Reilly Dibner & John Cunniffe IronMan NZ 2008

Race: Ironman New Zealand, Lake Taupo
Date: April 1, 2008

OK, it’s time I got the race report out. I figure I should probably give the full picture anyhow, before John posts his technical description of how to complete a sub 13:30 Ironman on essentially no training.

On March 1, John and I raced Ironman New Zealand after about five weeks of travel and some scattered training. I hadn’t initially planned to race IM, but thought it would be fun to be support crew for John in his first Ironman race and to see more of NZ. Sometime in July, John asked if I’d consider racing as well. With my head still spinning from way too many triathlons in early ’07, I must have agreed…. This race was my second attempt at Ironman NZ, after the 2006 event was shortened due to bad weather and big waves, so it was exciting to have another shot at crossing the finish line properly.

I didn’t start training until October, having taken August completely off and averaging about 4 hours a week in September during PhD transition and such. I knew I had solid base miles in the legs and had trained for IM in far worse conditions than I faced this winter (no blizzards, for example), so I figured that 5 months would be fine for prep. John was working heavily on the “Less is More” strategy; two days before IM he was busy removing an old number from his race belt—Lough Neagh 2006.

While we were in New Zealand, we had to be flexible with our training schedule and adapt to the traveling; we swam at a 100 ft long pool in Greymouth (which was awesome), ran/walked up insane slopes in Arthur’s Pass, walked our bikes and practiced our cyclocross moves on a 7km stretch of winding gravel road, and swam through boulder fields in a swim around Lake Wanaka’s Ruby Island. I’m not great at adapting training day to day and was worried about the race, but it was so much more fun to train on the fly than by the traditional pool, bike, run the same old loops method. Definitely.

Fast forward to race morning in Lake Taupo. It was overcast and damp, but not yet raining. I can’t begin to express how nervous I was and can’t explain the nerves either, especially since this was my 4th IM start (not counting ’06). John, on the other hand, was completely at ease at IM start #1, even though he had never biked 180km before—ever, or swum 3.8km or run a marathon. Chris and Gen sent us off, assuring us that greatness was just around the corner, and we swam to the start. The lake was beautiful—mirror flat and crystal clear to the shallow, sandy bottom. The gun went off and we thrashed forward with 1100 other athletes to begin the 3.8km swim (2.4miles). I’ve never felt so good during an Ironman swim, just switching from one set of feet to another as I drafted like mad through the course. At the halfway point, I checked my watch and realized I was a few minutes ahead of my expected time! Sure enough, I came out of the water with a swim PR of 1:03:05. I penguined up to transition in my wetsuit, walking the stairs, and moved onto the bike (sans wetsuit and goggles).

The wind was coming up from the north, so we expected to work hard in the 45km out to the turn-around at Reporoa. I tried to keep a lid on it as we pedaled out on lap 1 and managed to hold myself to a conservative effort. The tailwind coming home was amazing! I saw John after 10 minutes, and couldn’t believe the time that he had made on the bike. At that point I didn’t realize that he had also swum 11 minutes faster than we predicted! I flew back in with such comfort and ease, that I actually looked forward to the second loop….until it began. The wind was so strong headed back out, that I struggled to hold 15km/hr in places. Munching on my favorite long distance snack, chips (that’s fries for us Yanks), I kept myself together until Reporoa and another tailwind. The rising wind had become more erratic, so the tailwind was also a crosswind in places, slowing us back down for the last few miles. T2 was an oasis of non-cycling. After 6 hours and nearly 33 minutes on the bike, I sat down and changed socks, grabbed my snacks belt, and headed up over the bridge onto the run course. Not a record bike for me, but it was SO tough out there that I was pleased with the effort.

The run consists of two out-and-back laps along the rolling shore of Lake Taupo (emphasis: rolling) past the airport and down a very long hill. The downside to the run is that it is on the shoulder of route 1, which is full of cars. The upside to the run is that it is on the shoulder of route 1, which is full of cars carrying cheering spectators. I saw Chris and Gen at least 10 times on the course, which was incredibly motivating. I began “running” at a snail’s pace, thinking that if I could manage to hit 5 hours, I’d still be in around 13 hours. Considering the gaps in my training, that wouldn’t be fine with me. I jogged past the first aid station, breaking my one run rule of “always walk aid station.” Then I jogged past the second. And third and fourth. I was carrying a bottle and my own gels so I could just grab water refills on the fly, barely breaking my short stride. I decided to run to the 10km mark and reevaluate from there. Chris and Gen informed me that John was over an hour back, looking shelled, but at about 15km (still running) I saw John making steady progress toward me. He was smiling, only an hour back, and looking strong.

I continued to plod along and found that I had sped up as well. With 4 km to go, I was trucking along towards a finish time of 12 hours, 30 minutes when I crashed into a spectator. This particularly large woman stepped out in front of me, not looking to her right, and I had no reaction time. Bouncing off her, I landed on my back in the grass and had to have a group pull me up, as the quad muscles were useless. I took off like a scalded cat—meow—towards the finish line. Only 200m from the chute, my hamstring began to seize up and I gimped to the line in 12:30:21, my second best time ever. I didn’t walk a single step of the marathon, 4:43:38, but I was still 7 minutes off my best! There must be something to the walking rule. I was delighted with my race and excited for John who finished his first Ironman in 13:23:44.

We both fared pretty well after the race: no medical tent, no severe pains—except extremely sore muscles, no voming. The worst injury was my mangled toenail, which fell of during swim last week and has already been replaced by a smooth new nail. I hope to keep this nail for a while, even though I was crazy and signed up to run a 50 mile trail race on April 5th. I’m now looking forward to training with the next round of GTCers giving IM a go! See you in July.

Reilly:
Swim 1:03:05
T1: 0:07:06
Bike: 6:32:44
T2: 0:03:46
Run: 4:43:38
Finish: 12:30:21

John:
Swim 1:09:15
T1: 0:07:21
Bike: 7:29:53
T2: 0:05:26
Run: 4:29:46
Finish: 13:23:44