Ironman Western Australia (Busso!!)

OK, I know it’s late, but with so much happening over the last month or so getting the time to properly sit down a write something up has been hard.  So as I finally head into some well needed rest, more forced than anything, I have managed to get something together for Busso & Auckland 70.3 (which I will get up in a few days).  

 

So Busso…. Or as I have become or as I have become more accustomed to calling it,  Fu#^ing Busselton!!  Ok, Ok, that may be a bit harsh, but damn…. This one hurt, not just from the race, but the lead up and hard lesons i have learned as a result. They say you dont know your limits until you break them....I suppose you could say, through no one elses fault except my own..... i did that.

 

Busselton as a town is really nice and relaxed and I can only recommend it to everyone.  We loved it there. Arriving on the Wed before we had a little time to settle in and wander around.  It has that country town feel to it which just goes ballistic once or twice a year when the IM and 70.3 come to town. 

Going into this one I had placed a little bit of expectation on what I thought was achievable.  I had a really solid prep with some great lead up results in Forster and Port Macquarie 70.3. I had backed up some big training weeks and was confident. I turned out that my stubbornness and I suppose desire to go well added to my eventual demise (relatively speaking).  Looking back at the prep and the race I learned a lot around understanding my body and the importance of recovering and in some aspects acclimatising (when possible).  In the weeks leading to the race I had managed to train myself into a bit of a hole and ended up developing atrial fatigue. This basically meant that my body was that tired that when I had some big training days back to back I would go into fibrillation and my heart would basically stop pumping blood.  Although it isn’t a major problem, it can develop into more serious conditions.

To be on the safe side the week before the race I headed to the cardiologist to check everything out.  While everything was found to be fine the advice was; you are fine to race, but remember your mind is stronger than your body.  Something that I had never considered before, I was pushing (through no fault by my own) that bit too hard.

Either way onto Busselton we went.  Myself and Alicia both competing, It was going to be a good day regardless of the outcome.  Being able to complete an IM distance race with my partner is something pretty special.  I think it will only happen once, so definitely something to remember.

Onto the race - So race day weather forecast. Temperature 35C winds gusts up to 45km/h.  My thoughts….. OH SHIT!! For those who aren’t familiar with my frame, I hit this race at 89kg. The other issue I have is that above 32C my sweat rate reaches up to 2L/hr. So when your body only processes 1L/hr.…. there is cause for trouble.

Trying to not to think about it too much, it was time to get on with the job. . .

The Swim:

A mass start with 2000 other people is never going to be fun, however I felt pretty good as the gun went off quickly finding some clear water and trying to get some rhythm plugging along the Busselton Jetty.  What they say about this jetty being long is every bit true.  It takes forever to get to the end; well at least it felt that way. One thing that gets missed when your this far out to sea (2km) is that the wind swell always picks up. 

Out around the turn it would be easy to say the swell up around the 2-3ft. This would make life difficult for the inexperienced swimmer. It made the swim back seem much more relaxed which really helped me drag few places back and hop out of the water just on the 54 min mark and scurry through transition and head onto the bike.

The Bike:

 

Probably wanting to get going a little quick things nearly came undone straight out of transition where I almost cleaned up the barrier, but all good and off I went hitting the first few kms solid to get the legs going.  Having trained and tested a fair bit and collected a lot of data I had a good plan for the bike with power and HR. So as I would have expected I settled into the lower band of my goal power zone and then naturally expected my HR to follow.   After the first 50 km I was riding what I thought was conservative still trying to get the HR down to match the power.  Then it clicked….. Its 30 odd bloody degrees isn’t it!!  The result to achieve a HR in my goal band was to pull the power back by 40Watts.  . . 40 bloody Watts!!  Well this is one of those points where you have to just accept that some things are out of our control. Everything I had done in the lead up told me one thing but as soon as I got out there in that baking heat, the whole game changed. . .

Nonetheless I took the smart option and pegged back the pace a bit and rode a lot more conservative, knowing full well that it wasn’t going to get any cooler in the next 4 hours.  Taking on extra fluids and salt became a priority as well as trying to keep the motor cool.  In the end I managed to float home with a ride time of 4:50. My fastest split yet and not a time to be snubbed at normally but not what was expected. 

The Run:

By now however the mercury was starting to soar. Reports of 35-36C air temp were being thrown around, while commentators on social media were quoting things like “It going to be carnage out there today”. I headed through T2 fairly quickly and hit the run feeling good.  In my head I was thinking “smart move on that bike Edgey, you may get out of this furnace in piece yet”.  The first 12 k was ok for me. Having taken a good 5-10s per km out of the goal pace (again to compensate for the heat) I was running well and feeling good.  That was until we headed back out to the back end of the run course.  By now the wind had all but gone and this part of the course was basically bitumen, sand, some grass and more bitumen. With the air temperature hitting mid 30s one can only guess as to what the ground temperature was on the tarmac.  Whatever it was, was just too much for my body. My run soon descended into a battle against the elements trying to keep cool by stuffing ice into every pocket, down my pants, under my hat. Literally everywhere.  This approach worked for 1 km after each aid station until it melted and my temp rose again. It was kind of like. . 4:50 min/km. 6.5 min/km and repeat.  Frustrating yes, but watching people everywhere walking, keeled over in the shade or worse I was happy at how I managed to battle on. 

Finally in the last 8 - 10km the temperature had dropped just enough that I could regulate my temperature and string together some rhythm.  Finally I headed down the chute dragging my asss round for a 3:50ish marathon, by no means happy with the run time but given the conditions i could say i was satisfied. A total time of 9:44 something was enough for me for the day. I crossed the line and my legs literally stopped moving.  I know it’s expected, but I’m normally not too bad.  The brain was telling the leg to lift…. Nothing!  It seemed like an eternity standing there after the finish but in reality it was maybe 5 seconds. Then everything gave way. The next thing I know I’m in a wheel chair and on my way to medical.  When you get to medical they  check your weight (to determine your fluid lost).... I weighed in at 82kg. It turns out I had lost 7.5kg, just under 10% of my body weight.  How I managed to not end up in an ambulance let alone finish gave a good indication into the conditions we had just raced in and the nature of ultra-endurance triathlon.  So in and out of consciousness I went on the medical table until 2L of IV fluids had been replaced.  I do really think that my hydration and nutrition plan from Alicia (Compeat Nutrition)again made the difference for me getting across that line in Busso. Without it I so definitely know i would have been just another victim to the brutal conditions of the day. 

The best part of the day was yet to come shortly after leaving medical. I heard the Pistol (Pete Murray) call Alicia down the finish chute.  As quick as I could I ran over to the finish to meet her, there were tears everywhere. I was so happy for her and to share that moment in our lives together. It was pretty special.

Being out there with Alicia as well as Linds (both competing their first IM), the turtle (Pete), Dasha, Janelle,  of course the Cobra (doing about his 1 millionth) and  a few of the other boys from the Trinova Crew was pretty good, needless to say the party the night after was a cracker.

Special note goes to my mate Ads….. Awesome race from the fella and to make the highlight reel in exceptional circumstances is always special ;-D…..

So lessons learned, and Ironman is Ironman.  It’s a bitch of a sport but we love it.  There are so many things that go into making a top class athlete in this sport and being inpacient is something im learning can cost you. I still have alot to experience and alot learn about this sport, what races to target if you want to be at the top consistently and perform to YOUR best.  All in all though, while this result was a fair way from what had been expeceted, there are still positives to take.  the swim/bike is there, just learning to stay patient and chip away with the run.  Its going to take time but things are heading in the right direction. . . Be patient mr Edge... Be patient.