It won't be extremely long, but it won't be short either...
Background:
This is my 4th year in triathlon. So far, I have completed 5 * 70.3's (2 local races, IM70.3 St-Croix, IM70.3 Luxembourg and IM70.3 Wiesbaden). I started this year with 2 local sprint-races, IM 70.3 Luxemburg, another local Oly--race, IM 70.3 Wiesbaden and then build up to IM Wales. I came into this race with only 1 real expectation: reach the finish-line in a respectable way and time. Anything under 11hr was going to be considered a huge success given the course difficulty, I think it was a good enough challenge.
Equipment:
Wetsuit: 2XU V:2
Bike : Cervelo P3 (previous model), zipp FC-CC 808 Wheelset with GP4000SII-23c tires and latex tubes. O.Symmetric chain-rings (52-38) and SRAM 12-28 cassette. Perfect gearing for this course for my ability.
Run: Newton Motion III
Pre-race stuff:
I guess it is normal to be nervous / anxious for your first IM, and although I felt calm and relaxed, I noticed by the little things I was getting more nervous (returning 3 times for silly stuff likes keys etc.. , forgetting stuff being pre-occupied , ....). For us, Wales is a 8hr drive and a train under the English channel. My wife and I left on Thursday evening after work and drove until just past London (close to midnight) and leave again in the morning to arrive in Wales by noon. The hotel (booked via Nirvana) would not let us into the room (although all rooms where ready and cleaned) until the clock showed 15:00 sharp. A bit frustrating, but whilst waiting I got the registration stuff and some grocery-shopping done. Shortly thereafter, we where unpacking changed in to our running-gear and headed out for a run on the run-course. The map provided was very high-level and we ended-up running something similar like the course but actually never ran anything of the course itself. Due to the historical nature of the surroundings, there are no markings anywhere until raceday. The same goes for the bike-leg. Unless you use a GPS that allows turn-by-turn navigation, riding the course pre-race is not going to be without errors. In the evening we went to the pasta-party and there was plenty of finely prepared pasta (choice of vegetarian and beef), plenty of drinks and some proper deserts to be had. I did not hold back and went for the "as-much-I-can-eat" approach.
I came in well trained (2 weeks before my taper week I had +20hrs/week and I tapered well). I spoke to my coach regarding the nutrition-plan since the weather was not going to be typical Welch-like and we opted to remain it as foreseen, only a switch to a Isotone drink a bit sooner then originally foreseen.
Saturday morning and time for practice swim. The swim-course is a 2 lap (australian-exit) triangle shape swim with the first and 2nd buoy approx 150-200mtr off-shore and the "pointy-end of the triangle" forming the exit and re-entry. Due to the a-typical wind-direction, the bay was completely exposed to the swell and wind. This made for a very interesting swim-session. I am very happy I did swim a full lap since the sea-state was going to be same or worse come race-day due to the stronger winds forecasted on race-morning. After the swim-lap, quickly perform a few practice starts and that was the end of swim-practice. Loads of kind and welcoming people around. Either just looking and being in awe or participating in the swim. It made me feel welcome and gave me a relaxed feeling taking the edge off the pre-race nervousness. In the afternoon, I went for a short bike (20km) just to loosen up the legs and check if everything on the bike was working as supposed to. At 14:45 register at bike check-in and by 14:50 I was out. Walk-in, check, move-on. I never triple-check or go back after hanging the bags. It makes me more nervous and you start wondering, what-if, if-this, then what.... Make sure you get it done right the first time then leave. If you are sure, you're sure, no need to over-think and over-check. I can't tell how many times I see people look around, walk around, see something they might do different, change it on their bike. Most of the time they end-up with a setup they did not train nor prepare for and are in a situation that is worse then what they started with.
Race-Day Morning:
Not too much good sleep. I woke up around 3AM and couldn't get back to sleep since I was afraid I would not hear the alarm. I stayed in bed and got some rest and finally allowed myself out of bed by 4:20. The hotel had a early-morning breakfast setup which I found a bit strange as it was all dark-bread and food with loads of fibers. Most people ate loads of porridge/oatmeal which is full of fibers. At least for me, when I eat that amount of fibers for a race, I'll spend half the day on the toilet. I stuck to a bit of scrambled egg's, loads of white-bread toast covered with jam and thin slices of banana. For race-nutrition on the bike, I made 6 small toasts and packed them that so I could easily eat them on the bike. Delicious to eat compared to a energy-gel, it gives you a good full feeling (like you actually ate something) and supposedly it's highly nutricious. Do the normal stuff, walk to transition and make sure I bring a spare set of running-shoe's and the purple bag. You need it since the swim-exit is across-town. So you get out of the water, run up a hill, look for your numbered bag, get wetsuit off, shoe's on and run close to 3/4 mile to transition, where you can get changed for the bike-ride. It makes for a very long transition-time (mine was approx. 8min).
