Post Mortem

Well, it all went wrong – again!!!
Once again I look as miserable as sin crossing the finish line.
Once again I have to suffer the barrage of sympathy, abuse and mickey taking that befits a 5 time Ironman screw up.
Damn I need to learn how to ride a bike!!!

So to the day itself.
By the time we woke up people would already have been milling about Transition, we’re lazy like that. I planned to get there around 6am which would give me 30mins to get my stuff sorted and get out of there. With special needs bags dropped off, run nutrition sorted, bike nutrition sorted I gave the bike a once over. The tyres were a bit soft so I joined the queue for the track pumps, Front tyre inflated fine to around 100psi, the back tyre though? Nothing was doing. We tried several times but nothing was putting air into the thing. I wandered off to find someone with a pokey stick type thing that I could shove down my valve extenders to free the valve up by kicking some air out. With transition about to close I found one and set about my valve only to discover that it seems the reason I could get no air in was because the valve has closed. Ah screw, I’d just have to ride with a back tyre that only has around 60psi in it. It’ll be fine, the roads are smooth, the pressure will rise as the temperature climbs, I could get a puncture but I could get one anyway. There was a last minute sprint across transition to my bike when I realised I’d still got my glasses on but other than that all was well.

The Swim.
My new wetsuit slipped effortlessly onto my body saving the 20mins of early morning struggle that I normally have and I made my way down the beach to join the hoards at the start line. There’s plenty of room at the front so I positioned myself slightly to the right and smack on the surf line. Soon the hooter went off we were away and I was getting the crap beaten out of me. Normally, being a half decent swimmer it doesn’t take me long to break free of the fists, fine some clear(ish) water and settle into my rhythm. Not today though! For most of the first lap I was constantly having my feet clawed at, crashing into people and getting kicked. People were of course getting the same treatment back, except for the kicking of course, my legs just drag behind me like some limp lettuce. We exited lap one in 27mins and then waded back out into the sea across a sandbank for what seemed like ages, it really worked the legs too. Lap2 I guess took around 28mins (I haven’t scruitinized the results yet), it would partly have been longer due to the dreadful wade out to sea and partly because on this lap I did find clear water which means of course that with my fantastic navigation skills I swam a little bit further than most people (even with my prescription goggles). I left the water, ran up the beach, through the shower, had my wetsuit stripped and on to T1 screaming my number in the hope that my bag would be ready for me to grab, it wasn’t, but it wasn’t long coming. There were still a lot of bags for the helpers to sort through after 55mins.

T1 was a little bit farcical, mostly because I was fannying around with my Garmin which I’d still got set on run mode (doh!). I tipped my bag out, switched my watch on, threw on my socks, shoes, helmet etc and ran out to where the helpers were having a little trouble getting my bike from the very tight racking. I was soon on my way though and I saw the race clock click to 1:00:00 just before I crossed the timing mat. Not quite as fast as I’d hoped, but that was mostly down to my messing about.

Bike next time!!!!!

;-p

Oh yeah, I got burnt too.

Race Report

I screwed it up AGAIN!!!!!

