The Hawaii Ironman started with a journey almost a year a go. I made the decision I was going to step up from 70.3 and try my hand at Ironman. Hawaii would be my goal, and just a 140.6 mile race would stand in my way. I wanted to qualify for my fourth World Championship and I needed to choose a course somewhere in the world which played to my strengths. I knew I would lose time on the swim, but in the past my bike and run strength has been the leveller.
I chose Brazil, a little exotic perhaps, but I believed this to be my best opportunity. The rolling bike course meant there would be less chance of me picking up a bunch of drafters, like Vince and I did at the World 70.3 Champs last year. The run had four steep, short sharp 20% hills which I knew would slow down the powerfully built swim/bikers; but would be perfect for a little skinny dude like me! My gamble paid off….
The swim, as in any mass start, was very aggressive!! It was a beach start and we were a lined up about 15m from the line, with the pros about 5m in front to give them a head start. When the gun went off there was a scramble to hit the water. It was an Australian swim which means you exit the water after 1 lap of 1.9km and then run round a buoy before taking the plunge for the second loop. I did 1.06 before hitting the bike course.
I had a puncture after 100km, but managed to keep calm and fit one of my spare tubes. I hit T2 in a total time of 5.12 with 5.06 actual riding. I now knew that even if I walked the marathon I would finish!! And be an IRONMAN….. . I had four goals, the first was to finish, the second was to go Sub 10 hours, the third was to qualify and the last was to come top 50 overall.
T2 was a breeze and my legs still felt good. I knew that as long as I maintained good nutrition my conditioning would get me through; so I banged a power bar blackcurrant gel every 15 mins and alternated taking on water and Coke or water and Gatorade each aid station. I hit my metronomic training pace and passed the 21km marker in 1.29 mins. I was feeling sweet…….. And I was gaining strength as I passed more and more athletes in my category. They all had the letter C on their calf muscle and as I ran passed them; in my head I would say ‘C you later’ and smile to myself.
In the last two 10kms my body started to remind me of what I was asking of it. I felt strange spasms in both my right hamstring and my left calf. I was forced to shorten my stride length and ease back, which explains why I dropped just under 15 mins on the second 21km recording a 1.44. This gave me an overall marathon split of 3.13. I finished with a total time of 9.34. It was a great feeling and I banked a time that sent me to Kona as the 6th fastest qualifier in my age group and top 50 overall including the Pro's…..
Statistics
Swim -1:06:35
Bike - 5:14:43
Run - 3:16:34
Total - 9:34:52
This meant as soon as I returned home I would begin my new training schedule on the ‘Road to Kona’
Kona
The first thing that you notice when you arrive in Kailua Kona, are all the muscled, lean, svelte athletes everywhere, whether they are out on training runs, lounging in the Lava Java café or simply out biking on their £5 – 10k carbon bikes. This sleepy town is brought to life by this race and its heart and soul beats Ironman. Don’t come here expecting to gain confidence, all the hard work has to be done! The sheer presence of all this talent is enough to psyche out some of the strongest contenders.
I had prepared for the humidity and the heat. Richard Hobson had set me 2.5 hour turbo sessions in my shower/utility room downstairs. I would shut the doors and windows and put the shower on to increase the humidity before I started the session. The idea behind this was to make me feel uncomfortable from the outset. At the time I really loathed them, but now having raced I realise how beneficial they were. The Lava fields of the Queen K Highway were so hot I felt like I was racing in an oven with a motorcycle helmet on!!
Each morning at the swim start practice sessions, professionals mixed with age groupers. It became my daily routine, walk down to swim start at about 7am and practice on the course. It was an electric atmosphere that built day on day as we approached race day. I felt really proud to be a competitor…. The swim was 3.9km, 100m further than my last race. The course is a straight out and back and oh my god it looked a long way……. Even halfway looked a long way, especially without the benefit of a wetsuit!
