Strong Performance at Ironman UK

An early start on Sunday morning say us three, myself, Pierre Chircop and Michael Gellel, make our way to the race start which had to be at 6am. William Livingston and Pam Bachelor made their best during our stay in the UK to make things easy for us. We had nothing to do except to think about our race and execute on the day.

The Alarm was on at 3.30am. I woke up, prepared my breakfast and off we went with the car to the race start. I was very very nervous, as usual. William tried his best to cheer me up but didnt work much, but I appreciated the effort. The start got delayed by 15mins, but unfortunately we spent those 15mins in the freezing water. This was not a good start as you can ruin a whole race if you start so cold. Once we got started I managed to find myself in a decent position. My start was not fast, infact after around 15mins I started moving closer to the front, and overtaking people. The Swim was 2laps. On the first lap I felt very comfortable but thought I wasn't swimming particularly fast. At the start of the second lap I managed to stick with a Pro-Women until I had my first cramp due to the cold. I stopped for a few seconds to stretch and continued swimming. This happened again towards the end of the swim. As I came out of the water I looked at the time, again in was 55mins. If only I didn't stop for the cranks I would have gone under 55mins for the swim.

I ran quite fast to the transition area to have a quick change. I know its an Ironman but after all its a race so every second counts. I took my bike plastic bag, went to the changing tent and threw everything on the floor. I realised that it was going to be quite a cold day so I put on a base layer top, a long sleeve cycling top, and full hand gloves. Racing Big Cow Half Ironman in July thought me a few things about England's cold weather. Once I had all my clothes on I ran to the transition zone, picked up my bike and straight out I went.

The Bike course is a tough one. Very hilly and windy. Luckily for the three of us it didn't rain on race day, differently from the day before when it was pouring with rain. My plan was to take the first lap steady but not race anyone, just stick to my pace, follow my nutrition plan and just enjoy the ride. I wasn't overtaken by many cyclists as usual, actually although I was holding back I was making ground the athletes in front. Then after the first lap problems started. In all I had to stop three times because my cranks decided to come undone. I couldn't believe it. Luckily everytime I had to stop I found an athlete who stopped for a pit-stop from whom I could borrow an allen key. So in all the unluck I had, there was some luck after all. The most frustrating thing about it all was that I was overtaking people then having stop, I had to catch them back again.

Back to transition area and it was not time for the Marathon. I changed my cycling clothes to my running clothes, and off I went at a steady pace. The running course was 3 laps of hills, mud and corners, not the very fast of courses but full of supporters. The most difficult part of the marathon was actually skipping the large patches of mud. The worse patch I had during the marathon was between the 13mile and the 20th mile. I was feeling quite tired, and I realised that the course had made its impact on me. I tried to hydrate and keep fueling with every feed station I passed to keep going. After mile 20 I started feeling strong again and finished the marathon really strong catching a few people in the process. I finished with a time of 10hrs 22mins and 38th overall. In my age group I came in 6th.

With each Ironman I am doing I am getting closer to qualify to Hawaii. This is a target I set myself and which I want to achieve. Certainly this was a very tough course and speaking to Stephen Bayliss, the winner of the race, he said that the bike course is tougher then Lanzarote Ironman. Now I don't know if that is true since I never did Lanzarote but it gives you an idea that the course was not easy.

A big well done goes to Pierre who finished his first Ironman and also to Micheal who although was sick in the last few weeks put in a strong performance.

I would like first to take William Livingston and Pam Batchelor for their great help with me, Micheal and Pierre. They made the trip so easy for us. Without their help we couldn't have made it so well. Also I would like to thank my parents and my girlfriend Johanna for their great support during these months of preparations. Finally I would like to thank my sponsors, St. James Hospital (SERC), Starbene - Mosta, Ironman Active Wear, Diadora, Valdora Cycles, Ergomo, Power Cranks & Proflie Design.