Ironman Austria is a marquee event. The setting is very special and when the weather is right as it was for us Ironman racing doesn’t get much better. Lakes don’t get much prettier than the Worthesee so it’s a great one for the supporters too. It was a great day…perfect weather and perfect setting. Perhaps I started the day a bit too relaxed. I was chatting away to my mate Nige as we waited to be ushered into the water when all of a sudden the gun went. I usually try to get the swim start right and catch the feels of the pro swim group. This time chaos ensued as I missed my usual jump on the masses. I spend the first 200m getting the cr*p kicked out of me. After taking a big kick to the gut, a hard smack on the ear and a kick to the throat I realised I needed to do something quick!. The kick in the gut left me so winded I sucked in half the lake and decided to put in a VERY hard 300m sprint to clear the pack. The heart rate went off the charts and I paid for that effort for the next few hours. The IM Austria swim course takes us around one loop then back to a narrow canal for the last 800m of the swim. Navigation to the canal is almost impossible with the morning sun over the water and no markers or bouys and the groups were swimming all over the place. The canal was a great for spectators and a bit surreal as a swimmer. The noise from the crowd was deafening. A 55 min swim put me just high enough up the field for the canal (which is only about 5 m wide) ….I heard those swimming 60min to 65 min had a bit of a traffic jam in the canal.The Austria Ironman Bike course of beautiful and the opening 10k takes you along the shores of the Worthesee Lake. On the bike I could not drink or eat for the first hr as gut was too full of water. I tried in vain to puke up some of the lake water and was still busy with that when at about 20k the first of a number of HUGE groups of drafters started moving through. I had to use the brakes on occasion to avoid getting penalised as the draft busters were out in force but totally overwhelmed with the size of the problem and the speed of the groups. I did my best to stick to the race plan and thoroughly enjoyed the course. All in all I think I got passed by about 300 people in all in packs and moving like the Tour de France. Besides the pelotons my only distraction from the scenery was a sore gut which remained for the rest of the ride and interfered a bit with the feeding plan.
With 30k to go on the bike I stopped eating to try and ease the gut and I started the run feeling pretty good. The course is made up of 2 very different loops making up 1 lap – which in turn you do twice. The first loop takes us out along the lake and back into the resort area after which we head out toward the centre of town along the canal. The turnaround in town is in the main square and the route is heaving with spectators and supporters all day. You can’t really ask for more encouragement. This is a real festival day. I really enjoyed the difference in the 2 laps and tried to keep a good pace up by running through all the aid stations for a change grabbing only water and oranges as I couldn’t stomach anything else. It was a pretty hot day at about 30 deg and the 2nd loop of the run was under trees most of the way….a real life saver!
At about 21k got a time split from my wife Jo that Nige was 1 min back and Eugene 2 min back. I think this split was a bit out of date but it gave me a dilemma. It takes a long time to work through dilemma’s like this when your brain is starved of oxygen and glycogen at the same time! Do I let them catch me and see who’s up for racing or do I put some time into these boys now? I ran the next 3k at below 5 min per k knowing that would do some damage to their progress. Thereafter I quickly came to my senses and realised this was a potential show stopper. If I burned too bright now the last 10 k could be very messy. At the 32k turnaround I could not see either of them and realised they had probably slowed like me. Between 32k and about 37k the pace fell off a bit and I struggled with the lack of nutrition during the bike and early run taking effect. By the last turnaround with 6k to go I was keeping very VERY focused as the legs were falling apart. Over the last 1km I managed (somehow) to lift the pace and hit the line as a very happy chappy. 21 minutes off the previous PB so mission accomplished!
Swim: 55:30
Bike : 5:18
Run: 3:49
Final Time: 10:11
On reflection I think if the Nige and Eugene had caught me it would have been carnage…I think we were all in the mood to race.
Mike
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