Friday afternoon before the race and I am feeling a bit better, so there is hope that I can at least start. Friday morning I don't think I could have made the swim. Race morning rolls around and I feel better than I have, but still not great. I lay in bed and contemplated my options for around 10 minutes. I felt good enough to "do a swim", and eventually decided that was good enough to pack the gear up and at least start. So into race morning preparation it was.
I had a couple of small bowls of coco-pops and a couple of small cups of coffee (still around half of what I thought was "normal" - you have to love motel kitchenettes!). I put the gear I had set aside as "race gear" the day before into the car, and a slightly nervous toilet stop and we were off to the race start at just after 5:30am! Went into the first tent and got numbered and dropped off the special needs bags. I had a few gels as "top-ups" and a few extra salt tablets for the run - in case I made it that far. Into the main T1 and pump the bike tyres up and put drink bottles on the bike. Tyres up to pressure and first hiccup of the day! No drink bottles for the bike - they are still in the motel fridge! Damn! OK, no panic, Liz runs off to get her Sister to whip back to the motel and get them, and I pump up Liz's Tyres. As a back up I put the bottle of drink I was to drink in the next 45 minutes (pre race) on the bike and fill up a spare drink bottle at the transition aid station. Find Liz, and the drink bottles are not going to get here - technical difficulties with cars. No problem... Last nervous toilet stop to go and down to the start. Not too many porta-loo's and the queues are quite long - I don't need that, so off to find a "secret loo" that not too many know of. Perfect, nice loo, and 3rd in line! Down to the start with 30 minutes to go. Plenty of time, and I actually feel quite relaxed - but still pretty unsure about what I can do or what lays ahead. Liz is also pretty relaxed for her, and we get into the water, wish each other luck and head off for our warm-ups. There are a few waka scooting around and you can hear a bit of chatting going on too. Then the Pro start heads off - so that means 15 minutes to the start for us age group Plebes!
I lined up as far to the right as I was allowed - basically hanging on the right side start line buoy! I have Brodie Madgwick on my right, who is a similar swimmer to me, look behind and there is Deno with a big grin on his face, and Hannah lurking just beside him. He better not try and come over the top of me! The cannon (literally!!) goes off, and we are off for the 2009 Ironman New Zealand! I started strong but a little less than normal, and I am swimming beside Brodie quite comfortably - so I decided to just stick there rather than try to find a bunch and get in to the thrashing crowd, as we were the outside right swimmers. After a hundred meters a bit of a bunch started to form on the right side, so I jumped on some feet that presented themselves in front of me. No one was bashing me for them, so I sat there quite happily. I think at this stage there were a few off the front and this was the first "main bunch" so that was a good start. I hung there quite happily for around another km, and felt the pace drop a bit so started to pay a bit more attention to what was going on. All seemed OK, then I saw a bit of a split from the main bunch, so I scooted around the two swimmers in front and got back onto the back of the bunch, and felt quite comfy again. Then not much later I had a big slow down - just me, the body just slowed down! I was then promptly dropped! Oh well, it was good while it lasted. I plodded along and then a green cap came along beside (a female I presumed!), and I though, I might as well just on her feet, so I did. That was all good until the turn around, and we were still only 30-40m off the back of the main bunch, and she put a burner in to catch up, but I was firmly in first gear, and the gear lever was very jammed! So back to on my own. Next group of 4 cam along, so I jumped on to them, that was good for another km, and then with around 500m to go I just had a really big tired-on, and though I was almost gong to stop moving! So managed to watch all in front really zip away and tried a few mental games with the buoys to try and make time move slightly faster, but it dragged! Hauled my sorry ass out of the water, and started running. The clock said 1:08, which I figured was the Pro-time, so that should be a 53 minute swim - which is fine. The crowd was pretty awesome so that lifted my spirits quite a bit. I rolled through transition with not too much fuss, until I realized that I had left my arm-warmers at the motel along with the drink bottles. The vest would have to do for the warmth factor! Grabbed some food and got my bike and headed out. As I was doing the transition I did hear a few other names of note, so the swim was probably not too bad.
