My Austrian Ironman Challenge
I felt my preparation for this event was really good and with the aid of Dermot I built up my fitness levels gradually and to my good fortune I didn’t encounter any major injuries along the way.
We arrived in Austria on the Wednesday prior to the race with bags and bikes in order (unfortunately some athletes who arrived on the Thursday and Friday arrived either without suitcases or even their bikes).
By arriving early, we had time to relax before the race, check in early, build bikes, have a few swims in the lake and take in the atmosphere of the event. The day before the race we had a tour of the bike course which took almost 2 hours in a coach, even though it was good to see the views of Austria it wasn’t much help for preparation so it’s not something I would recommend.
On the Saturday afternoon before the race I checked my bike into transition along with my bags for the bike and run, sighting where my bike and bags where in the racks. Also taking time to see where the bike exit was so I had no unexpected surprises on the day of the race.
Surprisingly I wasn’t nervous on race day, I woke up at 4 in the morning, having slept quite well that night and had breakfast. We got picked up at 5.15 and got dropped off at the bike transition at about 5.40. This gave me time to put my drink bottles and food on my bike, pump tyres up to pressure and just check every thing was in my bags. I put my wetsuit on & had a walk down to the lake, dropping my day bag at the athletes tent then had a slow walk to the start line.
The swim was the part I was most concerned about, When the gun went off about 2500 people went off in the water leaving myself and a load of others standing on the beach, I waited for 1 minute then made my way into the water. I got straight into my stride, people where stopping, doing breaststroke, trying to catch their breath and I just picked my way through them. I worked my way to the right side of the pack and swam wide of the buoys, I may have swum further but didn’t get into any of the scrum and that really helped my swim. It wasn’t until I got to the entrance of the canal and it started to bottle neck that I had to slow down, again I found a bit of space, then managed to pick my way through the last 900m. I managed to complete the swim in 1h 12mins which was about 8 mins faster than I thought I could do on a good swim.
T1 was a 400m from the swim exit, found my bag straight away, wetsuit off, gear on, bag swim stuff up, find my bike and we’re off. T1 took 7min 9 sec.
The bike ride was brilliant, felt really good on the 1st lap, the hills didn’t bother me, down hills were great, wanted to try and keep a good average of 21mph on the bike so I could do 5h30. On the bike I carried my relentless energy drinks, home made flap jacks, jelly babies and water, I also took 2 energy gels but didn’t need them. Ate and drank at regular intervals making sure I kept my energy levels up. After the 1st lap I was on course for a good bike time, however the 2nd lap, the hills took a lot more out of me than I was hoping. At the 100 mile mark I was starting to struggle and felt I was slowing down to much, however the ride back into T2 was down hill and I managed to save my legs a bit before I started the marathon. Even though I struggled with the end of the bike I really enjoyed the ride. The course was great, roads were good, crowds were supportive, weather was a bit to hot. I managed to complete the bike in 5h 27mins which again was faster than I had hoped for.
T2 was fine, racked bike back up, found my bag straight away, changed socks, trainers on, loo break and off we go, luckily a volunteer put my stuff away for me. T2 took 5.58
The run I had always thought was my strongest section, I wanted to start with a steady pace and then speed up once I got into my stride. Unfortunately this didn’t seem to happen, my legs just got heavier. I refused to let myself start walking so I made sure I just kept around the same pace. Running into Klagenfurt, there was the charity bell, I managed to jump up and hit the bell twice on the 1st loop but on the 2nd loop I had no energy left to jump and hit it again. I got through the marathon using 8 energy gels, water from the aid station and a bit of water melon for a change of taste. Turning off for the finish line was a fantastic feeling, the thought of running any further would have been horrendous. As I ran through the crowds towards the finish line I cheered the crowds for their support and ran through the finish. I completed the run in 3h 55mins.
I completed my 1st Ironman in 10h48m33s.
A big thank you to Dermot for helping me prepare for this event and a huge thank you to my friends and family for supporting me and an extra thank you to my wife for putting up with all my training and hardly seeing me whilst I prepared for this event. Thank you to all my training partners for pushing me when I could of quite easily of taken the easy way out. Thanks to everyone who sponsored me. I have managed to raise almost £2000 for the Warwickshire Air Ambulance.
