Ironman UK done

What a day! Physical and emotional roller coaster don’t even begin to cover it.

We’d travelled up on Saturday to register and sort all the transition gear out. It didn’t take too long. The longest bit was wandering around the merchandise area and spending our life savings on branded gear. Well, it’s a once in a lifetime thing. After sorting everything out we went to our hotel, which was a short car journey from the swim venue at Pennington Flash.

The afternoon was pretty lazy. We got some food and then headed off for an early night. Lily was exhausted anyway from the long day, so it suited all of us.

My alarm was set to go off at 3.20am but Lily woke up just before. She clearly wasn’t well, but it was a good back up alarm clock. I always get paranoid I’m going to sleep through, so it wasn’t such a bad thing.

I went down to reception for the ‘athletes breakfast’. This consisted of an amazing array of completely unsuitable food, including croissants, muffins and apples. I was hoping for toast and eggs but this clearly wasn’t an option. I settled for a bottle of water and food I’d brought with me. I got chatting to a guy who had attempted to do the event before. He’d got pulled out by the race marshals as he didn’t make the bike cut off time. Not exactly what I wanted to hear on the morning of the race. I wished him better luck this time and headed off.

It was raining heavily when I got in the car. This was not in the plan for the day. The forecast said it would clear up by 9am so I was hoping that was the case.

I got to the swim venue at about 4.45am, well in advance of the 6am start time. I decided to check my bike was ok and then killed time by going to the toilet umpteen times and faffing about with my goggles. I eventually dropped my clothes off at the transition lorry in my white kit bag and lined up in the queue for the swim start around 5.30 am. The queue was split in to expected finish times, I felt confident I’d do it an about an hour so lined up in the appropriate spot. By chance I stood next to the only other competitor I knew doing it, Rachel. She’s a very good triathlete although she was playing it down a lot (turned out she won her age group, not surprised).

It wasn’t long before we were making our way to the water and the start of the race. It was a rolling start which meant you got in and started swimming rather than waiting in a mass of people. It was a two lap circuit to complete 3.8km. The first lap went really well, I got in to a good rhythm and apart from the odd clash with a couple of other swimmers it felt good. At the end of the first lap you got out, ran through to the entry point and then went back in to the water.

After about 300 metres I felt a twinge in my left calf. This wasn’t good. I tried to relax my legs so that it wouldn’t develop in to cramp. I could feel it there for the rest of the lap. With about 400 metres to go I kept on getting my feet tapped by a swimmer behind me. He was obviously drafting me, which was fine but having my feet tapped repeatedly was pretty annoying. I’m not sure if that’s what caused it but both my calves suddenly knotted up. I had a bit of a panic but kept swimming. After about a minute it went away but it got me worried. I made it to the finish and climbed off the ramp to head to T1.

I walked to the transition area trying to stop the cramp from setting in. I’ve no idea why it happened, maybe I kicked too much in the first lap or I was a bit dehydrated. Either way I made sure I took my time and had something to eat before getting on my bike. It was drizzling with rain at this point but it wasn’t cold. I left transition and set off on the bike course.

The first section was around 10 miles to get you to the start of the two large loops. This was ok. The real fun started when we came out of Adlington and went up Babylon Lane. This was where a lot of spectators were because it’s a sharp uphill of about 1km. I guess it’s the closest thing to a stage on the Tour de France. Lots of people with cow bells and banners roaring you on. It’s a great atmosphere.

The next hill section was up Sheep House Lane, 3.3km of climbing. This was quite tough, particularly second time round. However, the highlight was seeing the ‘Wrestlers’ at the top of the hill. These are a bunch of nutters dressing in wrestling gear playing music and cheering like mad. It’s exactly what you need at the top of the climb and made me smile a lot.

After that there was another nasty hill called Hunters at around 45 miles, that is 8.6% gradient. This was a leg burner and the one that I was dreading on the second loop. Good support again but by the time I’d done it the second time I was ready to get off the bike.

The whole ride was hilly. There were a few downhill sections, but most of them had sharp turns that were immediately followed by another climb. I’m glad I chose to use my TT bike as I could get down on the aero bars on the flattish sections, but it wasn’t a time trial course.

The highlight was undoubtedly seeing V, Helen and Nick going through Rivington. The first time I saw them was about 60 miles and it was quite overwhelming. By that time I’d been going for around four hours in total, so it was great to see them. It definitely picked me up for the rest of the 112 mile course.

When I finally got to the Macron Stadium in Bolton for T2 and the marathon (gulp) I had seriously had enough of the bike. I’d been eating solidly for 7 hours. This was a combination of my superfood cake, bananas, gels and protein bars. That got fairly monotonous after a while. I’d also gone through four drinks bottles. It was definitely an eating marathon as well as a physical endurance test.

I took my time again in transition. I was worried that my legs would start to knot but they felt good as I put my running gear on. It was also getting hot so I put suntan cream on and my visor before heading out on to the run.

My legs felt good, which was a huge relief. I made sure I went very slow for the first mile. My coach Kirsty had drummed it in to me to not go too quick straight off the bike. It’s a weird sensation when you start, you go quicker than you think you are because your legs are turning over quicker. I purposely went very steady then got into a rhythm. The first 8 miles get you from the stadium in to town before you start 3 loops. I felt really good for the first 13 miles. I was off my normal average of 8 minute miles, but I wasn’t worried about that. As long as I could run and my legs felt OK I was fine. V and the rest of the family were in the centre of Bolton which made sense as they got to see me six times. It was so good to see them again. The only frustrating thing in the centre was the fact that you ran past the finish line 3 times before you finally got there. But ten crowds were fantastic. As everyone’s name was on their race number people cheered you on as you ran past. It was a great pick-me-up, as well as all the high fives you get.

The strategy was to walk through the feed stations to get some water, and then start running again. This seemed to be working well. After 13 miles I started getting the twinges again in my calves. This didn’t bode well. I had visions of my 2001 London Marathon (or crampathon as I like to call it) experience repeating itself. That day I got cramp everywhere. That whole experience had convinced me for years that I couldn’t physically do an Ironman. However, I now had my fail safe anti cramp strategy to avoid leg pain Armageddon. This consisted of eating as many bananas as I could as often as I could. Between miles 13 and 17 I had to walk on and off while my legs sorted themselves out. Eventually the banana overdose worked its magic and the cramp subsided enough to keep running.

This gave me a second wind. I felt great again for the final lap and picked up the pace. It felt good to finish strong. By the time I made it back to the city centre I was buzzing. I couldn’t stop smiling. It’s a strange feeling coming to the end. I’d been looking forward to getting there for so long. I wanted to finish, but I didn’t want it to be over. Coming down the finishing straight on the red carpet was just incredible. Hearing the crowd shouting at you and hearing the announcer say that ‘you are an Ironman’ made everything worthwhile.

I finished in 13 hours and 1 second, but I don’t care about the time. I’m just overwhelmed to have done it. It’s the hardest sporting event I’ve ever done no question. I can’t see me topping it. Not sure I even want to.

I’m extremely thankful to everyone for their support, particularly V. Everyone has been very tolerant of my obsession. I’ve also managed to raise £1000 for the Alzheimer’s Society which is just fantastic. That has made it extra special. The icing on a very memorable cake. Thank you to everyone that has sponsored me, and for those that would like to please feel free www.justgiving.com/Andrew-Stonehouse

Nothing is Impossible.