2012 ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships - Vitoria-Gasteiz

  4k Swim / 120K Cycle / 30k Run

PRE-RACE:

The usual pre-race nerves kicked in the day before when we had to rack the bike and leave the running gear in T1 and T2 (Transition areas).

Early on the day (7:15AM) I entered in T1 to check that all my bike material was still in its place and I started with the usual pre-race rituals: Pump tires and get hydration, nutrition & Kit (shoes, helmet and glasses) ready for the race.

It was a nice surprise to see that all the Irish team were together so we had a few good laughs before they called us in.

Seeing Irish Legend Matt Molloy getting ready for the day ahead made me realize what sort of a challenge I had in front of me.

The scope of Athletes in the field was incredible… We were side by side with the Japanese & Australian teams but not far from where we were we had the English, USA & Canadian teams.

Top three Elites of the Day were the Aussie Double Ironman Champion Chris McCormack “Macca”, Local Basque Eneko Llanos and Dirk Bockel from Luxemburg.

SWIM:
4km - 1 lap // Start Mechanism: Beach Mass Start
The swim course took place in the waters of Ullibarri-Gamboa lake, in the heart of the Provincial Park of Landa, of high ecological value due to its oak forests and wetlands, not far from Vitoria-Gasteiz.

I usually tend to lead the swim (ie. in Athy I was 1^st out of the Water), so before I start any race I tend to stay on the left side of the pack (I breathe on my right) so that I can track how fast I leave everyone behind.

My first mistake of the day: All cocky, I placed myself at the centre of the beach-front as I thought it’d be easier to leave “everyone” behind and still be at the most straight point to the first buoy.

The gun went off and everyone rushed into the water… within 2 minutes I found myself surrounded of swimmers kicking and elbow fighting. I thought “you idiots, I’ll show you what swimming is all about”… I pushed as hard as I could for about 200meters until I practically ran out of breath.

At this stage, this is where I as I usually leave most of swimmers behind before settling into my normal swimming race-pace.

Well, that wasn’t the case, after those 200meters I was still surrounded of fast & strong swimmers who were still fighting for water space from both sides… 

The swim “fights” went on for the entire 1.5k “straight” line that goes to the first turn buoy.

Once we turned, everyone seemed to have dispersed a bit so it became a bit of a more enjoyable swim.  I still managed to swallow some water after myself and another swimmer swam into each other (my goggles were fogged-up and I imagine his were too).

We turned again at point 1.8k and the sea seemed a bit more aggressive with a lot of small waves going all directions. This played in my favour as it’s really important to have technique within your core competencies (otherwise you start splashing around).

I passed a few red hats (the wave group in front of us) and that gave us a bit of a boost but unfortunately it also slowed us down a bit as it was a bit confusing who was who in the water.

After the first half of the swim (2.1k), I started feeling really tired. There had been a lot of fighting and kicking that had wasted everyone’s energy.

Anyway, we still had to do a few more turns ahead of us and I lost all notion of where the hell I was. I only knew I had to swim towards the next blue buoy but I had no idea how far I was from T1 anymore.

That second part of the swim became very lonely and I swam it practically on my own.

Eventually, I got back to the beach and for the first time since I started doing triathlons 3 years ago I thought “I’m glad the swim is over”.

The GPS recorded a 4.56K Swim. This can only mean that Garmin still hasn’t mastered the Open water distance with their so-called “advanced technology”.

I came out of the water in the 23^rd position but it felt I was the 200^th.

 

BIKE:
120km - 2 laps
The course runs through the beautiful landscapes of the plains of Alava, along the spectacular lake Ullibarri Gamboa and parallel to the Elguea mountain range, through small towns of great cultural and scenic interest, and sharing part of the course with the Way of Saint James.

The Bike turned to be the most enjoyable part of the race. I loved it from the start.

I jumped on the bike and immediately drank about half of my water bottle, ate ½ a bar and I started cycling quite hard to make up for the time and energy wasted fighting in the water.

After the first 14kms, I found myself going a bit too hard as usual (40km/h average) so I settled into my desired race pace… my legs responded very well to the challenges that I got from other cyclists and the actual course (a lot of rolling hills). I was still clocking an average of 38.5km/h by the time I got to 40^th km so I was very pleased.

I kept drinking and eating powerbars. (In total, I ate 2.5 bars and I must have drank about 4x650ml of Aquarius – don’t ask me why they gave that grab instead of high5).

The wind picked up a wee bit on our way back to Vitoria-Gasteiz (1^st lap) and we cycled for about 20km against it… nothing mayor though. At around the 65^th km I was still going over the 38km/h mark.

Up to that point we were a group of 8 cyclists pacing each other (not drafting!) which kept the speed up. An American, a British, a Spanish, a Canadian, a German, a Japanese & a Portuguese.

All the sudden my bladder felt really full. Being afraid of de-hydration I drank too much (way above my sweat rate). I tried to pee on the bike, but I couldn’t… if anyone knows how to do this, please let me know! J

Anyway, a few more kms in, a drafting group of 20plus cyclists caught up with us, overtook us and disappeared into the horizon… …a few minutes later, I saw them again and realized that they had been forced to spread. They had a motorbike along the side controlling the drafting rule of 12 meters (not 10!).

