This was my 10th Ironman and whilst I never expect these to be an easy road, this particular one was more difficult than I had hoped for. Once the race was all over I felt like I had been ‘mentally’ dragged through a ringer, and I was relieved to enjoy a nice cold beer at the end of the night, reflecting on what had gone on.
The story started 4 weeks prior when I felt the beginning of a niggle in my left shin (a place that I had suffered a stress fra
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cture in before, so I was wary of it happening again). I immediately pulled myself off all run training, and decided to just run the Pukekohe Raceway Duathlon where I placed 4th overall, and the NZ Duathlon Champs where I placed 2nd in my Age Group. This showed I had good run speed, but I was unsure about my endurance, but it was too late to make amends for it. I went into damage control mode and felt some great improvements until sunday last week once we flew into Vancouver – by now my shin had flared up a bit more.Back pedal 1 week, when we were driving back from the Duathlon Champs in Taupo during the beginnings of a strong southerly storm. Approaching Putuaruru I heard a loud bang and saw in the rearview mirror my much beloved Avanti Chrono race bike be flung across the road. Somehow the racks had given way in a gust of wind and the unthinkable was happening right then and there. Suddenly I went from being confident in having a good race at Canada, to even wondering if I could get a replacement bike sorted out in time. I did what everyone else does at moments like these……posted on Facebook what had just happened. Literally within minutes I had received replies, text messages and phone calls from people offering me the use of their own race bikes for the Ironman. This was incredible as it is a big thing to trust somebody with such an expensive and valued piece of equipment. Thanks to all those people.
I was lucky enough that Amanda Till at Avanti Bikes knew of a bike in their warehouse that was the exact frame size as my one, and only needed the aerobars adjusted slightly to fit me perfectly. Whats better, is that it was the bike that Cameron Brown (10x NZ Ironman Champion) used when he won the 2010 NZ Ironman – wow, what a piece of history to ride. Great, game on again!!
In the mean time I was also arranging for some wheels that I ordered for Kellee to race on to be sent to the place we were staying at in Penticton. However, by the time we arrived there on Tuesday the wheels were nowhere to be seen and Canada Customs were reviewing whether they would even release the wheels for us. A few frantic phone calls and some very stressed days later, someone from Canada Post delivered them by hand at midnight on friday night. This gave Kellee only the chance to do a 20min ride before having to rack the bike. Once our bikes were loaded we were finally able to concentrate on the task at hand the following day.
The forecast for race day was 30-35 degrees with a northerly wind. Great, better than freezing like the previous year. I went through the usual pre-race rituals, wished Kellee, Nicky and Cam good luck and headed to the water side to line up for the start. This was to be the biggest start of any Ironman in the world (2800 people), so I was thinking positioning on the start line was going to be crucial. I liked the look of the left side of the line, so Cam and I made our way there.
After a few moments the race was on. I made a quick start off the line with a couple of dolphin dives and a few fast strokes and miraculously I was out on my own, looking to my right and seeing a line of swimmers forming. This was perfect, I was light on swimming so wasn’t keen to get out of my comfort zone, and I had hardly been bumped the whole first 400m. By the time I made my way across to the group I was relaxed and swimming well. I spent the rest of the swim in the group, coming out in a time of 1:01, which was a bit disappointing as I had thought i was swimming faster, but it seemed like a slow swim as Bryan Rhodes led out in 50mins (about 3mins slower than usual).
I was quickly on the bike and getting into a rhythm. We had a great tail wind for the first 60km, and I rode strong but not hard for this section, averaging 40kph by the time we turned back to the headwind. Through this time I had ridden through a large number of riders and was feeling really confident and happy with the day so far. The bike was a dream!
The long climb up Richter Pass was easy and I reached the 90km mark thinking of a plan for the 2nd half of the ride. I knew where the strong wind would be on the course and I wanted to ride those parts well, so at the 105km mark when the course flattens out I pushed hard to the 150km mark, which included the climb up to Yellow Lake. I reached the summit feeling as I expected to and was ready to enjoy the final 30km of downhill. Unfortunately the wind didn’t want us to enjoy it and there was a strong headwind – so I was only doing 40-50kph rather than the expected 70-80kph.
I rolled into town after 5:14 on the bike, which was about what I expected in those conditions, but I was hoping to be closer to 5:00. I had ridden from 29th in my age group to 7th, bringing me off the bike with a good shot at getting on the podium – but only if I was fit to run what I could usually.
But with my shin injury I was only wanting to make it to the finish line, I still wanted to go down fighting so I took off at my goal run pace, hoping something would click and let my body carry on, but after about 14km I began to slow and knew now it was just survival to the finish. My shin was achy, but not sore, so I kept on knowing that as soon as it worsened I would make the call to pull out. The run course in Penticton is tough and runs along the lake side, but has a few sharp hills out toward the turn around. I had a few moments where I felt good, so I found myself running harder again, only to have moments where I had to back it off and just get through the next section.
Over the last 7km I found my running legs again and was back into a good rhythm, so the time at the finish wasnt as bad as I was expecting. 10:08 gave me 9th in my age group and 75th overall, which in the scheme of things – winter training, borrowed bike, wheel issues, shin injury, bugger all running – I am really happy with.
It was also great to see Kellee, Nicky and Cam have great races too, with Cam hitting 10:56 giving him a huge PB.
I would love to come back to Penticton. It’s an awesome little town and an awesome community event. The crowds really get behind it and you see how the locals make it their own event. It is a hard, honest, long loop bike and single out+back run. It is a true test of strength and mental capacity, and a great race to have been part of.
Now I have 6 weeks off to let the body recover before getting ready for the NZ tri season.
