So I hardly had any sleep last night due to a mixture of excitement and nerves, annoyingly I fell into a deepsleep about 30minutes before my alarm went off at 7am, but when it did I couldn’t wait to get up and get cracking.
I knew my body needed some quality sleep before the big day but I figured I would be very tired later so hopefuly this will enable me to have a good sleep tonight on the eve of the race.
What I love about an IRONMAN event is that it forces you to be organised so my day was planned in sync with the schedule.
The only thing with it is that you often finish the race in a different place to where you started it and this can prove difficult from a logistics point of view as the finish was approx. a 20 minute drive from the start.
I sounded the B&B owner out about brining my bike box to the finish line later for me for a fee but he didn’t seem to have much appetite for this.
Registration was to open at 8am so I was up at 7 for breakfast, I had brought my porridge and the guy at the B&B kindly did the honours so before long I was ready to make my way down to the tents for registration.
The milk he used was not to my liking so I made a mental note to myself to buy my own later in prep for race day! No sign of the guy from Brazil yet.
It took me about ten minutes to walk down to the tents from the hotel and when I arrived there were plenty of athletes buzzing around the place.
Reistration had not yet opened and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were only a couple of fellow athletes stood outside the registration tent as I was expecting a big queue.
It turned out that they were a couple of local lads, one first timer and one with course experience. I was a bit disappointed to notice that the sea swim course was not yet marked out as I was hoping to practice that later, so I began to discuss the course with the guys and appreciated their insight, the sea looked a bit rough which was unsettling me and when I told the experienced guy that I hadn’t done a sea swim before I didn’t like the way he looked at me with a ‘your a DNF’ expression on his face. It just added to my nerves. !
I managed to pick his brains about the bike course and was pleased to hear that in his opinion it was fairly flat with only a couple of fairly challenging hills but nothing major.
Registration opened and in I went. I gave my bib number, showed my passport and my race License and was given a wristband, a branded rucksack containing all my transition bags, my bib number, number stickers, number tattoos, a towel, a race programme and a can of red bull. I asked the lady 2 questions:
- Would they be able to take my bike box to the finish line so it would be waiting for me with my transition bags when I finish?
- If not was there any provision to get athletes back to the start from the finish by coach?
The answer to both these questons was no, but it didn’t bother me, I would worry abut all that much much later, my only concern was getting my medal.
You had to walk through the Ironman store to get out of registration and I was distracted by all the amazing gear,I had to tell myself to stop as there would be plenty of time for that later but was pleased to see that there were stalls selling gels and bars which I wanted to stock up on before the race.
Back to the hotel for 8.40 with swim practice due to start at 9 through to 11. a quick change into my wetsuit and I was god to go. I got a buzz from all the looks and knowing nods as I walked through the town in my wetsuit and made my way over to the swim start for the sea swim practice session.
The swim was the thing that I was most nervous about, whilst I love swimming in a pool I am still not really a fan of swimming in open water – whilst I have been practicing in a lake (don’t like that much) I have never swam properly in the sea – I just don’t like it one bit….
Tthe depth, the waves, sighting, the currents dragging you off course, looking out from the safety of the coast road the sea seemed angry, I knew we were to swim far out and my mind was playing all sorts of tricks on me, I can’t begin to tell you how nervous I was about the swim part of this event.
Upon arrival at the swim start I was disappointed to discover that we would not be able to swim the actual race circuit – they had just marked a short course out in the sea for us to loop round. Again I was shocked at the lack of athletes in the water taking advantage of the practice session as I expected it to be rammed but it wasn’t.
I showed my wrist band to the marshall and in I went.
The first thing I noticed when I got in was how bloody cold it was, much colder than the lake, so I gave myself good 5 minutes to acclimatise before setting off.
I finally sets off and OMG.
Within the first 30 seconds of swimming out into the course a wave picked me up and it felt like it threw me about 50 metres to the right, as I went to go for air another wave came crashing full on into my face leaving me gasping for breath. At that moment panic set in and I thought to myself this is ridiculous I am never going to be able to do this swim I may as well quit the damn thing now.
No!…..This is IRONMAN I thought to myself, and I want that medal more than anything in the world right now. I calmed myself down and began to steady my stroke. instead of breathing every 4 strokes like I normaly do I adjusted it to breathing every stroke, I slowed it right down, kept telling myself the secrets that I had learned from the Ironmen and eventually settled and found my rthym.
Do you know wat happened? after about 10 minutes I got used to being in the sea and actually began to enjoy it. when you are swimming in the sea the salt makes you far more buoyant so you can really over exagurate your breathing whilst floating and it makes putting your head up to sight way easier.
Once you get used to being tossed round by the sea it is actually a lot of fun fighting with it! It is almost as if when you first get in the sea it will test you like a dog does, but once you pass the initial test, it welcomes you in to join the party.
As my confidence grew I stopped for a chat with one of the Kayaka’s and buzzed off the fact that I was even asking some of the other swimmers if THEY were alright when they stopped -WTF?!
I came out of the sea practice on such a high knowing that I could do it and was waffling rubbish to anyone that would listen. When I reported back to the marshall he said wow you have been in there for over an hour I was beginning to get worried, I explained how buzzing I was about conquering my fear and the guy said I would smash it after all that practice!
