Ironman wester australia Busselton

Ah well done LMH and Mark!

Sorry to hear of your troubles Slummo and Jan

Ha ..... she nearly didnt catch him by the look of it.    looks like it was a tad warm out there.......

Tough luck Jan and Slummo.... family always has to come first. The Ironman will always be there.

Missed all the action by spending the day whizzing around the M25

Well done to LMH & Mark

((Slummo & Jan)) - hope things are ok

Sorry to hear about the tough times. I hope all is okay too.

Well done to Mark and LMH. I can't wait to read your race reports. This is as close to home turf for me as there'll be. The weather got up to 33oc which is pretty unusual for that time of the year, though it's a drier heat than over here. http://www.weatherzone.com.au/station.jsp?lt=site&lc=9569&dt=05%2F12%2F2009

 Vegemite was available at the feed stations, according to the Competitor Booklet, both on its own and on bread.

on its own........what do you do....... dip your finger in on the way past

Thanks for all the good wishes, this will just be a quick one, will post a full race report later...

Ironman Western Australia is fantastic - definitely recommended, fantastic organisation and great support, the locals really take it to heart and come out in force to support and help.  Plus you can rent pretty good road bikes from Perth (I rented a full carbon frame, Giant Defy Alliance with a 105 groupset).

I had a great swim, a good bike, but the run was brutal, as Little N said it was 33oC, and there wasn't a lot of shade on the run.  I was the first finisher after 13 hours, in fact 13 hours 0 minutes and 22 seconds.  I worked as hard as I could from about 45 minutes out to get in under 13, and managed a sprint up the finishing chute.  But I'm still so chuffed to be an Ironman, especially after not completing last year.

My swim was 1hr 18mins 13 secs (the spotter planes looking for sharks was a way cool touch!) - plus there were no stingers!  Beautiful swim, the best in an Ironman according to lots of people, the water's so clear you can see the bottom all the way round.  Came out of the water 840 out of 1200 odd.

Bike 6hrs 20mins - For the first two 60km laps I was heading for a sub 6 hour bike ride, but the wind picked up and the heat soared towards the end (as someone put it was like being in a hairdryer).  Still overtook a lot of people on bling tri bikes.  Overall position 762, so I'd moved up 80 places.

Run 5hrs 21mins - Umm, it was pretty warm out there.  For much of the first two laps it was a case of just surviving, I had great support from another competitor from Derby tri who runs the dive shop just down the road.  I ran with him for much of the middle lap, when he knew I dropped out previously, there was no way he was going to let me do that again.  Then for the final lap I ran with a French guy, we worked really well together, and overtook loads of people on the final lap, the temperature had dropped slightly so I managed to pick it up. Overall position in the run 664, final position 737.

A big thanks to Mr Bump for his enthusiasm and support, I'm not sure how long he stayed up tracking us! 

Anyway off to do a bit of touristy stuff now.

Oh they gave it to you on a cocktail stick Plum!!

It was so hot when our friend came to put on his vaseline, he found it was molten!!

It was a lolly stick!

LN - we're loving it here, weather, scenery, people - in fact the only thing not to like is the flies! Still not written a report, even a little one, but did Mark mention that I finished in under 13 hours?

Well done both of you - and a stormin time LMH!

Best wishes to Slummo and Jan.