Unfortunately, this caused us to slow down as it was really difficult to overtake 20+ cyclists at once, so every time I passed one cyclist, I got quite close to the guy in front, making the Marshalls a bit paranoid all the time… my average speed went down quite quickly (low 36s) but as soon as I passed that group I was on track again.

All the sudden a bee got stuck on the side of my helmet and I almost crashed as I was trying to get rid of it with my hand at a really high speed. In the end, the bee flew away but not before she stung my ear. Not a very pleasant feeling but not any worst than my legs’ pain.

At this point there was only the German, the Portuguese and I in the pacing group.

We turned towards Vitoria-Gasteiz (25kms to go) and the headwind picked up again. (This time a bit harder or maybe it was the tiredness playing tricks). At about km105 the Portuguese stood up from his TT position looked at us and said that he was finished, so the German and I went ahead and kept making sure that we wouldn’t drop the pace too much against that wind.

10km to go, both of us started to feel quite tired but I must have got a 2^nd wind so I gave it a go… this time the German didn’t follow me and I cycled into the city on my own. I checked my watch and my Average speed was just below 37km/h which I was very happy with. Later on I found out that I was among the top 100 fastest bikes of the day (out of 802 world-class triathletes).

I got into T2 in the 17^th position so things were looking quite positive.

RUN:
30km - 4 laps
The run course starts and finishes in the heart of the medieval district of Vitoria-Gasteiz and the 7,5 km course runs entirely through the most beautiful pedestrian promenades of the city.

The run proofed to be a beast on its own. The crowd was amazing and as soon as I left T2, I found myself surrounded of thousands of people chanting my name and nationality all the way.  I really can’t describe the feeling. It was overwhelming.

I ran my first km in less than 4 minutes (way too fast for my desired target pace of 4:45min/km).  

I maintained a 4m37s pace for the following 9kms.

Even though I was putting my body under a lot of pressure, it was very disappointing to see all these runners constantly overtaking me.  I tried to go a bit harder but I just couldn’t (well, at least if I wanted to run the entire 30km at that speed).

At the half point mark (km15) my average was already at 4:40 and runners were still overtaking me as if I was walking (note: this is a 3h16m marathon pace!!).

I got extremely demoralized by this situation and I dropped my pace even further (4:50) in order to able to re-gain my breath.

I’ve never been a great runner and this race showed me that I still have a big job to do when it comes to running.

On my third lap, I began to struggle with the nutrition and my stomach played a few tricks on me but I somehow managed to control it. 

Unfortunately this wasn’t it ... a few kms in I developed a really strong chest pain and I could hardly breathe. It really hurt to the point that I thought my race could be over.

I came to a full stop 3 times in a matter of 200 meters. Things didn’t look good.  I’ve never experienced such pain so I’m not so sure what it really was… the good news is that the pain “only” lasted for about 2kms so I was back running at my controlled pace in “no time”.

The last 4^th lap was full of emotions… I was in big pain but I knew I didn’t want to give up on the dream of going sub 7h, so I kept it steady up to the end.

A funny anecdote was that 5kms to go (while I was running at about 5min per km) I checked my time and saw 6h29m and I thought to myself “5min/k x 5km =“30”mins… Crap!!, I won’t make it to the sub 7h mark even if I go mental now!!” … This shows how tired your mind can get in these situations that can’t even calculate 5x5 properly neither add 29+”30”! J.

In the end I finished my 30k run in 2h30m which equates to a 3h35m marathon.

Finally, I finished on a decent 32^nd position after an agonizing Run.

 Post Race:

I crossed the finish line, stopped my watch and I saw 6h56m09s! …  I made it!!! I did a sub7h race!!!  VERY HAPPY!!

This equates to a 9:35* Ironman time so very happy to have pushed to my limits in all three disciplines.

As soon as I crossed the line, I took the chip off my ankle and handled it back to the organizers who gave me the finisher’s medal.  I walked into the nutrition tend, grabbed two bottles of water and sat down completely exhausted… I remained there for about 15mins asking everyone who was passing by to handle me more water.

I placed two really cold water bottles on my neck to cool down and left them inside my tri suit for the same purpose. It was the right thing to do… well, at least for a couple of minutes only… basically, I forgot about them and ten minutes later I started shivering and I didn’t know why. They even put a Red-Cross blanket on top of me. Oops! J


The BIG price of the day was to leave the post-race tend and be able to see and chat with Chris “Macca” McCormack for few minutes. He is something else. The day could’ve not turned any better, not only I achieved a sub7h race but I also met my “triathlon spiritual leader”!! J

I grabbed a marshal and asked him to take a picture and send it to my e-mail.

Last but definitely, not least…. My parents were the BEST supporters anyone could ever wish for and I thank GOD for having given me the opportunity to race at such magnificent event.  

I will never forget it!!

*Rough Ironman calculations:

1h06 equates to a 1h02 3.8K swim

36.8km/h equates to a 4h55m 180k bike

5:06equates to a 3h35m marathon