Ironman Frankfurt - Race Report
3800M Swim - 01:21:07 (456th in Age Group / 2185th Overall)
Transition 1 - 00:15:01
181K Bike -
07:13:48 Transition 2 - 00:07:26
42.2K Run - 04:44:03 (366th in Age Group / 1655th Overall)
Total time - 13:41:25 (443rd in Age Group / 2106th Overall)
Let me start with four simple words that mean so much; “I am
an Ironman!”
Four little words that belie such a long journey to get to
the point where I can make that boast.
There is a famous saying about Ironman, “Swim 2.4 miles, Bike 112 miles,
Run 26.2 miles and brag for the rest of your life.”
Like all things there is a story behind it and many of your
regular blog followers will be more than familiar with the highs and lows that
I have gone through in training for the Ironman.
On reflection the desire to do this was never about any sort
of mid-life crisis or need to show that a man approaching 40 can do something
fairly physically extreme. It was about
me taking the natural evolution of my enjoyment of running and in latter years
Triathlon to the next level and give myself the opportunity to push things a
bit further with the aim of gaining as much enjoyment and personal satisfaction
as possible, whilst setting some sort of example that hopefully my Kids will
recognise in later life that you genuinely can do virtually anything if you set
your mind to it.
Of course the downside of all of this is that you must be
able to walk the walk and for that matter, swim the swim and bike the
bike. That was always the danger of
being so public with the blog and my openness about my progression towards
Ironman. Thankfully things turned out OK
eventually.
So what actually happened over the few days running up to
the event, through the day and what was the aftermath?
The family all packed up a load of stuff for the trip,
probably the most we have ever travelled with due to the amount of gear
required for a triathlon and even more so for an Ironman. We had 3 suitcases, 3 carry-on bags and a
Bike Bag containing my very carefully dismantled and bubble wrapped Cube Tri
Bike. The bike bag was kindly lent to me
by my Ironman friend Donald Smith, who had recently conquered the monstrous
Lanzarote Ironman. So we headed off to
Dublin the Wednesday before the race on Sunday as we had an early flight from
Dublin to Frankfurt and decided to stay in the Premier Inn at the airport. The 3.30 alarm call was not very welcome but
was a forerunner of the 3.30 AM start I knew we would need come race day.
At the airport I found myself asking the check in staff to
please be gentle with my bike.
Thankfully when we got to Frankfurt they had obviously listened to me
and a quick check whilst still in the airport showed it was all in one piece. It was also extremely hot at only 10.00 in
the morning. This was a bit worrying.
After managing to find a Taxi willing to stuff his car
fuller than a Bankers Wallet and checking in to the hotel we made our way to
the Registration Area in the centre of Frankfurt. This is when things started to get very
real. Check in was handled in a
typically efficient German manner and I became the proud owner of an Ironman
Backpack along with a few other goodies.
Not bad for the €500 entry fee!!!!!!
It was also noticeable that there were a hell of a lot of very fit
looking people around and lots of them wearing compression socks and
shorts. They did look ridiculous but I
had warned the family that it would be like this. I decided not to go for this look and save
the compression gear for race day when it would really be needed.
The rest of the day was spend doing a little bit of
exploring of Frankfurt, which turned out to be quite a beautiful city and we
wound up beside the River Main soaking up the sun, having a beer (I had a Slush
Puppy) on the very path that I would be trudging round on the Marathon in just
3 days’ time.
The plan had always been to hook up with my good friend
Alex, who lives about an hour from Frankfurt, as he too was doing the event
which would be his second Ironman. On
Friday I left the family to do a bit of shopping in Hollister, fully expecting
my Credit Card to take a battering, whilst Alex and I took a trip out to the
Lake where the swim would be for a practice swim. This turned out to be fantastic. The water
was like a bath and was just 1C below the cut off for banning wetsuits at
23.5C. This was a revelation after my
recent Tri at Glenarm with 12C water temp.
We did the 1700M loop of the swim course and it felt really comfortable
and even with a couple of stops along the way we still did it in 36
minutes. It was just the confidence
booster I needed before I shared the venue with a mere 2700 other people on
Sunday. Off to the competitor briefing. It was here that I managed to meet one of my all-time
sporting heroes, Chris “Macca” McCormack.
