Morning Prep

As you can imagine there was so much on my mind that I only slept about 3 hours before my 4:30 alarm sounded. I had the same breakfast I’d been having for the last week which was Porridge and Coffee. Jamie and I, Sara and Zoe got our things together and headed out the door at 05:50 to the transition area.

It was buzzing, a mix of pro’s, Elites and age grouper's. I loaded my bike up with energy drink bottles and bars and then it hit me. I needed a #2 and queues were big. I managed to find a porter loo with a small queue but it was bad! I think I now know what they mean when I hear talk about Glastonbury toilets.

With the wetsuit on and ready to go I made my way to the start where I saw Jamie, he seemed pleased to see me. We looked around and exchanged words of support, this was it. After 6 long months of focused training here we were. Then I saw Zoe and Jamie’s family, they were all wearing t-shirts with supporting slogans and his picture – Brilliant :-D I blew a kiss to Zo and waved, i heard her shout 'Good Luck'. I closed my eyes, composed myself then BOOM! We were off.

Swim

The 1st swim lap was brutal. Feet and elbows all over the place. I had so sight (lifting your head out the water to se where you're going mid stroke) every 2nd stroke to navigate through the crowd. I completed my first lap in 00:34:29.

The 2nd Lap felt better as people by now had dispersed a bit and I was bilateral breathing every 3 strokes (breathing both left and right) which is my natural swim technique when training at the pools but it never felt comfortable doing it in open water. It felt like all my swim coaching and training was coming together, my strokes were long and complete and I was maintaining good rhythm. The Sea was beautiful and calm and there were loads of fish swimming beneath us. I completed my 2nd Lap in 00:35:34. I was happy with these times as the Swim was my weakest discipline plus i was expecting to come in at around 1h 20mins.

Swim time = 01:10:03
18:26 per/KM

Transition 1

I ran to the first transition along the beach picking up my bike bag along the way – it was chaos. I ran around looking for a spot to get ready but it was so busy. So I took a couple long deep breaths, stopped to look around and found a space. I started getting changed when I heard really loud shouting from further down the tent, I looked and all I saw was 4 butt naked Italians shouting at the top of their lungs for the sun lotion ladies. It made me laugh and even more so when I noticed the lotion ladies were taking no notice of them. They were eventually attended to.

I was finally ready; I made sure one last time that I had EVERYTHING I needed before I set out for what could be 7 hours on the bike. I had to make sure I was comfortable and had everything I needed. I left the tent and headed for my bike and then it hit me, I needed to pee, dam it! I asked a marshal where I could go and he pointed to another porter loo – oh good god, not again!!! Luckily it was only a pee. I closed my eyes and held my nose – I was quick! I got to my bike and headed out.

Transition time = 00:15:27

Bike

Starting out on the ride felt fantastic, I had a very well-rehearsed nutrition plan and was confident I could push the pace a bit whilst maintaining my Zone 2 Heart Rate (zone 2 HR basically means endurance, minimising lactic build up in the muscles).

2 hours in and I was feeling good still, the wind was behind us heading to El Golfo where I was flying, cruising at 50kph. But I knew the big challenge was approaching, the climbs!

At 2hrs 52mins I descended into Famara where the real work started. I climbed 330m into Teguise which felt pretty good and then another 300+ metres into Haria. It was a long 1h 10mins of climbing into head winds. I saw 2 people walking their bikes up the mountain; I offered some words of encouragement but got no response. All I thought about during the climb was My Wife Zo, my Auntie Doreen and Lance Armstrong, I was half way through his book ‘it’s not about the bike’, in it he goes on about putting his head down and digging into the tough climbs so I did.

I got to the special Aid Station in Las Nieves where I grabbed more nutrition; took a pee again before racing down the best decent EVER!!! I would do it all again just for that descent. The roads are perfectly smooth and wide, winding down the mountain side where I clocked 70kph on my garmin :-D but there was more climbing in store, and the steepest of them yet was just up ahead.

Although the next climb was not the longest it was the certainly the steepest, however I seemed to get up it pretty solidly and felt good.

