Ironman Regensburg Race Report

Race report (I will hopefully go back and add more colour to the rest of the trip, just wanted to get the report done!)

Swim

Might as well start with the swim, I don’t think my prep was any more different from anyone else’s except for all the sniggering at the amount of gels I had taped on my bike (some of which, admittedly, are still there!)

I stood before the start on a beach full of blue and pink hats, stomach tight but not achingly so, along with some 2499 others, probably all feeling the same. Despite the organisers attempts to get everyone clapping and bouncing I thought the atmosphere was fairly tense as the countdown to the start progressed.

There had been lots of discussion beforehand as to where to start to avoid the inevitable biff that would occur as 2500 athletes on a beach 100m wide swam towards a channel about 30 m wide about 50 metres offshore. As the hooter went, I changed my mind, and rather than marching straight down into the water I veered slightly further left than planned and entered the water in front of some trees that went down to the water’s edge.  I think this helped me a huge amount as it meant that there was no one really behind me for the first few hundred metres of the swim, by which time the decent swimmers had gone off ahead and the weaker ones like me were all left trying to avoid any trouble. So the only hassle I ever got in the whole race was when we headed up towards the first turn, there was a low jetty that people had to swerve to avoid, causing a little congestion. Other than that my swim seemed fairly boring, aside from someone once throwing a breast stroke kick to within about an inch of my nose! I didn’t sight an awful lot, but there were always so many people around that there didn’t seem an awful lot of point! Out in 1.20, about 5 minutes quicker than I was expecting, so pleased with that. The furthest swim I’ve ever done J

I took my time in T1. It was lashing down and I wanted to be sure I had the clothing I wanted. I’d read enough from Bala to know that the wrong clothes choice can be terminal to a race, and whilst the conditions were not as cold as Bala, I wanted to make sure, so trotted out in 8:25! The longest T1 I’ve ever done! J

Bike

The bike was wet and a bit windy. Before the race I’d been worried about how I would get on with an 81mm deep front rim in the wind, but come the day I was worried about the brakes and how they would cope!! On descents the rain whipped into your face like hail, it was like having a facial acupuncture. On the plus side the girls enjoyed the exfoliation it gave them.

I knew that the no 1 mistake first time IMers make is going out too fast on the bike so I took it easy as I could for the first 30 miles and tried to suck in the sights through my rain soaked glasses. I remember one kid, under a tarpaulin, looking down at the floor, apparently bored rigid, but relentlessly hammering away at a triangle, and old woman, soaked but still watching, chewing on the most unappetising sarnie of heavy German brown bread and frankfurter sausage, and two old ladies, who probably knew nothing about triathlon, watching and clapping and blowing their whistles like mad at everyone who came past! It had probably been a dream come true for them to see wet lycra clad bodies in such numbers, if ever!! Talking of musical instruments, there was quite a variety on display on the bike course – tubas in the Ooompah band at the top of the hill, buckets, pots, pans, kettles, loudhailers, anything that make a racket was deployed! I did feel very sorry for the poor feed station helpers whose job it was to hand out cooling wet sponges! They would have had more business handing out dry ones! I can’t imagine anyone wanted a wet one all day! Overall, given the weather, the supporters who turned out were great, keeping up a constant level of applause, noise, encouragement the whole time. I really enjoyed interacting with them, blowing a kiss to the bloke in a fat frau costume, egging on the great little village of Mintraching at mile 50/100 to make a little more noise, and on each occasion they responded. Brilliant!

The ride went carried on going well, and I caught a steady stream of pirate uber swimmers – Henny, Waff and Pugsley I think on the first lap, then Mandel, Cougie, and Wild Will on the second lap. Cougie and I span up the second hill together until we got a Paddington Bear stare from one of the marshals. We can’t have been doing more than 10mph side by side, I can’t see how we were possibly drafting but better safe than sorry so we separated. At one point Steve Ho came flying past me, said Hi and then shot off into the distance. About 10 minutes later he shot by me again. I must have looked confused as he yelled “Well that was the longest piss I’ve ever had! Must have been a good 3 minutes!”

