Race Day

Saturday 11th October

Had a decent night’s sleep (complete with the cold sweats I always get the night before a race!). Woke at 4am, got breakfast, dressed and was out of the condo by 4.45am. We were picked up in the parking lot and got down to transition at about 5.15am, it’s really busy but again very well organised, we made our way to the tennis courts at the back of the King Kamehameha Hotel where the body marking was going on, after that I made my way round to the transition area. Nick had to go a different way and we got separated, I spent the next 15 minutes frantically looking for him, when I found him he had somehow got into the transition area (don’t ask me how, but you know what he is like), pumped up my tyres and sorted out my drinks on my bike (what a star), now all I had to do was wait for the start.
We looked around transition for a while and saw Craig Alexander & Norman Stadler sorting their bikes out. Also around was Paula Newbury-Fraser and I managed to get a photo taken with her. Left the transition area just as it was starting to get light you can just feel the excitement (and fear) in the air! Nick & I find a quiet spot where I sat down on the floor and started listening to Muse on my IPod, it’s weird watching everything going on but being removed from it by not being able to hear it, it does calm me a lot though!
At 6.45am the first cannon goes off for the Pro start, time for me to take my gel, get my skin suit on and hat & goggles in place, Nick gives me a big hug, a kiss and wishes me lots of luck and sends me off towards to water. I start to walk into the sea along with all of the other competitors there isn’t much talking going on now, just a few friendly smiles exchanged. There’s a Hawaiian Priest who is giving a blessing to us all and also a band playing Hawaiian music. I swim out towards the start line, find a place that I am happy with and tread water for about 5 minutes (I’m starting to get a bit cold – my teeth were chattering!).

BANG the cannon goes off and I start swimming, the swim was OK, didn’t really get into any trouble, I even tried to draft a little! At the half way point I checked my watch – 39 minutes, so I was on target for 1 hour 20 minutes as predicted. The water seems even more salty as I start to reach the pier so I am really looking forward to finishing. It’s quite cool coming into the finish as there are lots of scuba divers on the bottom of the sea looking up and waving at all us swimmers.

Swim Time 1:22:12

I ran up the ramp (well more of a walk!) and made my way to the fresh water showers (I remember these from all of the Ironman DVD’s that Nick & I have watched) they are just a bunch of hose pipes dangling down. I give myself a good rinse, collected my bike bag and run into the changing tents. I get everything I need and start to make a dash for my bike.

T1 5:50

I’m now on my bike and on my way I see Nick almost immediately and then head out for the first loop of the town, lots of support on this bit! I got to see Nick again as I ride back through the main part of town before heading out onto the Queen K Highway! Everything feeling pretty good and I settle into a nice comfortable pace and I am pleased that I am overtaking quite a few of the other competitors. About 10 miles into it though I feel a twinge in my left glute, I block it out and just reassure myself that once everything has warmed up it will go away. The wind is not to bad at the moment just a slight head wind to battle with. Reached 30 miles and I was beginning to feel quite a bit of pain in my glute now, I had just passed Hapuna Beach and knew that this was going to be the toughest part of the course as it was a gradual uphill climb into the wind up to the Hawi turn around point, I saw the lead male Pros go past in the opposite direction (I knew that they were approaching because of the helicopter above). I was still passing quite a few people out on the course and was trying to stay as focused as possible. Reached the 60 mile turnaround point and was by now in a lot of pain. The first bit from Hawi was down hill thank god but with lots & lots of gusts of wind. By the time I reach 75 miles the pain had become unbearable, the wind had really got up by now, but I was faced with an even bigger problem in that I could only push down on the pedals with my right leg and I couldn’t apply any pressure with my left and to make things just that bit worse I could only get into the aero position for a few minutes at a time as every time I bent over it pulled too much on my glute and was causing pain that was too much for me to bare. I clocked my time going from 80 to 85 miles – 30 minutes – I was doing 10 miles an hour!! I did shed a few tears at this point but then just got on with it, what else was there to do! The last 40 miles I didn’t go past anyone but it seemed like the entire field was going past me. On my last couple of miles I see all the pro men running back into town, Craig Alexander is in 1st place and I passed him at about 24 miles, I also saw Chrissi Wellington who was running out towards the Energy Lab, I managed to shout “Go Chrissi” as loud as I could, I think she heard me as she gave a big smile. I did the bike in just under 6 hours 30 minutes (45+ minutes longer than I thought), but I didn’t care I was so relieved to finish it. As I entered transition, I carefully got off my bike and was very reluctant to hand it over as at that point it was the only thing supporting me. The bike got took and I staggered into T2!

