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I finally
raced. Last Sunday I finished Ironman Wales; by finishing I also finished my
first triathlon. Now if I want to I will be able to take part in shorter races.
I know I can go long now. This week has been awkward for me because I did not
know how to really handle it. I had a lot of different inputs from the same
source or from different sources so I just played the most conservative one.
I started
on Monday with a swim, 55minutes of easy swimming with 500m at race pace after
two thirds of the session. I was very happy because I actually made it under
the expected time. I tried to keep all my sessions in the morning so I had time
to finish everything in the afternoon.
On Tuesday
I ran. It was an easy run of 45minutes where I had some strides after the warm
up and afterwards I had some slightly above race pace pickups for 90 seconds
with 3minutes rest. To be true I did not feel too good. I was getting tired but
I did not pay much attention to it. Then in the evening I had a very special
farewell.
On
Wednesday I woke up very early after a short night. I had to squeeze in one
last session before the journey it was only 35minutes on the trainer, I did not
have time for some extra 10 minutes but it was ok, I had some race pace pickups
and that was it, just to keep the muscles moving. Then I packed the bike and I
when to the airport heading IM Wales in Tenby. I got there after one flight,
one bus ride, 3 different trains and a final bus ride to make it to the hotel.
On my way from Swansea to Tenby I shared the ride with a pro athlete; it was
nice to share some impressions. Then we walked to the hotel, mine was nearer
than his. After getting in to the room I went to seek for some dinner.
On Thursday
I started to think more about the race since the first minute. I started to
know what my breakfast would be like on race day. There I met another
triathlete. After breakfast we shared a small talk and we decided to train
together as long as our schedule would let us. I had scheduled a 1h bike ride
with 15minutes run. Since his bike ride was longer he came with me for my hour
and then we moved on, I ran and he finished his bike. And then I went to
register and take it easy.
On Friday I
had my day off. Complete rest. All I did is to go with my new friend and his
dad to drive around the bike course. The bike course was hard. It was raining a
little bit and it seemed dangerous. The wind was crazy hard and some roads
where very narrow. With the given information it was hard to know if we were in
the right place. After it we went to the race briefing and the pasta party.
On Saturday
my friend and I went to swim a little bit at the new swim venue. Due to the
weather the swim venue was moved from the South beach to the North beach. We
did not swim for very long, 15 minutes and it was not even a good swim, I now
know that we got there in a low tide and the water was very shallow, we were
shocked. Then we went back to the hotel and we got ready for one last brick. We
did about 35minutes on the bike with three one minute pickups and then we ran
for 12minutes with two times one minute pickups. Then everyone started their
own ritual to get to boxes. Before the bike check in I decided to take a look
at my arm rests. They were giving me problems below my neck. Since in the expo
they did not sell new ones I decided to make a small change to try to avoid
that pain. To do so I had to drop my arm rests by about 1cm and I did not
readjust my seat after doing that. I checked in my bike and I went to have my
last dinner. I had chicken curry because of the rice; the curry was very mild
so I knew it would be ok for my stomach. Then I went to sleep even though it
took me a little while.
Finally it
is Sunday, race day. I get up at 4am. I take a shower and I go to eat
breakfast. I had corn flakes with skim milk and white toasts with strawberry
jam. After breakfast my friend and I headed to the bike, we unwrapped our
bikes, we pumped out tires, I clipped my shoes and I went to drop off my dry
clothes bag. Then we went to get our wetsuit on and we headed to the start of
the IM Wales. It was 6.40am when we got there, and that is when I had the first
surprise of the day, the zip of my wetsuit seemed to be broken, luckily they
were able to zip it for me. Then we warmed up a little bit and we split apart.
