weeks, just tell me how!
So now we are headed to Kona again in just four weeks time. And this time we will be accompanied by the two kids of my girl friend as well as Alex and Julia who could not come last year (this is a story of this own, by the way!). Just how I am going to race in Kona I don’t really know. But we’ll take care of this later!
You can view "a few" more pics here: http://picasaweb.google.de/timule/IMUK2008#
Cheers
Tim
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen