Pre Race

By the time I got to Zurich I was like a little boy waiting for Christmas with a catch. I could see my presents under the tree. I'd asked Father Christmas for a shiny medal and a big sub 14 time. The catch was that I had to pass the hardest test of my life to date. It was there for the taking, I could almost taste it…But taste what exactly? Funny, I knew what I wanted but I had no idea what it would actually be like. The New Jersey Devilman Half IM was the probably closest triathlon race to an Ironman I had done recently but that had been virtually unsupported, no real pressure to perform, just a warm-up, a chance to dip my toe into a long distance triathlon.

Any way, Nancy and I arrived at our hotel on the Thursday prior to the race after a very long and exhausting flight through the night from New York. I was very pleased that my bike ‘Kerry Carbon’ had arrived safely, in one piece. The day was spent putting the bike together, resting, and then in the afternoon, we made the trip to the race expo to pick up my race number and instructions. In the evening we met up with my fellow Serpie club mates from the Serpentine Running Club which is based in London. It was great to see friends which we haven’t seen for quite some time, everyone was in good spirits about the weekend ahead. 

Friday morning we did a bit of a group swim, around the little island near the actual race swim exit. The water felt great and although I had problems getting in my new wetsuit (too many pies) - all was ok. We attended the race briefing during Friday lunch and went for a practice ride on the Friday afternoon to check the bike was ok after being dismantled for transit. Eventually we found 'Heartbreak Hill' which despite its name and appearance wasn't too bad and I found I could spin up reasonably comfortably (though slow).

The day before the race (Saturday) was the Kids, Sprint, and Olympic distance races. It was also my 35^th birthday, but not much chance to celebrate, hopefully that would come the following day. Again, everyone was in great spirits, well at least it seemed so. Personally I was bricking it. After sitting around in the sun for a couple of hours and burning my nose I decided that it would be a good idea to return to the hotel to rest, plan my race strategy and generally get organized.

I read that you should be able to write your race plan down on a single sheet of paper, mine was simple:
 
Swim - Start mid-pack, stay out of trouble and find someone bigger than me (is that possible?) to get a decent draft from. Move from draft to draft if need be but no solo efforts.

Bike - First 20 minutes water only then eat every 20 minutes. Forget speed and go on heart rate, try to maintain between 70 – 80% max heart rate for the race except hills where heart rate can do whatever it wants and perceived effort and comfort are the drivers.

Run - Do whatever it takes to cover 26.2 miles.

I then went through transition, first from swim-to-bike and then bike-run. For 10 minutes I went over and over this in my head until I could reel off:

Wetsuit off, goggles & hat off, shirt on, socks on, shoes on, gloves on, shades on, helmet on, number on, energy gel & drink – then un-rack bike and GO!!

Rack bike, Helmet off, gloves off, glasses off, shoes off, change socks, running shoes on, hat on, energy gel & drink and GO!!

In the evening, we had to return to the race transition to check in the bike and helmet, triathlons have way too many rules, but we did this and then returned to the hotel for some food and an early night.

Swim

The start of the race was awesome and very scary; I have never had an experience like it, the atmosphere electric, I could feel the energy and anticipation amongst us all. We were standing on the beach, 2000 of us crazy nutters, with a helicopter hovering 100f above, music blaring (lots of energetic music) and spectators whooping and shaking football rattles. I really felt we were all going to do something very special. Everybody was looking out over the lake and some pointing to the buoys, even at this late stage we were still confused about where we were going, partly due to the strong sun in the direction we would be swimming. No arguments, but there were a few differences of opinion about the swim course.

Then it happened, the klaxon sounded and everyone struck out for the water, which erupted from being dead-calm to a thrashing turmoil of neoprene-clad, flailing arms and legs. I looked on in sheer horror at the pandemonium unraveling before me.

Ouch, ouch, ouch across the pebbles then in I go. Total Madness! You just have to make it up as you go, there's no rhythm to your stroke, there's no space to move just make it to the first turn-point and hope it calms down. Breaststroke ahead…too late foot connects with stomach. Strangely I was quite pleased, you never here a good triathlon swim story without a kick to the stomach or face. Well I'd had mine so that'll do for now. So on I go, a little bit further only for one guy to decide that swimming back and forward over me was a good idea. Must have been the rubber and Vaseline that confused him??

Then came my first problem of the day to deal with, in the turmoil I started to hyperventilate, I just could not get the air into my lungs fast enough and doubts of even completing the swim, let alone the full race started to enter my mind. I rolled onto my back for a while and let the whole race pass by while I tried to rescue my race.

I got my breath back, did a bit of breast stroke before once again trying to crawl and eventually found my rhythm. Soon I was passing people and it felt as though I was flying through the water Sometimes I found myself swimming next to someone who was splashing me with water so I couldn’t take a breath, but it only took a little bit of effort to change course and move away from them.

