ironman Vichy was my one and only ironman this year. I had two goals for Vichy firstly to go sub 9 hours and 2nd not to get chicked, especially by Cat Faux. My good friend James Gill had a bet with his partner Kathryn that if i was beaten by Cat he would have to do the washing and cleaning in the house for a month, but if i beat Cat, Kathryn would have to do it (As if James did any anyway). Anyway i found the bet actually quite motivating, so thanks Gill and Kathryn.
We had a good raiding party from Cambridge Tri over for the event. Andrew Sharpe in his first. Don Hutchinson the oldest man in the event! July Tapley, Pete ‘The jellyfish’ Buckingham, Paul Thorby and Lauren ’Piglet' Bradshaw. There was mixed fortunes in the race, but Vichy was a beautiful town and was an fantastic venue for the Triathlon.
pre race i got a bit worried as two nights before i developed ‘the poo’s’ I wont go into too much details, but the shits followed by an Ironman i hit a record low weight of 60kg!
Swim
There were two firsts for me in this Ironman.
First it was a rolling start, which involves 3 or 4 athletes being starting every 5 seconds in self selected order of speed. Your race time started when you crossed the timing mat, so you did not need to worry about being near the front. It made for interesting tactics. Did you start with guys faster than you to try and get dragged along or do you place yourself further back and get a clean swim hopping from one set of feet to the next. I placed myself roughly where i thought i should be and it made for a very lonely swim.
2nd first and the big news of the race was that the swim was due to be non wetsuit. The water temperature measured at a tropical 25 degrees. I had a feeling that my highly efficient swim training program was about to be found out! I was also worried that without my wetsuit i was going to be expending far more energy, which would come back to bite me later in the race.
The water was beautiful and the rolling start made it quite relaxing (apart from walking through peoples warm piss to get to the start line). Once you were in the water there was no crazy bum fight for space. you just settled into your own rhythm. Most felt that the course was long and combined with the race factors It did result in a very slow swim with times significantly slower than usual. So much so that Pete ‘the Jellyfish’ Buckingham did not make the swim cut off (you are going to make up for it at Barca though, Hey Pete!).
I swam a 1:03:51 at least 6 or 7 minutes off what i thought i would swim.
Bike
Off on the bike i knew my swim time was well down on goal pace so the bike had to be hard if i was to keep the sub 9 dream alive. It was a two lap course which started slowly twisting through a few roundabouts and little back streets but then opened up onto nice and smooth country roads. I was ticking along nicely passing other athletes every min or so. About 30min in two french guys caught me and looked strong so i went with them. I knew the pace was a little too hard, but just kept with it. We blitzed past big groups of riders and with everyone on fresh legs they all seemed to be keeping to the 12m drafting distance. Towards the end of each lap was a fairly substantial hill it was here i said goodbye to the two Frenchies who lit up the fireworks. I backed off thinking that there was a lot of race left. Average pace for the first half was 38kph. If i could hold this for the 2nd i would be happy as a fat lad at Burger King
On the 2nd lap i found myself in a new group and you could tell people were getting tired. Gaps between riders came down from 12m, to 8m, to 6m, to literally right on my bloody wheel you cheating French bastard. I probably spent too much energy worrying about the cheating Frechies (one of whom was a pro? caught for 20+min). I tired several times to break away from the group, even encouraging the next strongest rider to come with me, but when somebody is literally riding on your wheel there is not much you can do. They were playing drafting roulette. The draft busters were out in force (as Andrew Sharpe knew all to well), but they probably only needed 30-40mins worth of drafting to earn the 5min penalty that they would have got if they got caught. Worth the risk! and it seemed to pay off for them.
The wind picked up on the 2nd lap and combined with the energy levels depleting my average speed was falling. The big pack of riders that i smashed past on the first lap. Came back past me with about 30k to go, but the pack just splintered in the crosswinds. It was at this point i went to the coke! and nursed my way in as best i could. The average speed fell to 36.5kph, which gave me a 4:48 bike split time. and meant i had to run about a 3:02 marathon for sub 9.
Run
Im always amazed how you go from feeling knacked to feeling fairly fresh and holding yourself back just by changing sports. It was great to get on two feet, my marathon game plan of walking every aid station seems to work really well for me. For the first time in any triathlon I had to go for a poo mid race (how delightful are those Portaloos!) The weather was playing ball too as a small shower passed through during my first lap, which was much better than the 37 degrees we had been experiencing in the build up to the race. I was under target pace for the first half, but started to suffer in the 2nd half when the sun came back out to play. On several occasions i suffered mini bonks, when they struck i would just have to iron shuffle myself to the next aid station and have a double helping of coke to resuscitate myself. On the last lap i started to cramp in places, i tried changing running styles which seems to relieve a little, but i was shelling time and was not going to be near 3hrs.
I was relieved to cross the line with a marathon time of 3hrs 11min to give me a total time of 9:09:35 i didn't break 9hrs, but i was ahead of all the girls!
Now I'm just waiting for my brain to erase the unbearable pain that i paid vast sums of money to inflict on myself before i contemplate entering another one and trying once again to go sub 9. Well done to all the Cambridge Tri Raiding party.
Shapey 10:54
Bradley 11:37 (new Ironman PB)
Julie Tapley 12:07
Paul Thorby 13:21 (truly was an ironman finishing after a bad crash on the bike)
Mega Don 15:13 (GOING TO KONA, Oldest athlete in the race!)
Pete ‘The Jellyfish’ Buckingham for his excellent banter and the positive way he handled his DQ.