He is one of the greatest Triathletes of all time and two times Ironman
World Champion. He turned out to be one
of the nicest blokes you could hope to meet and it was a pleasure talking to
him for a few minutes. A good day was had by all. Apart from my Credit Card!
Saturday pre-race was when things started to get more real
as we had to check the bike in to transition out at the lake. I got the bus out there with Alfie and his
wife Eilish, while Keara and the kids drank lots of coffee and abused the Wi-Fi
hospitality of Starbucks.
Transition was amazing and every athlete was allocated a
helper to take them through the various steps and explain how things would
work. They even put a waterproof cover
over our bikes in case it rained through the night. My helper was a girl called Lissa, who was
very friendly and would spend the next 6 hours or so doing the same thing. It never ceases to amaze me how brilliant it
is that people give up their free time for nutters like me to indulge in their penchant
for extreme sports.
Race day beckoned and the dreaded 3.30 alarm call
arrived. We had a taxi ordered for 4.15
to take us to the official race hotel where we could get one of the official
buses laid on by the organisers to take us all out to the start venue. I was feeling relatively calm, although I
probably didn’t look it. I still think that I looked more relaxed than Keara
who was starting to show a few nerves.
We had arranged to meet Alex and his Fiancée Andrea at the
lake among the 2700 other athletes and 1500 spectators. It was a surreal place to be at 5.00AM, but
we met them without a problem. Alex and
I then went off to finish preparations on the bikes. After sorting ourselves out it was time to
kiss the assorted loved-ones goodbye and head through to the starting
area. This was it, what the organisers
call “The longest Day” was about to begin and I was about to put 9 hard months
of dedicated training to the test.
The Swim
The Pros and about 250 randomly selected Age Groupers were
to start at 6.45AM, which was 15 minutes ahead of the other 2500 athletes. Alex had been lucky enough to be selected as
one of the early starters and he made his way to the start line with the pros. This meant he was likely to get a bit of a
smoother swim that I would get among the 2500 other competitors.
The German National Anthem blasted out just before the gun
went off for the Pros to start. Even though I am clearly not German it was
pretty emotional hearing such an iconic anthem.
Once the first bunch was off, we all started to filter down
the fairly steep sandy bank that led down to the water. We would later have to run back up this steep
bank to get up to T1 after completing the 3.8K swim. The water was still really warm and I got in
to the water and did a couple of minutes of light swimming just to get the
muscles loosened, although trying to find any space among all of the athletes
was nearly impossible. As the moment
approached for the start I made a conscious decision to put myself in the
middle of the big mass of people.
Normally I would try to hang back off to the side a bit, but I thought I
should get the full Ironman experience and just get in to the middle of it all
and get kicked, punched and swum over the top of.
BANG! Off we go. The
still water of the lake suddenly turned in to a frothy white frenzy of 2500
people all kicking and jostling for position.
The famous washing machine effect was now in full force and I was in the
slap bang in the middle of it and I was loving it. I was smiling and thinking this is what it
was all about.
The second loop was the same one which I had done 2 days
previously with Alex as a practice swim, so I was feeling really confident
about this and knew that I was feeling very fresh. The turnaround point on this loop is marked
by a Boat which was a nice easy marker to aim for.
As I rounded the Boat and was heading from the second turn
to the finish of the swim I noticed that there was a bit of rain falling on the
water. This obviously didn’t bother me,
but I did think it may impact the bike a bit.
Very soon I was heading to the end of the swim and the last 50 Metres
literally flew by and I was coming out of the water and up the big sand bank in
to T1. I saw the family all cheering for
me near the top of the hill and it was amazing to see them, and especially as I
was feeling so good and had completed the swim in about 1Hr20mins. This was about 10 minutes faster than I had
hoped for. After stopping momentarily
for a quick photo from Keara, I headed in to T1.
T1
My notoriously slow Transition times continued to haunt me
here. By the time I got out of T1 and on
to the bike, approximately 15 minutes had passed. One of the main reasons for this was a
complete change in to my cycling gear and putting on my Compression Calf
Guards. A move that would come back to
torture me later on in the day.
