September the 4th 2023 was the date. I was down to take part in the Outlaw X 70.3 middle iron distance triathlon. Me and Tom had teamed up and trained together for this. Here is my race report.
How did you feel going into the event?
Physically I felt really good. Despite the fact I was carrying still some excess weight I knew I’d done the training. The 3 day run in to the event I was a bundle of nervous energy, the night before I had woke at 4am. With my mental health, the fight was always going to be mental in the pre-race.
The day before, at registration and racking my bike I was fortunate that Tom was with me. He walked me through transition into T1 and then T2. I then visualised this in my head. This helped a lot with the nerves.
How did each leg go? (What went well? – to take with you for the next race, what could’ve you done better? – what did you learn?)
Swim – as we were called down to the swim in our waves the nerves really started to come to the fore. I was so nervous, the thing was I had never jumped into water and swam straight off the bat. It usually takes me 10 minutes to warm up. The event provided no opportunity to warm up. It was 7am and I was about to literally take a leap into the unknown.
As I jumped in the cold took my breath. But no time to worry about basic needs such as breathing, I was in the race! I needed to find a rhythm and get to the first buoy. The water was white with everyone splashing, there were hundreds of us in the lake. At one point I was hit on my back by accident from another swimmer. Then someone was hitting my feet. I freaked out. I started breaststroke for a while and then moved to front crawl with my head completely out of the water. At that point I passed buoy 1.
I noticed on the right a person racing holding onto one of the Marshalls canoes. I honestly thought I cannot do this, I turned back and assessed the situation. I could end this now I thought. I swear to god, the only reason I didn’t was because I didn’t want to let folk down that were coming to watch me race. So I pushed on. At this point the faster racers had left the lake and I had some space.
I remembered what Chris had taught me and focussed purely on my stroke. One arm after another and getting my breathing together. When I got back to the pontoon I thought I would reassess the situation thinking I had been over half the cutoff time. But to my surprise I was on 31 minutes. ‘Game on’. I could do this. I jumped back into the water and carried on hunting down the buoys slowly, but surely.
Then a strange thing happened after buoy 1 I actually started enjoying myself. I’m doing this. Me. Yes, me – I’m doing this. When I got back to the pontoon I struggled to climb out and fell over as soon as I stood up. Not sure why, but maybe rush of blood to my head. I’d also like to make mention of some of my kit that often goes unmentioned. My Huub Goggles were incredible, I have 3 pairs of Aphotic goggles, tinted, clear and photocromatic they did not fog up once and really inspired confidence.
Bike – the bike was a ‘different’ experience for me. Bittersweet it could be called. For months there was only one bike for me. My oldest, yet trusty Bianchi. However it wasn’t meant to be, the bike developed a few issues on the test ride of the course and my friend Christian took a look at the bike and said it needed new parts, that you can’t get any more.
So I made a bold decision and decided to go with my TT Bike. Now there is a story, which I will try and cover quickly about the bike. I bought it second hand from a good friend 3 years ago, but I have always been too heavy for the wheels spec. I’ve literally just become light enough to ride it. So other than a few Turbo sessions on it I’d never ridden it on the road until last week.
Well I experienced pain in my back almost from the 20km climb. The rest of the bike leg was an ordeal mentally and physically. I was so not used to the position. Physically I had a really tough time. Mentally I just had to keep going.
The last 10km felt uphill to T2, but it was the nicest experience ever being cheered on by LInda, Fiona, Ben and Hilary. Plus the Huub team were there cheering me on. This was amazing.
Run – I took a very long time in T2 for a reason. My back were shot. I didn’t know what to do. I figured I could do my practiced 9:1min run/walk. I did the first 9 minutes and was in agony, my lower back was really stiff and painful. When I tried to run again I just couldn’t do it – the pain was too intense. I was not ready to quit though, I was looking at my. Watch trying to figure out what pace I needed to maintain in order to finish.
There are some things that are hard to explain. The support from the army of volunteers was incredible. They were either cheering you on or trying to make sure you were ok. When I finished the first lap my dad joined me to encourage me. He was telling me to stop. I said no, I had an objective to achieve. So I geared up for lap two of three.
By this point I had a blister on my right foot and my hip was also hurting from my back. Halfway through the lap the commissionaire told me I was not going to meet the cut off. I didn’t stop I was determined to finish my lap.
About halfway into the lap I was joined by a young man on a bike who became my guardian angel. To say he looked after me would be an understatement- he fetched me drinks, poured water over me and kept me moving forward. He must have stayed with my for 45-60min. We had some great conversations and I forgot to ask his name. Turns out his name is Oscar and he is an elite Triathlete! Thanks Oscar.
When we got to the church near the end of the lap I was told by Oscar I was to run up the athlete finish shoot. I didn’t really understand why. But they had something planned. Marta appeared and her husband Stuart helped me by walking the remaining lap with me. Then suddenly I was walking up the famous carpet, the Commentary Team were telling everyone my story and I was given the warmest welcome ever by the crowd. I was truly humbled.
Nutrition (pre, during and post-race)
Breakfast was 60g rolled oats and homemade fruit compote. High-5 Caffeine drink and a pint of water.
In T1 and T2 I had a banana. On the bike I had 5 High 5 energy bars and 2 energy gels
Hydration
Bike 4 x 750ml high 5 Zero
On the run I had water and high-5 energy juice on every feed station (3 per lap)
General feeling after the event
Amazing. I may not have achieved what I set out to achieve. But I gave 100% and left nothing on the line. I’ve already booked an airbnb for Holkham next year. So proud, I am so glad to have such a great team around me.
Bipolar Ironman 