the swim, the bike

just over a thousand of the fittest men on earth explode into action.It must be impressive to see. Its frightening being slap bang in the middle of it.All fought hard to be here , double hard bastards every man jack of them. all ages , all backgrounds. I wonder what i am doing here

Still ,’ what types of dog are we?’Get stuck in son, deal with your little area. One chunk at a time. no quarter shall be asked and none shall be given.Its a dog eat dog world

After all that melodrama i didnt find the swim too bad. I had clear water for 90 per cent of it. I didnt really push the swim at all . I spent nearly all of it reasonably complacent as i was thinking ‘ i dont really want to be here ,doing this!’

The swim did feel very long and this was reflected in the fastest time. Again no one went under 50 minutes not even the Pros.. I got out ran through the showers , bike bag was handed to me . Quick change gel flasks in the pockets , bars stuffed in the top of the shirt and the long run around to t1. i carried my shoes as its a good 200metres. I stopped in the portaloos on the way and remember Rob saying the only bit he enjoyed in an ironman last year was having a dump in t1. That was the best bit. It was alright in this particular one to be fair so i stopped in there a while. Put my shoes on, did my hair ,quick shave etcAnd out into the sun. its actually warmer out here than in the portaloo. i think about spending the day in there. Best get on.

To the bike. Helmet on Garmin on ,out of the rack run down the carpet to the mount point . All ok. Best t1 i ve had in ages. The sun is beating down each incessant second feels like a drum beat the weight of which is slowly grinding you down. It is a hot one. Temps reached 45 degrees in the lava today.

The loop around town was longer than expected and it was a naive shock how many people are in front of me. I am surrounded. I see punctures in the first mile ,there were plenty throughout the day. Out onto the Queen k and theres already 10 miles on the clock . 102 to go. The road shimmers ahead of you for miles . The distortion in the heat creates 2 lines of cyclists all 5 metres apart (mostly) from the one as far as u can see on the long unrelenting, unforgiving lava field shit pot. It is brutally hot. The feed stations every 7 miles,lets rename them life lines for the purposes of this particular narrative . Take on a quickly worked out survival routine. The first thing offered is bottles of water. At every one you take the first water bottle u can get. Its been sitting in an ice bin so is cold. Pour the entire bottle all over you head, torso , groin .Empty it. them throw it away while still in the feed station. The penultimate offering is gatorade u either grab one of those to drink or the last thing offered is water again. Drink half of whatever u choose. Then put in your cage till the next life line. Remember to eat gels bars whatever. I did the lot, everything i had on me. Its easy to think u dont need to in that heat. U do.

At the next life line u throw your bottle away whether its empty or not its warm now and u repeat the process again. Every 7 miles u cover yourself in cold water. It reduces how much u have to sweat. You will be dry by the next life line. The run down towards Hawi is steady. get bogged down with the same group of lads. Still surprising how many bots, even here , dont use power meters. So we do the usual dance where they pass me on the climbs i smash passed them on the flats/downhill. The result was the same here anyway. Never saw them in the second half of the race. Left them all behind.

We come off the lava fields then a quick fast descent before the long flowing 18 mile climb upto Hawi. I’ve been riding conservatively till now. Around 200 to 210 watts. Target is 230 watts(80 per cent of ftp) As we roll up the hill the wind comes on the pros and the faster age groupers missed it. 10 miles out from the turn. It was here i decided as i still wasnt sure i could run it was time to go. Smash the bike as i may end up walking the run anyway.I think my size and power to weight comes in very handy into the wind. The bigger lads in our chain were gone. 8 miles out from the turn my chain comes off on the inside hasnt done that for a long time. easily remedied and quickly away again. it starts raining. WTF. This is very welcome .It is pissing down but its not cold. Looking for the turn now want this wind behind me. There . Its caffeine time. 3 proplus and a turn around the wind is behind me. I literally throw all caution to the wind and wind the fucker right up. Now the chain of riders in front of me are being passed in routine succession. C u later chumps. This was a bit premature as i did see some of them later on the run. I did get a bit excited to be fair. Anyway fuck it. Power was reaching 280/300 watts at time and felt ok.Back on the lava fields for the final leg and me and this other guy were flying past other boys then the final 15 miles were into the wind and we pushed on. Got the 100 miles in in 4 hours 25 and was looking for a sub 5 hour bike split but that last stretch into the wind put pay to that.

the last life line was fast i went to grab a water bottle and it went in the air i went to grab it juggled it twice then caught it with my knees between the cross bar. someone shouted ‘save of the day linebacker!’ which was funny .although i didnt fully understand what it meant.

straight into t2 felt ok. normalised power 230 watts.bang on. bike time 5 hours 4 mins. next time.lets c if i can run then.