Total Bike 6:27:09

I collected my run bag – I have to say it is so well organised – they had about 20 volunteers just holding up arrows on boards telling you which way to go, as we all know this is very helpful due the the fact that your brain isn’t quite working right at this point and even the simplest of tasks, like walking in the right direction can be hard! Sat down in the changing tent, I was handed a cup of water, while being covered in suntan lotion and also being helped to sort out what I needed & didn’t need out of my run bag.

T2 6:13

Left T2 and thought OK I have 9 hours to finish this run in! I tried to smile as much as possible to all the helpers and surprisingly it did make me feel a lot better, so I thought right “keep smiling no matter what!” Saw Nick as I had just started out on the run, he asked me if I was OK and what had happened on the bike, I mumbled a bit of a reply to him and then made my way up Alii Drive. This part of the run course was really good, it was a 5 mile out and back, with lots of support from locals and family & friends of other athletes. It was such a relief that I was able to run as I did fear that it was not going to be possible. At the 5 mile turnaround my glute was beginning to ache a little but it was bearable. I ran back into town and then up Pallini Drive (quite a steep hill), saw Nick at the point and he ran with me for about 30 seconds to get the low down on how i was feeling, it was good to see him and it lifted me a lot, as I headed out on the 7 miles stretch along the Queen K towards the Energy Lab. I saw some familiar faces running back into town along this stretch, Harold & Irene from Holland, they both looked really strong and I was so jealous as they had only got about 4 miles left to go!
I kept my form as much as possible and was going steadily past people, I had decided earlier on that walking the aid stations was the best plan of action, a slight change in pace was giving a bit of relief to my butt! The aid stations were great though the helpers were so enthusiastic and gave lots of encouragement out. I reach the energy lab which apparently earlier on in the day had reach a soaring 108 degrees, see there is some advantage to being slower out here! I left the energy lab and collecting my glow stick before heading back along the Queen K Highway again – this was the home straight 7 miles left to go. It got dark very quickly and before I knew it I was running in complete darkness and all I could see was the glow sticks on other athletes and the lights from the aid stations in the distance. 21, 22, 23 miles markers went by and I was feeling a little soar now and was down to shuffling along the road. At 25 miles I hit town and started to make my way towards Alii Drive, I was smiling from ear to ear now as the crowds were great.
When I approached the finishing straight Nick was there waiting for me I gave him my hat, glasses and glow stick and he gave me a GB flag. I really wanted to make the most of this bit as I had gone through so much earlier on in the day so I just jogged in beaming from ear to ear holding the British flag above my head. It was great the crowds were deafening and then I saw it – the Ironman finish line, I heard my name being called out and I really couldn’t believe that this was the final bit of my journey.

Total Run 4:19:19

I crossed the line and was greeted by 2 helpers who asked me if I was OK, I answered “God Yes!!” They said it was great that I was smiling so much and my answer was “how can I not smile, it’s over , I’ve finished”. I made my way round the athletes’ village where I collected my medal, t-shirt and kit bags. Met up with Nick (we gave each other lots of hugs & kisses), he got me some Pizza and I ate it as I lay down on the floor. I was beginning to feel a little sick now so went and collected my bike and had a slow walk back to the condo cheering on all the other athletes coming in to finish.

Total Time 12:20:43 1190 of 1736 Age Group 48 out of 68

It had been a very interesting day and I thoroughly believe that you learn so much about yourself and what you can achieve when things get really tough. My ultimate goal was to come out here and finish the race and even though I didn’t have the race that I wanted and finish in the time that I knew I could do I still tried to make the most of it. As Mark Allen put – we should all feel a great sense of gratitude when doing an Ironman distance race as there are millions of people in the world who will never be able to do one due to their circumstances or capabilities. It has been such an epic journey for me (13 months build up to be precise) I just wanted the final part to be as memorable as possible....and it was!
On a final note I would like to say how much it means to have all the support I get from all my friends (& family) at Stafford Tri, Kay at Mammoth who has been putting me back together week after week in our physio sessions and most of all to Nick who has been there for me every step of the way and has given me the belief to know that I can accomplish anything that I want to.
Cheers all, now I’m off the Waikiki Beach to have a rest, drink cocktails and eat bad food.

