Finish IM Aut 2009
Ironman Austria this year promised to be better than last year from the outset – how could it be worse, really. Last year I was forced to retire after the bike leg due to uncontrollable coughing. Luckily the chest problems were not caused by anything serious, but it left me with some bad memories of the event. Coming into the race on the back of two great half-IM distance events a few weeks before and having had a pretty near perfect block of training in Leysin with the team I was confident of my form and looking forward to testing it out on race day. The last 6 months of training full-time and not juggling work and training is beginning to pay dividends in my fitness and in this race it would show. This year would be different…
The race started under cloudy skies with the Pro’s in the water and the age-groupers further back on the beach. I wanted to get a good start so I could get on the feet of stronger swimmers for once and hopefully improve my swim split. The pros started creeping forward, as is always the case in water-starts, and the referees in boats and on kayaks were trying in vain to keep us back. With no warning the gun went and we were swimming. I was next to Lucie and another guy when a few meters after the start we all swam into the side of a boat which really shouldn’t have been there. We ended up all on top of one another and I got good kick in the face. My right goggle flooded. I could stop and empty it, or keep swimming and keep the feet. No choice really. 3.8km isn’t that far with a flooded goggle… Actually I was thinking the opposite, but what can you do…? I stayed on the group until the end of the swim, which turned out to be the second group, about 3min behind the leaders group.
On the bike a group of about 10 guys quickly formed and seemed to be working well together. I thought we were in for a good ride, maybe catching the leading group. But when we got the first hills after about 30km it was clear the group was losing time on the leaders and the guys just weren’t sharing the pacing. It is not draft legal, but the zone is only 7m and you do still get some advantage 7m’s back, and the advantage of having someone in front of you to pace off is huge. I really wasn’t happy to be losing time to the front guys, but I also was not prepared to pull this whole group around the route. Decision time. Ride away and go solo until I catch someone ahead, which could be a while, or stay with the group and hope they get themselves organised? Hmmmm…
Up a biggish hill at about 50km I decided to test the guys and see who would ride a bit harder to limit the time lost to the leaders, so I worked harder up the hill. No-one came with me and at the top I had about 75m on the group. That decides it then. No more messing around and going fast then slow then fast. Ciao boys! I got into my own rhythm and kept a good tempo going. I rode the next 110km completely solo, seeing only one other competitor who had fallen out the lead group. Ironman is a lonely sport…
One advantage of this was that all cheering was just for me! Coming through the turn-around point was incredible! I have never seen such large and enthusiastic crowds at an event before. And it was the same at the other hot-spots on the climbs – must be what Alpe de Huez feels like in the tour…
With about 35km to go as I headed up the last big climb I saw the group ahead of me. It was all the favourites (Stephen Bayliss, Paul Ambrose, Brad Strom, Berhard Heibl, Frederick van Lierde) except Marino Vanhoenacker and Bjorn Andersson, who were off in front. It took me another 10km or so to catch them as they were further ahead than they looked with the slow speeds up the steep hill, but I eventually came up the back of the group and thought, ‘Finally, I can relax a bit!’. I sat up and ate and drank and stretched. But the group was really going slowly. Speaking to the guys afterward they said that no-one wanted to ride in the front as they were all thinking of the run ahead. As a result the pace was really slow. I still felt good and had a good rhythm going so I had another decision to make: Cruise in to the end with all these boys and see who is freshest on the run, or get the tempo up and see who can run off a solid final 30km on the bike? I’m sure I can run off the bike, thats what we train for… Let’s go. I went to front and got the tempo going again. If nothing else, this would psych the boys out a bit – here is a guy who just rode 100km on his own to catch us, and now he is trying to ride away from us? How strong is he…?! I didn’t actually know the answer to that myself, but I was gonna find out when we got the run… I stayed on the front until the end of the bike, except for a brief pause when a wasp went down my suit and stung my chest – OUCH!
Out on the run and the temperature started rising. The first half of the 21km loop is quite exposed and the sun was blazing. I concentrated on drinking, sponging and keeping my own pace. Stephen Bayliss and Berhard Heibl had gone off ahead of me leaving me 5th, but my first kilometre was about 3:40/km, and I wasn’t going any faster than that! I tried to keep them in sight and also keep the heart rate down and soon I was running 4min/km and they weren’t pulling any more time on me. At the second turn-around in town(15km) I had pulled them both back, and the ‘2nd Man’ and ‘3rd Man’ lead-bikes had come back to us too, meaning that 2nd place Andersson must have bailed. On the way back to town Stephen slowed noticeably (stomach issues he told me afterward) and I passed him for 2nd place. There was no thought of first place – Marino was 13mins ahead already! – so I was going to be playing the hare for the guys behind me for the final 21km.
I monitored my pace, checking it against random kilometre markers here and there, but in the last half of an Ironman marathon you really are just doing what you can and your body tells you what pace to run, not the other way around. Thankfully all the hard training was paying off and the pace my body held was around 4min/km. (I got more than a few enthusiastic cheers for Stephen Bayliss as I passed, but most realized their mistake once the saw my race number… We don’t even wear the same kit?!)
On the final 10km out-and-back my friendly mountain bike guide told me I had 4min to the next guy and I could relax. Cool… but I am not relaxing until I see the line! Then on the way back to town in the final 5km he turns and says 2min to Bayliss… Whoa! What happened to four?! I tried to push my pace and gave it my all until I was in the finishing funnel… Better safe than sorry, although it turns out his original split was wrong and Stephen was 2-3min behind the whole time, where he finished up.
Down the finish chute and the crowd was massive again! What a feeling! I tried to high five all the outstretched hands on the sides, but the impact from them threatened to knock my weary body right over! I settled for waving, which was tough enough, and crossed the line with a rush of emotions – joy, relief, exhaustion, satisfaction… 2nd place in a time of 8h14:18. My first good Ironman marathon. Off my first sub-4h30 Ironman cycle. An Ironman PB by 37minutes. My first Ironman podium. A breakthrough performance if ever there was one! Onwards and upwards…
The team cars brought up the rear and that was that. (Actually three more riders came later, much to the consternation of the Police cos by then the entire crowd was in the road! Keep up boys!)
