Rambling Rob's Report

I suppose I have to start by saying that despite being pretty nervous leading up to the race, once I arrived in Port the nerves settled a little. I have never checked and rechecked a couple of plastic bags as many times as I did on Saturday, but once this was all finalised I grabbed my bike and headed down to the transition area.

My first surprise of the weekend came as I was walking across the grass to check my bike in, and heard a nice crisp clear pop from my back tyre, followed by that dreaded hissing sound. I was a bit perplexed as I had new tyres on the bike, but the Shimano guys fixed it up quickly and found that the valve had gone. In hindsight, I suppose I was very lucky this had happened when it did, and not when I was out on course.

SWIM:

The day got off to a good start when I was able to upgrade my hat colour from orange to white. When filling out the application I had no idea they ranked your swim starts, and must have put down a fairly conservative time. Anyway, the atmosphere was just electric and the chopper buzzing overhead combined with all the people lining the banks isn't a sight I will forget in a hurry.

As planned, I managed to get to the outside of the pack by the first turn. I'm not too good swimming in bunches and copping punches and kicks, so thought it was worth swimming the extra distances and avoiding all the turmoil. I got into a rhythm quickly, and was quite enjoying myself towards the end.

I was stoked to see I had broken the hour mark when I emerged from the water, with 58 minutes up on the big Ironman clock. The legs felt wobbly to say the least, but no where near as bad as the guy who was just in front of me who was swaying all over the place and almost crashed into the barrier! I then totally forgot my race number and had to check my wrist to ensure I picked up the right bag, and then had a quick chat with Joel in transition before heading out on the bike.

BIKE:

The first lap of the course went pretty much as planned. I was getting passed left right and centre, and by the first straight out passed Lighthouse beach was part of a massive line of bike snaking out on the road ahead of me - it was a pretty awesome sight!

I stayed on my heart rate, made sure I was in a pack for all the tougher areas of the course, and hit my time on spot on. The second lap started to get a little tougher, as the legs and bum started to feel a bit sore. I was still maintaining h/r, but starting to feel the pinch. Had a good laugh on the way back into town as I
passed Gezz's 'Pants Down Palace' and saw all the supporters half naked sprawled in a blow up pool, trying to play guitar and sing. I also encountered a little hiccup regarded my nutrition. I had planned to use a combination of gels and bars, but after my second bar, decided that this wasn't going to work out to well as I was having trouble stomaching them.

I was carrying enough gels to get me to the 120km mark, so immediately switched and picked up my remaining gels from special needs.

I was really starting to hurt by the third lap. This threw me off a little, and I started to get a bit distracted. However looking round the people I was riding with I realised these guys were hurting just as much and probably more than I was. I knew I had done the hard yards, and just kept repeating Dingos advice - YOU ARE STRONG, YOU ARE FIT, YOU ARE READY over and over and over. This got me through the 120-150km marks, and I was feeling much more positive and I rode back into town for the last time.

RUN:

I had planned to really control my run in the first 10km to make sure I didn't go out too hard. As it panned out, this wasn't too difficult as I got off the bike with a very bloated stomach and feeling terrible. I struggled through the 3km, but then it came time for my first gel of the run - It only just made it into my belly for a couple of seconds, before it all come back up, along with some filthy red Gatorade.

I didn't really have time to stop, so just kept running and throwing up every 10 or so paces till my gut was empty. (This was just outside Panthers, and was stoked to see the stains still on the road as I headed to the after party on Mon!!! That red Gatorade really is potent stuff!!!)

Anyway, next drink station I quickly established I couldn't keep Gatorade or cola down either, and knew I couldn't stomach a gel by it's self - so I thought this would pretty much be the end of the race.

Luckily however water was staying down, so I adjusted my nutrition slightly - every second aid station I would take a gel and tip it into a cup of water, which made it so much easier to swallow and tricked my tummy into thinking it was just water! On the other aid stations I would knock back the salt tabs with water to try and slightly offset the electrolytes I wasn't getting.

Alice caught me just into the second lap of the run which was an absolute godsend. I find it really hard to pace and push myself, but much easier to run off someone else's heels, so I just tucked in behind Alice who was running a really strong pace. We started to fly by others as they hit the wall, and must have passed close to 40 or 50 people who were just walking up the hills at the back of the course. Ironically I was probably feeling better in the last 10km of the run than I had
since the 60km mark of the bike!!

The last km up to the finishing line was fantastic, seeing everybody cheering and hearing the music pumping! Pretty hard feeling to put into words - so I won't try. I grabbed a quick massage in the tent, some scrumptious pumpkin soup which really hit the spot, then headed back into the stands with Alice and Eve to watch Emily and Gezz cross the line. I was on a bit of a high and feeling great, and it was just as
amazing watching the other athletes coming in.

I finished the day off with a drink at one of the restaurants in town with my folks as we waited for a couple of takeaway pizzas. I then almost managed to finish one of these off just in the car back to our house!!

A day to remember

Rob