I felt my preparation for this event was really good and with the aid of Dermot I built up my fitness levels gradually and to my good fortune I didn’t encounter any major injuries along the way.
We arrived in Austria on the Wednesday prior to the race with bags and bikes in order (unfortunately some athletes who arrived on the Thursday and Friday arrived either without suitcases or even their bikes).
By arriving early, we had time to relax before the race, check in early, build bikes, have a few swims in the lake and take in the atmosphere of the event. The day before the race we had a tour of the bike course which took almost 2 hours in a coach, even though it was good to see the views of Austria it wasn’t much help for preparation so it’s not something I would recommend.
On the Saturday afternoon before the race I checked my bike into transition along with my bags for the bike and run, sighting where my bike and bags where in the racks. Also taking time to see where the bike exit was so I had no unexpected surprises on the day of the race.
Surprisingly I wasn’t nervous on race day, I woke up at 4 in the morning, having slept quite well that night and had breakfast. We got picked up at 5.15 and got dropped off at the bike transition at about 5.40. This gave me time to put my drink bottles and food on my bike, pump tyres up to pressure and just check every thing was in my bags. I put my wetsuit on & had a walk down to the lake, dropping my day bag at the athletes tent then had a slow walk to the start line.
The swim was the part I was most concerned about, When the gun went off about 2500 people went off in the water leaving myself and a load of others standing on the beach, I waited for 1 minute then made my way into the water. I got straight into my stride, people where stopping, doing breaststroke, trying to catch their breath and I just picked my way through them. I worked my way to the right side of the pack and swam wide of the buoys, I may have swum further but didn’t get into any of the scrum and that really helped my swim. It wasn’t until I got to the entrance of the canal and it started to bottle neck that I had to slow down, again I found a bit of space, then managed to pick my way through the last 900m. I managed to complete the swim in 1h 12mins which was about 8 mins faster than I thought I could do on a good swim.
T1 was a 400m from the swim exit, found my bag straight away, wetsuit off, gear on, bag swim stuff up, find my bike and we’re off. T1 took 7min 9 sec.
The bike ride was brilliant, felt really good on the 1st lap, the hills didn’t bother me, down hills were great, wanted to try and keep a good average of 21mph on the bike so I could do 5h30. On the bike I carried my relentless energy drinks, home made flap jacks, jelly babies and water, I also took 2 energy gels but didn’t need them. Ate and drank at regular intervals making sure I kept my energy levels up. After the 1st lap I was on course for a good bike time, however the 2nd lap, the hills took a lot more out of me than I was hoping. At the 100 mile mark I was starting to struggle and felt I was slowing down to much, however the ride back into T2 was down hill and I managed to save my legs a bit before I started the marathon. Even though I struggled with the end of the bike I really enjoyed the ride. The course was great, roads were good, crowds were supportive, weather was a bit to hot. I managed to complete the bike in 5h 27mins which again was faster than I had hoped for.
T2 was fine, racked bike back up, found my bag straight away, changed socks, trainers on, loo break and off we go, luckily a volunteer put my stuff away for me. T2 took 5.58
The run I had always thought was my strongest section, I wanted to start with a steady pace and then speed up once I got into my stride. Unfortunately this didn’t seem to happen, my legs just got heavier. I refused to let myself start walking so I made sure I just kept around the same pace. Running into Klagenfurt, there was the charity bell, I managed to jump up and hit the bell twice on the 1st loop but on the 2nd loop I had no energy left to jump and hit it again. I got through the marathon using 8 energy gels, water from the aid station and a bit of water melon for a change of taste. Turning off for the finish line was a fantastic feeling, the thought of running any further would have been horrendous. As I ran through the crowds towards the finish line I cheered the crowds for their support and ran through the finish. I completed the run in 3h 55mins.
I completed my 1st Ironman in 10h48m33s.
A big thank you to Dermot for helping me prepare for this event and a huge thank you to my friends and family for supporting me and an extra thank you to my wife for putting up with all my training and hardly seeing me whilst I prepared for this event. Thank you to all my training partners for pushing me when I could of quite easily of taken the easy way out. Thanks to everyone who sponsored me. I have managed to raise almost £2000 for the Warwickshire Air Ambulance.
Dave Grant
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