Ironman Race briefings have a tendancy for nervous athletes to chuckle and laugh, and generally half listen to the guy who is laying down the law for the big day. I was sitting with a truly epic representation of 30 Limerick Tri Club members. This briefing was a little different to the last 2. Everyone was listening intently. "So we sent our race director far out into the lake with a thermometer, which he attached to an anchor that he then dropped to the very bottom of the lake......
Slightly nervous athletes now looked shocked and scared. I actually expected it. The heat was steady and very serious. I was not too bothered. We were all in the same boat, but now I needed one.
Race day arrived and the atmospehere was brilliant. 2700 of us stood on the beach and the cannon went off. I pretty quickly learnt that being on the middle of the pack in a non wetsuit swim is very different, every contact with other swimmers sinks you. I was missing my wetsuit. 01:45 later I crawled out of the water. I came out of the water in position 1910. Is something wrong with me today I thought to myself. Get that thought out of your head.
Ah sure I will jump on the bike and see. Without alot of effort I was flying on the bike. Eat well and was rock steady on the climbs. Great course and unreal support. Closest thing to a tour stage I will do. It sure was not flat. But I like that. Took it easy in the final stages and even took my feet out of the shoes 20K from home for some comfort, I was only too well aware of what was to come. I came in off the bike in 1184.
Off the bike, changed and running. It took 8 - 10 minutes and the magnitude of the heat, and the sunburn I got on the bike smashed into me. Jesus christ I am on fire. Legs and heart were fine they wanted to go, but head said no - danger. Heat danger. Kept repeating. It was an involuntary reaction. This was a run / walk. Again. After 45 mins I felt like I was going to have to drop out. " No Philip, this is what you do, you have been here before. Start counting 1, 2, 3, 4 - 10. Stop walk. Go again - 15, and so on. Without a doubt the hardest marathon I have ever done. It was nothing to do with training this was a complete mind game. You cannot train for weather like this in the UK and you could see it in all the pale people's faces. This was fucking hard. Mexicans, Isreal's, Spanish all flying around majority of whitey's...well suffering beyond belief. I finished the run in 793. I made up 1117 places on bike & run.
I learnt more in Austria than in any other race I have ever done. It was a serious insight and tested every weakness you had. Not a day for strength's but a day for gaining them. Still ironically day done with a personal best to boot, not by much, but with the odds that seemed stacked against me, a PB is a PB :-)
11:48:44 Swim 01:44:41 T1 00:03:43 Bike 05:39:58 T2 00:04:34 Run 04:15:47
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