The hard work was done and I reached the top of the Island in 4 hrs 46mins, now for the home stretch.

At about 5hrs in I stood on my pedals to drink from my Aero bottle when both my hamstrings cramped up, OUCH!!! It must have looked pretty funny, both legs fully extended costing to a standstill. I unclipped and stood there waiting for the muscles to stop their spasms. I gave them a rub down, stretched and took it easy.

Before I knew it I was back in Puerto Del Carmen riding along the high street, I called to a guy “on your right” as I passed and he started mouthing off… I didn’t acknowledge him, I just replied “have a good race” Then i saw Jamie running out on his 1st lap, i shouted 'Go Jamie Go'. he was looking strong.

Bike time = 06:42:56

I was hoping for a sub 6hrs 30mins but I was happy nonetheless with my time.

Transition 1

RIGHT! No messing around this time, bike was taken by the marshals and my run bag was in hand. I found a space immediately in the tent and OMG did it feel good to get out of my cycling gear into fresh running shorts, top and new trainers. The Lotion Girls were funny, I had one doing my nose and one from behind doing my ears. God love them J I shouted thanks as I jogged out the tent and over the line to start my Marathon.

Transition time = 00:08:29

Run

I felt good, really good actually and I had to watch my pace to stop my self-going too fast, I had heard some horror stories of people running too fast too soon and bombing out after 3 miles.

My plan was to run between 8:00 / 8:15min per mile.

The run was made up of 3 laps, Lap 1 was just over 19km followed by 2 shorter laps of just over 10k each.

The 1st 10k felt good but was a little off pace so I decided to pick it up for the next 10k - During my 2nd Lap I slowed right down, I passed Zo at the special aid station which was about 1km from the start where she was allowed to hand me energy drink and gels. She ran beside me talking and asking questions, but the only response I could give was “Can’t talk”.

25km into the run my left quad was about to cramp so I stopped to stretch it out. I was annoyed as I knew that from this point onwards it was just a case of finishing.

It got worse and I was stopping every 5 mins to stretch out then I passed through an aid station and shoved sponges up my shorts but with little effect to the cramping. As I stretched out on the sidewalk, feet on the floor and knees into my chest, the support from people was encouraging and motivating. My mood started to lift and as I got up to continue on there was a cheer from an apartment balcony and applause… there was no stopping me now.

At the next aid station I shoved ICE up my shorts so that it sat directly on the Quads and it worked, I didn’t cramp up again but my pace was SHOCKING!!!

During my last lap I asked someone for the time and it was 7:45pm, I had less than 15 minutes to finish under 13 hours. I had used up all my Torq Gels (which I used during training) so tried to take an SIS gel but I was almost sick so I sipped on energy hoping that would be enough. I don’t know what happened but my pace was BACK and I went for it. As I came closer to the finish I was beginning to well up, crowds were amazing and my arms were up in da air as I crossed the finish – BOOM!!!

I saw Jamie Kinch who was waiting for me (he finished in an INCREDIBLE 12 hours 37) we man hugged and gracefully and proudly wore our medals taking in the moment. AMAZING!

Run time= 04:42::12
06:42 min/km avg pace

TOTAL TIME = 12:59:05

I met with Zo who wasn’t allowed in the finishing area so we met near to the bag pick up area. Zoe has been amazing support throughout my training.

Then this overwhelming feeling of nausea hit me like a ton of bricks, 2 minutes later I was sick, and then 30 minutes after that, and then again later that night. I couldn’t eat or drink anything. This must have been caused by either not taking energy for that last push or I pushed too hard at the end OR both. I’ll talk to Coach Fi to see what she thinks.

Will I do another?

If I was asked the day after the race my answer would have been Hell No!!! But now that I’ve had time to reflect and take it all in I will most likely do another yes. Nice in France would be amazing, and also quite hilly. Definitely on the cards for 2013.

I’m going to enjoy some rest and recovery now for the next 3 to 4 weeks and enjoy some Olympic Triathlons for the remainder of the season to make the most of my new-found fitness.