What and Why?
Fuelled by a couple of beers and suffering from mid winter blues I signed up to Challenge Copenhagen back in December. It's an iron distance race consisting of a 3.8km swim, 180km bike and ends with a marathon (42km run). After completing the Ben Nevis triathlon and Aberfeldy Middle distance triathlon in 2011 I was looking for the next triathlon challenge, I'd never run a marathon so decided by doing an ironman could get that out the way at the same time!!
The Training and Build Up.
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| 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run in the bag! |
The Training and Build Up.
By my own admission the training became quite addictive and has taken over my life for the last few months. A routine of sleep, train, eat, work, train, eat, sleep became quite normal. For the last 21 weeks I have been following a training plan
provided by Ken Bryson (http://www.total-endurance.co.uk) which gave much more structure and added experience to my training programme.
Taking advantage of a change in jobs I spent the last 6 weeks of the build up in Chamonix, which was in many ways the perfect location for triathlon training. Facilities were great, 50m outdoor pool, 25m indoor pool, a great lake for open water swimming and plenty of runs and hills for cycling in the area. The biggest difficulty has been recovering and without the routine of work found this aspect of the training quite frustrating. The feeling of "never enough training " was exaggerated by not having 40hrs of work a week!
Taking advantage of a change in jobs I spent the last 6 weeks of the build up in Chamonix, which was in many ways the perfect location for triathlon training. Facilities were great, 50m outdoor pool, 25m indoor pool, a great lake for open water swimming and plenty of runs and hills for cycling in the area. The biggest difficulty has been recovering and without the routine of work found this aspect of the training quite frustrating. The feeling of "never enough training " was exaggerated by not having 40hrs of work a week!
The last couple of weeks through the taper were particularly
frustrating but fortunately I had the Olympics to keep me occupied and motivated.
The Race
I arrived in Copenhagen a few days before the race and with the buzz of the event looming started to look forward to actually doing it, rather than just getting it all out of the way! I was staying with friends over the weekend (A big thankyou to Annemette, Craig, Willum and Louis!) and with my parents there too was good to catch up with everyone and relax a bit.
 |
| The much needed support team! |
Despite the excitement (rather than nerves!), I had a
reasonable night’s sleep before the race and was woken by my various alarms at
5am. A big bowl of cereal followed by Rye bread and Marmite went down really
well and washed it down with a coffee to wake me up. Weather conditions looked perfect, no wind and
clear skys promised a sunny day ahead.
It was only a 5 minute cycle to the start so I headed down 45 minutes before the start to check no gremlins had attacked the bike in transition overnight and check tyre pressures. A 5 minute warm up swim meant I missed the pro start at 7am. The girls followed at 7.05 and I was in the third wave at 7.15am. In the prestart area I knew the build up couldn’t have gone much better and was feeling really positive. The gun went and we (~400 in my wave) were off! It was a beach start so a mad charge into the water followed by a fairly frantic 150m swim to the first buoy. After the 90degree turn things calmed down and I found some space and settled into the swim. The course was one single loop with fairly straight legs and took us under a few low level bridges full of supporters. They were also clearly marked with the swim distance so knew I was making progress!!
At the end of the 3.8km swim I was helped to my feet onto
the easy exit ramp but felt great, no dizziness as I got to my feet and then a
quick glance at the watch… 56 minutes!! Having been fairly consistent in my
swim pace during training I was hoping for around 1hr 5min so was amazed by the
time. Well aware of the long day ahead I had been careful not to push the swim
so I guess this was down to the added benefit of it being a salt water swim and
at sea level, having spent the last 6 weeks training in a pool at a 1000m
altitude.
Entering T2 one volunteer grabs your bike and another is
stood waiting with your run bag and then it’s into the change tent and only a
marathon to go! The run was a four lap out and back course along the city
waterfront, going through some of the main tourist attractions, meant there was
plenty of support along the route. The first loop felt great, I knew my pace
was high but my legs felt good, heart rate was a little high (low zone 4) but
my breathing felt ok. Someone had told me the week before the race that an
Ironman doesn’t start until the last 10km so although I was aware a sub 10hr
time (a pre-race dream rather than target) was a possibility I was
concentrating on not pushing too hard. Onto the second lap and I was aware my
pace was starting to drop slightly. I completed the first half of the marathon
in around 1hr36min but by now my legs were feeling it and the mental battle
took over.