Swim-Start:
7AM sharp after a very short warm-up swim, I toe'd the line and placed myself at the front and left-side of the course. Horn goes, off we are. I try to keep a bit higher pace in the beginning just to break the surf and the worst fights, but not before long it became clear that race-day swim was a lot harder then practice-day. Calm-down, think like a fish and try to float, not fight. The on-shore winds and swell made the waves bounce back and you get reverse currents and standing, near-vertical 2-3ft waves. The first lap I managed at average pace of 1:30/100, the 2nd lap I was down to 1:50/100 due to the tide coming up and a much larger part of the course being affected by the standing waves. 1hr04 swim-time, damn, slower then I had hoped. Run up the hill, drop the suit, put sandy feet bare in running shoe's and go. The run up the hill and through the old town of Tenby and the amount of spectators at that time in the morning was incredible. They all packed some decent lungs and vocal-chords since the support was loud, but it is the best post-swim warm-up and adrenaline-shot you can hope for. Into the tent, change gear and out on the bike. After lap 1 I was ranked 46th, at the end of the swim, I was down to 70th (one guy kicked of my goggles during our 2nd turn at buoy 1).
Bike-Course:
The bike-course is never-ending undulating. It goes up-and-down with almost zero-possibility to cary any speed from a downhill into a uphill. I stuck to the drinking plan of 1 bottle of Carb-drink untill first station and 1 bottle of water with the PowerBar Salt tablets (seat). Also the "eating-plan" went fine, 1 toast with jam and banana every 35km (in between service-station) and 1 piece of banana at a service-station. I witnessed very little drafting apart from the beginning of the turning-point in lap 1 (Lap 1 was close to 68miles, lap 2 close to 45 or something). 2 Brits passed me very clearly riding wheel-to-wheel in the head-on section of the course, shortly thereafter, I noticed 4-5 guys behind me. Luckily a motor-bike official just came buy and gave everyone a warning to break-up. All, bar one, did and where never seen again. The one that chose to not choose right, was doused by a good shot of iso-drink by me when he was sticking a few inches from my back-wheel. I never sam him again after that. At the end of the bike-laps there are 2 hills that are something like 14-16% and the locals cheer you on and make you feel like riding up Alpe d'Huez in the tour. Very special indeed, crowded and loud. Overall, I don't think I spent more then 60sec's in the same gear. If you have electronic shifters, remember to charge-up properly before entering this race. Descent bike-handling help a lot here since the many but short downhills often in small roads with broken tarmac and little run-off if you get it right will give you a good benefit over your fellow-competitor, get it wrong and that could be the end of your race. I noticed one guy walking with a broken front-wheel, broken fork and some bruises. I hope he recovers quickly. A good 5min before T2, I took a gel and some a few good shots of water and ride into transition after 5hr50. At the end of the bike, I was ranked 46th.
Run-Course:
You start running flat for 300-500 mtr, then it goes steep downhill steep followed instantly by a steep uphill. 1,6km into the run, the gradient becomes more manageable, but still going up. I run at 4:25/km in training on the flat, but I was running at 05:10 - 05:15/km on the uphill and at 04:10 downhill. You reach a turning-point and timing mat after 4,5km, decent a bit and it goes back up to reach another turning-point and timing map and you also get your armbands for your laps. You descend further down for 1km and go back up into town. This is where it gets interesting, you run on tarmac, cobblestones, soft-uphills, 7 or 8 short 90° turns, steep downhills (I tried to run like a gazelle here, I was running over 03:00min/km downhill and fell back to normal pace as soon as it flattened out). You do these laps 4 times. Due the the 2 * 180° turning-points at the timing mats, you get a reasonable idea of where you are relative to you competition which helps with the mental/tactical aspect. I took a gel every 25-30min just before reaching a feed-staton, take 1 cup of water to drink and 1 cup of water to spray a bit on my head to cool down. The other feed-stations I took a water and coke to mix and a bit of water on the head again to keep the body-temperature in check. During the race, I tossled position with a Brit (sorry, can't remember your name), and we agreed upon the one that reaches the line first buying the other beer. That's is a good identifier of the spirit there, really nice and it gave me goosebumps. With around 700mtr to go, in the last section in town, I noticed a local pro 150mtr front of me, celebrating with the flag and everything. I gave my all, sprinted like hell and caught him 100mtr before the finish line just at the start of the red-carpet. I screamed loud and proud when crossing my first-ever IM finish line. I waited for my beer-mate to buy him the promised beer or make an arrangement to drink together, but he collapsed shortly after crossing the line and was taking to the medical tent for care. I know your name (finish-results - I still owe you that promised beer and I hope you have recovered well by now !)