The Bike
The light rain that had started as I was finishing off my
swim was beginning to get heavier, and there was quite a bit of spray kicking
up off the bikes on the beautifully smooth German Autobahn road surfaces. The main road in to Frankfurt had been closed
to all traffic, as had all of the rest of the roads on the course, and it was
amazing to ride like the Pros with closed roads and amazing Road surfaces.
The rain continued to get heavier as I progressed through
the ride and I was beginning to regret my decision to not out on any wet gear
or indeed even any arm warmers as it was getting pretty cold as well.
The first of the Hills was tackled pretty well and in fact I
was surprised when I realised that it was indeed one of the listed hills on the
course. It certainly wasn’t as tough as
the Pond Park Road that I had regularly been doing my early morning Hill
session training rides on and I was grateful for all those sessions up the hill
as I felt so strong on the bike.
Now, it is funny how you notice things at unusual moments in
time and I had one of these moments at about 30K in to the bike. I was overtaken on a bend by a lady and I happened
to just notice the timing chip on her ankle and I thought that mine was so
comfortable that I didn’t even notice mine on.
A casual glance down at my ankle and suddenly my world fell apart! On my
God!! Where the F$*k is my timing chip???
After nearly having a heart attack, I finally back tracked
in my mind that I had taken my timing chip off my ankle in T1 in order to get
my compression calf guards on as they would not go on over the chip. I clearly had forgotten to put it back on
again and it was left lying on the ground in T1.
To say that I went in to a black place and had somewhat of a
meltdown is an understatement. Just as I
thought I had been feeling great and going well, suddenly I was faced with a
lot of negative thoughts: I will not be counted as a finisher with no chip, I
am letting so many friends and supporters
down, no-one can track me and god knows what they are thinking as they
don’t know where I am and my final thought was about trying to find one of the
roving referees out on the course to see if they could help.
After about another 20Ks of darkness and despair I finally
found a referee. He was penalising another
rider at the time so I had to wait to speak to him. Once I explained everything to him, he was
able to radio through to T2 and told me that it was no problem; there would be
a replacement chip for me in T2 once I had finished the ride. I thanked him profusely and started back on
my way. The stop had lost me about 9 minutes but I was delighted that it was
resolved and I would gladly have sacrificed the 9 minutes, or more, for such a
positive outcome.
Although my mood had lifted, the weather hadn’t and the rain
was still pounding on us. Finally I reached one of the most iconic points of
the course where I knew that Keara and the kids would be to see me. Heartbreak Hill is a climb up through the
village of Bad Vilbel about 10K out of Frankfurt. The hill itself is not too bad but the crowds
are incredible and it is like a Tour de France atmosphere with the crowds
closing in on the road and leaving barely enough room for a few bikes to get up
the hill. I also managed to see Keara
and the Kids on the hill and shout to them that I was fine and had lost my
chip. This gave them a bit of a relief
as they were panicking a bit as they could not track me and had not seen me
since I came out of the swim.
The whole of the second loop was marked by a very stiff
breeze and this definitely slowed me down quite a bit. I rolled on well despite the wind for loop
2. The second time through the cobbled
section in one of the towns was definitely losing its novelty and the jarring
from the cobbles was not pleasant after about 70 miles.
By the time I got back round to Heartbreak Hill the second
time the crowds had pretty much disappeared and I had to ride up the hill with
little support but knowing that I was only about 10K from finishing the bike
was a great incentive to keep pushing on.
The final sweep down in to Frankfurt to T2 went by in a
flash and I had to keep reminding myself to not forget to lift my replacement
timing chip.
As I approached the final bend in to T2 a Policeman flagged
me to slow down as one of the big inflatables that span the road had collapsed
and was blocking the road. Several
volunteers and members of the public held it up enough for me and a couple of
other riders to slip underneath and in to T2.
Heading in to T2 I jumped off the bike and handed it to a
volunteer and they took my bike away and I made my way to the T2 tent picking
up my new chip along the way.
T2
I was determined to make up a little bit of time in T2 and
get changed fairly quickly. I did this
pretty well and was around 8 minutes in T2 and then out on to the run.
The Run
As I emerged on to the run course a Guy cut in front of me
and across in to the road leading up to the Finishing Chute as he had completed
all 4 loops of the run course for his Marathon and was heading for home. Jammy Git I thought.
