Ironman Wales was meant to be a nice relax race for me. I did IM Switzerland earlier this year and had planned this as a "fun" race. How wrong was I! It turned out to be the toughest IM I've ever done! I guess JP was right - "Don't tell yourself you will take it easy course there is no such thing in Ironman!"

It was raining all Saturday morning. We checked in our bikes and BIKE & RUN bags and were given an extra transition bag. At the 2nd race briefing, we were told of the confirmed change in swim location. The extra transition bag was to hold our 2nd pair of trainers at the swim exit so that we could run the 1 km across Tenby town centre to T1. On the North beach, the kite surfers were having a whale of a time out there with the huge breakers. Thank god we weren't swimming there on Sunday.

I woke up at 4.30am on race morning having had the first full night sleep in my 3 IRONMAN races. Should be good!

0640hrs on the beach and we were all corralled into a holding area. Then one guy went over the barrier towards the 1st buoy, then another. Pretty soon, more than half the field was walking down the beach towards the 1st buoy. After walking halfway down, we were told to get back into the holding area which we promptly did.... for a while before it all started again....

The horn went. Instead of swimming straight to the 1st buoy, half the field ran down the beach towards the 1st buoy before jumping in. It shortened the swim considerably but also meant that the field was spread across a bigger area. To me, that meant not being bashed about as much and I was able to swim in clear water. The breakers were only about 2ft tall but there were times when I couldn't see the huge buoys that they had placed out for us. On the 2nd lap, there were marshals to ensure that we couldn't run down the beach. We had to swim the full lap and after the 2nd lap, we ran up a steep ramp to get off the beach. I got my shoes on, steadied myself and jogged to T1. There were people already passing me at this stage and it was going to be the theme of the day. Grab my Bike bag, no problem, helmet on, no problem, got on my bike, no problem, ride out of Tenby, and then I realised that the wind had picked up....

Soon, I was getting overtaken by all.... the pointy hats, the disc wheels, as the minutes rolled by so did everyone else. It was brutal heading out to Angle but it was there that we really experienced the full force of nature. On the beach, white crested waves were just rolling in one after another. You could see riders on disc wheels struggling to maintain control of their bikes.

On the bike, I kept my cadence high and my heart rate down, I ate and drank as per my training rides and it was fine until about 40 miles and then for some strange reason, I started feeling sleepy.... really sleepy... I could hardly keep my eyes open and I had to talk to myself to keep myself awake. By the 55mile mark, I was a goner. There were no flat sections on this course. It was either uphill at 5mph or technical downhills at 30+ mph. I was going to quit triathlon and chuck my bike into the bushes. Only problem was that I was in the middle of nowhere so I had no choice but to pedal on.

At about the 56mile mark, a feed station! I slowed down to grab a drink. As I was doing that, the guy ahead of me came to a complete stop. Fricking heck! I couldn't stop in time! I went into the back of him and hit the ground. When I got up, my shoulder was hurting but I was determined to soldier on. At the point, I realised I had a puncture as well. A "quick" change and I was out of the feed station, sore shoulder and knee but aching to finish the race. By then, my pace had slowed considerably. I shifted down to my inner chainring and grounded up the hills, out the saddle with the biggest cog I had...I had no more gears. Some of the hills were horrendous, 16% at Wiseman's Bridge which seems to go on for a while (and we had to do that twice). In and out of Saundersfoot where we had to ride up the Welsh version of "Heartbreak Hill". Only problem was that our legs were already shot by the time we got here. So it was another long slog to get to the top and then up another hill following that. Wave after wave of hills kept coming. 

I finally got to T2. Out of T2, I was running at a steady speed until I hit that long hill heading out of Tenby. I pushed on as hard as I could but eventually I slowed to a walk... and then I started walking.... My legs were shot and I had to formulate a new strategy. Walk up that long hill out of Tenby, walk the feed station and jog (no longer running at this point) the rest of the course. We had 4 laps to run. The proprietor at the Albany Hotel where I was staying was out cheering us on as well.

The minutes went on, I took on more nutrition and I ran a little faster. Soon, I was into the last lap, I walked the main hill out of Tenby and I picked up my pace after. When I hit the turnaround point with 4 miles to go, I up-ed the pace and started running and reeling in the numbers. I was going to finish. Not sure how long I've been out here as I no longer bothered to look at my HR monitor. I was feeling better and this was the last lap. Back down the hill, into Town.... And I collected my last band. Went round the corner to a flat stretch leading to the finish
line..... and straight into a strong headwind! But it was not going to stop me as I sprinted towards the finish line. Crowds thickened on the finishing straight, the cheers of the crowd and then I finally crossed the finish line!

I pipped the guy next to me by a second but we were both just happy that we completed it. We were all staggering around the finish line congratulating each other and although my time was a personal worst time of 13hr:21min, I was just glad I survived. My splits were: Swim: 1:02:55, T1: 13:57, Bike: 7:29:24, T2: 6:44, Run: 4:28:45.

Kristen Moeller, the female winner wrote the following on her FB page: "After a stormy swim in the atlantic, cycled a very windy bike course, including 2400m of altitude. Took over the lead at the 1st of 4 loops in the Marathon. The hilly run course with it's 800m of altitude, made IM Wales by far the toughest Ironman i done."

On the way back from Wales the next day, I met a guy at KFC who was also
heading home from Ironman Wales. He had done 12 Ironmans including 4 in
Lanzarote. He said that IM Wales was the toughest he has done and it made Lanzarote look easy. His finish time was about 11 hours.

As I'm writing this up with my legs propped up of a sofa.... having opted for early retirement from triathlon. I've decided that I'm spending the rest of my life eating pies & lifting pints. In fact, lifting pints is all the training I'm gonna do from now on...