Post 49 - Ironman Wales post race

Having crossed the finish line, I got my finisher’s medal from the mayor. She looked thrilled to be there, and a little bit in awe of the finishers. The medical people asked me if I was OK. I don’t know if “OK” would be the right word to describe my state, but I told them I didn’t need any medical help.

Although I had faded badly in the second half of the marathon and had been embarrassingly and pathetically slow in the last two laps, and although I knew I was nowhere near the Kona standard, I will still quite well up the field and there weren’t many athletes about the finish area. I had come 50^th overall out of 2100, and 15^th in my age group out of over 300. I had a bit of a chat with one of the finish line volunteers. He knew he would be busier later in the day. He said how inspirational it all was, and how much of an achievement it is to finish an Ironman. I thanked him very much – all the volunteers do a great job. Wales, Pembrokeshire, and Tenby did a great job.

On reflection, although I was massively disappointed that 2014 hadn’t gone to plan, and that the second half of the marathon in Wales had been such a disaster, it hadn’t been a nightmare of a day. Despite this being race number 4 where I have almost qualified for Kona, and despite all the effort, time, sacrifice and money that goes into it, I have to look at the positives. The weather was great. My support crew seemed to have enjoyed it. I didn’t crash, or wreck my knee. I’d finished the race. 5 days before Wales, my knee was so bad that I could barely walk up and down the stairs, and I had no idea if I’d even get past the swim. I knew I wasn’t in top form going into Wales, and I had still managed to compete reasonably well until the back end of the marathon. I know that if I can go into an Ironman in top form, with no problems, I can qualify for Kona.

I saw all my support guys at the finish – my mum and dad, Elise, Matt, Steve and Natalie. I had given them a tin of tuna that I wanted to eat if/when I finished, so I took it off them and headed for the athlete’s tent. I didn’t need medical attention, but I was already getting really cold, so I grabbed a space blanket, wrapped myself up, grabbed the post-race pizza and took a seat. The pizza was horrible. I couldn’t eat it. I could barely eat the tuna either, but I forced it down me. The protein would do no harm. I had a bottle of water and it was great – cool, tasteless and hydrating – exactly what I needed. I started to warm up again. I then went and had a massage.

I milled around in the finisher’s tent for a bit longer, chatted to a couple of people, got my finisher’s T-shirt, and went back outside to meet the others. We headed back to the hotel via transition, where I picked up my bike and transition bags.

 

 

I was shortly in the shower, along with various items of equipment that I needed to rinse – my wetsuit, bike shoes, running shoes, swimming hat, goggles, earplugs, shorts, compression socks, bike socks and running socks. It’s a good idea to rinse it all as soon as possible, otherwise it really starts to stink. After a while in the shower, I was done. I hung everything up as best I could and flopped onto the bed. The finish line was also visible from the room, and we could hear the music, the cheering, and the finish line announcer. I felt a bit flat. I continue to visualise crossing the line knowing I have qualified for Kona, and the euphoria it would bring. But right now, there was none of that. I was sore. Sore legs. Sore knees. Sore neck. Sore torso. Sore head. My stomach had calmed down a bit. 

I didn’t feel too hungry, but we went out for dinner. We saw people still running the early stages of their marathons. They’d be going until nearly midnight. There were still crowds of people out, and the atmosphere was still great. We found a restaurant and I had a chicken burger, some chips, and a beer. I could barely eat or drink. I forced the burger down, and couldn’t finish the beer. Runners were passing outside the window.

By this stage, I knew that if I had run a 3:30 marathon, I would have been going to Kona. A 3:30 Ironman marathon should be no problem to me, given that my half marathon PB is 1:11. I kept asking myself, “Why didn’t you just run harder in the second half?!” But I also had to keep telling myself that I could have done no more. It was like last year in Wales, when I finished one position away from qualifying from Kona. I kept asking myself “Why didn’t you just run a bit faster?” But again I had to keep telling myself that when I was out there running the marathon, I was doing the best I could, and couldn’t have done more.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel via the finish line. It was after 11pm. Athletes were still coming in. The atmosphere was electric. It was quite humbling. The weather was good this time round. Last year, at 11pm at the finish line, it was blowing a gale, and lashing rain. We watched a few people finish their Ironman race, and then we headed back to the hotel. I decided it wasn’t worth getting up early to go to the awards. There was no way the Kona slots would roll down to 15^th. If I had been 8^th, it would have been worth going. But 15^th? No chance.

So we had a bit of a lie-in the next morning. I had a massive dirty fried breakfast and we packed up, said our farewells and thank-yous to Lee and Laura, and got on the road. And so finished my 2014 Ironman season. Thanks to everyone who has helped – you know who you are! I’m sure I’ll blog soon about my thoughts and plans for trying again, but for now, it has been a long day of typing over 7000 words and sorting out my photographs!