Finish line video here

http://ironman.edgeboss.net/wmedia/ironman/video/2008/kona/webcast.wvx?starttime=14:51:38.00&endtime=01:00:00.00

24 hours to go!

Friday 10th October

Woke at 5am and was very restless, got up and had breakfast. Feeling very sick this morning but think this is due to nerves and not the food I ate last night! I decide to look at the club forum and read all the lovely good luck wishes that have been posted by our club, I know that remembering these messages will make it easier for me tomorrow during the race when things start to hurt, so thanks guys!
At about 8am we biked into town to go and see the Endurance Travel guys to get the itinery for tomorrow, met up with a few people we knew and chatted for a while. After that we went for a short bike along the first bit of the run course along Alii Drive. 30 minutes later we are back at the condo and donning our trainers to go for a run, my glute & hamstring are still tight but I try to relax and forget about it. Our run lasts for only 15 minutes and then I grab my goggles and dash down to the pool to do a 10 minute swim. Apart from my butt everything else feels pretty good.
Nick has got a demo on the Argon 18 bike booked for this morning so he shoots off to do that and leaves me to organise my kit bags. I methodically stick stickers on things, clean goggles & sunnies and make sure that I have everything I need for the big day. Nick returns on the Argon bike to show me, it’s very nice, then he’s off again to return it back. I finish off my stuff like fixing my aero bottle to my bike and stick a few gels to the frame. I check everything again and am now ready to rock ‘n’ roll....well swim, bike, run!
Nick & I chill out for a few hours on the balcony, it doesn’t really seem that hot today (or is it that I am acclimatizing to the weather, I’ll probably be wearing a cardigan in the next few days!). By about 1.30pm I am starting to get very restless and find it hard to sit down for long. We leave the condo at 2.15pm and head down to transition to drop off my bike and gear. As we approach the area I can see that they are in the process of erecting the finishing line...god it’s really starting to hit home now that the race is actually tomorrow. I do start to feel a bit shell shocked and then see a friendly face from China, he is a Swiss guy and absolutely lovely (just turned 60 this year and does IM in around 10 hours), he is hoping to get a podium place here and I really hope he does.
Nick helps me go through all of my bags to make sure I have everything then I start the walk into transition, wow it is so organised, there are about 20 volunteers waiting to just check your helmet, etc and then you get a sticker put on your bike. After this I walked a little further and who should I see but Irene’s sister Petra, she is a volunteer out here and she helped me to rack my bike (even took a picture with her camera for me!) and then shows me around transition while dropping off my kit bags. She is going to there tomorrow and says she will make sure that she looks after me in transitions...I feel much better knowing that. I leave the transition area and make my way back to Nick who informs me he has just got another free t-shirt, this one is from Cervelo (he got one earlier from the Argon guys)....I told you free stuff it’s great!
We start to head back to the condo ready for our last supper and our last early night. We have dinner on the balcony tonight and I sit outside until it is pitch black (6.45pm) and finish off my blog for the day, so good night all and we shall see what tomorrow brings......

Pasta Party!

