IRONMAN Wales 2019 Race Report

Almost a year ago to the day I was sat up in bed reading the race reports from fellow Glasgow Triathlon Club members and I was in awe of their amazing achievements of completing IRONMAN Wales. I felt inspired and toiled with the idea in my head of entering the race. I thought it was crazy! Could I actually do it? Well I did and in 2019 I became an Ironman!. Below is my race report from IRONMAN Wales 2019.

It’s Saturday evening on the eve of the race and the day has gone well with a morning swim and bike recce with Phil G before attending the athlete briefing and then racking my bike and dropping off my run and bike transition bags. I followed the advice given in the briefing and took a picture of the contents of each bag before dropping off and it eased the anxiety of thinking that I had forgotten to pack something!

I was glad to get this out of the way in the morning as I could then relax and enjoy the atmosphere in the town for the rest of the day. I had lunch with my family and friends in a chippy which overlooked North Beach where the tide had now receded further out that the swim course and the race course buoys were laid out on the sand. It seemed a bit surreal that in 17 hours time the bay would be full again and packed with 2500 swimmers and many more thousand supporters!

We took a walk through the town and went down to the finish line for the Ironkids event which was absolutely jumping! I started to think about how it might feel running down the finish line the next day but didn’t want to think too far ahead yet! We then headed down to north beach to meet others from the GTC gang for a group photo and it was good to chat to some of my club mates to see how everyone else was feeling.

My support crew and I were staying in a caravan Park on the outskirts of Saundersfoot. Everyone decided that they would also be carb loading in solidarity with me so Saturday night’s dinner was a mixture of pasta ready meals and pizza from the local co-op.

After dinner Nicola and Donald helped my get my race tattoos on then everyone was tucked up in bed for 9pm and alarms were set for 4am! I didn’t think I would sleep much at all but I actually got quite a good sleep and felt quite fresh when my alarm went off. I was quickly up and started trying to eat! Porridge first and then a bagel with peanut butter and Jam and a carb drink. One last check of bags and we jumped into the car at 5:15am to head into Tenby.

Thankfully we arranged a parking space in a school in the town centre for the whole weekend which really was very convenient. We headed for the bike transition to drop off drinks bottles and as we were walking we looked up to see the sky full of stars. Someone beside us joked that we would see the stars again before the race was out. After a quick final check of the bike I found my support crew and we walked towards the beach together. It was then time to say our last goodbyes as I headed off with the other neoprene clad athletes on the zig zags down to the beach. As I walked down the zig zags on the way to the beach I looked around and was just amazed at how many people had turned up at this time in the morning, literally thousands of people! I did feel quite emotional at this point with the challenge ahead of me to begin imminently.

On the way to the beach, ready for battle

Thousands of people around the bay for the swim

The sun was just coming up and the water looked like glass, it really was perfect swimming conditions. You self-seed yourself on the beach and my plan was to get to the 1 hour 10 marker however, I couldn’t get any further forward and once I was on the beach I ended up between the 1 hour 20 and 1 hour 30 markers which wasn’t ideal. Then the Welsh national anthem started and I just stopped and looked around at the thousands of people lined around the bay signing in unity. It was quite a surreal moment.

Then BOOM! AC/DC Thunderstruck and the race was underway. It’s a rolling start and as I shuffled slowly towards the front I was getting more nervous with each step. The guy next to me told me his race aspirations were to finish before 9pm so that he could get back to watch Peaky Blinders! That gave me a laugh and settled me a bit. It took about 8 minutes for me to get to the front once the age grouper race had started. Finally at the front, I jogged through the IRONMAN arch and into the water then dived in and embarked on my swim. I was a bit worried about getting kicked/ punched in the face or people swimming on top of me but the swimmers actually dispersed quite well and it was only really quite congested around the turning buoys! As I was swimming along the long stretch back across the bay the sunrise was on my left and Tenby bay on my right and I tried to just enjoy the swim as I knew that it would probably be the easiest part of the day. After the first loop I was feeling good. Out the water for a quick aussie turn on the beach and back round for another loop. Round the last buoy and heading back in towards the beach I could hear the noise from the crowds as I approached the beach. As I hit the beach I had a quick look at my Garmin to see that I had done the swim in a time of 1 hr 9 mins which I was really pleased with.

I started my run up the zig zags while removing the top half of my wetsuit. I managed to find my pink bag and got my trainers on for the 1.5k run up to bike transition. As I came out the top of the zig zags I spotted my support crew who were wearing GTC IMW Big Bobble Hats. These were great and really made it easy to spot GTC supporters around the race course. A quick high five and kiss on the way by then through the town to bike transition. The support through the town here was absolutely immense. 17mins later from existing the water I was on my bike and on my way on the bike course.