Race Day Eve

Well, as I type this there’s 24hrs until the big kick off and I’m feeling sh*te!!! Yesterday afternoon out of nowhere I developed a headache. I took a Nurofen and it disappeared, this morning, after my worst nights sleep of the holiday it’s back. I’ve taken another tablet so it’ll be gone soon but I’m not a headache sufferer so it’s damned annoying. I’m sure sitting in front of the computer isn’t helping but it’s killing a bit of time while it’s still dark out there. Yesterday morning I went out for my last pre-race run. It was 4 miles keeping my HR below 150bpm and I averaged 6:45’s. I finished the run at the group swim, pulled on MY wetsuit and went out for 15mins. After Wednesdays 2XU trial it felt awful! My shoulders felt restricted, my legs felt restricted (not that they do anything). I was still motoring along compared to others in there but it was so much more like hard work. I knew then that my big purchase for the year was on the way. After the swim we bummed around the Ironman Village, saw Bella and Torbjorn Sinballe (I nabbed the Thunderbears Gatorade after, now I’ll bike like him – NOT!) at the Elite interviews and pondered my wetsuit dilemma. I mooched around the 2XU and BlueSeventy trade stands comparing suits. The BlueSeventy for some reason ‘felt’ more supple and I couldn’t help wondering what it swam like compared to the 2XU. Both stands were busy but the woman I’d spoken to on the 2XU stand almost seemed to be avoiding me, there were so many athletes about that she probably wasn’t but in the time I was there I had 2 people from BlueSeventy speak to me and offer to either loan me a suit at todays swim or let me try one in the Endless Pool. You can’t really compare Pool to Sea but I didn’t want to leave a decision until the last second so I agreed to try the Endless Pool. 10mins of swimming later I was sold. I told the Endless Pool man (who actually remembered me from 2005) I swam around 1:20/100m pace so he set the pool at 1:12/100yard pace which is roughly the same. I jumped in and swam solid for around 10mins. There was no effort at all, it felt as though I was swimming a warm up at 6:00+ pace. I actually wanted the pace turning up as I kept crashing my fingers into the grill of the water jets but without stopping there was no way to ask and it wasn’t a training session, just a wetsuit test. Once I’d stopped I ditched the wettie and jumped back in with just my Trisuit on. The difference was apparent immediately, for the first time ever I was officially faster in a wetsuit that without one, there’s video too. A short section taken by Shelly which I’ll hopefully get on youtube later (I’ll link at the bottom of the page) and a proper underwater one off the Endless Pool boys ( I didn’t even notice the camera until near the end). We had some food and went back to our apartment to ponder the wetsuit dilemma. A bit of internet browsing showed that amazingly a wetsuit seems to be the one thing that costs less in the UK than in America (typical!!!) so now I was even going to have to pay over the odds if I wanted one. A couple of texts went off to club coach/equipment geek Toasty and he recommended the more expensive BlueSeventy over the 2XU. Could I justify the expense?????? After many hours (actually days) pondering I decided that ‘if’ I swim to my potential I’ll not only get out of the water up to 5mins quicker in either suit but I’ll also get out feeling much much fresher. That’s as much time if not more than I’d expect to gain if I spend 3 times the amount on a Disc wheel so therefore it’s worth it. Once I’ve finished writing this I’ll be off for my first ever swim in my brand new shiny BlueSeventy Helix Wetsuit. My bank balance has taken a kicking, but hopefully but 8am (7:55 hopefully) Saturday morning it’ll have been worth it. Last night was the Pasta Party with all the normal pomp and ceremony, oldest and youngest competitors, some loon who’s done over 100 Ironman races ( how the hell does he afford it) and somebody that’s lost over 9stone (127lbs) on the way here – Wow!! Today is my wetsuit debut, the Ironman breakfast, last bike tweaks and maybe a 30min spin, then chill chill chill chill chill followed hopefully by a better nights sleep. Next post will probably be post race. Good Luck to anybody who’s racing here tomorrow, I hope you all have a great race but finish behind me. Good Luck to the folks back home, especially those going out in the now Arctic Exmoor weather to race the Exmoor Beast on Sunday. Here’s hoping that the sun shines for you all.
See Ya.

It's a picture-fest.

The view from where we are.

Having a (very) painful massage - a good one though.

Manchesters Hilton Hotel has the biggest beds in the world!!

Escaping the Regisration tent brawl.

Shelly made me a sign - everybody say Ahhhhh.

Bella at the Pro meeting - we like Bella ;-)

Yesterday we went out to see the dolphins

With this I can get in (almost) anywhere.

IM has opened.

Well if the short training is anything to go by then things are looking good. Yesterday I went out for an 11mile cruise on the bike then jumped off, pulled on my trainers and went for a 3mile run in my cycle gear. I didn't really look at my Garmin until I finished but it turned out I ran the 3 miles averageing 6:22 min/mile pace. Now I know I'm going to be nowhere near that on Saturday but with how easy the pace felt it makes you feel good to realise that on race day I can run 90secs a mile slower and still be well on target.
Today I popped down to the beach to join the hoards for a swim. There was a 2XU stand there and after chatting with the staff there for a while about how I strangly swim slower in a wetsuit than without one I tried out their Elite suit. I've been swimming long enough to know that sometimes you just get in the water and feel great and other days you get in the water and feel rotten, today was either a great day or the wetsuit really seemed to work because I felt as if I was flying. There's no real way of knowing of course because nobody was there with a stopwatch but one thing is for certain, there was nobody in the gulf that was anywhere near my speed this morning and that felt goooooood!!!
Off to register now and spend my dollars in the Ironman Village. The race is easy, it's avoiding the spending that's hard.

Hello from Panama City Beach.

Well we’re here :-) and after all the panic about transporting the bike things have all turned out pretty well.

After packing, repacking and repacking again we weighed my bike box and it was over weight so everything came out except for the bike, wheels and saddle. Tools, tyres, tubes, bottles, gels etc etc etc all got bagged up and put in with the other luggage – such a dreadful waste of space really.
The original plan was to only take the bike box and two other bags but we soon realised that the new weight regulations meant that suitcases became overweight a long time before they became full so an extra bag was called for.

On Saturday morning we headed up to Wolves to see the family and drop Rosie off at my parents for the week. No doubt she’ll be even more spoilt when she leaves there than she is already. After visiting a few folks and getting more than my fair share of quizzical glances and comments about the now fading haircut we headed out to Manchester Airport for our overnight stay at the Hilton Hotel. More strange looks followed as the Hilton is far to posh (and expensive) for us and a bloke with freaky hair is secretly probably less than welcome in their restaurant, about as welcome infact as their bill was in my bank account. Still it was very nice as a one off experience and their gym machines came in handy for me to knock out a swift 45min bike/15min run brick session.

