The IRONMAN Journey -Part 2 -Race report
This post is Part 2 of my Journey to become an Ironman. Part 1 is a pre-race training and preparation post and Part 2 is a detailed race report post.
One 22 September 2018, Ironman Italy was scheduled for flag-off at 07:30 CEST. I woke up at 05:00 and walked 6km to reach the venue. The transition area for IRONMAN Italy is really long. The walk from Athlete garden where you drop off your street bag to the other end of the transition area is about ~12mins. I suggest participants to avoid last minute hassle and sort out everything early in the day.
The Swim (1h 40min): 🙀
First leg of this Ironman is a 3.8km swim in the Adriatic sea with rolling start and an Australian exit at 2.2km. I paced myself in the slow 1h:20min finish as I wanted to come fresh out of the swim to keep my heart rate low for the run through transition area. I came to know there are a lot of jelly fish and can sting really bad but they’re non-poisonous. My past diving experiences with jelly fish were unpleasant and hoped I wouldn’t come across any. I entered the water at around 8am with 16 hours to become IRONMAN.
Water had moderate visibility and I hoped it wouldn’t be so murky. 300m in, I spotted the first jelly fish and swam in a direction to avoid it. All through the swim, I wasn’t sighting the markers and turns properly as my priority was to avoid those jelly fish. Because of so many jelly fish, I swam an extra 600m, a total of about 4.4km @2:19/100m pace. But you don’t get brownie points for extra distance. I lost valuable time. Ironman clocked the 3.8km route in 1h:42min @2:41/100m pace. Looking back at the race, I was really slow on this swim.
Transition 1 (15min): 👌
This is where you come out of the swim, pick up your blue bag which has all your cycling gear, dry yourself, change in the tents, put your swimming gear back in the blue bag and hand it over to be collected after the race. I entered the transition zone with 20mins behind target pace. No worries! I can make up for it later. I read on a few TrainingPeaks articles not to eat or drink during this Transition till 15mins on the bike. But I felt dehydrated and low on energy. So I ate a few dry fruits and tried to remain calm to bring down my heart rate.
The Bike (8h): 😢
Ironman Italy Bike course is 2 loops of 90km starting from Cervia to steep climb of Bertinoro and back totalling 180km. I can’t go fast on the bike as I can’t risk a meniscus tear from a diagnosed Discoid LM condition. Before I could mount the bike, I had a mechanical problem with the chain. With some effort everything was sorted but little did I know it was the first of many unfortunate things to follow. My heart rate was high for the next 20mins which is probably because of the nutrition from T1. I kept to a slow 26kmph pace doing ~120W. This pace is good for a 7 hour finish.
1 hour into the bike, I had a fatal crash at a sharp turn with a rider coming in the opposite direction. He was trying to overtake a rider in-front of him and came into the wrong lane and rammed into my left shoulder. My memory is blurred as I lost consciousness for a while and couldn’t breathe properly. I wouldn’t bother the reader with the appalling details of the incident. Luckily the paramedics were there. I was slightly bleeding from my right thigh and breathing heavily and was in such a shock that I couldn’t get back on the bike. That was my first crash on the bike.
Luckily I absorbed most of the impact and my bike remained intact 😐. Any major damage to the bike would’ve resulted in loss of time or DNF. In a couple of minutes, I regained my composure and started riding again. With the adrenaline rush and higher heart rate, I couldn’t grasp the full extent of damage. About 5kms later, I realised I couldn’t put weight on my left shoulder and going into aerodynamic position is ruled out. I had to ride slow now. During the crash, I lost my salt tablets and nutrition. I felt that the Enervit drink provided on course was heavily diluted and this was to cause problems later on. I was drinking 1 litre of water every hour and taking 1 energy gel every 45mins.
At the turn of 90km, I realised I’m falling behind pace. I need to maintain a 30kmph to clear the 10h cutoff for swim+bike. I was holding the aero bars with my right hand and keeping minimum pressure on the left shoulder. There’s no point going at comfortable pace now. It’s do or die time. I put the hammer down and relegated comfort to the back of my mind. If my knee pain comes back, I’ll stop the ride and DNF. If not, I’ll power through till the end. With 25km to go, I got cramps all over my legs. I had to stop riding multiple times. Winds were picking up at crazy speed. My knee pain started acting up.
Multiple feelings started reeling in. That crash demotivated me and I lost my confidence and game plan. Every time I stopped to relieve my cramps, I thought this it, this is where it ends. I wanted to give up this useless pursuit and probably never come back to IRONMAN. I’m happy with my current levels of fitness. Why should I put this huge effort risking injury in the odds of narrowly missing cutoff? But I decided to shut my brain and endure the suffering to power through.
