Top Kharma Graham to help out a fellow triathlete in distress when you had problems yourself, well done and I am sure your wife and little one are extremely proud.
A great report and sounds like you had a great race and brilliant experience. Well done Sir! Thinking I'd like to one day build up to full IM, just out of interest how did you find balancing the training required with family commitments?
Good report, I was thinking of doing a report for mine, but I swam, cycled and ran for longer than I care to imagine, but got to the end and heard the words I thought I would never hear. Now got sore legs, arms, shoulders, a medal, t-shirt and tattoo. Result!
Really great race report. I'm so pleased to be reading about people having a good experience in IM UK, many people have said they wouldn't do it as their first because it's in the UK. As someone who has a family to consider on race day as you do, the idea of racing here is really appealing.
I'm going to race it next year.
Did they say anything about when 2011 registration opens? I know when I did IM UK 70.3 this year they were telling us we could get our registration in the very next week (perhaps a little premature when you hear that as you rack your bike the day before the actual race!).
Tentative date for next year is 31st July, but not accepting entries yet. Have a look at Ironman.com and all the info is there.
I'm with you on the family front, that's why I did UK this year. The amount of kit, etc, plus kids gear for the weekend, I think I would have had to charter a plane for an overseas race.
LOL, the family balance was hard, i followed the 'be iron fit' 30 week program, I think it stood me in really good stead because now I can run up and down stairs painlessly!!
The Ironman is a really achieveable thing to do, just train and pace your race, i averaged 15.4 mph on the bike, I could have gone faster but I needed to pace myself for the Marathon.
It's such a good expirence, I really recommend it. The UK Ironman would be easier than a foreign one with family, I had an estate car, roof box roof bike carrier and the boot was still full!
I managed 15:38:59, and struggled. I hated the bike course. Any forum I;d been on had only ever mention Sheephouse Lane, get over that and you're home and dry. My training route emulated Sheephouse Lane, and I did The Dragon Ride and Wimbleball as training, so hills didn't bother me. First lap round got down into Belmont and got speaking to another rider who said he wasn't looking forward to Sheephouse Lane again, and I did have to confess that I didn't even realise we'd been over it.
The bit I hated was from the motorway back to the bottom of Sheephouse Lane. Just the most tedious ride I think I've ever been on. Constant braking, accelerating, changing gears, blind corners, little inclines, and I did switch off and meander for a while, and my time drifted. I also made sure that I stopped each lap to talk to my wife and daughter who were supporting in various spots, to give them an update on how I was feeling, where they should making there move to etc etc, and to have a few photos taken. But from the outset I was never going to race this race, I was just in it to finish.
It was a hard day, but thoroughly enjoyable in some sadistic way.
Honestly well done though, it was a hard teadious course, I had to switch my speedo off of miles, I was just clock watching!!
and the lapped run - holly crap, don't get me started on that! it was so demoralising having ran to the finish and then turn around and head for the start again, Looking at people's wrists to see they're ahead or behind you.
But hey, as they say you've done it, thousand have tried and failed, millions will never even atempt it. You/we are an ironman. for that one day at least!
Yeah, the band thing. Just looked at everyones wrist who was running the other way when I was on the 'back out' leg, and it was a mix of 'you lucky/poor sod'. It was tedious, but just kept going, and having been near the back watching 'the ironman shuffle' and 'the 1000 yard stare' really made me feel that I was in an ironman event, and that finishing would be sweeter than if I'd cruised it, which it was.
"Swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles, run 26.2 miles, brag for the rest of your life", probably, but definitely soaking up the euphoria at the moment anyway,.
Comments
Just to here the words must be an amazing feeling.
WELL DONE and a great time1
Stairs are getting easier now!
I'm so pleased to be reading about people having a good experience in IM UK, many people have said they wouldn't do it as their first because it's in the UK. As someone who has a family to consider on race day as you do, the idea of racing here is really appealing.
I'm going to race it next year.
Did they say anything about when 2011 registration opens? I know when I did IM UK 70.3 this year they were telling us we could get our registration in the very next week (perhaps a little premature when you hear that as you rack your bike the day before the actual race!).
Great stuff.
I'm with you on the family front, that's why I did UK this year. The amount of kit, etc, plus kids gear for the weekend, I think I would have had to charter a plane for an overseas race.
The Ironman is a really achieveable thing to do, just train and pace your race, i averaged 15.4 mph on the bike, I could have gone faster but I needed to pace myself for the Marathon.
It's such a good expirence, I really recommend it. The UK Ironman would be easier than a foreign one with family, I had an estate car, roof box roof bike carrier and the boot was still full!
The bit I hated was from the motorway back to the bottom of Sheephouse Lane. Just the most tedious ride I think I've ever been on. Constant braking, accelerating, changing gears, blind corners, little inclines, and I did switch off and meander for a while, and my time drifted. I also made sure that I stopped each lap to talk to my wife and daughter who were supporting in various spots, to give them an update on how I was feeling, where they should making there move to etc etc, and to have a few photos taken. But from the outset I was never going to race this race, I was just in it to finish.
It was a hard day, but thoroughly enjoyable in some sadistic way.
and the lapped run - holly crap, don't get me started on that! it was so demoralising having ran to the finish and then turn around and head for the start again, Looking at people's wrists to see they're ahead or behind you.
But hey, as they say you've done it, thousand have tried and failed, millions will never even atempt it. You/we are an ironman. for that one day at least!
"Swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles, run 26.2 miles, brag for the rest of your life", probably, but definitely soaking up the euphoria at the moment anyway,.