Aside from the rain and the fact I didn’t trust my brakes (top speed 28mph / 45kmph) the ride was fine. There were  a couple of hairy moments when descents finished at 90 degree turns, and on one of them I almost had to bail out into a runoff car park which might have caused the spectators in front of it a slight scare! And at one point I accelerated only to feel the back wheel go, and I think it was my backside giving way that caught it as my reactions were never going to be quick enough! The rain was miserable though. At one point I squeezed one hand against my arm warmer on my other arm, only for the water squeezed out to run down to my elbow and fall straight into my bike shoes. Or it would have if they hadn’t already been full of water. Not nice.

Before the event I’d dismissed any thoughts of a sub 13 hour finish as I could not see any real evidence from my long ride training that I could maintain over about 15mph, let alone 17mph on the bike, but I did remember that 17.2mph average would give me a 6;30 bike split, so at the end of the first lap, to be up at 17.5mph without really breaking my HR rules was really good news. So I thought just do the same again and see what happens. And the same thing happened. Which was nice! I had a little cheer to myself as I went through 100.2 miles, as this then became the longest ride I have ever done, and aside from nearly stopping at the huge KFC on the way back to Regensburg, the last part of the ride was uneventful, and I was delighted to get to T1 with a bike split of 6.19. The furthest bike ride I’ve ever done. J

It was great to get into T2. Whilst I’d secretly wanted to give having a pee on the bike a go, the desire never actually came, so my first stop after dumping my bike was to try and stand in cleats in a smelly portaloo. Just about managed that.

Into T2 where I tried to dry my feet (and failed) and put on dry socks and a dry Monaco, and then straight out onto the run. OK, there must have been some faffage as T2 apparently took 8:30, but the frauleine helping was rather nice! The longest T2 I have ever done! J

I exited transition to see new pirate Anna [(not so dinky) Pinky] bounce past, starting her second lap as if she was just popping out for milk! I stayed with her for a minute or so then let her go, as I was run walking, and she was running. Fast. I stuck at my run walk, walking aid stations, taking bananas that had served me well on the bike, and water or coke as I felt, going purely by feel, and felt really good for the first two laps. Seeing the pirates was great, as well as chatting to people of all nations on the course – Germans, Aussies, Saffers, Scots, all in the same boat and all great to run with. I was expecting the third lap to be a bit of a dark spot, but it never really came and I hit 30km feeling as if I should be in more pain than I was, which (whispers very quietly) I wasn’t really in much. My knees were hurting some, but walking was fine as was shuffling, so I kept on doing that. Simples.

About half way round I knew I was never going to do a sub 4 hour marathon, so just relaxed and made sure I would do a sub 5 hour one, to beat 13 hours overall. I could probably have squeezed another 5-8 minutes out of the last 2 laps, but why hurt yourself when it made no difference really? I was so happy collecting my last arm band, and then the joy of turning right into the finishing chute as opposed to left out for another lap was just fantastic! I ran down the chute slowly, sorting out my hair and Monaco, determined to look half decent for the finisher’s photo! What a feeling it is to finish!!!! The longest run I have ever done! J

I don’t think I’ve really captured in the above how I felt on the day. It wasn’t quite what I expected in some ways, but always better. I’d thought the swim would be more aggressive at times (I think I was just lucky though) I thought ride would be more lonely but it was fine, and I thought the run would be harder, especially the second half, but then maybe I paced it well and didn’t try to push myself beyond my own abilities. I thought I would want to quit at times, but I never did. The support, especially from the Pirates, was great. I had so many comments from other competitors saying how great it was, with both sherpas and athletes being supportive to all. And you reap what you sow, with lots of other supporters really getting behind the Pirates. It was an honour to sail on the PSOF and wear the skull and crossbones. Thank you all.