I felt anxious descending the steps onto the starting beach. I think that’s a good thing, it’s a feeling that re-affirms how important this to you and you can take strength from this. My fear soon evaporated as I swam out in the cleanest most beautiful ocean I’ve ever swum in. The water has a very high salinity; so consequently I felt really buoyant and because the water is crystal clear you feel really comfortable, even when you’re 2km out in the open ocean. Initially I was knocked around in the swell, but once I became accustomed to the roll it was fine. Climbing the beach knowing that I’d swum the course is a great confidence booster. I just needed to swim it 20 mins faster on race day!! This daily routine became one of my fondest memories, the vibe and breadth of talent together building for what would become a magnificent race. I followed my training programme each day and although I was tapering I still had some quite tough sessions. An hour at Ironman race pace is still an 8.5 mile run and in a temperature of 30 degrees with 80 percent humidity, I’m sure you could understand it wasn’t what I was used to….
All Kona had prepared for the Ironman, every where you went, on all the roads there were signs ‘IRONMAN ATHLETES IN TRAINING’ warning locals of the increased number of people out on the roads.A week prior to the race there were gazebos on the roadside stocked with Gatorade that you could just help yourself to. It was brilliant… the scale of the professionalism impressed me and as I trained in the lava fields I became comfortable with the environment.
Race Day
‘In the no mans land between life and sport; between the start and finish, lies a place of discovery and nothing exemplifies this more than Ironman’
Swim 3.9km
5 am and I walked the short distance from my hotel to the pier starting area with Mette.
Wow, this was it……
I kissed Mette and she wished me luck. We said goodbye and I joined the line to be body marked. They stamp your arms with indelible ink numbers. After the race I found these temporary numbers are burned in, tattooing your upper arms for days after, by the burning sun. With my bike set up, my transition bags dropped off and hung up in T1 and T2, I donned my race legal 0.3 neoprene Blue Seventy fast skin (Thanks to Nick Sullivan). I checked the course and renewed my sighting points .I knew that for the next 10 hours I would be reliant on only the structure and conditioning that Richard Hobson had created in my training schedule. As I stood on the beach, I wondered how well my freestyle would stand up against the athletes that were amassing around me. With my goggles on I took a few deep breathes and I entered the water for a practice swim.
I lined up for the deep water start, treading water readying myself for the canon. Boom…. I was off, I expected to be in the washing machine the whole way, my rather average swim time wouldn’t hold up here. It was 7.15am and perfectly on time. I had thought I’d positioned myself off left of centre with my aim being to let the faster guys get away before I edged in to the direct line, but 5 mins before the cannon went off the canoeists opened up more space on the left of the buoy which left me dead centre and about 5 rows back… Oopps!! I now had only one direction to go….
I found feet, but it was rough going, I felt like I was white water rafting down a Hawaiian rapid… For every 5 good stokes I put in, I had some one swim into me, over the top of me or I got boxed in. Nevertheless I followed it out to the turn around yacht 1.95km away. It was there I lost the feet I was following. The current was strong and I could see I was being pushed sideways. I tried but couldn’t catch the pod in front. There was no rest bite I was racing on pure adrenaline…. I loved it! I could see I was approaching the pier on my left as I swam in and I saw people lining the side cheering and shouting encouraging all the athletes. As I approached the small beach I readied myself, and then pulled my knees into my chest and planted my feet firmly into the sand. I checked my watch 1.06, wow…. Sweet I thought to myself. It was 100m further than Brazil, without a wetsuit, and I’d still swam quicker. I glanced back and saw that I had been towing a string of other athletes into the beach. As I ran up the steps I slipped on the third rung and put my leg through the steps scraping my left shin….. Ouch, it started to bleed and swell and it looked like I’d just attached an egg to it. I convinced myself that is was only a mere flesh wound and I sped through T1 picking up my bag remembering how I’d remonstrated Vince, telling him he needed to be quicker in transitions and thinking to myself, I better make this fast.. Transitions need to practiced or rehearsed until they become second nature or habit. I had practised so many times in my head prior to the race that I eased through T1 in just over 3mins without any mishaps, dismissing even the sun tan lotion girls who were slapping on the factor 30. I was in 703rd place overall.
