Good Fighters

Well tomorrow is the big day – 10 October 2009 – race day of the IronMan World Champs. In exactly 24 hours from this moment of typing the cannon will sound for the start of the swim. 

It has taken a lot to get here.  Hours of training through snow, wind, sun, and surf; too many early mornings, and quite a few pairs of trainers.

And it has been quite a long wait since I qualified in South Africa in April.  But at last it’s here and I’m ready. I thought I’d be really nervous. Normally you hope there is always another day until the race, another day you can put in a little bit more training, you could always be more prepared. It’s not true today. I want race day to be here. 

I think it might be because it is a one-off race, I’m not trying to qualify for another race, this is it.  If you win your age group you do pre-qualify for next year, but I just want to enjoy this race, put in my best performance and really enjoy it as I think that is what sport should be about.

There is always next year, I hope – ‘touch wood’, to win my age group.

To give you the week in brief – it is hot, humid and therefore sweaty.  My bike arrived safely, I built it and then the mechanic told me the hubs on my wheels were knackered. They are only 5 races old but they might explode. Luckily Alex from SRAM has loaned me a pair of Zipps which now adorn my bike – big thanks to him and them.  They now fit a picture on my Slice as if they were meant to be together!

The swim is going to be interesting, as you might know it’s not my forte and it is wetsuitless. This makes it slower and it is in the sea with waves and lots of people faster than me.  So I am expecting to get bumped and buffeted and punched and kicked but that comes with the territory so I am ready. I have my Sailfish speedsuit, the next best thing to a wetsuit and I’ll watch the millions of Nemos as I swim the course.

In training ‘Coffees of Hawaii’ have positioned their boat 700m off shore so you can grab an espresso and cookie might swim. I don’t think I’ll head there on race day but it is a great touch.

Biking and running the course has been hot.  I’ve got some nasty sunburn to contend with so today I am going to fashion a sunprotector out of a t-shirt to keep the sun off the worst affected areas. I hope to have found a solution to combat some of the heat too. I’ve got some wrist bands that you soak in a special liquid that evaporates over time and cools your body temperature.  Let’s hope they really work.

The rest of my kit is laid out before me including my race number – 1572 ready to bag up and check in at 3pm.

And then it is rest, dinner and bed ready to be up at 4am to have breakfast and head down to the course.

And finally, Amy had a dream last night that I was out running on the course with Phil Graves, IM UK winner and I overtook him, we were the only people on the course. This could be a good or bad omen, he is fast so I could be doing really well. Or we’re both British and suffering in the heat.

I’ll take it as a good omen.

Speak to you after the race.

Alex

We have arrived safely in Kona, and I have my Slice too, which is one bike more than I did in South Africa so we’re doing well.  We flew into the Big Island at night so didn’t get to glimpse the view of the islands, beaches and volcanos as we landed. It was a long haul – 11 hour from Heathrow to LAX and then 6 hours onto Hawai’i. Yes, that is how you spell it and the actual pronunciation is something like Hawai’hee. We seemed to be travelling for ever, we left on Sunday and it was still Sunday when we arrived, a 33 hour day.

We’re staying as seems the rest of the IronMan world on Ali’i Drive, a road that runs along the coast and forms part of the run course.  I wonder what the local Hawai’ians must think of this mass influx of obsessive sportsmen and women, I assume it is normally a very laid back place, there may be a few fitness fanatics, IronMan was born here, but 1800 athletes plus entourage must be a little confusing for the locals.  Whilst I was out training I kept passing the locals on the beach enjoying the sun or kicking back with a BBQ.

But if you want to know what these IronMan world champs are like as an Age Grouper.  The best comparison or way I can describe them is like when I left school and headed off to university at Cambridge.  I went from being a clever clogs to being one amongst many and many a lot, lot cleverer than me.  I arrived as a top 20 IronMan finisher having beaten pros, an elite age grouper.  But here we’ve got all the pros – 50 of them, and all the age grouper are elite!

The great and the good of the IronMan world are here. I was swimming today with Chrissie Wellington.  I even bumped into Nemo and a few of his mates. The swim was good, the water is clear. I spoke to another IronMan who saw dolphin, which freaked him out mistaking it for a shark.

After some breakfast I assembled my bike, just doing that brought me out sweating all over. I then hit the road and saw Phil Graves coming the other way. The conditions are as you would expect in Hawai’i. Hot, humid and a little bit windy.  The bike course was, as legend foretold, mostly straight, undulating deceptive hills and imposing with the solid lava flows and volcanic rock lining the road. It was hot and I am now sporting a nice tri tan / sunburn as a result despite factor 40.

My Slice is a comfortable place to be on the road. I seem to be able to ride on the Aero bars for ages without stiffness and soreness, which is often a challenge here. Being aero for longer means I can cut  through the wind that this island is legendary for.

After a 2hr spin I put on my trainers and hit the road.  It was only really at this point – 3pm in the afternoon that the heat really hit me, it was so oppressive, hot and humid, it drains the sweat out of you.  This race is going to be hard. South Africa was a challenge, this will be similar if not a little harder. But it is the World Championships so I guess it was to be expected.  Finishing this race is going to be the goal for now, I’ll see how I am going at the end of the bike before I promise a great result!

And finally.  You certainly can’t be body conscious here.  All the guys strut around like peacocks with their sun tans. Amy is in heaven watching them! She’s coming to watch the swim tomorrow morning, I wonder why.

Day One – acclimatisation done.

Bring on Tomorrow.

GQ photoshoot

London Triathlon was on the same day as IronMan UK. So as much as I would have liked to have raced I wasn’t able to do both.
But i did have a presence. I coached a journalist Jodie from GQ and then ended up in a photoshoot for the magazine.

The photo in all it’s glory is above and a link to the mag article online is here: http://www.gqmagazine.co.uk/grooming_and_fitness/personal_trainer/articles/090814-pro-triathlete-tips-for-beginners.aspx

Jodie completed the course and only just got beaten by her brother, a decent cyclist by a couple of minutes.

Enjoy!