The race was about to start. I started the swim pretty well at the front, I was
feeling good and I was able to bridge between groups, which help me a lot to
keep slower swimmers holding me back. The water was a little rough but I was
confident. I got out of the water knowing I put on a good swim, I started to go
up the ramp to get my shoes and I was feeling good. I ran quite fast that km
till boxes. There I stripped my wetsuit I got ready for the bike and off I
went. I jumped on the bike very nice and I was able to leave transition with a
good feeling. After a few km on the bike I started to not feel too good. It was
hard for me to keep up with the people around me and a lot of cyclists were
passing me, it was very windy and we were facing it. After about 30km I started
to feel a lot of discomfort on my lower back, I could not get in to aero
position and the wind was stronger. I knew my bike goal was gone as well as the
race goal was gone but I tried to hang in there. At the 90th km my
back was killing me, all I wanted to do was to stop and cry but at the same
time this feeling of willing to cry was making me stronger to finish, the more
I wanted to cry the more I wanted to finish. My feeding tactic was gone, I did
not know what to do anymore, I had started drinking too much and it was not hot
enough so I was getting even more anxious because I had to stop 4 times to
evacuate. Around the 100th km the hills were extremely steep and I
was struggling with my pain. This pain was caused because the arm rest height
change the day before. Some guy overtook me and said to me “I’ve heard that
these climbs are brutal” from that moment I knew I was not doing an IM anymore
I was doing a BrutalMan. The werst was yet to come. I started the second lap
and it felt like it was never going to end. 30km before transition I could not
move my back and I started to worry if it would affect my run because all I
wanted to do was to start running. I knew I am a good runner and that I would
nail it. Finally I made it to T2, I put my shoes on and I feel light and fast
my back was not hurting me anymore and I just knew it was my chance to take
advantage of my strength. I started to eat a lot of gels and to drink a lot of
water and Gatorade. The first lap was fast, but then a few more problems
occurred, first I started to feel a blister in my left foot before the end of
the first lap, and then I started to feel some stomach discomfort, I knew I
would have to stop for awhile but I was trying to stall the stop as much as I
could I finished the second lap, under 90miuntes, insane! and it was after one
third in the third lap that I had to stop to the bathroom for about 5 minutes. Since
that moment I decided to stop eating gels and eat more crackers. I got off the
toilette and it was raining. Nothing was going to stop me from having a good
marathon. Luckily the rain stopped 10 minutes later so I did not have too much
water in my shoes. It was hard to pass again the people that I had passed
before my stop, but it did not matter. I finished the third lap feeling strong,
slower, but strong and confident. When I was going uphill I thought that maybe
at some point I would start walking a bit on the hills but when I got there I
decided that I wanted to run, no walking for me except feed stations to get
fluids. And I could see myself finishing but I still had some 5km to go. Going
downhill was like a nightmare, the pounding was very hard on my quads but it
did not matter, all I wanted to do was to finish strong. But the last surprise
was waiting for me. At about 500 meters from the finish line there is this guy
overtaking me and I said to myself “no fucking way this guys beats me!!!”
150meters later I was just in front of him again. I got my last band so it
meant I was awarded the right to make it to the final chute, I look behind me
and he is there, he is close to me and he is trying to pass me, I pick up the
speed and I look behind, he can’t keep up with me, I ran faster, I look behind
he is struggling, so I go one extra notch, I didn’t know where this power was
coming from, and see the finish line, I look behind me, he is far I put my
sunglasses on top of my visor I cross the finish line and I stopped the watch.
I was tired but not exhausted, my legs hurt and I had forgotten about my lower
back. I made it, I am an official finisher of an IronMan. I was walked to the
athlete’s tent, it was cold but we could just get our dry clothes and a
massage. Plenty of dirty food was waiting for us, we had fish n’ chips, chips,
chocolate bars, sports drinks, … I got my massage, focused on my lower back. I
put myself together and I went to pick up my bike and bags. I made it to the
hotel, took a shower, answered to all my followers and I took a nap. After that
I woke up and made it to the finish line to see the last athlete to finish, it
was very cold and windy and it was impressive the way he made it. At the final
line I met my friend and he told me he made it in 3rd place in our
age group, at that moment I was in 10th place but then after the
times were final I was 11th and 102nd overall. He will be
going to Hawaii and I will be going home. After taking some pictures at the
finish line I went to bed, but it took me a long way, not to mention my stomach
decomposition that kept me going to the bathroom once per hour for 7h or so, it
is normal with me in this kind of events. Most of the race I had been focused
enough but there were some times that I had her with me.
So from
what I heard many people feel proud of me to accomplish such feat. Well I am
not too proud of myself. True it is it was my first triathlon and it was iron
distance. True it is that people who have done many IM believe that this one
was much harder than any other IM they have been and some of them have even
raced Lanzarote, known for the hard bike course. But I am still disappointed to
my bike performance, I should have done better.
Not having
any onsite support does not mean that I did not feel your support. I have even
felt it from those of you who are new in to my life. I would like to thank you
all. From the ones who had to live with all my paranoia, to the ones who have
assisted, to my training partners and those of you who I made our conversations
impossible because I only talked about this, to even the people who did not let
me rest to spend the last hours before the trip with them. Thank you all.
So the big
question, what is next?
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