Paddy and Big Doc’s Ironman Adventures (Part 3)

Ironman UK (07/09/08)

“An Exercise in Character Building!"

Account by Paddy Mclaughlin

So, after getting charged more than the price of the return flight on excess baggage to get my bike over to England (Thanks Easyjet!), landing at our hotel to find that the on-line company we booked our room with failed to tell the hotel about our reservation. The hotel and majority of hotels and b&b’s in the area were all full because of the race, so spent a hour panicking before eventually getting somewhere to stay (thanks laterooms.com)! Drove the flooded bike course, and ran a loop of a swamped run course (they’re not honestly gonna make us run through here on race day are they?!!), took the bike for a test ride, hit a massive pot-hole, then the bike kept making a loud banging noise afterwards! We arrived at the start line at 6am on the Sunday morning.

Its still pitch dark at the time the race is supposed to start, but people had parked their cars on the run course, so the race was delayed by half an hour till the course was cleared. However it’s still dark when we swim out to the start line and start the race! I’ve found from previous races the best place to start mass swim starts is up near the front as the majority of people stay out wide to avoid the washing machine effect!! I decide to give it a go anyway (Can add nearly getting drowned to my list of things that have gone wrong!). When we finally get the go after treating water in a very cold lake for 10-15 minute, I find that my cunning plan worked, as I only got beat up abit in first 100 metres and then had clear water for the majority of the swim. The swim was quite uneventful, but it was unusual and an experience to start a triathlon in the dark (makes sighting difficult!), and to see the sun coming up over the lake. The 2.4 mile swim was 2 laps of a long narrow lake, which I completed in 1hr 13 mins, and dragged myself off to the transition tent to put on my many layers to protect me from 112miles in the cold, wind and rain on the bike course.

As I already said, I’d hit a big pothole when out testing my bike yesterday morning before putting the bike into transition, and it was making a loud banging noise at times. I’d checked it over but couldn’t find anything so I had my fingers crossed that it would hold up to the rough road surfaces and for the next 7 hours! The bike course is made up of 3 laps of a triangle shaped course of 36 miles. The first side is flat on very bad road surface. The second side, a long uphill and short steep downhill, and the top side rolling hills into a head wind! My main plan for the bike section was to keep my laps as close to 2hrs a lap as possible while maintaining a good nutrition plan (which was my main problem last year). The first lap of the bike went well, apart from the top section of 10 miles which was into a strong head wind. The second lap, the uphill and top sections were tough. And by the third lap my lack of training was starting to show as the whole lap was tough! At about mile 80 I would’ve gladly sold my soul for an engine to power me back home! Thankfully I reached the end of the third lap and enjoyed a nice easy free wheel down the last mile of the 112 mile course into transition. After 6 hrs and 51 mins on my trusty steed I gladly handed it to a very loud shouting Army Corporal (who was running transition) and headed up to the changing tents for the marathon.

The Ironman UK marathon has everything!!! 3 laps of uphills, downhills, grass, forest trails, tarmac, footpaths, loads of mud and water, dead turns, and barriers to negotiate. In fact it wouldn’t look out of place as an army assault course. Quite a lot of it is off road (as you probably guessed) and about a mile of each lap was totally flooded and covered in mud! However I must say I really enjoyed this leg for a number of different reasons. One being that you could never see too far ahead of you and the course terrain was always changing. This made it seem like the miles were going in that bit quicker. Plus there were a lot of dead out and back turns which gave you a chance to see other athletes. Highlight of the first lap was passing Big Doc at mile 6. He’d being struggling with stomach problems since lap 2 of the bike, and wasn’t enjoying his Ironman UK experience much either! So, as is customary I gave him a slap on the arse as I passed and headed on. My own stomach was starting to give out shortly in my second lap aswell, and eventually had to stop for a few minutes. I walked through the next aid station grabbing a handful of Pretzels and a couple of cokes, and then got myself running again. I repeated this at every aid station for the remainder of the race, and thankfully had no more stomach problems. Pretzels are now my new wonder food! I had started to tire badly on the third lap, but had seen Adrian Mc Glynn from Strabane a bit ahead of me at one of the out and back sections, and set him as a target to reel in. I caught him on the main down hill section of the course, and was given a new target. Stay ahead of Aoife and Eimears friend Taryn Mc Coy from Belfast, who I’d spotted wasn’t far behind at the last turnaround. Adrian Devine from Triangle was just heading into the castle grounds to finish as I was heading out into the town section. Only 4.5 miles to go then so I just kept my head down and tried to keep running.

It’s a short run to the finish line in the UK, but it was def one of the loudest! The atmosphere was good but I was definitely glad to be finishing! So after a 4hr 18 marathon, I finished with an overall time of 12hrs 37mins 39secs, hoping that there was some nice food in the athletes tents. Unfortunately not!! Only Indian curry, just what your already delicate stomach needs after a hard days exercising! And not even a Mc Donalds within sensible driving distance!!

Big Doc’s stomach didn’t co-operate much after I last seen him, and he had a bad run home. Eventually finishing in 13hrs 42mins 11secs.

Adrian Devine finished in 12:04:50. Adrian Mc Glynn 12:55:07, and Taryn Mc Coy 13:01:38.

All in all, I was just glad to get the race finished and get home. But I think that was mainly due to all the hassle we had getting there, and the shit weather. But the more I think about it, it was a good tough race. Definitely not an easy course (only 1 pro broke 9hrs!), I enjoyed the marathon though. Time for another warm easy one now though, so watch out Austria ’09 here we come!!