Three of us from Scotland got the train down to Somerset on Friday, and other friends and family started to turn up at Paula's house too. On Saturday, Paula and two of her friends also competing needed to head across to the site, to register, have a test swim in the lake (it's not open to public swimming at any other times in the year), rack their bikes in the transition zone, listen to a race briefing, etc. Its somewhat of a military operation!!! She'd asked me if I fancied coming along, and I jumped at the chance - I am such a sucker for this kind of build-up, and I find spending time around athletes like this really motivating too. So we rocked up about 8.15-ish, with 3 bikes mounted to the top of the car, and wandered along to the expo area.
Ironman is a big brand - in fact, I should probably be putting a (R) or (c) or (tm) after every time I write it, so just imagine it's there - and the merchandise tent was packed to the rafters. My eyes were drawn to one or two trinkets, but I stayed strong. Well, okay. Not very strong. I decided I ought not to buy a tshirt without actually competing in the event. But, errrr, I bought a buff, and a sticker, lol.... And yes, I might have bought a book. *shifty eyes* But look. I have no intention of training to be a triathlete!!! I can hardly swim, and haven't been on a bike for well over 20 years. Just... not a chance. I'm getting somewhat carried away with the excitement of the event........ Quelle surprise, next weekend at the West Highland Way I'll probably decide to be an ultrarunner, hahahaha!!! After last weekend helping Tamara at the Moonwalk marathon, i suggested a long-distance walk we could do together next year. I'm incorrigible. The more time I spend with athletes, the more carried away I get.
The amount of race day prep that the competitors have to go through is mental - forget all the vast amount of training, I'm just talking about RACE prep. Like, you have to have your bikes racked the day before the event, having already proved your helmet fits you and has your race number stickers displayed on it - you have to fill all your transition drop bags, and hand them in the day before - you have to stick the "tattoo" transfers of your race number on both arms - and so on. Then there are all the rules; things like, you have to wear a wetsuit in the lake, you have to wear the swim cap they send you, you can't "draft" on the bike (ride within 10 metres of the rider in front of you unless you're overtaking), etc etc... It's all very confusing! But rules is rules... These guys train for this event knowing exactly what's expected of them, I'm sure.
So Saturday morning passed by quickly and interestingly, and in the afternoon we went for a wee walk together, and chatted, and ate, and ate, and ate, and so on. :-) It was an early night, because we had to be in the cars for 4am, omg, but we all made it, wearing waterproofs, comfy shoes that could handle getting wet and muddy, carrying our lunch, and blinking blearily at the rising sun.
Even though we got there about 2 hours before race start, the time passed kinda quickly. At 7am, the elites and the first wave of age group competitors got started on their swim, and Paula followed soon after in her wave. She told us later that her swim felt fantastic - she'd trained well, felt strong, and the water "tasted nice", by which I think she means didn't taste revolting like some lakes she's trained in before, haha. I don't assume Wimbleball lake tastes of gin & tonic, for example - though that might explain why they don't allow the public in at other times of the year.
She looked strong, and happy, coming out of the swim, as we cheered her on her way up to the first transition. After waiting to cheer on her friend Paul, we then headed up the hill too, knowing we had an 4 hours until she would be back from her bike section. As a group, after getting a bacon roll and cup of tea, we kind of split up to do our own thing - I needed to ring Dad to wish him Happy Fathers Day, so off I wandered, and then for a wee while I had a look around the race finish area, and had a wander over to the transition area, and so on, before catching back up with the girls as we waited for the elite guys to come back from their bike ride. It was about then that the heavens proper opened, and then it basically didn't stop raining for about 5 hours. (Good news, my brand new raincoat works well - what a relief.)
As the athletes started to return from their bike ride, the fact that the run course is a 3 lap route, with lots of sort of switchbacks and loops, meant that we could find a spot where we would see people at least twice per lap, which was great. One spot was at the top of one of the big hills on the course, so we whiled away the time by cheering everyone on loudly, by name (their names were on their race bib) telling them to dig deep, they we looking strong, etc. (Some weren't, but hey, you're allowed artistic license when cheering at a major athletic event.)
Paula came through very soon after we'd expected her to, but the cold and rain had taken a fair bit out of her on the bike ride. On the first hill, she walked up, and I (helpfully) yelled "come on Paula, get your arse moving!" - to which I got a glare, and she told us she couldn't feel her legs, ooooops! By the end of the first lap, though, we could tell she was moving a bit more comfortably - and she kept a really steady run/walk pace the whole way. After we saw her start her final lap, we moved across to the finish area, cheering on all the people finishing around that time. I loved how everyone looked so happy (relived?) - it was such awful weather, and they were all completing such a massive event. It felt kind of a privilege to cheer for them; I'll admit to being a wee bit choked up on more than one occasion.
Soon we spotted Paula turning towards the finishing straight, and we went a bit bonkers, lol. She crossed the line a little over 8 hours 2 minutes - just fantastic, for her first ever ironman 70.3 distance. She's trained hard (really, really, really hard) and with real focus and dedication, and it definitely paid off. While we stood around waiting for her afterwards, her Mum smiled at me and asked "Has she inspired you?" and without hesitation, I replied "Oh, she inspires me every day". I don't have to see my friend cross the finish line at at Ironman triathlon to be inspired by her - she makes me so damn proud, inspires me every single day, and has done since the moment I met her.
Her friends fared unfortunately unluckily today - Tara came off her bike during that section (I'm yet to hear how it happened) and has broken her wrist, so she was medically DNF'd, (the jargony "did not finish") and Paul didn't make it to transition 2 by the cut-off time, so wasn't allowed to do the run. He's diabetic, and relatively new to triathlons, so for major endurance events he's still learning about race nutrition - today, his blood sugars spiked too high and too quickly at the beginning of the swim, and there's nothing you can do about it until you finish the whole 1.2 miles! He cramped badly, and as a result the bike ride was slower and more painful than he'd planned - I'm gutted for him, but with some dedicated training around his nutrition for endurance work, I'm sure he will be back stronger next year, and kick the course's arse.
The course is relentlessly "undulating", and the weather was horrendous, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were rather a lot of DNFs today. Personally, I was glad to get back and into a hot shower, and all I'd done was stand around in the cold and wet, clapping for 8 hours..... What the athletes went through is another thing entirely. Ridiculously motivating, and giving me more and more ideas about things I need to think about for my own race training this year, but again, that topic is for another day.... x
(Nb - today, I'm still away from home, so I will update this post with a couple of photos when I get home and upload 'em)
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