If there is one thing I trained for all these years, that’s to be comfortable with suffering and enduring the pain for long. I didn’t look at my watch to check for time. I remembered my 600km BRM ride where I barely cleared cutoffs even in a state of mental exhaustion and no sleep for 30 hours. Right now this is only physical exhaustion. I can endure it. So I pushed through with my head down and cleared cutoff with 3mins to go 😌
Total time 9h:57min/16hours
Transition 2: (9min) ☺️
It’s a short 1km long transition off the bike into the run start :) I could feel the cramps coming back. Luckily I had extra salt tablets in my Red running transition bag. I popped one in and hurried for the run just to clear the transition cutoff, if any.
Total time 10h:09min/16hours
The Run: (scroll down) 👌
The run is 4 loops of 10km through Cervia. I remember a volunteer saying, Hey! It’s just a marathon now. You can do it. I have 5h and 50min and a marathon to finish with cramps. I was feeling refreshed after that transition and I didn’t want to push myself early on and end up with a DNF because of cramps. I knew from my swimming days that it takes me about an hour to recover from cramps after taking salts. By now I had gulped in so much water and energy gels that walking was the only option.
New strategy: Walk/Jog for the first 15kms in 2 hours till I feel completely in control. By then, the gels and water would’ve been digested and hopefully I don’t have to deal with cramps. I stopped drinking water and I was taking salt tablets every 40mins. I started feeling good after an hour of 9min/km pace. Everyone around me is in their 3rd or 4th loop motivating themselves thinking it’s just 1 loop to go. I’m still in my first loop. That’s ok!
After the first loop, I could feel my running legs coming back and no signs of cramps. Don’t go hard now! I can pull through in the end. So I started slow jog to get into the tempo and slowly started picking up pace. It wasn’t the finish line celebrations or the IRONMAN title that pushed me. I committed to this cause. It was the determination to see this through that kept me going.
On the 20–40km route, I started running at a comfortable 7min/km with some stretching in between. I was running with 5km targets and treating myself to a salt tablet every now and then. I had a long day with energy gels and I can’t take anymore of it but I forcibly shoved it down my throat towards the end. It was necessary. I didn’t drink water for most of the run and it’s only in the last 10kms I started taking some fluids. I guess this ensured proper electrolyte balance in the body. I should’ve had just fluids and no water all day?!
All through the bike and run, I didn’t think I could finish on time but I wanted to see where I would fall and where I can draw a line to my physical ability. Lucky for me, I didn’t find any. Sometimes it’s only a psychological barrier. I picked up the pace towards the end enduring pain. In the end, with 1km to go, a woman was cheering ‘Congratulations Ironman, you did it. Just 1km to go!’ That was the moment I realised I’ll finish and I can start enjoying the last few steps. Those words gave me a huge relief even more than the lead announcer at the finish line with the words.
Aditya, You are an IRONMAN!
Run finish: 5h:39min
Race finish: 15h:44min
This race time of 15+h was something I wasn’t happy with but I’ll take the finish and consider it a win for a day that went bad. Race day gave me a lot of memories, experiences which I’ll cherish for a long time. A lot of things can go wrong on race day. Most of which you’re not prepared for. You want to quit almost all the time because of several reasons. You think of every reason why you shouldn’t continue anymore and why it’s pointless pursuing this craziness. But you must persist in the moment of doubt and uncertainty. And in the end, is it worth it?
The title, No! The memories and experience? Yes!
Coming to the experience of Emilia-Romagna(Italy) as a destination for Ironman, it was wonderful with a few problems of its own. The calm sea is good for your first Ironman swim if you can figure out how to deal with jelly fish. The long transition zones are not for people who’re chasing after PB or cutting close to cutoffs. The bike route was scenic with 2 steep climbs and the roads could’ve been faster tarmac. Be careful with the narrow and sharp turns. Winds start building up during the race week and just 2 days after the race, there were strong 45kmph winds. The run was memorable with locals coming down to cheer under the moonlight. Finish line celebrations are a spectacle to watch. There are lots of scenic destinations in Italy to visit post your race. After a few days of rest, I rode my bike from one city to the other. It was wonderful! The journey of IRONMAN was a memorable one.
I hope my training and racing experience motivates you to take up this wonderful sport, help you in your journey and get you prepared for race day of IRONMAN.
#swimbikerun #trilife #triathlon #ironman #endurance
