I've been kidding
myself that, as I was posting little blogs and other morsels in the
run-up to IM Austria, my race report would be a nice, quick affair.
But I'm a writer, and brevity doesn't come naturally; so get the
kettle on, pull up a pew, and make yourself comfortable... we might
be here a while.
My goals and ambitions
heading into Austria were perhaps different to most people's. I'd
done Ironman Wales (12:50) last September and, somewhere along the way, had
forgotten to 'enjoy' it. I know that you don't truly enjoy an Ironman
– not in the same way you do, say, having a nice cold pint on a
summer's day, or watching fat people fall over on YouTube – but I'd
forgotten to 'experience' it and, as a result, didn't feel like I'd
done myself justice on the day. In short, I had unfinished business
with the 140.6 mile distance.
Unfinished business
shouldn't be confused with lofty aspirations. As everything from my
Aerofit scan to the unholy mess of agony and anguish that is my face
after a long run will tell you, I'm very much a short course
triathlete. With that in mind, I set my team coach, Jason, the
unenviable task of prepping me for a UK Sprint Qualifier (I did actually qualify for the GB Team to go to the World Champs in New Zealand but decided to pass on it) and Ironman
Austria, just five weeks apart...
On the whole, I think
it worked well. I felt fit, ready and confident (within reason, of
course – you can always be fitter, faster and more ready but...)
heading over to Austria. I was confident that I was a different
athlete from the one that lined up at Ironman Wales. Just as
importantly, I was mentally in a different place. I spoke with Jason
about the process – swimming hard and trying to find fast feet;
concentrating on heart rate, nutrition and hydration on the bike; a
steady run-walk for the run. It was mentioned that, on a very good
day, a sub-11 hour time may be on the cards; but that smiling and
soaking up the atmosphere and scenery was just as important.
The days before were
fairly undramatic. Describing the Klagenfurt and Worthersee venue as
stunning is a bit like saying Scarlett Johansson is pretty, or
Facebook is popular. It's breathtaking and the lakeside resort
location for the Ironman village – along with Europe's biggest
outdoor sports expo – gives the whole event a real festival
atmosphere.
 |
| a small section of the giant Worthersee |
 |
| the canal that connects the Worthersee with the town of Klagenfurt - part of the canal features at the end of the Ironman swim, and part of the run goes up and down the canal as it runs into town |
Add 2,800 triathletes and their families and the
atmosphere soon becomes electric. Not wanting to tire myself out or
expend too much nervous energy, I headed down to the race village as
necessity demanded – registration, briefing, swim practice, massage
– but then got away back into Klagenfurt town as soon as I was
able.
Everything, I would
say, went like clockwork until the day before the race. If this race
has taught me anything at all, it's that the saying 'man makes plans
and god laughs' possibly applies more to long distance triathlon than
anything else!
On Saturday morning, in
the race briefing, it was revealed that, for the first time in 14
years, the Worthersee was too warm to allow wetsuits. If I were there
for position, this would have been good news for me. As I was sort of
there for time, it was sort of bad news, but no great shakes. Others,
however, saw it differently. The announcement was met with the sort
of loud clamour and screamed questions that I associate with movies
in which a notorious villain is cleared by a corrupt jury on a
technicality. In fact, I was pretty certain that 'wetsuits will not
be allowed' must have sounded very much like the German for 'all of
your family have just been killed by a nuclear bomb'. I saw two women
actually crying.
For me, the bad news
started after lunch. I ate a standard, plain pasta dish from a local
Italian; it made me feel so ill I could hardly eat for the rest of
the day, while my stomach tried to play bongos on my intestines.
Meanwhile, much to everyone's concern – not least, we later
discovered, the organisers' – the unseasonably hot weather that was
the cause of the non-wetsuit swim was only getting hotter and hotter.
In retrospect, there
are a couple of things that I'm glad that I was ignorant of before
race day. First was how many hills were in the course – but we'll
get to that later – second, and most pressing, was just how hot it
would get out there. Official figures had it at 36C but, in the sort
of mind-blowing coincidence that Ironman has a habit of throwing up,
we discovered the sort of 'hilarious after the fact but painful as
hell at the time' truth the next day in the local newspaper and at
the presentation party: not only was Sunday the hottest Ironman
Austria, but the single hottest day in Klagenfurt since records began
(200 years if you've a taste for macabre humour!) and one of the five
hottest days of all time anywhere in Austria! The road temperature on
the big climb reached 41C, with 47C recorded at the finish line!
Being a lake venue, there's unfortunately none of the cooling breeze
that you may get near the sea – so the temperatures soon stack up.
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