Post 155 - Edinburgh half-Ironman 2018

I had very high hopes for the Edinburgh half ironman 2018. In the 2017 event I missed out on qualifying for the world championships by less than one second, despite having done very little training, and no running training at all, coming as I was off a torn calf, and having done the race on a road bike (this year I had a proper triathlon bike with a disc wheel). My training this year had been great, I’ve been doing a lot of triathlon racing and had decent results, with a proven very strong run off the bike.

I hoped to finish on the podium in my age group, and claim a world championship qualifying slot. I even had a new set of wheels, to account for possible blustery conditions – in my previous race 2 weeks before, my deep-rimmed front wheel was getting blown around a lot, making for a couple of hairy moments at 30mph... So I’d got myself a slightly less deep front wheel (and a non-disc rear, in case it really was very windy and discs would be banned/downright crazy to ride, at the half-ironman, or at any future races). The bike was serviced, the training was done. I knew the course well. I would even have quite a few supporters out watching, particularly on the run course. I just needed to execute on the day.

Arriving to transition on race morning, there was no wind, the sea was flat, sparkling, blue, almost inviting. I’m well used to race morning preparations and had no issues. I had a new thermal wetsuit which I’d never had on before. I got suited up, it felt good, I went for a short jog up the hill behind transition to get the blood pumping, and got in the queue to start. I pushed my way as close to the front as possible, had a quick chat with Dermot before we started, and had a good clean start to my swim. The thermal wetsuit was great and only my bare feet were cold.

Quick jog up the hill before the start - 

looks peaceful, but the carnage of pre-race transition is behind the camera

The calm water was tremendous. I really like swimming in calm water – what a difference it makes. Compared with last year’s high winds and rough sea, I almost managed to enjoy the swim and felt good throughout. I kept hoping a jellyfish (or other sea monster) wouldn’t spoil it. There was very little argy-bargy and not much to upset the rhythm. On the homeward leg, sighting was made difficult by the low sun directly ahead but I got through it and exited the water in just over 31 minutes – a bit slower than I’d have hoped, but I think the swim was slightly long.

In a previous 1500m Olympic triathlon pool swim I lost well over 4 minutes to last year’s sprint triathlon world/European champion, but in the 1900m Edinburgh half ironman swim, with no tumble turning, I “only” lost around 2 minutes. Extrapolate this back to a 750m open water swim (as will be the case at this year’s sprint triathlon European championships in Glasgow in August), and hopefully I’ll be losing less than a minute.

That was about as good as the Edinburgh half ironman got for me. I had a quick transition, jumped on the bike and got on the road. For all my short triathlons earlier this year I have been able to go flat out, full-gas, hard, for the whole race, without having to worry too much about hydration or nutrition – maybe a couple of gulps of water or one energy gel. The half-ironman is a different beast.

Looking back, I went too hard in the first half of the bike, and didn’t hydrate enough. It was extremely warm, and no doubt I was sweating loads and losing a lot of salts/electrolytes. But, I felt good, and was racing by feel rather than by experience. I don’t have the experience of half-iron distance racing to know how to pace this distance. For the whole bike (over two and a half hours), I doubt I even had a litre of fluid. I didn’t pee once on the bike. I reckon I peed three times last year. For the final 20 miles of the 56, my power output and average speed dropped away pretty pitifully – I went from 270 watts to 280 watts in the first 10-15 miles, and then dropped to under 200 watts by the end. And pushing those 200 watts felt like pushing hell by the end. Plus I was in a lot of discomfort - my helmet is too tight - it's OK for 30 minutes, but for 5 times longer than 30 minutes it gives you a pretty sore head. Also, my shoulders and arms were sore, especially the one I dislocated. 30 minutes in the aero position is OK, over 150 minutes becomes sore... But I told myself I was a strong runner and I’d soon be flying on the run course.

I finished the bike in 2:38 (almost 10 minutes up on last year) and assumed my run would be as strong as it has been in all the other (shorter) races I’ve done this year. It was anything but. I got up the first hill OK, at good pace, but after 1.5 miles I had the most agonising cramps in my legs. Like being stabbed with knives. Horrendous. I’ve never been in pain like it. My legs would not, indeed could not, function with this pain, they were completely debilitated and I was left, almost literally, as a screaming wreck on the side of the course.

I tried everything. I tried massaging them, pummelling them, shaking them, stretching them. Nothing worked. I managed to start some sort of a limp and gradually got back into some sort of a jog, but my pace was a long, long way from what was needed to be competitive. It was really gutting. I had quite a few supporters on course who were surprised to see me in such a state. I managed to swear at my parents. I took on board quite a lot of fluids and gels at the aid stations, but this gave me stomach issues and meant I got very familiar with the port-a-loos. Not where you want to be during a triathlon. I had three more cases of debilitating, painful cramps, and I tried as best I could to just keep moving. It was very demoralising.