Bike 180km
I was so excited to be out on my bike. I love riding and I knew both my bike and engine were in tip top condition. I had changed my tyres a week before coming to Kona, thanks to Vince sending me article on rolling resistance and knew that my Michelin Prorace 2’s offered me the least rolling resistance and this would definitely give me an edge. I had brought two spares with me just in case I picked up any nasty cuts on my training miles and it was a good thing I did. I had learned this from Brazil where I raced on tyres that had some dangerous looking nicks in them. Whether or not it contributed or not, I picked up a puncture there which lost me 6mins. This time before I checked my bike into transition I had examined my tyres and found the same had happened again. Thankfully this time I had spares.
It felt good to be out on Isaac, it’s quite a hard ride but its Sooooooooooooo fast, and I have it set up so sweet. It looks extreme, but I don’t lose any power. My heart rate was racing but I knew the key was control; this was 112 miles followed by a marathon, it wasn’t a 10 mile TT. Richard had told me to hold back and keep a solid pace without too many power spikes. There were loads of other athletes in front of me. I was cut up on the left and the right and clipped wheels with another, I told myself I had to stay sharp and stay focused. It was then that I was sick…..I guess it was the sea water I had swallowed, but it left a nasty taste in my mouth. I realised how important it is to listen to other older wiser athletes. In the run up to the race I met up with Ken Glah, he’s raced more Ironman World Championships than any other athlete, I think 27 in total. I was chatting to him about nutrition and he recommended I keep only water in the Profile bottle on the front, for exactly this reason, to wash your mouth out or dilute the sweetness of gels or bars – Thanks Ken.
Out on the Queen K the race settled as everyone found their pace or stuck to their heart rate or watts. I was conscious that in the early stages of the race there were clumps of athletes together, I remained mindful of the drafting rules and kept my distance. A good thing too, as I never seen so many ‘draft buster’ outriders. There were gazebos dotted all the way along the course where those caught did their time. Some of the tents were overfilling with the number of guys busted. This was a lesson to every one passing them and by about 60km in we were all spread out in a line. At each aid station the girls screamed at you ‘water, Gatorade, Coke’, I took water on at each station just to squirt over my face and neck to cool myself down and Gatorade only once I had finished the custom made ‘Gucci’ Infinit nutrition I had made up. It had a slightly higher salt concentration to combat the amount I was perspiring. http://www.infinitnutrition.eu/ . It was a lot windier than my last race, so I tried to make myself as small a target as possible. I knew I was a strong cyclist, but just didn’t want to screw up my legs for the run. As the sun rose the temperature increased. In Brazil I drank 5 bottles and needed a wee 3 times, 5 bottles down and I hadn’t needed to go once, I was sweating buckets, and even my eyelids were sweating! Boy was it hot…. this was what it was all about, this was the image of Kona I had seen in all those DVD’s, that I’d watched of previous races, when I was trying to recce the course prior to arriving here. My friend Julian Wain alias ‘Captain Crank it’ passed me on the way up to Hawi, he was still flying and I was tempted to use him as my pace man, but I let him go fearful of blowing on the run. Next came, Laurent Jalabert or ‘Ja Ja’ as he is called, the multiple Tour de France Giro and Vuelta stage winner. He went from 1145th place after the swim to 105th after the bike making up 1040 places. I cheered him ‘Allez, allez, allez Ja Ja’ as he went by and he acknowledged me by giving me a wave. It was a slog up to Hawi, my heart rate was 180 bpm and I was doing 20kmph…. I couldn’t wait for the turnaround.
