We were up at 4am and off to transition to do the final checks and have an interview with Mel prior to the race start – all good and ready for a big day. I had an OK swim given that it’s one of the areas of my training which has been lacking. A lot of the field (including myself) swam to far out when rounding the back bouy on the first lap resulting in a longer/slower swim. After what was quite a quick transition for me, it was onto the bike. At this stage all still going to plan. I was pretty conservative on the first lap and the marshalls were out in force penalising drafting, passing on the wrong side, blocking, crossing the white line etc etc which made it really difficult to get into a rhythm, especially early on in the bike when the field was still so congested. My first lap was around 2 hours, a little slower than I’d wanted but still feeling good so I picked things up on the second lap only to have a front wheel puncture after 110km. Now, bike maintenance is really not my thing which is why I always take my bike to the bike shop to have anything done. I know how to fix a puncture, but it’s not the speediest nor prettiest process with me. Anyway, I fixed the puncture and cursed that I had not put the new tube in which I’d bought the day before, rather opting to use my spare which had been in my tool tube for quite some time. On the second lap when going up past Action Cycles I collected 2 new bombs (CO2 cannister which inflates your tyre) just in case. Well I wasn’t 10km up the road when my back wheel flatted. Fixing a back wheel flat is more time consuming and messy than a front wheel flat as you have a greasy chain to deal with. I sorted it out and by now I was pretty peeved – I can only think that the tubes were old as I did not feel that I had hit anything to justify a puncture. Now I’m riding with no spare tubes and am still 50km from the finish, but surely I should be OK – who has 3 punctures in one race? Me! Just before the turnaround point (140km) – the furthest point from the finish, my rear tyre goes. There’s nothing I can do as I have no spares left so I begin the long walk/run and hope the mechanics roaming the route will eventually get to me. The other competitors offer sympathy as they know it is not possible to get all the way back to the finish pushing your bike. Time is ticking by and there are no mechanics in sight. By now I’ve blistered my feeting from run/walking in my cycling shoes and my cleats are worn to the metal. It’s looking like a DNF (did not finish) for me. All I could think of at that time was what am I going to do about all the donations which have come in already – will I have to go back and re-imburse them? Then, by complete chance a fellow competitor comes past and asks if he can help but looking at the wheels he was riding I said it was unlikely as I needed a tube with a valve extension to fit my deep section rear wheel and he was not riding deep section wheels. He then digs into his bag and pulls out a tube fitted with a valve extension – exactly what I needed. I could have kissed him – although I’m sure he wouldn’t have wanted that. I’m sorry I did not get his number to thank him afterwards but if by any chance he is reading this – massive thanks!
By now my day was pretty much blown, but I thought I’d still give it my all and just finish. I pushed way too hard over the last 35km of the bike and ended up with a bike time of 6:56, almost 2 hours too slow for me to achieve the magical sub-11 hour mark. And my legs were toast after running with the bike and pushing too hard over the last part of the bike course. All it meant was that the run was going to be a super slog. I ran the first 8km solid and then moved into my walk the aid stations and run in between strategy which kept me going through the run – but some of the running was at 6 min/km which was all I had in my legs. I did however finish strongly and ran some 5 minute km’s to finish which I was pleased with. Overall, a very long and tough day. Total time 12 hours 44 minutes and 19 seconds, a good 1 hour and 45 minutes longer than I’d hoped for. Am I disappointed? Yes and no – I’m disappointed as I went into this race feeling really good/confident and would dearly liked to have cracked the 11 hour barrier, but on the other hand I’m really pleased that I struck it out and finished and gave it my all – I left nothing out there on the course. Sometimes it’s in these sorts of races that you learn the most. I thought that last year I had to dig deep to finish and ensure that all the hard work we put into raising the funds did not go to waste – that was nothing compared to this year.
To all of you who have donated so far a massive thanks – you can sleep easy knowing that I’ve given it my best shot. To those who still plan to donate, think about doubling what you had in mind, as this effort of mine was a lot bigger than last year and took a lot more out of me.
A huge thanks to Mel who drove up from Cape Town to come and represent SCORE here in PE and provide the coverage on the IRONBRIAN website – you really embody all the best characteristics of what true charity work involves. A big thank you also to my family, Louise and Kobi, who have supported me through thick and thin on this journey going back many months – putting up with a tired and often grumpy husband/father is not easy. I promise now that we can have those dinners and take those walks which have been put off to squeeze in extra training time.
Lastly, to all those IRONMAN finishers – well done – YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!
