This race was my primary race focus for the summer, I had
worked hard and 2 weeks before Joe had me do my usual taper. Tapering for an Ironman is much longer than
the usual taper for short distance races.
What this usually translates to is me having a lot of extra energy
because I’m not exercising as much as I’m used to. Can you say house projects!?! Steve just rolls his eyes and says “here we
go again.” Well thanks to Ironman Wales,
I painted our bike “stable” and completely reorganized it. Yes, we have a bike “stable” and no garage,
it is all about priority J
I flew into Bristol airport, on the descent you could see
all the little hedgerows with herds of sheep, England is just so CUTE! It was a long flight, compared to what I am
used to and I was so tired. Seeing my
parents perked me up, we headed to Tenby by van, lots of room for the bike box
and all our stuff. Kudos to my dad for
kicking ass driving down the left side of the road through the twisting streets
of the British countryside in the huge van while my mum and I ate liquorish and
looked at all the beautiful scenery!
We arrived at our base for the next few days, Celtic Haven
in Tenby. Really cute little cabins with
a small kitchen and several bedrooms, right on the Ironman bike course and very
close to town. My parents are the best
for finding such a great location to stay!!
We headed into town to peruse the grocery store. Nothing is better entertainment for me than a
foreign grocery store. I can spend hours
checking everything out! We scored some
crumpets, lemon curd and clotted cream and some good healthy stuff for race
morning and the lead up. I must say,
clotted cream is the best stuff ever and I was so impressed with all the
locally produced inventory at the grocery store, North America could really learn
something from the UK in this respect!
I got in some practice swim, bike and run sessions. The swim in particular was good to practice
as it was in the ocean and was pretty cold, temps in the high 50s F. I was glad to get used to the water and
realized it really felt better after a good warmup swim. LOVE my TYR wetsuit too!!!
I don’t always worry about driving the bike course but this
one was known to be challenging so we drove it the day prior in the van. The hills were ridiculous, I realized this
was going to be quite an epic ride, with over 7000 feet of climbing. There were two cat 4 climbs (15-19% grade)
within a few miles of each other at the end of the first and second loops (we
were to do them 2 times each and at the end of the race when I would be
tired). I knew the crowd support would
be great though; the hills were famous and everyone knew they would be great to
watch from. I racked my Valdora and they
gave us rain covers for the bikes; only in the UK!
Race morning was dry and cool. We had to walk a kilometer to the swim start
and would have to run back after the swim so we had a second set of shoes they
allowed us to place at the swim finish for this purpose. They started the pros only a few feet in front
of the large field of amateurs, I knew this would mean a rough swim but I would
have the advantage of a draft of a large group of swimmers instead of only a
small field of really fast pros, so it was an advantage for me! Off we went and I braved the first 5 minutes
of cold water and began to warm nicely as I worked through the swim. I felt comfortable but was still swimming hard, I
came out of the water feeling fresher than I thought I should (I had swam 55 minutes – a huge personal best!). I was thrilled to see
several bikes still on the pro women’s rack.
I was still in this race and not dead last after the swim! I had started working with a local swim coach about
6 weeks ago it was the best decision I made this year. Contact me if you want his info, he is great!!
I got on my bike and could see several pro women around me,
I decided to go for it and take some risks on the bike by driving up my wattage
early in the race. Joe said this was something I needed to be brave about this year! The course was
challenging but just breathtakingly beautiful.
I do admit to chatting with a local pro women about how awesome the
scenery was as we rode along! The crowd support in all
the towns we passed through was great, and then came the hills and the crazy
twisting descents. I tried not to let
visions of my beloved job, husband and furry children flash through my mind on
the hairy descents but I know I was a bit of a sissy, a couple girls passed
me. I hammered up the hills like a mad
woman though. The two crazy hills at the
end of the loops were fun, just getting up them without eating shit was heroic. My parents said 300 people fell of their
bikes on one of the hills, sort of hilarious, as long as I wasn’t one of them J The bike took me just over 6 hours, almost 1 hour
longer than any other bike course in an Ironman had taken me, but my wattage
was the best I had ever done so I was happy with the effort. The Hed Jet 5 Express wheels I chose for the trip were perfect, I felt very safe in the strong winds on the course and they climbed flawlessly. A great wheel set if you are looking for something racy, light and cost-effective!
It started to rain as I finished the bike and started the
run. I could feel how much the hard bike
had taken out of me and I tried to hang on for the first half of the run to my
goal pace. I was having GI problems for
the first time. Ok folks, if you can’t
handle poop talk you should bail now!!
As a vet this is dinner time conversation for me J Halfway through the run I definitely had to
poop, stopped at the loo and only could manage some cute little princess farts
(sorry, told you to bail a few sentences ago).
I was pretty annoyed that I had wasted 30s on the jon for a benign fart
issue so the next time I felt a similar urge (about 1 mile to go to finish) I
thought here comes a nice little fart again…..aaaaannnd then I sharted. Luckily it wasn't a huge volume and yes, it is funny now that my shorts are
thoroughly sterilized and decontaminated.
My mum was mortified, she figured she was done dealing with this
kind of shit about 33 years ago J I still had a decent time on the run though,
despite the poo drama! I placed 6th in the women's pro field and got my first paycheck as a professional triathlete!
After the race my parents and I stayed in Bristol for a few
days. We had a great time touring the
surrounding area and sampling the local pub fare. The day following the race we went to Bath
and enjoyed the hot springs (good recovery).
We also saw Stonehenge which was absolutely incredible. Thanks to my amazing parents for being the
best Ironman sag ever and for making the trip a great holiday to remember together!
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