Yee ha, I had turned around and now had the benefit of the wind behind me, and boy was there a difference. I was spinning out on the 53, 11, note to self, if I do this again fit a 54 or 55 on the front! This lasted until we turned back onto Queen K highway again. I passed John Griffin from Tri London and as I pulled along side we exchanged encouraging words and it reminded me of that sketch in Harry Enfield with the two jockeys and this made me smile to myself. Just up in front of John was the swimming costume clad Fernando Keller, a Brazilian pro riding the tiniest little Cervelo P3 I’ve ever seen, it looked like a BMX…. Nice butt though…
The wind was relentless and my legs and butt were burning with pain. Despite this I continued to pass more people. I had stuck to my plan and had eaten a Torq bar every hour and energy wise I still felt solid. It was at this point that Martin Yelling passed me; once again I stuck to my plan and held back. I felt good; albeit a little weird, I had been concentrating so hard, I felt a bit spaced out….but I guess this is normal when you’re pushing so hard for so long, without anyone to talk to. It wasn’t long until I was passing the airport and next down Palani Drive, Alli Drive and into T2. I had taken 312 places and was now in 391st place overall out of 1800 starters
Run 26.2 miles
T2 went as swiftly as T1 and I was again out in just over 3 mins. I had just the marathon to go now and I was really excited, I knew I could turn up the heat on the run as long as I could maintain good nutrition. I headed out towards St Peters Church and began picking off runners ahead. Mette and Jo Carritt’s sister Lotte were cheering me on and I felt so proud to be racing, I smiled as I went passed. Mette gave me the heads up that Steven Lord from Tri London was just ahead. Steven is a really strong athlete, he won The Longest Day Triathlon (Ironman – but not sanctioned) race last year and came 16th Overall, 3rd in Age Group (35-39), first Brit in IM Lanzarote this year. I kept focused and concentrated on my nutrition following the same plan as Brazil taking a gel every 15 mins. It was so hot and I needed fluid every aid station and it wasn’t long before I decided to walk the aid stations to ensure I took on enough fluid. I still felt strong and the fact I knew Steven was ahead of me encouraged me to keep pushing. I kept focused an re passed Julian, not sayong a word.
Before I headed out onto the Queen K Highway again I still had to run up Palani Drive. This is a steep hill and it’s steep enough to make you feel like walking it. The crowds were so good picking out your number and calling out your name, it was brilliant and made me smile again. Now it was just me and the Lava, a straight out and back to the Energy Lab. The road is long and straight and the heat radiates off the black tarmac. At this time of the day each day prior to race day the clouds had descended from the mountains and the temperature had dropped, making it more conducive to training, not today!!! The clouds stayed behind the mountains and the temperature rose…. The fact that we were heading out to the Energy Lab was of no consolation. It was the hottest part of the Island and where they conduct solar radiation testing. It’s situated in a dip in the lava, out of the wind and for many it’s a place where they hit the wall. I kept focused and continued my metronomic pace. I filled my mind with my stats and predicted times based on my current pace. I was still on track to go sub 10 but was way off my Brazil time despite being stronger and fitter than I’ve ever been.
Suddenly there he was. I saw the blue of his Tri London kit…. I had caught Steven. As I passed him I said well done. It’s difficult to know what to say to people when you pass them. If they’re having a bad day you don’t want to make it worse; but at the same time if they are having a bad day it’s nice to encourage them or gee them along. I think he was toughing it out as he just grunted as I passed. I passed through the lifeless Energy Lab to the turnaround cone and I was on my way back home. As I turned back on the Queen K highway I was determined to enjoy every mile, it was an awesome experience and to see Kailua Kona in the distance I knew I was in striking distance of the finish. Like so many athletes before me I turned right on to Palani Drive and attempted to stride out a little for the last 2km home, but running down hill just ripped my quads apart and I immediately shortened up again to guarantee I finished without pulling something or having to struggle over the line. I ran down the hill passed thousands of spectators onto the world famous Ali Drive passing under the big Baobab tree and onto the last 800m. The crowds were 10 – 15 deep either side of the road and for about 200m they were only 3m apart. It was like something out of the Tour de France footage from the mountain stages I've seen on the TV where all the spectators are within touching distance either side of the biker. It was just magical…… I did my aeroplane, high five -ing people either side of the funnel. I was so high on the whole experience, as I hit the finishing flume I could see my image on a huge screen behind the finish. I raised my arms and cheered and as I did so, I heard ‘STUART ANDERSON - YOU ARE AN IRONMAN’ I had done it in 9 hours 51mins, 237th overall, 43rd in my age group category and 2nd fastest British Age grouper in the World, as Martin Yelling remained in front, even though I ran a quicker marathon. At the finish I was met by my personal carer, who took me through for my massage and Mette who was beaming smiles at me. It was brilliant; I felt so humble to have raced and I was already thinking about next year……
Statistics
Swim -1:07:56