Read Ruth's report of doing the unthinkable - a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 bike ride and a marathon - ugh! Hats off to them all:

ruth2

 

Heat wave? What heat wave? Perfect weather for an Ironman!

7th July was the long anticipated and trained-for day, it had been a 30 week preparation for my first full Ironman. Also in the field were Tim Pennel, and Phil Laycock, and from NiceTri Steve Childerley & Steve Hughes, and a friend from Royston Runners, Kevin Stigwood.

Having been watching the weather reports in the weeks leading up to it I knew it was going to be hot, to the tune of 28-30 degrees. Which was always going to hamper the run. But ever the optimist I kept telling myself its good for the bike and hey I’m not going to be running that fast anyway.

The alarm was set for 4.30am which wasn’t needed as the guys in the tent next door were up and crashing about well before that. So with breakfast eaten we headed down to the lake, for a final kit and tyre pressure check and the 6am start.

The swim is 1 x 2.4mile lap of the rowing lake, there are 4 start bays fastest on the left slowest on the right for the mass 1000 or so people 6am start. It was a beautiful bright morning and I was less nervous than I had anticipated I would be. The start was less frantic than shorter distances I have done (well in bay 3 where I was at least) so I only got kicked and scratched a little. I soon settled into a nice steady rhythm feeling comfortable all the way around.

And so off onto the bike for the small matter if the 112 miles. I was feeling strong, it felt good to not be on tired legs. Tim caught me up after 10 or so miles and we rode together for 2 or 3 miles but I can’t live with his pace so he pressed on. The course was made up of a southern loop and a northern loop and then another southern loop. And somehow I managed to take the wrong turn (of all days) and instead of heading off on the northern loop at 60 miles was heading back towards the southern loop and finish, after about 4 miles I was getting a bad feeling, but it was another 3 miles until I got to a marshal who confirmed my mistake! Oh No! so I turned back, another 7 miles and I got back to where I had gone wrong, again stopping to talk to the marshal. He confirmed that I should be at either 98 miles at that point after the northern loop or 73 before the northern loop.

timNeedless to say I didn’t take this information too well, and the prospect of riding 130 miles. At this point who rides by having completed the Northen loop but Tim - who stopped to find a somewhat tearful Ruth (also in need of a drink having only passed 2 feed stations due to being off course) so after a stolen drink - thanks Tim - I headed off onto the Northern loop. By this point my head had gone, I was not happy with the 130 mile idea, and passing the back end of the field hammered home how much ground I had lost. To cut a long story short, I did the northern loop, stopped and spoke to numerous marshals to gauge where I should be, and then the opportunity presented itself. Rather than completing the full second lap of the southern loop, I went far enough along it to turn back and cheat, I made sure I cheated over, and came back with 114 miles.
Now this is not something I am all that comfortable with, but the devil in my head had spent a long time telling me he wasn’t going to run a marathon if he’d cycled 130 miles!

The Run - by this time it was 2:20pm and a tad warm. The plan was high leg turn over, short stride length, run between feed stations (aprox 1.5 miles apart) and walk while drinking. The course consisted of 2 laps of the lake, an out and back, a lap of the lake, an out and back and a final ¾ lap of the lake. I was sticking to the run walk plan well until I got to the far end of the out and back where there was a 3 mile or so section along the river where I lost the will to run, I walked probably 70% of it, I think it was the surface as I seemed to get it back together on the trail path back. The second out and back seemed a little easier, the heat had died down and rumour had it I was gaining on Tim. By this point my family had arrived to support and Jane had been jogging sections with me. At about ½ a mile out from getting back to the lake for the final time I spotted Jane with Tim just ahead. We ran together for about a mile.

ruth

I made it round in 13:43:41 in the end which satisfied my target of 14 hours. All in all in pretty pleased, I can see where I could have gone faster, not going the wrong way for a start! The training really paid off and I felt very prepared and strong on the way round.

I’ve attached the full results, all the people I have mentioned are highlighted.