On the bike and I cruise past a few early on, but kept the effort quite controlled. This included passing Creampuff - and managed to give him a good slap on the ass as I went past - I know he appreciated that! After around 10km I saw a group of 3-4 a few hundred meters up the road, and decided to put a little effort in to catching them. So with those guys and the ones I had dragged along there was now a group of 6-7 riders. There were a few handy athletes in this group, so I decided it was time to sit in and conserve energy as much as possible. There were were two in particular pushing the pace, and I was happy with that, and I sat at around 4th position. at around 35km the guy in front of me let a gap develop (50m or so) while he was eating/ drinking. He then struggled unsuccessfully to close the gap over the next few km. I sat and watched. Someone behind then came through and tried to close the gap, struggled, and again could not close the gap, which was now growing. I waited a little longer, then pulled out and put in a strong effort and quickly closed the gap in 20-30 seconds, making sure I took no one with me. So there was now 3 and around 6 chasing. At the turn around at Reporoa, there was still around a 200m gap, and we could see a few age groupers still ahead, but mostly riding alone. I continued to sit and watch, and eventually the chasing group caught up again. We swallowed a few more of the faster swimmers. The group started to get a little scrappy from around 60km, with riders coming up and chopping in, surging and dropping back, which was beginning to annoy me as it was making the effort more difficult with the changes in speed, but I kept patient and sat in and conserved, eating and drinking as much as I could. At around 70km there is a gentle climb with a reasonable pitch for a few hundred meters then a gentle/steady again, but you have around 10km or so or false flat or somewhat up hill. The group was starting to get pretty messy at this point, so I decided some of those that were hanging on and riding far harder than they should be, needed to be dropped from the bunch. On the steeper part of the climb I put in a solid effort, still controlled, but went from toward the back of the bunch to the front and kept the pace solid. I kept the pace up until we turned of at the motor racing circuit and headed back down hill into town. The group of around a dozen was now down to 3, although one was a female Pro (Meshi Holt who had punctured), and was not sure if she would be much use. So I kept the pressure on back into town and along the flat, and continued on back up the hill out of town. I felt pretty good at this point, while I was going at a solid effort, I still felt well within myself. Climbing back up out of Taupo we passed a few more of the leading age groupers, but they did not hang on. By the time we were back on the road out to Reporoa, it was now two of us - and young Michael Kelly was keen to put the pedal to the metal! I was not so keen on doing half the work for the next 90km, but thought that was better than in the group of a dozen that was getting pretty messy. We also passed Fossy, who was the leading age grouper, so now we were in the front of the age group race! We rode very well together, doing nice long laps (5+ km at a time), and keeping a nice steady pace. I continued with the eating and drinking. The main hiccup being the gels that I put in the flasks for easier consumption were way too thick to get out through the lid! After the turn at Reporoa for the second time, young Michael realised we were leading age groupers, and that we had a couple of minutes on the chasing group, and again wanted to wind it up for the journey home. I tried to calm him down a little, as I was feeling a bit of a pinched nerve in my butt - which was worrying me a little, but felt comfy with the effort and pace we were holding. We pretty much kept is steady all the way back, and it was just a matter of knocking off the km's and keeping the food and water going in. With around 10km to go, youthful enthusiasm informed me that we were going to do a "cracking time" for the bike, and wanted to push the pace home. It was around this point I started to feel a bit average. It was pretty much all down hill back to transition, so getting there was fine, but I was feeling a bit fever-ish and I was having major chaffing issues on the under carriage which was not helping! So I spent the next few km's pondering my options. Go to the medicals and see what they think, call it a day, or bolt out on the run and see what happens.
We rolled into Transition 2, with a bit of hype as leading age groupers, which was all good. I decided to make myself a good goodie bag to take out on the run and see if I could chip off a few km's at least. Even if I walked 42km, I have plenty of time to get to the finish. I just needed to be careful that I didn't have a strong fever coming, and that I avoided dropping dead from the effort and the bugs putting too much stress on the old(ish) body! A quick chat with Jerry and Liz in Transition, and then Greg Welsh as I went over the over bridge on to the run course (until he told me to move my ass). I kept the running as easy as I could. I definitely felt a bit flu sick and my left hip/glut was killing me. "just get to the next aid station" was all I focused on, and keeping the HR as low as I could. Just before the aid station I dug a gel out and a few salt tablets, down some water and cola, and decided some vitamin C was in order as well - so downed oranges like they were going out of fashion. A few deep breaths and off running (sort of) again. The crowd is pretty impressive through the first 3-4km, so you do have to be careful not to get carried away! Neil yelled out " I thought you couldn't run" and I replied "I can't - this is obviously not running!". Nothing like a few laughs to lift the spirits a little. I managed the slower jog to aid stations and walk the stations, plus walked a few of the up hills - just to keep the HR low, out to the first turn around (approximately 11km). The flu/fever feelings were getting a little less, but my left achillies was starting to tighten up, which worried me, so at the next aid station I got someone to swap the timing chip from my left ankle to my right (I was not bending down unless I REALLY had to). 500m after the aid station, left calf goes -DAMN! It was very unhappy, and was not going to be run on at this point! So we are very much down to walking!
At the next aid station I got a compression bandage on my calf, and wobbled off. On certain camber and slight down hill I could start a bit of a shuffle going so ran when I could. Any up hills and the calf protested in no uncertain terms and walking was the only options. Did not really like a right sloping camber either, so when that arrived a walk often did too. That is pretty much the way the run continued until back to the far turn-around again (around 32km). Then the legs were just stuffed! I saw Reuben as I approached the turn-around, and he had passed me at 1km, and he was running, and had only put about 400m on me in 10km! So I threatened him, and carried on - perhaps anger was also an option here. The mental battle then became "if I walk from here it will take around 2 hours - that is a long time on these legs" verses "if I run, even stride is agony but I will be there much sooner, and the pain will be over far sooner". That was quite a delicate balance, so to get running when I used the maths option - to work out that if I ran around half the way back, I could still get in at around 10 and a half hours! Still pretty respectable. So I carried on with the running where I could! That was also helped by seeing half the athletes I coached breathing heavily down my back as well!
Finally got to the finish line in 10 hours 36 minutes. Just over my upper time bracket of what I thought I could do. But with all that had happened, I really felt that that was the best effort that I had in me. I would not have done anything differently in the swim -that was all I had. The bike actually worked out very well for me. It felt like the most conservative ironman bike leg I have ever done, and still came out with a good result. The calf popping in the run was a pain, literally and figuratively. Overall happy to get finish number 10 at Ironman NZ, although after, that did not feel like a big deal, and before, that was what was mostly driving me. I am a bit disappointed I did not get the chance to see and show how fit I had actually got. I think I was actually in quite good shape.
I still probably need to do another - just to see that I can still put out a good time - next up will probably be world long course champs in October...