The mayor gave me my finisher-medal and my wife was right there as well. PERFECT !!! She informed me I came in 35th/2085 overall and 6th/420 in my AG. Since there where at least 7 slots, I knew I was going to the BIG Island !!!! Way better then I ever hoped for and so much better then I could dream. On top of that, according to Ironman.com, I'm now AWA GOLD !!!
Ever since, I have been receiving congratulations from everyone around and family via the mobile and Facebook. Suddenly, everyone wants to carry my luggage in Hawaï... No one offered it for Wales. What can I say, I am more excited then ever before and so is everyone around me.
The commentator at the awards-ceremony was happy to announce that especially for this year, after having sorted out the uphill bike and the uphill run, they finally have sorted out the swim so it was uphill as well. How tough is it ? I can't tell since it was my first IM, but let me give you this little statistic from the speaker: Apparently, the average IM drop-out rate is approx 5-7%, at Wales it was 12%. Either people come here less trained, either the course really is that hard. You choose.
I can't compare since it was my first 140.6 IM, but I would say that this race is a very nice one and I really enjoyed it. The crowds are huge, very supportive (and loud at times), the course is hard but beautiful and manageable if you've trained for it.
I will not say thanks here since the people I need to thank do not read this anyway, but the appreciation and gratitude from myself towards them will be never-ending.
I hope you enjoyed reading this race-report,
GReetz,
S.
Background:
This is my 4th year in triathlon. So far, I have completed 5 * 70.3's (2 local races, IM70.3 St-Croix, IM70.3 Luxembourg and IM70.3 Wiesbaden). I started this year with 2 local sprint-races, IM 70.3 Luxemburg, another local Oly--race, IM 70.3 Wiesbaden and then build up to IM Wales. I came into this race with only 1 real expectation: reach the finish-line in a respectable way and time. Anything under 11hr was going to be considered a huge success given the course difficulty, I think it was a good enough challenge.
Equipment:
Wetsuit: 2XU V:2
Bike : Cervelo P3 (previous model), zipp FC-CC 808 Wheelset with GP4000SII-23c tires and latex tubes. O.Symmetric chain-rings (52-38) and SRAM 12-28 cassette. Perfect gearing for this course for my ability.
Run: Newton Motion III
Pre-race stuff:
I guess it is normal to be nervous / anxious for your first IM, and although I felt calm and relaxed, I noticed by the little things I was getting more nervous (returning 3 times for silly stuff likes keys etc.. , forgetting stuff being pre-occupied , ....). For us, Wales is a 8hr drive and a train under the English channel. My wife and I left on Thursday evening after work and drove until just past London (close to midnight) and leave again in the morning to arrive in Wales by noon. The hotel (booked via Nirvana) would not let us into the room (although all rooms where ready and cleaned) until the clock showed 15:00 sharp. A bit frustrating, but whilst waiting I got the registration stuff and some grocery-shopping done. Shortly thereafter, we where unpacking changed in to our running-gear and headed out for a run on the run-course. The map provided was very high-level and we ended-up running something similar like the course but actually never ran anything of the course itself. Due to the historical nature of the surroundings, there are no markings anywhere until raceday. The same goes for the bike-leg. Unless you use a GPS that allows turn-by-turn navigation, riding the course pre-race is not going to be without errors. In the evening we went to the pasta-party and there was plenty of finely prepared pasta (choice of vegetarian and beef), plenty of drinks and some proper deserts to be had. I did not hold back and went for the "as-much-I-can-eat" approach.
