Lisa's Korean Report

After three flights and two bus trips, I arrived at my destination in jeju-city. We checked into the Hyatt hotel, directly across from the swim start.

I slept well that night and awoke to a humid, windy and rainy morning. Heading down into the water for a trial swim, I lasted just 10 minutes before being scared back onto the beach. There were strong currents pulling out to sea and strong waves pushing back. Returning to the hotel I was worried that if the water was like that on race day, I didn’t think I would make it!

As each day went on, the weather got better and the clouds went away and the water got flatter, I started to feel more confident about the race.

On the Friday before the race, the professionals were taken on a bus trip over the whole course. It was fun meeting the other pros (mostly the men!he!he!) and observing the course and all the scary big mountains.

The feel for this ironman was very different to the other ones I’ve done. There wasn’t much hype about it and you didn’t see too many athletes until race morning.

With a total of 1100 athletes participating, it seemed like a pretty casual race. I was a little worried as prior to my races I get nervous and have butterflies in my tummy but for some reason this race wasn’t like that.

Even the carbo party was very different. A lot of the people ate and then left, but we got to watch the video from the previous year and that is when it happened, I knew it was ironman time and I wasn’t here for a holiday!

I had the briefing Saturday morning and checked in my bike and gear and went to bed early. I didn’t sleep very well and before I knew it I awoke at 4 to have breakfast. Getting down to transition at 5:30 to get numbered and preparing my bike didn’t take long. Even having to go to the toilet was quick as there were no queues!!

It was 6:30 and I oiled up and put on my wetsuit and then did a little warm up swim and run and had to find some vasoline as my oil dried on my neck. In Korea they don’t know what that is -- I went to the med tent and they rubbed an ointment like deep heat on my neck! It was now 15min to the start and my neck was burning. I had to quickly run to the ambulance to see if they had vaso. No! They didn’t! Now it was just 5 min to the race start.

Then I bumped into Dallas O'Brien who had ointment and rubbed that on my neck, leaving me to quickly sprint to the start. I just made it before the gun went off! Boom!

Athletes sprinted into the water and as per usual it was messy, but I seemed to get my space after 200m.

Feeling comfortable, I swam around for the 1st lap and was nearly stung by a jellyfish the size of a soccer ball. After 25 min, it was time to get out of the water, run about 100m around a turning can and then back in for the second lap. I was all alone except for someone hitting my feet for 1km or so, and then I came out in 53min, a time I wanted to do.

I ran 300m along the beach to a very steep climb that was 10m into T1 and headed to the change tent to prepare for the bike. (No one was in the tent to help and I had to pack my wetsuit up and then hand it to someone outside the tent.)

With my hr elevated, I went straight into a hill which climbed gradually for 12km on windy roads before getting on the freeway, which was smooth with undulating hills where I was able to maintain a pace of 40km/hr.

I was waiting and waiting for other cyclists to catch me but there was no-one. I knew it was going to be a long, lonely day of riding, so I stayed in my mid e2 and enjoyed the surroundings. I had guys with disc wheels smoke past me -- 1 every 15-20km.

I was preparing for the climb at 110km point and conserving energy so I could run well off the bike. When she caught me (Naomi the winner) at 130km, she was grinding in her big chain ring and big gears with a disc wheel. I thought if she kept riding like that she would possibly blow up in the run, so I didn’t stay with her.

I kept to my pace. I didn’t feel well for the last 50km as I couldn’t hold my nutrition down so I kept my fluids up and felt the sun’s rays burning into my skin.

With all the cheering locals around, it made the course a little more enjoyable and I even had a local man running after me telling me he loved me (which was really funny). I was glad to get off the bike as it was a hard ride.

With Naomi 4min in front, I paced myself well for the 1st 14km lap holding just over 5min kms in my mid e2 (it was nice undulating hills for the run) and felt even better going onto the second lap still seeing her in sight.

I knew I was going to run well. The drink stations were every 2km (you had to get your own drink off the table as they didn’t understand me saying coca cola). I got to 21km and I started to get a really bad stitch in my ribs. I tried to run through it but it was too painful so I started to walk!

Then I knew it was all over. I was trying to get rid of the stitch and a lot of people were running past me.

I did a mix of running\walking until 38km not being able to consume any nutrition; I was able to jog for the last 4km as the 4th pro was catching up to me and I didn’t want her to get me.

Hearing the commentator calling me ``marathon’’, and seeing the stadium, I got to run through the ribbon!! coming in at a time of 10.48 and finishing my 6th ironman.

Korea is one of the hardest courses I’ve done. I really enjoyed the experience and learned valuable lessons to help me be able to do even better for my next one which is ironman western australia.

Nothing beats an ironman finish in your own country so BRING IT ON!!

Lisa