I reached the half way point, and again it was mayhem as it seemed like all 2000 swimmers were trying to fit under the same bridge at the same time. I took a bit of a roundhouse kick from a rather large neoprene-clad woman, no problems this time though. I could even hear the Serpie supporters shouting my name as I passed by the island (or at least I thought I did) which was great.

The second half of the swim went well, and seemed to pass by very quickly. I only remember having problems with one other person who was doing this amazingly annoying and difficult to pass breast stroke. However, soon it was all over, I was at the exit and with the help of a rather nice young lady I was out of the water. I looked at my watch, 1 hour 23 mins, it was not a fantastic swim for me, but I was glad to get out of the water and have the first of the three disciplines behind me.

Transition 1

With my swim time I had thought that there would hardly be any bikes left in transition, but how wrong I was, there were loads and that gave me such a boost. Maybe the swim was longer than 2.4 miles? You never know with triathlons how precise these distances are.

The Bike

I set off feeling surprisingly good and got to the first hill, “The Beast” having averaged around 21 - 23 mph on the flat. I felt good going out, but this was soon to change as I hit the hills. The "Beast" sapped all my energy on the first loop, and it took ages to climb. It also felt like cycling in an uphill oven, as when we turned onto it the wind died with the decrease in speed, so the temperature went up. Many people passed me on the Beast on that first loop (and the second and third).

After the beast there was a short descent and then another steady but easier climb, known as "The Egg". At the top of the egg, came the fast descent! Hoorah!! 50 mph for no effort (apart from the previous effort spent slogging up the beast and egg of course) from there it was all flat back into Zurich until "Heartbreak Hill". This was probably one of the most memorable places on the whole Ironman course. Nancy was waiting for me with the Serpie support crew on the last section of the hill. It was so great to see her, its amazing how you come to almost crave seeing your loved ones during an event like this. The top of this short but steep climb was fantastic, just like the Tour-de-France climbs with the supporters leaving a path of about a meter wide for the cyclists to pass through yelling and supporting you all the way, and to top it off, there was a makeshift shower to cycle through to cool down.. It was brilliant.. I felt like a winner climbing that hill during the first lap.

Heartbreak Hill is the last hill in the loop and the steepest, but shortest, together with the other two hills this includes a total of more than 1,440 meters of climbing. The Beast and the climb up the Egg are long, but the views of the Alps are incredible.

I ended up completing the first lap in 2 hours 9 minutes. I was pleased with this, and started thinking that a sub 6hr 30m bike split was on the cards. Start of the 2nd lap was when I started noticing things were not going quite to plan for a fast time. The course felt a little tougher and my speed was a little lower but the rest of the lap was ok, just slower. I got a bit emotional at the top of the "Beast" when somebody ran along side me shouting "Robin! You are an Ironman!", and I thought to myself, despite the pain going through my body, how unbelievably lucky I was to be here doing this fantastic race.

I finished the 2nd lap in 2 hours 20 mins.. hhhmm I thought, that’s not as fast as before.. Still I knew it had got hotter and I was sure the wind on the outer flat section had got stronger. Anyway, still positive, I set out on the 3^rd and final loop but things now were definitely going a bit pear shaped for I was really beginning to feel tired. It seemed no matter what I drank, I was still thirsty, and my stomach was getting a little upset with drinking warm power gels mixed with isotonic sports drinks (normally its lovely, honest !!). Also, I was finding it hard to eat my unbelievably chewy power bars, so I stopped eating those altogether. This concerned me as I knew I might not be getting enough energy to see me through the run. Even the PowerAde from the aid stations was heavily watered down, but luckily I still had my sports jelly beans as back up and I could eat them with no problems (I love Candy). Anyway I continued on, the last 10 miles of the bike felt absolutely awful. I thought I needed salt because I was beginning to cramp up on the final ascent of Heartbreak Hill, unfortunately I didn’t have any but seeing Nancy and a couple of Serpies still there kept me going through the pain.

I finished the final loop in 2 hours 31 mins.. oops... 20 mins slower than the first. Altogether I completed the bike section in 7 hrs exactly.

Although I didn’t make 6h 30m, I did really enjoy the bike, the only negative I remember is that as the day went on, the ride became quite lonely as the feed stations which started out with 6 or more tables spread out soon merged into one or two tables as there were fewer riders left. The crowds also obviously had moved on (apart from my Serpie supporters and Nancy) to the run course to cheer on their loved ones, so this made the last lap seem longer. The marshals and support staff kept up their enthusiasm, often riding alongside you for awhile on their motorbikes just to give you a little boost and a bit of company. They even ran up Heartbreak Hill with me, well until they couldn’t keep up any longer

Transition 2

When I entered the transition area there were bikes all over the place but never once did I think “oh no” I’m at the back AGAIN. I was so happy that I was able to cross off another section of the race, successfully completed.