P.s
Thanks to my sponsors
Erdinger Alkoholfrei - keeping me refreshed all year
Mac Daddy (David Maclean) - for lending me his super fast tri spoke all year
Lucy Gossge - for letting me raid her endless supplies of bike bits!
We had a good raiding party from Cambridge Tri over for the event. Andrew Sharpe in his first. Don Hutchinson the oldest man in the event! July Tapley, Pete ‘The jellyfish’ Buckingham, Paul Thorby and Lauren ’Piglet' Bradshaw. There was mixed fortunes in the race, but Vichy was a beautiful town and was an fantastic venue for the Triathlon.
pre race i got a bit worried as two nights before i developed ‘the poo’s’ I wont go into too much details, but the shits followed by an Ironman i hit a record low weight of 60kg!
Swim
There were two firsts for me in this Ironman.
First it was a rolling start, which involves 3 or 4 athletes being starting every 5 seconds in self selected order of speed. Your race time started when you crossed the timing mat, so you did not need to worry about being near the front. It made for interesting tactics. Did you start with guys faster than you to try and get dragged along or do you place yourself further back and get a clean swim hopping from one set of feet to the next. I placed myself roughly where i thought i should be and it made for a very lonely swim.
2nd first and the big news of the race was that the swim was due to be non wetsuit. The water temperature measured at a tropical 25 degrees. I had a feeling that my highly efficient swim training program was about to be found out! I was also worried that without my wetsuit i was going to be expending far more energy, which would come back to bite me later in the race.
The water was beautiful and the rolling start made it quite relaxing (apart from walking through peoples warm piss to get to the start line). Once you were in the water there was no crazy bum fight for space. you just settled into your own rhythm. Most felt that the course was long and combined with the race factors It did result in a very slow swim with times significantly slower than usual. So much so that Pete ‘the Jellyfish’ Buckingham did not make the swim cut off (you are going to make up for it at Barca though, Hey Pete!).
I swam a 1:03:51 at least 6 or 7 minutes off what i thought i would swim.
Bike
Off on the bike i knew my swim time was well down on goal pace so the bike had to be hard if i was to keep the sub 9 dream alive. It was a two lap course which started slowly twisting through a few roundabouts and little back streets but then opened up onto nice and smooth country roads. I was ticking along nicely passing other athletes every min or so. About 30min in two french guys caught me and looked strong so i went with them. I knew the pace was a little too hard, but just kept with it. We blitzed past big groups of riders and with everyone on fresh legs they all seemed to be keeping to the 12m drafting distance. Towards the end of each lap was a fairly substantial hill it was here i said goodbye to the two Frenchies who lit up the fireworks. I backed off thinking that there was a lot of race left. Average pace for the first half was 38kph. If i could hold this for the 2nd i would be happy as a fat lad at Burger King
On the 2nd lap i found myself in a new group and you could tell people were getting tired. Gaps between riders came down from 12m, to 8m, to 6m, to literally right on my bloody wheel you cheating French bastard. I probably spent too much energy worrying about the cheating Frechies (one of whom was a pro? caught for 20+min). I tired several times to break away from the group, even encouraging the next strongest rider to come with me, but when somebody is literally riding on your wheel there is not much you can do. They were playing drafting roulette. The draft busters were out in force (as Andrew Sharpe knew all to well), but they probably only needed 30-40mins worth of drafting to earn the 5min penalty that they would have got if they got caught. Worth the risk! and it seemed to pay off for them.
The wind picked up on the 2nd lap and combined with the energy levels depleting my average speed was falling. The big pack of riders that i smashed past on the first lap. Came back past me with about 30k to go, but the pack just splintered in the crosswinds. It was at this point i went to the coke! and nursed my way in as best i could. The average speed fell to 36.5kph, which gave me a 4:48 bike split time. and meant i had to run about a 3:02 marathon for sub 9.
Run
Im always amazed how you go from feeling knacked to feeling fairly fresh and holding yourself back just by changing sports. It was great to get on two feet, my marathon game plan of walking every aid station seems to work really well for me. For the first time in any triathlon I had to go for a poo mid race (how delightful are those Portaloos!) The weather was playing ball too as a small shower passed through during my first lap, which was much better than the 37 degrees we had been experiencing in the build up to the race. I was under target pace for the first half, but started to suffer in the 2nd half when the sun came back out to play. On several occasions i suffered mini bonks, when they struck i would just have to iron shuffle myself to the next aid station and have a double helping of coke to resuscitate myself. On the last lap i started to cramp in places, i tried changing running styles which seems to relieve a little, but i was shelling time and was not going to be near 3hrs.
I was relieved to cross the line with a marathon time of 3hrs 11min to give me a total time of 9:09:35 i didn't break 9hrs, but i was ahead of all the girls!
Now I'm just waiting for my brain to erase the unbearable pain that i paid vast sums of money to inflict on myself before i contemplate entering another one and trying once again to go sub 9. Well done to all the Cambridge Tri Raiding party.
Shapey 10:54
Bradley 11:37 (new Ironman PB)
Julie Tapley 12:07
Paul Thorby 13:21 (truly was an ironman finishing after a bad crash on the bike)
Mega Don 15:13 (GOING TO KONA, Oldest athlete in the race!)
Pete ‘The Jellyfish’ Buckingham for his excellent banter and the positive way he handled his DQ.
P.s
Thanks to my sponsors
Erdinger Alkoholfrei - keeping me refreshed all year
Mac Daddy (David Maclean) - for lending me his super fast tri spoke all year
Lucy Gossge - for letting me raid her endless supplies of bike bits!