I DID IT!!
Firstly a big thank you to all who sponsored me and for the messages of support which provided extra motivation to help me complete the race. The current total for Cancer Research is standing at £670.00 and sponsors are still coming forward, please feel free to add to this, I will keep things open for a few more days.
For those of you who may be interested I have written my thoughts and experiences of the day below.
3.40am alarm wasn’t needed already awake, had breakfast at 4.00am, surprisingly was able to eat it having had dinner early the previous evening. The coach was due at 5.25 and arrived at 5.24 - everything in Zurich runs like clockwork!
We arrived with an hour to go before the start at 7.00am; bikes were already racked on the previous day, so it was just a case of sorting my kit out and getting my wetsuit on. Given there were 2300 competitors it was eerily quiet, and by now I was feeling quite nervous and was anxious to get in the water and hear that gun go.
Swim 2.5 miles
Lake Zurich was calm and clear, seeing all the competitors at the lakes edge was the moment where I thought, this is going to be interesting! The pros were starting 5min ahead of us and then it was our turn. The whole field started at the same time, we were taken out to just out of our depth 9-10 people deep in a very long line, 2mins, 1min warning, BANG, we were off! I had positioned myself in the middle and to the right hand side, the first buoy was apprx 300m away, we had 2 laps to complete with an exit and re-entry to do at half-way. As you can imagine the swim was physical, we got to the first buoy and you had to swim breaststroke around it, bottle neck was an under statement. The swim did thin out a bit after the halfway mark, given the task ahead, my plan was simple, ‘take it easy’ as somebody reminded me ‘You’ve got all day.’
1hr 9min for the swim
Bike 112 miles
Exiting the swim and into transition I felt good, took down a load of energy drink, got on my bike and off I went. The bike was 2 laps with around 1300m of climbing in total; again the plan was to go easy. Fiona (my coach) had suggested to try and consume around 375-500 calories per hour on the bike to try and have some fuel for the run, which was apprx an energy bar and 500ml of sport drink per hour. Apart from the hills the ride was brilliant, great roads, stunning views, bands playing on the roadside and plenty of people supporting, with a top speed of 49.5mph on one section. It was a breath taking ride.
The end of the lap involved a hill called ‘Heartbreak Hill’ need I say anymore, but this hill was covered with spectators and live music wishing you up the steep slope. It was like something out of the Tour De France, in fact for a while I was in the Tour De France, it was inspiring and I was looking forward to the second visit.
Not being allowed to draft or ride in groups means that you’re on your own, with the bike as the longest discipline of the three many thoughts go through your mind. We had our names printed on our number sheets, which for the bike are on your rear, seeing the different foreign names taking part like Verona, Gabriele, Monika, Sibylle, Claudia oh and Stefan was quite interesting and kept me focused!
At 80 miles we had the option of placing a special needs bag, which were items you personally placed at that particular station. My items of a ham and cheese roll were a welcome relief to the bars and energy drink; although difficult to eat with a dry mouth I managed to force it down. So with the second visit to Heartbreak Hill complete, 6 bars and 3.5 litres of sport drink inside me the ride was completed in 5 hours and 45 minutes.
Run 26.2 miles
Into transition for the final time to face for me the hardest of the three disciplines, a change of socks, on with my trainers and off I went. The run was flat and 4 laps, with plenty of food + drink stations along the way, again with the same frame of mind ‘take it easy I’ve got all day’ although it was now mid afternoon.
Again the support was incredible all the way along the run; you were given coloured bands on each lap to indicate how many you’d completed blue, green, yellow and Red.
Lap 1was fairly comfortable, lap 3 was my darkest moment and I needed to dig fairly deep continuously munching on anything from fruit to pretzels, soup, water and flat coke, I survived and picked up the all important red band, this was it, my last lap, just 6 miles to go! Without doubt my most enjoyable lap, running in-between each aid station on laps 2-4 and walking the aid station was my strategy.
And so the final 100m which was sided with stands and full of people, this was the end of a very long day, crossing that line, I won’t even try to explain how that felt all sort of feelings were going through me ‘I’d done it’. 4hr 33min for the run.
Including transition splits a total time of 11hrs 35min job done.
A big thank you to Fiona Morehead-Lane my coach for 6 months, her knowledge, experience and weekly schedules were invaluable right up to the race day. And finally Kate, an absolute rock, by my side every step of the way and 100% supportive and understanding even when I was a little unusually grumpy and tired!!
For those amongst you who enjoy some stats all my workouts were recorded on the Fitness-Journal for Fiona to monitor and comment on. I have listed below the miles, hours and metres covered since January 1st.
Running 494 miles
Swimming Pool 128635 metres
Open water Swimming 12300 metres
Cycling Stationery 521 miles
Cycling Road 1791 miles
Total hours 245.5