I came in well trained (2 weeks before my taper week I had +20hrs/week and I tapered well). I spoke to my coach regarding the nutrition-plan since the weather was not going to be typical Welch-like and we opted to remain it as foreseen, only a switch to a Isotone drink a bit sooner then originally foreseen.
Saturday morning and time for practice swim. The swim-course is a 2 lap (australian-exit) triangle shape swim with the first and 2nd buoy approx 150-200mtr off-shore and the "pointy-end of the triangle" forming the exit and re-entry. Due to the a-typical wind-direction, the bay was completely exposed to the swell and wind. This made for a very interesting swim-session. I am very happy I did swim a full lap since the sea-state was going to be same or worse come race-day due to the stronger winds forecasted on race-morning. After the swim-lap, quickly perform a few practice starts and that was the end of swim-practice. Loads of kind and welcoming people around. Either just looking and being in awe or participating in the swim. It made me feel welcome and gave me a relaxed feeling taking the edge off the pre-race nervousness. In the afternoon, I went for a short bike (20km) just to loosen up the legs and check if everything on the bike was working as supposed to. At 14:45 register at bike check-in and by 14:50 I was out. Walk-in, check, move-on. I never triple-check or go back after hanging the bags. It makes me more nervous and you start wondering, what-if, if-this, then what.... Make sure you get it done right the first time then leave. If you are sure, you're sure, no need to over-think and over-check. I can't tell how many times I see people look around, walk around, see something they might do different, change it on their bike. Most of the time they end-up with a setup they did not train nor prepare for and are in a situation that is worse then what they started with.
Race-Day Morning:
Not too much good sleep. I woke up around 3AM and couldn't get back to sleep since I was afraid I would not hear the alarm. I stayed in bed and got some rest and finally allowed myself out of bed by 4:20. The hotel had a early-morning breakfast setup which I found a bit strange as it was all dark-bread and food with loads of fibers. Most people ate loads of porridge/oatmeal which is full of fibers. At least for me, when I eat that amount of fibers for a race, I'll spend half the day on the toilet. I stuck to a bit of scrambled egg's, loads of white-bread toast covered with jam and thin slices of banana. For race-nutrition on the bike, I made 6 small toasts and packed them that so I could easily eat them on the bike. Delicious to eat compared to a energy-gel, it gives you a good full feeling (like you actually ate something) and supposedly it's highly nutricious. Do the normal stuff, walk to transition and make sure I bring a spare set of running-shoe's and the purple bag. You need it since the swim-exit is across-town. So you get out of the water, run up a hill, look for your numbered bag, get wetsuit off, shoe's on and run close to 3/4 mile to transition, where you can get changed for the bike-ride. It makes for a very long transition-time (mine was approx. 8min).
Swim-Start:
7AM sharp after a very short warm-up swim, I toe'd the line and placed myself at the front and left-side of the course. Horn goes, off we are. I try to keep a bit higher pace in the beginning just to break the surf and the worst fights, but not before long it became clear that race-day swim was a lot harder then practice-day. Calm-down, think like a fish and try to float, not fight. The on-shore winds and swell made the waves bounce back and you get reverse currents and standing, near-vertical 2-3ft waves. The first lap I managed at average pace of 1:30/100, the 2nd lap I was down to 1:50/100 due to the tide coming up and a much larger part of the course being affected by the standing waves. 1hr04 swim-time, damn, slower then I had hoped. Run up the hill, drop the suit, put sandy feet bare in running shoe's and go. The run up the hill and through the old town of Tenby and the amount of spectators at that time in the morning was incredible. They all packed some decent lungs and vocal-chords since the support was loud, but it is the best post-swim warm-up and adrenaline-shot you can hope for. Into the tent, change gear and out on the bike. After lap 1 I was ranked 46th, at the end of the swim, I was down to 70th (one guy kicked of my goggles during our 2nd turn at buoy 1).
