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Ironman – Mexican style

The one thing people say to after an Ironman is ‘man you must sleep for hours’ or ‘I bet you can’t wait to get in to bed’. I lye here 26 hours after I woke writhing in immense pain, unable to sleep as my body swells to cope with the torn muscles. Each joint from the hip down creaks as fluid gathers and my mind is going berserk. No matter how much I wanted the madness to stop today and lye down, now I am here, I can’t sleep. What cruel race is this?

Ironman Mexico – that’s what.

I woke to a storm. This time it wasn’t outside, it was in my belly and nothing was staying in. I ate my breakfast on the toilet hoping that I would be able to get off long enough to get dressed. A butt clenched taxi to the start saw the sea was calm and the palm trees still sleeping.

Dolphins’ flipped sky high as we waited to jump off their platoon to have an in water start. I was filling my goggles from the inside as the enormity of the day got to me and the fact it was an end of an era – this was the last Ironman Team Mocha would race together.

I decided that starting in the front row was a good idea. I quickly decided that was a silly idea as I got plowed in by what felt like the whole field. The current wasn’t as strong as in the practice swims but it was present. It took me 15 minutes to reach the turning buoy and only 10 minutes coming back. The final turn was around a submarine with a hot air balloon on it, was I hallucinating?!

I got out with many more people than I usually do and nearly tripped over to see I had swum a 10 minute PB – 1.04.59. Brimming I jumped on my bike and hooned out on to the course. A swim PB – yahoo!

Quickly I learnt that it wasn’t just the lack of the VW’s suspension and in fact the road surface replicated corrugated iron. Couple that with savage cross winds, my arms ache so much now and are tender to touch from holding on so tight to keep my 404’s in a straight line. I was hungry, after loosing my breakfast; I was craving a juicy burger, fries and a cold Coke, only 20km in.

I’ll save you a blow by blow account of the ride. In brief it was a three lap course; coming through town was awesome as every Cozumel resident was on the road cheering. The winds on the East Coast were ‘worse than Hawaii’ and stole every bit of energy in your legs. To put it in perspective, the course is so flat there is no profile, yet the 20km of the East Coast required the same effort as climbing the Alpe d’Huez, three times over.

Cloud cover prevailed all day and at one stage it rained, luckily that kept the temperatures down. I was ecstatic, as always, to hand my bike over to the catchers. My bum was on fire, my arms ached and I could barley move my neck. I will never get used to the aero position.

I was relieved to be running. This was it, the end was nigh. All I had to do was hold it together for the next four hours. Hold it together was not what my legs or bum wanted to do. I already had a niggling right foot, ITB and knee. This niggle turned into a ragging problem after 10k. 10k! I can run that with my eyes closed. My stomach was still rumbling. I dropped my first set of pain killers 20km earlier than normal. It worked and I had to have another four to finish the last of three laps. My stomach only settled by farting, preying I hadn’t followed through, I never looked back!

I got the cold shivers with three kilometers to go and thought; here we go systems shut down. I just wouldn’t let it happen and chanted ‘I am strong’ to the finish shoot. I knew I had slowed, but I wasn’t walking or worse still crawling. The finish line was a blur as I was crying from the sheer pain I was in. Never never never again will I try to wing an Ironman on minimal training!

Interestingly I did alright:

Swim 1:04:59 PB

Bike 6:33:44 2^nd fastest bike I have done

Run 3:59:59 3^rd fastest run I have done

Total 11:47:20 2^nd fastest IM (9 minutes slower than Austria this year)

6^th in my age group

293 overall

41^st overall female

30^th amateur female athlete

Only 31 people passed me on the bike this time (usually it is hundreds)

I passed 346 people in the run!

Kit that got me through

Blue Seventy speed skin suit – if it’s non wetsuit don’t skimp and get one as they are utterly amazing. It took my 100m pool time from 1.55 to 1.36 – I am not joking.

Craft compression socks – look like a school girl and get some. They feel wicked and when you peel them off it feels like your leg will collapse.

Newton running shoes – they do what they say on the tin. They will take you from being an average runner to competitive. Couple with comp sox and you will be like Road Runner.

Encizer cooling arm bands – they lower your core temperature allowing you to run harder at less effort as your body isn’t battling the heat. I thought they were a sham, but I have used them twice now and I think they make a real difference.

Can I sleep now?

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