The first small loop of the bike course wasn’t too bad and not too many hills to write about. However, as I passed through freshwater an ambulance passed me and pulled up just infront of me to attend very serious accident which was quite sickening to see. It made me a bit more conscious to take care on the descents and not take any unnecessary risks. As the bike course went on I started to feel a lot of pain in my back which was a frequent problem during my training. I was prepared to feel the pain and I tried to just block it out and not focus on it too much. As I got onto the first of the big loops the notorious Pembrokeshire hills became much more prevalent. I was conscious not to push too hard on the bike as I didn’t want to completely destroy my legs before the marathon so I stuck to my race plan and made sure I stayed within my planned heart rate zones. I was also quite disciplined with my nutrition and had set my watch to alert me every 25mins to eat which seemed to work well. After a lot of miles in relatively quiet roads the route moved into Narbeth where the crowds were jumping and the music was blaring. This gave me a lift and I knew the infamous “Heartbreak Hill” in Saundersfoot wasn’t far away. Once in Saundersfoot I turned the corner onto heartbreak hill and WOW just WOW. The streets were rammed with supporters screaming words of encouragement and it really is impossible not to push hard up the hill in response. I spotted my support team in their bobble hats and managed to give them a high five on the way past then further up the hill the crowds close in further to tour de France style up close and personal. It really was an amazing experience and for that few minutes you forget the pain and just enjoy it!

After Saundersfoot it’s back into the outskirts of Tenby and back round for another big loop! It started to get pretty tough at this point and my back was really killing me. I tried to just focus on just getting 10k done at a time and I managed to get through it. Back through Narbeth and Saundersfoot for another pick me up and then back into Tenby to head to transition.

I was really looking forward to getting off the bike and not feeling the pain in my back. I finished the bike course in 6 hours 45mins which was a bit longer than I had expected but I felt like I had paced it well and my legs didn’t feel too bad. A quick change in transition (7mins) and I was out on the run course. I was very conscious not to start too fast and I tried to settle into a steady pace. After the first km I looked at my watch and I had done it in 4:50 which was a lot faster than my planned pace so I made a bit more effort to slow down a little. The run course is 4 laps and heads out of town up a hill for 5km before doubling back towards the town. I actually felt relatively good for the first part of the run. I had a few aches and pains but nothing that I hadn’t experienced in training and I was happy with the pace that I was sustaining. On the way back the run meanders around the streets of Tenby town and the support in the town was absolutely insane. So many people shouting encouragement, shouting your name, kids giving you high fives, hilarious posters, "COME on GLASGOOOOWW!" It really made it something to look forward to on each lap. I hadn’t really seen many of my GTC club mates on the bike course but once on the run I seen a lot of them and it was great to give/ receive words of encouragement to each other around the course. On each lap on the outskirts of town you picked up a different coloured band for each cumulative lap. As I came back into town on my second lap I again spotted my dedicated support team and this gave me a huge lift.

I was 21km into the run at this point and I was feeling a lot of pain in my legs but it was sustainable and felt like I could continue at that pace. As I headed back up the hill out of town on my third lap at 23km something went in my left knee and suddenly I was in A LOT of pain to the point that I had to stop and walk. I hadn’t felt this issue on training and I thought it might be ok once I started to run again. So I started running again but no I just felt shooting pain through my knee and had to stop. I had a brief moment of crisis as I really didn’t want to have to walk the remaining part of the marathon and I knew my fitness was there to keep running but the pain was too much to run. So for the next few km's I deployed a walk/run strategy. I walked for 10 seconds and then ran until I got too sore again and just repeated that for a while. I was quite annoyed as I really just wanted to continue running. I tried to keep positive and tried adjusting my running style a bit to avoid bending my left knee and kind of doing a hobble/ shuffle thing. It helped me to keep moving forward a bit faster than walking and I limited the walking to going through the feed stations and on the steep parts of the hills. My pace had dropped from the first half of the run but I was still moving forwards! As I came back through the town for my third lap my support crew could see that I was a bit more hindered but I was reminded that I was only 12km away from becoming an Ironman and to give it one final push!

Going through town about to start final lap

So I set off for my last lap knowing that I was nearly there. I managed to power through with my newly adopted hobble/shuffle and as I got back into the town it dawned on me that I was only about 2km from the finish line. I soon seen the 1mile to go marker and I tried to pick up the pace to get to the end but in reality I don’t think I managed to go much faster. The last mile felt like an eternity, every corner I turned I hoped that I would see the finish line but it seemed to go on forever. Then finally I seen the sign for finish line in 100m and I felt relief and began to prepare myself for running along the red carpet. As I ran round the bend I high fived the crowds and spotted my wife Hayley and my Mum wearing the GTC bobble hats about 20m from the finish line with the rest of my support crew Phil, Donald and Nicola. I ran over to my team and gave a few hugs and kisses on the way then headed through the finish line in a time of 12 hours 41 minutes. It was such an amazing feeling.

Once I picked up my medal I sat in the recovery tent and just felt absolutely ruined both physically and emotionally. It was next level brutal to get to the finish line but I absolutely loved the event and the whole experience. Tenby is amazing and it was an experience that will be hard to be topped. As the saying goes "it's the things you don't do in life that you regret the most". I am glad I decided to face the dragon and who knows.....I might be back!

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