Thursday 9th October

2 days to go – that was my first thought when I awoke at 4.30am, can’t believe it, only 2 days, as it was 13 months ago when I got my qualification slot, it wasn’t quite real then but reality is definitely biting now !
Had breakfast and was out at 7am to go down for the organised swim. Wow – how many people are here today! You can hardly get a space to change and the swim bag drop has ran out of bags – its busy, busy, busy and even more so in the water. Today was a really good sighting swim for me as every other stroke I took I had to look just to make sure that I wasn’t going to head butt someone who was swimming in the opposite direction. Best bit about the swim today was seeing the dolphins, they appeared and swam with everyone for a few minutes before disappearing off into the distant. Oh and forgot to mention when swimming 2 days ago I noticed a sign on the bottom of the sea bed which said “Kona 100% coffee” and an arrow pointing straight on – strange I thought until just up ahead I saw lots of swimmers bobbing around in the water by a boat which just happened to be serving coffee – how cool is that, it’s just a pity it won’t be there on race day, could have used that as an excuse for my swim time!
Got showered, changed and checked out the pier as transition was being built up – scary! Paid another visit to the physio tent to get my hamstring stretched out (still playing up, but don’t know whether it’s just pre race jitters now messing with my head!), saw Michelle again, she stretched me a bit then called her colleague over, who proceeded to also treat me a little, I must have looked a bit concerned as she was reassuring me that all was well and my hamstring was just a bit tight.
After finishing up there we went and got breakfast at ‘Uncle Bills’ and then went round the expo for a while, saw all the swanky new bikes, Cervelo’s P4, the latest Look, and a Fuji bike which was different from anything I had seen before. Next stop was ‘Lava Java’ as Nick had read that free fuel belts were being giving away to all competitors, I managed to get a pink one (well least it will go with my tri-suit) and Nick picked up a red coloured one. It’s great out here (as well as being 25+ degrees and sunny) as all the brands/manufacturers give away lots of stuff free in hope that you will wear it during the race and then they can advertise their product as the most worn such and such at Kona, very cute, but I’m not complaining one bit!
Walked back up to the condo, made lunch and sat out on the balcony watching the world (well sea) go by.
At 5.15pm we headed down to the welcome banquet and athlete briefing, this was at the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel. After eating our food (lots of veggie stuff) the show began, first there was a short show with dancers & music about the history of Hawaii and about the fire of the Island and the spiritual side of being here. Next was the Ironman welcoming videos, as this is the 30th anniversary there was a lot of stuff on the beginning of the IM race back in 1978 when only 15 competitors took part – how things have changed! They then got the oldest & youngest competitors up (Male was 79 and 18 and Female was 72 and 18). The whole event was very enjoyable (apart when the President of IM told all the new timers that the course was ‘Brutal’ but to try and enjoy it !) Briefing was the same as all the other IM race briefings. Left at 9.00pm and got the bus back to our condo, went straight to bed.

Just 3 Days to go!!!!!

Wednesday 8th October

Got up at about 5am this morning and had some breakfast. We decided to skip the swim this morning and got ready to go out on our bikes. Kona is so busy now compared to when we arrived, there were literally hundreds of people by the swim start now and you can see that they are starting to build the transition areas up....this is all getting a bit too real now !
We head out along the Queen K Highway again, winds are a little stronger than the other day but definitely manageable. We are only out for 1 hour 30 minutes today which seems to go very quickly. We stop off in town so that I can get the deed of registration out the way. This all happens at the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel, I sign all the forms, get my wrist band and race pack and finally pick up my little goodie bag which is a pink TYR kit bag, in it there is a poster, a few gels, a bag of Granola, a programme, some Ironman perfume and a little cuddly toy (a duck...not quick sure of the significance of this!)
After registration I decide to pay the physio tent a visit as my glute & hamstring are feeling a little tight, (Kay I’m desperately missing you), I get seen by a girl called Michelle, she is from California, all the physios are flown out especially for this event. She loosened it up slightly and then stretched it out and said it was very tight and to keep lightly stretching it for the next 2 days!
Rode up to the Expo Village for a quick look as I had to buy some cycling gloves (forgot to bring mine out with me to Hawaii). Also paid a visit to the Triangle stand, these are the guys that run the Monaco 70.3 races and as that was my qualifying race they had a free gift for me, it was a t-shirt.
Went back to the condo and chilled out for the rest of the day, it feels like I am being really lazy at the moment and not doing enough but Nick keeps telling me that this is the last bit of my taper and it’s important not to do too much. It’s very hard though as you see so many of the athletes training so much and you can just get caught up in it all!
At about 5.30pm Nick wanted to go for a swim at the pool so I joined him , not for a swim though as I just lay on one of the sun loungers overlooking the sea and watched the sun go down – it was absolutely breathtaking.
Made dinner and watched a film called Mississippi Burning, not exactly light viewing but a great film!
In bed & asleep for 8.30pm.