Suffering badly

During one cramp episode, another athlete stopped and gave me some salt. I’ve taken electrolytes, gels, bars etc, but I’ve never taken on salt before. It came in a little vial. I unscrewed the lid and tipped it onto the palm of my hand. It looked like flavoured sherbet so I assumed I could just swallow it down, and that it would be refined/made for athletes to easily ingest. How wrong I was – it was just pure salt and I had swallowed down a month’s worth of salt in one fell swoop before I realised. It was horrible – burning my mouth and insides, and I seriously worried about salt poisoning. I had no liquid to dilute it or wash out my mouth. The next aid station wasn’t far away but it took ages to get there and I was foaming uncontrollably at the mouth by the time I got there. I chucked as much water down and around my mouth as I could, but didn’t get much relief.

I did think often about packing it all in and quitting. I really was going nowhere fast. But I thought it was worth finishing – my swim time was strong, my bike time was strong, and even though the run had fallen apart I knew there were world championship qualification slots up for grabs – 50 slots for Nice 2019, and 50 slots for South Africa 2018. I’d been keen to go to Nice, but so was everyone else, as it’s a shorter trip. Probably not as many people would opt to go to South Africa, so I thought there was a chance. But to see if there was a chance, I had to finish.

So I finished. A dreadful day. An awful run. I thought my 1:37 run last year was bad (I had done no running training last year, zero, zilch, and ran 1:37). This year I had been meticulous and had done exactly what I wanted in training. And managed to be over one minute per mile slower than last year. Rubbish. I've lost count of the number of Ironman (or half-Ironman) races I've done now, it's well into double figures, and they have all been a complete disaster in one way or another.

Anyway I finished, and sat in the athletes’ tent afterwards eating pies, not wanting to see or speak to anyone. Finally I bit the bullet and went out and saw my parents, brother and other friends. I’m sure they had been expecting to see a strong run. They saw a shambles. I apologised, went home, showered, and went back for prizegiving.

Hacked off in the athletes' tent afterwards

And the end result of prizegiving was that I left with a qualifying slot for the half-Ironman world championships in South Africa at the start of September 2018. I didn’t take much satisfaction from it though. You want to feel you’ve earned your slot with a strong performance. I certainly didn’t feel like I’d earned it; rather it was more by default. People have said, “Well, finally you got a bit of luck on your side after all the previous Ironman disasters”, and maybe there’s an element of truth in that, but still, it’s not the way I wanted to earn a world championship qualification slot. I can only hope for a better race in South Africa, and I can certainly learn a lot of lessons.

Looking back, it went wrong for a lot of reasons. In the days before the race, it had been roasting hot, difficult to sleep, and I had been sweating a lot. My heart rate had been elevated. Usually it’s in the low 40s, but it was well over 50 and wouldn’t go any lower. So maybe there was some sickness or fatigue or tiredness, not helped by the hot temperatures. 

Also, I don't think my guts had fully recovered from the long run "incident" a couple of weeks ago. In the race, I clearly didn’t take enough calories, liquid, salts/electrolytes on the bike. Partly this was stupidity, thinking the half-ironman wouldn’t be too different from a shorter triathlon. Maybe if race day had been cooler I would have got away with it, or at least suffered less. I had done no sea swimming, so maybe the salt water upset my stomach. I paced the bike terribly, going too hard in the first 20 miles, leaving my legs cooked. Maybe I’d get away with overbiking in a short triathlon because the run only lasts 15-16 minutes, but 13.1 miles is a long way to run on legs that are cooked. Then on the run I didn’t have a lot of discipline at the aid stations and took on a disgusting mix of water, electrolytes, gels, caffeine, as well as the pure salt.

Lessons learned, the hard way. It was only my second half-iron distance race, and the first one I’ve taken really seriously. Up next will be a good few days off, a complete mental switch-off, a cycling trip to Kent, a short “holiday” back at home in Northern Ireland (involving swimming, cycling, and running) and then hopefully I will have recovered. The next big target will be the European sprint triathlon championships in Glasgow at the start of August. I have entered two shorter triathlons (Olympic distance) at the end of July, but I’m not 100% sure I will do both of them, or even any of them – Glasgow is the big target. I will just have to wait and see how I feel and how training is going.

A few random photos from top: Fuel, dad on bike, day out the day after the race at Thriepmuir reservoir. This is literally just outside Edinburgh and a well-known open water swimming location. Need to do this!

Training was as follows:

Mon 18 June 2018: Rest
Tue 19 June: 90 min turbo (10 x 2mins hard/3mins easy)
Wed 20 June: Swim 1.4km (10 x 100yards, ~1:16 (1:23-1:24/100m), recovery to 2mins)
Thu 21 June: 40 min fartlek run
Fri 22 June: 35min turbo (single leg drills, 2 x 5mins R/L/B), swim 1.9km
Sat 23 June: 2:55 bike (41.8 miles, 107bpm, 2600ft)
Sun 24 June: 70 min run

Totals: Swim 3.3km, Bike 87 miles, Run 15 miles

Mon 25 June: Rest
Tue 26 June: 60 min turbo (14 x 1min hard/2mins easy)
Wed 27 June: 30 min fartlek run
Thu 28 June: Swim 1.1km
Fri 29 June: 30 min turbo, 15 min run
Sat 30 June: 30 min bike
Sun 1 July: Edinburgh half Ironman: 31:03 swim, 3:19 T1, 2:39:06 bike, 2:03 T2, 1:54:49 run (5:10:20)

Totals: Swim 3km, Bike 95 miles, Run 20 miles