Whilst a four lap race is great as it means there is lots of support and milestones can easily be set, it does mean you are running alongside people at different stages of the run. With a mixture of the leaders lapping you, folk just starting their run, through to people walking it does mean it is difficult to gauge how you’re doing against folk at the same stage of the race. So it was a case of just switching off and concentrating on my own race and trying to get inspiration from wherever possible.
The third lap was really tough but before the race I knew this would be the hardest bit. Onto the fourth lap and I thought I would get a kick knowing this was the last lap but it didn’t come and with pace and heart rate dropping I knew I just had to keep going for one more hour (hopefully!!). I was mainly drinking water on the run but did have a couple of gels /fruit/coke in the second half to see if that helped. With drink stations every 2km it was just a case of targeting the next one, I was starting to walk through food stations and over some of the small climbs over bridges etc on the route but I managed to keep going and eventually it was back into the crowds and onto the final straight for the finish line for a 3hr 40 min marathon and overall time of 10hr 19min.
My target was 11hr so I was pleased with my time but was slightly disappointed to struggle so much on the second half of the marathon (2hr4min for the second half marathon)… although I knew this would be the tough bit! I was hoping for a 3hr30min marathon so missed out on that but the swim and bike times were quicker than expected.
Positives: Swim time (16th in category), bike pace (although 128th in category so room for improvement), nutrition, bike to run transition.
Lessons learned: Marathon pacing. This may have been caused by being based in Chamonix for the last 6 weeks and doing trail runs rather than long flat road runs. However reviewing my results I started the run 384th overall, by the end of the first half marathon was 215th and finished 218th so I didn’t drop too many places in the second half of the run.
The Stats!
Grabbing my bike bag it was into the change tent, wetsuit
off, cycle top and shoes on and out to the bike. The bike course first took us
into Copenhagen and then onto a two loop course on closed roads to the North of
the city. First we headed north along a flat open coast road before turning
inland and back south. There was quite a long section on smaller roads with
lots of turns and rolling terrain before heading onto a dual carriageway back
towards Copenhagen and onto the second loop.
4 ½hrs into the bike, I was looking forward to getting off the saddle
and onto the run.
Being a two loop course, it was easy to set targets to aim
for (food stations etc) and before I knew it we were heading back towards the
city centre. At the end of my first lap my average speed was 33km/hr and had
dropped to 32km/hr by the end of the second lap but I was happy with an overall
bike time of 5hr33min for the 180km. Through the bike leg I’d been eating a bit
of flapjack/cliff bar every 20 minutes and sipping on an energy drink
throughout as well as taking on plenty of water. Not a big fan of gels I had
one caffeine gel on the second lap for a bit of a kick but decided against
taking any more before the run as above all wanted to avoid any stomach issues.
Entering T2 one volunteer grabs your bike and another is
stood waiting with your run bag and then it’s into the change tent and only a
marathon to go! The run was a four lap out and back course along the city
waterfront, going through some of the main tourist attractions, meant there was
plenty of support along the route. The first loop felt great, I knew my pace
was high but my legs felt good, heart rate was a little high (low zone 4) but
my breathing felt ok. Someone had told me the week before the race that an
Ironman doesn’t start until the last 10km so although I was aware a sub 10hr
time (a pre-race dream rather than target) was a possibility I was
concentrating on not pushing too hard. Onto the second lap and I was aware my
pace was starting to drop slightly. I completed the first half of the marathon
in around 1hr36min but by now my legs were feeling it and the mental battle
took over. Whilst a four lap race is great as it means there is lots of support and milestones can easily be set, it does mean you are running alongside people at different stages of the run. With a mixture of the leaders lapping you, folk just starting their run, through to people walking it does mean it is difficult to gauge how you’re doing against folk at the same stage of the race. So it was a case of just switching off and concentrating on my own race and trying to get inspiration from wherever possible.
The third lap was really tough but before the race I knew this would be the hardest bit. Onto the fourth lap and I thought I would get a kick knowing this was the last lap but it didn’t come and with pace and heart rate dropping I knew I just had to keep going for one more hour (hopefully!!). I was mainly drinking water on the run but did have a couple of gels /fruit/coke in the second half to see if that helped. With drink stations every 2km it was just a case of targeting the next one, I was starting to walk through food stations and over some of the small climbs over bridges etc on the route but I managed to keep going and eventually it was back into the crowds and onto the final straight for the finish line for a 3hr 40 min marathon and overall time of 10hr 19min.
My target was 11hr so I was pleased with my time but was slightly disappointed to struggle so much on the second half of the marathon (2hr4min for the second half marathon)… although I knew this would be the tough bit! I was hoping for a 3hr30min marathon so missed out on that but the swim and bike times were quicker than expected.