That swim practice was the best thing I ever did and I am telling you if I had not done it I am certain race day would have been a very different experience for me.
With that out of the way I made my way back to the hotel still in my wetsuit with a huge smile on my face. more and more athletes were beginning to make their way down to swim practice and many were asking ME how it was and asking me to zip them up etc, I buzzed off the fact that they were looking at me as some sort of sea swim expert!
I got back to the hotel for 11.30 and had until 4pm to get my bike tested then racked and transition bags packed and handed in.
My next challenge was to test the bike and pray for no technical issues. This went very smoothly, much better than expected and I enjoyed a short ride up and down the coast road with the bike feeling good. . I was buzzing at the fact that I had been able to put the bike back together on my own as I thought I would be useless at this but it was much easier than I thought, a little blue tool with folding allen keys in it served me very well.
Back to the hotel and it was time to sticker up my bike and helmet, pack my transition bags with my bike and run gear and down to transition to rack everything up.
I put my race number on my race belt and wore it for some reason.
I was allowed into the athetes area, racked my bike on the stand and then went over to the area where you hand your first bag in, the run bag. I had noticed in the race programme that it said on race day you should arrive at transition no later than 90 minutes before the start of the race and I started asking anyone who would talk to me why this was as I could not get my head round it at all.
One experienced girl explained it was to give you time to get your wetsuit on and when I told her I would be walking to the race start in it she laughed and said not many people are like you!
the only thing I could think I would need to do on race day is put my drinks bottles onto my bike and that would take me about 30 seconds – I would then be good to race!
she laughed and complimented me on how relaxed I was and wished me all the best. not before pointing out mind that I was still wearing my race number and I might want to consider putting that in my bike transition bag now! Good thinking batman!
I handed my run bag in and then went over to hang my bike bag on my number peg in the transition tent. I noticed that there would be plenty of chairs in the tent to get changed on come race day and I appreciated this.
I had all that done for about 1pm, felt good that everything was organised for race day and ibegan to relax. Time grab some lunch.
I had a right mission trying to find a place that would do me some beans on toast,more about that later. Found a place that had a lovely roof terrace and I remember feeling a bit emotional up there about how perfect everything was going so far.
I met a guy on the way out who turned out to be the dude that announces you over the finish line and I took great pleasure in shaking his hand and telling him I would see him tomorrow!
I spent the rest of the afternoon milling about in the shop and treated myself to a few goodies, they did a great t-shirt that had the IRONMAN logo on the back made up of he name of every athlete in the race which was simply a must buy.
I wanted an IRONMAN snood but they had sold out and I was kicking myself as I was in there at 8am. also some of the energy bars I wanted had sold out too but I still managed to stock up.
There was a coaching tent so I made sure to go and pick the brains of the experts for some more secrets which I will talk about later and that passed plenty of time as I drank in all their tips and advice.
By now its 4pm and I wanted to catch the final race briefing at 5pm,this was to last until 6.
I went to the shop to buy some skimmed milk for my race breakfast and also some water and a can of tuna. .I needed a shave and debated with myself if having a shave pre race was a good idea or not but more on that later.
I called into my fave Italian and ordered some pasta to be ready for me at 6 after my briefing and they said this would be no trouble at all.
On the way I bumped into the lovely lady that gave me a lift the day before,I explained I was on the minutes for the race briefing and she gave me a hug, said she enjoyed reading my blog and wished me all the best for my big day – how lovely!
I made my way to the tent looking forward to the race briefing at 5 only to be told that they had all finished as the briefings had been running al day. I explained that it said in the official race programme that the last one was to be at 5pm and they guy apologised and asked me if there was anything in particular that I was unsure about.
I explained that I was cool with everything my only fear was that I would not be allowed to race if I hadn’t been to the official briefings but the guy assured me that this would not be the case and not to worry they would let me in the water come race day.
I left a little bit perplexed thinking its only 5pm now what?, but I went and picked up my pasta earlier than expected and back to the room I went.
When I got into the room I was shocked to notice that my little blue tool with all my allen keys in it was still on my dressing table – what the fuk was that doing there? that should have been with all my puncture repair stuff in my bum bag that was now in my red race bag that had already been handed in!
OMG what if they don’t let me get to my red bag on race day? stress I didn’t need.
The B&B owner asked me what time I wanted breakfast, my swim time was 7.15 and I decieded I wanted to arrive at the tents for 6.30, so I asked for breakfast at 6, “they guy from brazil said 5” he replied, this I couldn’t get my head around
At this point I realised I hadn’t got any sun cream and couldn’t be arsed going out to the shop again but the owners daughterkindly came to the rescue and I put some into a little plastic kinder egg case to take with me in the morning..not that I would end up needing it.
Anyway after my pasta I had a shower and put my race number tattoos on which I loved, I was in bed for 6.30 did some work on my book, I was feeling tired as it had been a long day.
About half 7 I tried to get some much needed sleep…..
This was to prove much harder than I had hoped…..
Readers should not be under the illusion that I am going into this 28 week Ironman plan straight ‘off the bat’ as it is not the case.
Full details of my journey, together with the exact daily training plans that I followed for each race and of course the secrets from the Iron men themselves will be revealed in my book, which will be available to download soon.
You can be notified when the book is ready for instant download and qualify for a 25% discount off the launch price by registering your interest using the box below:
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