Sunday morning came and we made sure we got to Check-In with plenty of time to spare for any of the expected problems…….. What can I say other than it was fine. After reading horror stories about flying Delta and reading totally separate horror stories about flying from Manchester Airport the whole experience was great. The woman at Check-In was very friendly which immediately made us feel a whole lot better about the situation. The bags were weighed and even with just bike and wheels my case was 22.8kg, just 0.2kg below the new limit. The girl on the oversize/squishy bag gate was also very friendly, we even started having a laugh and a joke when I appeared at her gate for the 3rd time. After getting the bags away there was a long old queue to get through passport control and into the Departure Areas which had plenty of people around us grumbling but we had plenty of time to kill so that wasn’t even a problem.

There’s no way really to describe the 9hr+ flight from Manchester to Atlanta other than it’s loooooong. 1st time we went it was a novelty and we were on a nice new 777 where you had your own personal TV’s and plenty of channels to choose from, 2nd time we had the terrible twins screaming and a wailing to keep us ‘amused’. This time though it was just long, the films weren’t much good and with it being a daytime flight there was no way I’d just be able to sleep through it.

Once at Atlanta we ONLY had to wait 4hrs for our connecting flight. By the time you’ve cleared customs and baggage that’s down to 3hrs though and the Airline changing your flight to a totally different Terminal also helps to kill a bit of time. There’s no escaping it though you can tell you’re in America almost instantly because there are some HUGE folks here. We’d hardly got off the plane before we saw the first man mountain walking towards us. I genuinely looked at some people strolling through the airport and wondered how they would fit in their planes seats. It’s really got to be seen to be believed.

Flying from Atlanta to PCB was short and sweet. 250miles, 45mins and one time zone which meant that we actually landed before we took off ;-) and finally 20hrs after checking in at Manchester Airport we were at Panama City Airport along with ALL of our luggage and our MEDIUM sized car which like everything else here is HUGE. Looking like a LandRover Freelander on steroids with a hulking great V6 engine, Leather, Climate Control etc etc etc the steering wheel on the wrong side and no clutch pedal (damn automatics). Americans must get a real shock when they come to the UK and a medium car is a Ford Focus diesel. A quick trip to the never shutting Walmart to get milk, bread and other necessary goodies before hitting the apartment to empty the bags, find out what was broken and ‘finally’ sleep.

Damage Report – On one of our suitcases a solid plastic sheet that form the sides of the case has been totally destroyed leaving small bits of plastic over the contents and the bigger broken pieces just lying about inside the fabric. My bike box has taken a beating (as always). One of the 4 clasps that fasten the sides has broken off, one of the wheels has been smacked so hard that it’s totally seized up and it’s generally scuffed to bits. It’s done its job though and the bike is still in one piece, so that makes all the hassle and worry about whether it would get on the plane worth it. Looking at the beating the box has taken I’m not sure a bike bag would have offered the same protection and as for packing it in cardboard as Delta recommend – nooooo thanks.

This morning I went for a walk on the beach with Shelly before taking the bike out for a spin. It’s damn windy here today, far windier than it was in 2004 when people were panicking about the swim, the sea has a good chop on it but it’s more like a flat day at Croyde than a tough day at Perranporth. I was getting blown all over the place on the bike ride though and even took a small off road excursion at one point which could have been very embarrassing but I held the bike upright and made it back onto the road without any problems. Tuesday and Wednesday are both forecast to be on the ‘blustery’ side of things. If it stays this way until the weekend it’ll make for an interesting race that will suit the strong riders – that’s me stuffed then.

At the daily trip to Walmart this afternoon we played ‘Spot the Triathlete’, it’s not really that hard a game to play, there were plenty of Oakleys, tanned and toned bodies and shaved legs wandering about, there’s none of that with me though of course :-).

Until next time. From a sunny but rather windy PCB.

Seeeeeee ya.

Ready to Fly

Well the bags have been packed, unpacked, packed, unpacked, packed, unpacked etc etc etc. Jeez these 23kg weight limits are a pain, your bag's hardly full but it's overweight.

It's been a really slack week (again) with only 2 days of training, a 7.3mile run on Tuesday with increasing pace throughout and then yesterday which consisted of a poor 4mile run in the morning, a solid 7mile run early evening and then a 3.2k beast of an evening swim session which faded the hell out of my hair (there's more dye to be used though :-) ). The next two days will be full of nothing but travelling so my next session won't be until Monday when hopefully I'll get a few bike miles in.

I've woken up this morning with a sniffle which is a bit concerning as everybody in this end of the world has been full of the lurgie lately, but hopefully it's just a result of last nights swim session. I do tend to get a 'swimming cold' after a hard session.

Now I just want to get there. I'll be much happier (and more tired) at 10pm on Sunday night (PCB time). We've failed miserably to find a sensible solution to the bike transport problem so we're just going to have to wing it and hope that the airport folks are either having a smily day or can 'help' with a sensible solution. I can't believe that it won't be a problem that they've had many times before, fingers crossed.

That'll do for now I guess. Next update from PCB.