I did a mental check of how I was feeling as I started the
run and all body parts felt good and remarkably my legs felt amazing and had no
signs of heaviness at all. I was so
pleased with this feeling that I had to slow my pace down as I started running
too quickly.
As I passed the first Aid station I saw Keara and the Kids
and stopped to have a very quick chat with them and tell them that I was
feeling great and looking forward to the Run.
Each loop is around 6.5 miles in length and is almost
entirely flat with the only rises being up and over the 2 Bridges that we cross
over the River Main. Aid Stations were
every mile along the route and had everything you could possibly need and I
decided to employ a strategy of running between the aid stations and walking
through them to take in food and fluids.
From getting the final coloured scrunchie to the finish
chute was about half a mile and it felt like I was running on air as a lot of
the emotions that had been built up through the day were starting to come
out. I mostly thought about the support
from all of the family and especially Keara and the sacrifices that she had
made through the year for me to chase this dream. I could not have done it
without her and all of the unseen support that goes on in the background.
As I swept round the final bend and in to the Finish Chute
the support and crowds totally overwhelmed me.
Nothing can describe the atmosphere at the end of an Ironman and I felt
absolutely amazing coming up the chute and I finally saw Keara, Erin and Ben
standing at the side cheering me on. I ran
towards the finish line and could see that my time was well ahead of the 14Hr
mark that I had set as my absolute top notch goal time. I managed to do a huge jump and punched the
air as I crossed the line in 13:41:25. The medal was placed around my neck and
it felt fantastic.
I was an Ironman and twenty minutes faster than I could have
hoped for.
I felt amazing and didn’t really feel tired. All I wanted to do was see my family and they
had made their way down from the Grandstand and we were reunited as an
Ironfamily. It was very emotional and
there were quite a few tears.
I was then led away by a helper to get my bag and get
changed. After getting changed and
collecting my Finishers T Shirt I met the family again and we caught up with Alex
who had an amazing day finishing in 12:19 despite some fairly sever mechanical
problems with this Bike early in to the course.
The final finisher came over the line with about 30 seconds
to spare and he got an enormous cheer. Then on the stroke of 15 hours everyone
let go of the Red Balloons they were holding and the sky was filled with
them. It was an amazing sight and a
great finale to an incredible day.
As we were leaving the stand there was an enormous cheers as
another athlete was coming up to the Finish Line – 3 minutes after the Cut-off
time. They may not have been classed as
an official finisher but they had the satisfaction of finishing and probably
getting an even bigger cheer than the winner.
Ironman is a tough event and the cut-off time is a tough thing to deal
with but it is what makes it one of the hardest endurance events on the Planet.
We collected the bikes and made our way back to the
Hotel. I didn’t expect to sleep very
well as I was still buzzing on the natural endorphins of being an Ironman but
as it turns out I slept like a log. I checked
my Facebook and couldn’t believe the support that had been going on through the
day from my many friends and supporters.
I had 54 notifications on my account and I read every one of them and
this just made me feel even more humble at the support everyone had given me.
For me one of the most important things about doing this was
to raise some funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and thanks to the amazing
generosity of people the total at the time of writing is over £1200. This goes a long way towards helping such a
worthwhile cause and it was nice to know that my efforts could help to make a
difference, no matter how small.
The Aftermath
When I awoke the next day I didn’t know what to expect from
my body. Would I be sore, would I be
able to walk? The answer was rather
strange. I felt brilliant and the legs felt
no worse than they would after a long training run.
We then met up with Alex, Andrea and the impossible cute
Aileen in Heidelberg and spent a great day in a really beautiful City. It was a great way to relax and enjoy my
first Beer for over a month. And yes, it
tasted every bit as good as I hoped it would.
Thanks to everyone for the support over this journey from
Jellyman to Ironman and I am delighted to have actually made it. Special thanks have to go to Keara for being
amazing in her patience and love and support.
It literally would not have been possible without her. Ironman and
Ironwife in perfect harmony. It would be
interesting to have her perspective on the Ironman journey. Maybe she will pen something in the blog to
give the other side of the story.
The Jellyman is dead. Long Live the Ironman.
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