Positives: Swim time (16th in category), bike pace (although 128th in category so room for improvement), nutrition, bike to run transition.
Lessons learned: Marathon pacing. This may have been caused by being based in Chamonix for the last 6 weeks and doing trail runs rather than long flat road runs. However reviewing my results I started the run 384th overall, by the end of the first half marathon was 215th and finished 218th so I didn’t drop too many places in the second half of the run.
The Stats!
Run Bike Data:
(Clearly showing drop in pace / heart rate):
Results:
(35th in age category out of 246 finishers, 218th
overall out of 1370 finishers)
Swim (1 lap)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Timing Point
|
Time
|
Split
|
km/h
|
min/km
|
||||||||||||||||||
Swim 3,8 km
|
0:56:52
|
0:56:52
|
4.01
|
14:58
|
||||||||||||||||||
1st Transition
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Timing Point
|
Time
|
Split
|
km/h
|
min/km
|
||||||||||||||||||
1st Transition
|
1:01:47
|
0:04:56
|
-
|
-
|
||||||||||||||||||
Bike (2 laps)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Timing Point
|
Time
|
Split
|
km/h
|
min/km
|
||||||||||||||||||
Bike 33 km
|
2:00:16
|
0:58:30
|
33.85
|
1:47
|
||||||||||||||||||
Bike 63 km
|
2:54:58
|
1:53:12
|
33.40
|
1:48
|
||||||||||||||||||
Bike 82 km
|
3:28:42
|
2:26:55
|
33.49
|
1:48
|
||||||||||||||||||
Bike 93 km
|
3:49:06
|
2:47:19
|
33.35
|
1:48
|
||||||||||||||||||
Bike 110 km
|
4:21:17
|
3:19:30
|
33.08
|
1:49
|
||||||||||||||||||
Bike 140 km
|
5:18:46
|
4:16:59
|
32.69
|
1:51
|
||||||||||||||||||
Bike 159 km
|
5:56:12
|
4:54:25
|
32.40
|
1:52
|
||||||||||||||||||
Bike 170 km
|
6:18:25
|
5:16:38
|
32.22
|
1:52
|
||||||||||||||||||
Bike 180 km
|
6:35:44
|
5:33:57
|
32.34
|
1:52
|
||||||||||||||||||
2nd Transition
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Timing Point
|
Time
|
Split
|
km/h
|
min/km
|
||||||||||||||||||
2nd Transition
|
6:38:35
|
0:02:51
|
-
|
-
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run (4 laps)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Timing Point
|
Time
|
Split
|
km/h
|
min/km
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 1,60 km
|
6:45:36
|
0:07:02
|
13.66
|
4:24
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 2,80 km
|
6:50:43
|
0:12:08
|
13.85
|
4:20
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 6,60 km
|
7:07:13
|
0:28:39
|
13.83
|
4:21
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 10,40 km
|
7:23:38
|
0:45:04
|
13.85
|
4:20
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 12,00 km
|
7:31:16
|
0:52:42
|
13.66
|
4:24
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 13,20 km
|
7:36:49
|
0:58:14
|
13.60
|
4:25
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 17,00 km
|
7:54:30
|
1:15:56
|
13.44
|
4:28
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 20,80 km
|
8:13:09
|
1:34:35
|
13.20
|
4:33
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 22,40 km
|
8:22:19
|
1:43:44
|
12.96
|
4:38
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 23,60 km
|
8:28:49
|
1:50:14
|
12.85
|
4:41
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 27,40 km
|
8:49:38
|
2:11:04
|
12.54
|
4:47
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 31,20 km
|
9:11:45
|
2:33:11
|
12.22
|
4:55
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 32,80 km
|
9:21:50
|
2:43:16
|
12.05
|
4:59
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 34,00 km
|
9:29:03
|
2:50:29
|
11.97
|
5:01
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 37,80 km
|
9:51:48
|
3:13:14
|
11.74
|
5:07
|
||||||||||||||||||
Run 41,60 km
|
10:16:00
|
3:37:25
|
11.48
|
5:14
|
||||||||||||||||||
Finish (Run 42,2 km)
|
10:19:03
|
3:40:29
|
11.48
|
5:14
|
||||||||||||||||||
Rankings
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
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...and finally
So will I do it again? Well never say never but the second half of the run hurt but also know there is a bit more to give, just not sure how to get it out of me! Or maybe I'll just take on this ultra challenge....
A few more photos here...http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulwestwatson/sets/72157631130545058/with/7810227796/
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