Bike-Course:
The bike-course is never-ending undulating. It goes up-and-down with almost zero-possibility to cary any speed from a downhill into a uphill. I stuck to the drinking plan of 1 bottle of Carb-drink untill first station and 1 bottle of water with the PowerBar Salt tablets (seat). Also the "eating-plan" went fine, 1 toast with jam and banana every 35km (in between service-station) and 1 piece of banana at a service-station. I witnessed very little drafting apart from the beginning of the turning-point in lap 1 (Lap 1 was close to 68miles, lap 2 close to 45 or something). 2 Brits passed me very clearly riding wheel-to-wheel in the head-on section of the course, shortly thereafter, I noticed 4-5 guys behind me. Luckily a motor-bike official just came buy and gave everyone a warning to break-up. All, bar one, did and where never seen again. The one that chose to not choose right, was doused by a good shot of iso-drink by me when he was sticking a few inches from my back-wheel. I never sam him again after that. At the end of the bike-laps there are 2 hills that are something like 14-16% and the locals cheer you on and make you feel like riding up Alpe d'Huez in the tour. Very special indeed, crowded and loud. Overall, I don't think I spent more then 60sec's in the same gear. If you have electronic shifters, remember to charge-up properly before entering this race. Descent bike-handling help a lot here since the many but short downhills often in small roads with broken tarmac and little run-off if you get it right will give you a good benefit over your fellow-competitor, get it wrong and that could be the end of your race. I noticed one guy walking with a broken front-wheel, broken fork and some bruises. I hope he recovers quickly. A good 5min before T2, I took a gel and some a few good shots of water and ride into transition after 5hr50. At the end of the bike, I was ranked 46th.
Run-Course:
You start running flat for 300-500 mtr, then it goes steep downhill steep followed instantly by a steep uphill. 1,6km into the run, the gradient becomes more manageable, but still going up. I run at 4:25/km in training on the flat, but I was running at 05:10 - 05:15/km on the uphill and at 04:10 downhill. You reach a turning-point and timing mat after 4,5km, decent a bit and it goes back up to reach another turning-point and timing map and you also get your armbands for your laps. You descend further down for 1km and go back up into town. This is where it gets interesting, you run on tarmac, cobblestones, soft-uphills, 7 or 8 short 90° turns, steep downhills (I tried to run like a gazelle here, I was running over 03:00min/km downhill and fell back to normal pace as soon as it flattened out). You do these laps 4 times. Due the the 2 * 180° turning-points at the timing mats, you get a reasonable idea of where you are relative to you competition which helps with the mental/tactical aspect. I took a gel every 25-30min just before reaching a feed-staton, take 1 cup of water to drink and 1 cup of water to spray a bit on my head to cool down. The other feed-stations I took a water and coke to mix and a bit of water on the head again to keep the body-temperature in check. During the race, I tossled position with a Brit (sorry, can't remember your name), and we agreed upon the one that reaches the line first buying the other beer. That's is a good identifier of the spirit there, really nice and it gave me goosebumps. With around 700mtr to go, in the last section in town, I noticed a local pro 150mtr front of me, celebrating with the flag and everything. I gave my all, sprinted like hell and caught him 100mtr before the finish line just at the start of the red-carpet. I screamed loud and proud when crossing my first-ever IM finish line. I waited for my beer-mate to buy him the promised beer or make an arrangement to drink together, but he collapsed shortly after crossing the line and was taking to the medical tent for care. I know your name (finish-results - I still owe you that promised beer and I hope you have recovered well by now !)
The mayor gave me my finisher-medal and my wife was right there as well. PERFECT !!! She informed me I came in 35th/2085 overall and 6th/420 in my AG. Since there where at least 7 slots, I knew I was going to the BIG Island !!!! Way better then I ever hoped for and so much better then I could dream. On top of that, according to Ironman.com, I'm now AWA GOLD !!!
Ever since, I have been receiving congratulations from everyone around and family via the mobile and Facebook. Suddenly, everyone wants to carry my luggage in Hawaï... No one offered it for Wales. What can I say, I am more excited then ever before and so is everyone around me.
The commentator at the awards-ceremony was happy to announce that especially for this year, after having sorted out the uphill bike and the uphill run, they finally have sorted out the swim so it was uphill as well. How tough is it ? I can't tell since it was my first IM, but let me give you this little statistic from the speaker: Apparently, the average IM drop-out rate is approx 5-7%, at Wales it was 12%. Either people come here less trained, either the course really is that hard. You choose.
I can't compare since it was my first 140.6 IM, but I would say that this race is a very nice one and I really enjoyed it. The crowds are huge, very supportive (and loud at times), the course is hard but beautiful and manageable if you've trained for it.
I will not say thanks here since the people I need to thank do not read this anyway, but the appreciation and gratitude from myself towards them will be never-ending.
I hope you enjoyed reading this race-report,
GReetz,
S.
