We racked everything on the Saturday, had an early tea and got the best night’s night I have ever had before a race. I felt very relaxed, as I felt for the first ever no stone had been left unturned and I was in the best shape and form of my life, I was in fact excited, I couldn’t wait to get going.
Morning came and we made our way down the transition early before all the crowds got there. We got everything sorted and then waited. Just before the start we set up on the start there was pod of dolphins swimming across the bay about 50m out to sea. It was awesome to see and a sight I will never forget. I kind of thought it was a message that the day was going to be good, but then there were 2000 other people and I guess they did too! I did my quick warm up, made my way up to start, ready to kick off.
Boom! The canon went. That was it, complete and utter confusion and chaos. This was one of the most physical swims I have ever done. I was dunked, swam over and punched. Now I‘m used to it, we train in JBR sea swims and I have done races before where it’s been rough, but for reason this seemed worse. I’m big believer in giving some of that medicine back and I did. I got out of the first lap in 30 minutes, which was ok, but I was a little disappointed. I ran up the beach, around the crowd and then back into the sea. The second lap was pretty much the same as the first, apart from that there weren’t as many drafts to go around. Getting out for the second time I was on 1.02, again I was a little disappointed, but I knew at that point I had to make a choice on the bike, to roll the dice, to either go for it and try to hang on in the run or to be steady and possibly still end up hanging in on the run anyway.
T1 was ok, but there weren’t many helpers. So I did the bag packing and all that on my tod. I grabbed my bike, made my way to the mount line, flying leaped, mounted and I was off. The first part of the lap was up a hill and in the practice lap I had done earlier in the week this seemed quite easy, however it suddenly seemed about a 10% harder climb, ouch. I was feeling tired and I was struggling to get into my rhythm, which is something I never normally have a problem with. I started to feel a bit better towards the end of my first lap, however the roads, while I had heard from good authority that they were rough, they were so rough, very rough. It was like riding on big sand paper. There were some bumps and patches were they had tired to improve the surface, but it was just the surface, so harsh. There was one stretch of beautiful road and it was bliss, heaven, I loved it. The rest of the route was hard work. Then again this is Ironman, you’re not going to get it free. Towards the end of the second lap the bike starting making all sorts of funny noises, it sounded like Neil’s bike on a good day, I knew it was taking a battering from the road (it was also quite annoying). As well, as the bike getting a pounding I was starting to feel a little ill. Most of what I put into my stomach was bouncing back up a blue colour. This was worrying me if I couldn’t keep anything down then I was going to really struggle on the marathon. My feet were also starting to hurt, which I can only think came from the surface again.