Macca's here

Tuesday 7th October

Went for an early morning swim at 7am and tried out the new Xterra race suit, it’s very, very tight ! Swam out to ½ way of the swim course and back to shore, water is still warm and still salty. It’s much busier today as lots of the IM competitors arrived yesterday, the place is really buzzing now. There is now an IM bag drop for the swim and when you collect it they give you a water bottle and a bottle of Gatorade – free. After getting changed suddenly who should appear...you guessed it MACCA! And this time Nick asked him if he could get a picture, so I finally have a photo of Macca & me...ahhhh!
We went for breakfast with the Endurance guys at a place called ‘Uncle Bills’ then got a ride to the local supermarket to get some nosh. The whole town is absolutely full of IM stuff now, all of the local stores are selling merchandise and literally all over are big banners hanging up, it’s like an Ironman town !
Had a few hours out on the balcony chilling out, reading my book and listening to some music, then got ready to go for our run in the ‘Energy Lab’ – PJ (one of Ken’s guys) drove us out to the place, dropped us off and we ran for about 40 minutes. It’s hot, hot, hot! There is nothing much there it is just a big lava field by the ocean and it gets really hot because of the lava.
Got back to the condo at 3pm had a quick shower and walked into town to meet up with all the other GB athletes for the ‘Parade Of Nations’. As we were approaching the swim start all these little kids were running down the street, it was the ‘Dip ‘n’ Dash’ race – it was so cute. Went to meet Chris from TRI UK as he had arranged for all of the GB guys to wear a specially designed t-shirt for the parade, it’s really cool – we also got a bag, hat, whistle and GB flags, again all free!
The parade began at 5pm and was great, every nation had a head car and was followed by the flag carrier and all of the athletes, there are 44 brit’s out here competing (USA has 793 !!! but they haven’t got Chrissi !). After the parade which ended at the IM Village, Nick & I had a quick look around the Expo. Dave Scott was doing a Q & A session, Craig Alexander was signing stuff at one of the stands and we managed to get a picture with Ironman legend Mark Allen who still holds the race record for the marathon which he ran in 2:40:04 and that was way back in 1989!
The expo is situated right next to the sea and tonight the sunset was breathtaking.
Stopped off at Lava Java to get a coffee before walking back to the condo, got dinner and watched some TV (86 Channels of pure tosh!) then went to bed completely exhausted.

Out on the Queen 'K'

Monday 6th October
Woke early again, had breakfast and went out to do the first bit of the bike course, this was definitely more like it – aero position for about 99% of the time, smooth roads but still a fair bit of wind but instead of being side gusts it was head winds. Nick & I both stopped to take a few photos on route when suddenly approaching us was a moped with a bike following – it was none other than Chris McCormack! He was going so fast ! Carried on for a while longer before turning round to head back into town, and again was passed by Macca, a few minutes down the road we could see him and he was obviously at the end of his training session and cooling down, I thought this is my chance so I started to pedal a little bit quicker , I reached him and then I overtook him and shout a big ‘Hi’ – he smiled and said Hi back –Fantastic!!! (Nick got a photo of me passing him).
We stopped off at the local outdoor swimming pool which is 50 metres (divided into 2 sections), you don’t have to pay to use it, it is free to everyone, how good is that! The pool was packed and as we sat and watched for a while we saw Faris Al Sutan doing his swim session. We got in the pool ourselves and did a short swim it was really clean and warm. Biked back to the condo for lunch.

Path 10k Road race

Sunday 5th October
Awoke at 4am this morning. Got breakfast and was out for 6.30am to go and do a 10k charity run which was being organised by ‘PATH’ (organisation to make roads safer for child cyclists & pedestrians). Nick decided to run ahead while I took it at a very steady pace, felt really good and strong. Nick was waiting for me at about 5k, he said it was far too hot to run as fast as he was (before he stopped he was in 2nd place) and he wanted to make sure that I was not pushing it too hard, so we ran the rest together. At the end we met up with Harold & Irene again and I voiced my concern over the bike ride I had done the day before, they said that yesterday had been the most windy day so far since they had been there, lets hope it calms down for Saturday.
Went for a swim again and saw a turtle swimming around by the shore. Got ready and then went for a bite to eat at ‘Boston Basils’ restaurant. After lunch did a bit of retail therapy on the walk back to the condo, temperatures feel hot today.
Chilled out at the condo and fell asleep for a few hours.
At 5.30pm went down to the BBQ area to meet up with all of the other Endurance Sports people as Ken had put on a welcome dinner for everyone. Ate, drank and talked for a while then left at about 8.30pm, got back to our condo and promptly fell asleep.