Ironman OZ 2009 Race Report
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 4:19 pm
Hi All,
This Triathlon thread in BNA is still pretty new so in the interests of promoting triathlon amongst you cyclists I thought I would write about my latest triathlon experience. It was a long race so it’s a long report, if you’re not interested, what are you doing in the Triathlon sub forum?
Ironman OZ 2009 was held at Port Macquarie NSW on April 5th. 1326 Triathletes started in the event. 1280 finished inside the 17 hour time limit. They had to Swim 3.8kms, Ride 180.2kms and Run 42.2kms.
The Swim
The professionals started at 5:55am and the remaining age groupers started at 6:30am. The Swim start is a mass deep water start, the athletes are given colour coded swim caps on estimated swim time, with faster swimmers positioned to the front and slower ones at the back. For those of you that have not participated in a mass swim start in a triathlon, it’s a full contact sport. It will usually ease up about 400 meters from the start and then there is more biffo at each turn when we bunch up again. Most of the contact is unintentional, it’s hard to see with all the churning water and if the person in front stops to look around you usually just swim straight over the top. Seeing the media Helicopter swoop low over the swimmers is a real thrill too. I had a good swim and overall comparing to others in my category my swim is my strongest, only slightly though. I seem to be equally mediocre in all three sports. I was out of the water in 64 minutes for the 3.8km swim.
T1
T1 or transition 1 is swim to bike. You run into the transition area and grab your bag (pre packed before the event) and head into the change tent. You sit down and volunteers come up and help you out of your wet suit and open your bag and start handing you all your stuff. Now all equipped with helmet, shoes, spare tubes and race belt with my number, I am off to grab my bike that was racked with the 1300 odd others the day before. 64min for a swim is in the top 3rd so there are still plenty of bikes in T1. I found mine ok and got out on the road in good shape.
The bike
Ok, Triathlon is a non drafting event. That is you must remain 7 meters or 4 bike lengths from the rider in front. If you are passing, you have 15 seconds to do it then the passed rider has to drop back before they can re take you. So it is essentially a 180.2km Time Trial. Of cause some people cheat, and some make honest mistakes and get a little too close. These people will receive a 5 min stop go penalty if one of the referees on motorcycles catches them. Still even riding at 7 meters you still get some advantage so some of the faster riders ride in pseudo groups and clock up some impressive times (40kph avg!). Personally I was aiming for a 30kph average which will give me a bike leg of 6 hours. The Port Macquarie bike course is said to be hilly, as far as triathlon and Ironman bike courses are concerned I guess it is. It’s a three lap course of 60kms each lap with approximately 330 meters of ascent each lap. There are aid stations every 10kms with stacks of volunteers running along to provide you with Gatorade, water, cookies and bananas. There were some rain periods and some caution was needed for part of the bike leg, I saw 1 rider go down on a corner, not serious though and he got back on and finished. I managed to keep my effort pretty consistent, a head wind going out kept my flat terrain speed to 30-32kph but on the same stretch coming back in I was 34-36kph, obviously slower for the hills. It’s important not to get carried away on the hills even the gentle rollers, any lactate build up on the bike will come back to haunt you in the marathon to come. I finished my bike in 5:57:00.
T2
Bike to run. A volunteer (these people are just awesome!) takes your bike as soon as you get off, you grab your run gear bag (pre packed before the event) and head to the tents, again volunteers help you unpack and pack you gear and you’re out the other side and running your Marathon before you know it.
The Run
The Ironman OZ marathon at Port Macquarie is a 3 lap course and it’s fair to say there are some hills. And you get to climb them three times! You get given a scrunchy to put on your arm after each lap, two scrunchies and they will let you in the finishing shoot any less and they send you around for another lap. There are aid stations every 2kms so you are never far from food and water. My first 20km where fantastic, I held on to my target pace of 5:10min/km and felt pretty good. However around the halfway mark things started to deteriorate. My left knee started producing some serious pain to the point I started limping every few steps. I was determined to run the whole marathon and forced myself on. I did concede to power walk the aid stations to ensure proper hydration and fueling and to rest the knee. It seemed to help, although running was still painful I could keep going, although slower, my heart rate was down and my pace was 6:00min/km. Still I was at least running and my original goal was to finish under 12 hours and my pre race estimate was 11hr30min based on my training times. And if I could run though the pain for the last 20kms I was going to achieve this. The last 7kms where the toughest, I was hurting bad, but I was determined to finish strongly and pass some people, this was a race after all. I picked up 15 places in the last 7kms, 6 of them in the last 2kms which I ran at 4:30min/km pace or better. It hurt but as my HR was down as I slowed to protect my knee I had energy reserves and used the thought of the finish line to try and overcome the pain my knee was producing. It worked. I finished in 4:11min for the marathon, only about 11min slower than I had hoped.
Total Race time was 11:12:38 finishing 469th out of 1326 and 79th out of 169 for my category - M30-35. This is not fast but I am happy with my effort. The winner for the men was 8:24:53 and the woman was 8:57:10.
