Imagine me writing a race report!! And the only reason I am doing so is that Andrew asked me and considering all the training sessions he dragged me on, I think it would be rude to say no!!!!
Race:- Klagenfurt Austria
2319 Burke Chris, Ms IRL Cork Tri Club W-35
swim 01:14:10
T1 00:09:20
bike 07:51:00
T2 00:13:44
Run 04:36:00
Finish 14:05:44
I signed up for Austria July 2006 under severe pressure from my tri pals in cork (6 girls from Cork Tri completed Austria) and ensured I had the race insurance so the option was always there to change my mind! (secretly I had no notion of doing it!) But I had moved to Galway in November 07 and thought it might be easier to do it away from the distractions and social evils in Dublin… I was very right!
I started training on the 2nd of Jan 2007, joined leisureland for swimming, they had a gym also and took up spinning. There were plenty of training plans on offer but I easily fell into a routine of swimming 3 times a week, spinning and core on wed, short run Tues & long run Thur, followed by long bike at the weekend. I kept a training diary of all my sessions in case of panic closer to the event to remind myself of what I had done, but thankfully that panic never set in. A group of us booked Club La Santa in Lanzarote for some warm weather training in May, so I found myself training towards the goal of Lanzarote instead of Austria which seemed like months away (I wanted to make sure I could keep with the gang on the bike too!). Looking back now that was instrumental in my race finish. The temperatures were similar and it also broke the monotony of training towards the big race in July. I came home confident I would most surely finish Austria and ready for the tough 9 weeks of REAL training ahead.
Plenty of people will give you advice for the ironman once you start but my problem was listening to too many people. So I decided whose advice I valued and put together my race plan. My own personal goal was to run the marathon, mainly because I am not great on the bike but also I did not see the point of killing myself on the bike and leave the rest to chance, my race was all about the swim being a warm up for bike and bike was feeding station for the run!
Race Day
Can’t believe it had arrived and I had slept. I hopped out of bed with “bring it on” ringing in my head. It was amazing to see so many people on the move at 5.30am. Went to transition to pump my wheels and the valve was faulty but kept telling myself to stay calm so thankfully the bike service lads were on hand. I secretly hoped that was the end of my drama and thankfully it was and I had a great race. People kept reassuring me that if I had the training done it would pay off but that is not always the case but glad to report all went to plan. The swim was not as chaotic as predicted, and not as boring as I worried about. The sun was shining and I was looking forward to the spin ahead. We decided not to check out the course in advance and act like tourists on the day, suffice to say it was stunning. Good surface, closed roads, lined with supporters and people handing you food every 20k…… enough said!
I kept the heart rate at 135 and did not allow it to go above 150, to eat & drink every 15 mins and enjoy myself. My sister was at the top of the first hill at 30k and again at 120k,(2 loops) so had a mini photo shoot and toilet stop! The 2nd hill was a tough one but DJ was playing Queen, “we will rock you” so that motivated me to rock on up the hill and gussle coke at the top. I only ever had coke with Bacardi but realise now it has positive effects even without the alcohol!
I met my friend Éidín in T2 so we had the chat and a good laugh about the amount of stuff she had in her race bag, too numerous here to mention but it covered most of the floor when she emptied it!!
I started the run very comfortably and felt great, I never used the M word (marathon) when I spoke about the ironman and warned others not to also…! It was just the 3rd segment of the race and if I kept it nice and handy, stayed focused and recalled all the long slow runs I had done, I would soon be an ironman. That is exactly what I did, it was the easiest marathon I have done. Again supporters everywhere, tri colours, Munster flag (tks Marty), food and drink, ice for the hat, cool showers and loud music and drunken supporters when I hit the town of Klagenfurt. The difficult part was passing the finish line 5 times but each time I knew I was getting closer to the finish chute.
About 500m out from the finish line, you cross a mat which flashes your name and country up on the large screen at the finish line, so everybody knows you’re on the way. My sister handed me a tricolour and I was just oozing with energy for the final run in. It is an amazing feeling when you hear the roar (eye of the Tiger – survivor was playing). Nothing prepares you for the feeling when you cross the finish line, everything you have trained for in the past 6 months has paid off and been worth every minute of the hard training… trust me!
On reflection, it was easier than I had anticipated but I was quite naïve also, ignorance is bliss for events like this! Moving to Galway was a huge factor in getting to the finish line, in the sense it was all new - Blackrock, Dangan, the prom, long spins to places I had never been, (stunning also I might add) and the people…. It was great to make new friends, but also great training buddies. I could not get over how helpful and encouraging all the gang were. If I was honest I was gutted to be leaving my training buddies behind in Dublin but the GTC more than made up for it, even better I might add! So thanks to everybody, ye all know who ye are….. I mean this when I say it, I definitely could not have done it without the support, as I would not consider myself as focused or driven as the names on this list above me!!! |
