On the 22nd October Adam and Ollie attempted Ironman Wales, which consists of a 2.4 mile sea swim, a 112 mile bike ride (with 8,700ft of climbing) followed by a marathon (with 1,700ft of climbing).
The race started at 7.30am with an incredibly atmospheric charge into a very choppy sea, all to the tune of ACDC’s ‘Thunderstruck’. The swim course was 2 laps, with an ‘Aussie exit’ in between where we were required to run up the beach, around Goscar rock and dive back in. The chop made sighting the buoys very tricky, and made a very large number of competitors abandon their races (~300) I took a foot to the face pretty early on, which dislodged a goggle and made seeing things pretty tricky. Adam was unsurprisingly first out of the water in 1 hour 10 mins, followed by Ollie in 1 hour 15 (I couldn’t swim 3 years ago, cut me some slack!)
The next stage was a 1km run up the zigzag ramp, and through the streets of Tenby to the transition area. There were an estimated 10,000 spectators in Tenby that day, and the streets were rammed with supporters. In transition we ditched the wetsuits and hopped on the bikes. The course consisted of a single ~30 mile flatter loop heading out to Freshwater and Pembroke, followed by two hillier loops up to Narbeth and down to Tenby via ‘heartbreak hill’ in Saundersfoot. The whole course was on closed roads, and once again the support from the sidelines was incredible, in particular there was some craziness going on up heartbreak hill with supporters dressed in all sorts of costumes shaking cow bells and cheering on the riders. Adam had a fenomenal time on a borrowed TT bike, completing the course in 5 hours 20, whilst I finished in 6 hours 10 thanks to a bit of a knee niggle slowing me down for the last 40 miles.
Now onto the run! We ditched the bikes and helmets and set out on the 4 lap run course, which included an out and back up the main road out of Tenby and a wiggly section through the narrow streets. It rained for most of the course, but at this point I don’t think either of us cared. Adams pacing was slightly more consistent than mine, as I dropped off during the last lap, but we still finished within 2 minutes of each other at 3 hours 23 for me, and 3 hours 25 for Adam. Thanks to an incredible bike time, Adam came 15th overall and qualified for the world championship in Nice next year, whilst I fortunately do not have to go through that training regime again, and finished 62nd out of a total 1733 finishers. Over 600 people didn’t finish the race, which was the highest DNF rate since the races inception.
I think I can speak for Adam and say that participating in the event was an incredible experience, and I have no regrets whatsoever with parting with the £600 entry fee! If anyone is considering entering an Ironman, all I can say is go for it! You will probably regret doing so at every opportunity up to race day, but running down that red carpet and crossing the line will make it all worthwhile.
A brief video of the event is available here:https://youtu.be/WZwmNkoAtTM?si=IfZBDu3e4BwJq7SX
And a full race movie is here:https://youtu.be/5yhTH7hI7z0?si=RgDv_fCl0rZMBuca