Cheers,
This Triathlon thread in BNA is still pretty new so in the interests of promoting triathlon amongst you cyclists I thought I would write about my latest triathlon experience. It was a long race so it’s a long report, if you’re not interested, what are you doing in the Triathlon sub forum?
Ironman OZ 2009 was held at Port Macquarie NSW on April 5th. 1326 Triathletes started in the event. 1280 finished inside the 17 hour time limit. They had to Swim 3.8kms, Ride 180.2kms and Run 42.2kms.
The Swim
The professionals started at 5:55am and the remaining age groupers started at 6:30am. The Swim start is a mass deep water start, the athletes are given colour coded swim caps on estimated swim time, with faster swimmers positioned to the front and slower ones at the back. For those of you that have not participated in a mass swim start in a triathlon, it’s a full contact sport. It will usually ease up about 400 meters from the start and then there is more biffo at each turn when we bunch up again. Most of the contact is unintentional, it’s hard to see with all the churning water and if the person in front stops to look around you usually just swim straight over the top. Seeing the media Helicopter swoop low over the swimmers is a real thrill too. I had a good swim and overall comparing to others in my category my swim is my strongest, only slightly though. I seem to be equally mediocre in all three sports. I was out of the water in 64 minutes for the 3.8km swim.
T1
T1 or transition 1 is swim to bike. You run into the transition area and grab your bag (pre packed before the event) and head into the change tent. You sit down and volunteers come up and help you out of your wet suit and open your bag and start handing you all your stuff. Now all equipped with helmet, shoes, spare tubes and race belt with my number, I am off to grab my bike that was racked with the 1300 odd others the day before. 64min for a swim is in the top 3rd so there are still plenty of bikes in T1. I found mine ok and got out on the road in good shape.
The bike
Ok, Triathlon is a non drafting event. That is you must remain 7 meters or 4 bike lengths from the rider in front. If you are passing, you have 15 seconds to do it then the passed rider has to drop back before they can re take you. So it is essentially a 180.2km Time Trial. Of cause some people cheat, and some make honest mistakes and get a little too close. These people will receive a 5 min stop go penalty if one of the referees on motorcycles catches them. Still even riding at 7 meters you still get some advantage so some of the faster riders ride in pseudo groups and clock up some impressive times (40kph avg!). Personally I was aiming for a 30kph average which will give me a bike leg of 6 hours. The Port Macquarie bike course is said to be hilly, as far as triathlon and Ironman bike courses are concerned I guess it is. It’s a three lap course of 60kms each lap with approximately 330 meters of ascent each lap. There are aid stations every 10kms with stacks of volunteers running along to provide you with Gatorade, water, cookies and bananas. There were some rain periods and some caution was needed for part of the bike leg, I saw 1 rider go down on a corner, not serious though and he got back on and finished. I managed to keep my effort pretty consistent, a head wind going out kept my flat terrain speed to 30-32kph but on the same stretch coming back in I was 34-36kph, obviously slower for the hills. It’s important not to get carried away on the hills even the gentle rollers, any lactate build up on the bike will come back to haunt you in the marathon to come. I finished my bike in 5:57:00.
T2
Bike to run. A volunteer (these people are just awesome!) takes your bike as soon as you get off, you grab your run gear bag (pre packed before the event) and head to the tents, again volunteers help you unpack and pack you gear and you’re out the other side and running your Marathon before you know it.
The Run
The Ironman OZ marathon at Port Macquarie is a 3 lap course and it’s fair to say there are some hills. And you get to climb them three times! You get given a scrunchy to put on your arm after each lap, two scrunchies and they will let you in the finishing shoot any less and they send you around for another lap. There are aid stations every 2kms so you are never far from food and water. My first 20km where fantastic, I held on to my target pace of 5:10min/km and felt pretty good. However around the halfway mark things started to deteriorate. My left knee started producing some serious pain to the point I started limping every few steps. I was determined to run the whole marathon and forced myself on. I did concede to power walk the aid stations to ensure proper hydration and fueling and to rest the knee. It seemed to help, although running was still painful I could keep going, although slower, my heart rate was down and my pace was 6:00min/km. Still I was at least running and my original goal was to finish under 12 hours and my pre race estimate was 11hr30min based on my training times. And if I could run though the pain for the last 20kms I was going to achieve this. The last 7kms where the toughest, I was hurting bad, but I was determined to finish strongly and pass some people, this was a race after all. I picked up 15 places in the last 7kms, 6 of them in the last 2kms which I ran at 4:30min/km pace or better. It hurt but as my HR was down as I slowed to protect my knee I had energy reserves and used the thought of the finish line to try and overcome the pain my knee was producing. It worked. I finished in 4:11min for the marathon, only about 11min slower than I had hoped.
Total Race time was 11:12:38 finishing 469th out of 1326 and 79th out of 169 for my category - M30-35. This is not fast but I am happy with my effort. The winner for the men was 8:24:53 and the woman was 8:57:10.
Cheers,
. Hey I can't run 50 meters without repercussions... so running a 26 miler with a dodgy knee is impressive... how is it now?.Well done BTW!.
