Ironman Austria - Race report: Part 1 - the preamble

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.

Part 2 - race day
Part 3 - post-race thoughts
Part 4 - thanks

Ironman Austria: day 3 - ohhh yeahhhh, it's bizniz time!

Not going to prattle on too much today as, in spite of today being the busiest day for 'doing proper stuff' most of that was relatively uneventful.

The day started with the English language briefing. At this point I really need to point out how amazingly slick and well-organised Ironman Austria is. You can tell they've been doing it for ages coz it really is a class act across the board. The briefing was standard except for.... drum roll please... the announcement that the water was too warm for wetsuits.

It's amazing that a group of people who are going to ride 180km and run a marathon can be such lame-ass pussy bitches when it comes to swimming. The room went crazy, hands went up, people started shouting... heck, I think there may have even been tears. Man-up people. As far as I'm concerned, all swims should be non-wetsuit! That, or I get to use a little bike motor and wheels in my run shoes...

No, but seriously, while this obviously works to the advantage of the stronger swimmers in terms of final positions, I was a little disappointed too. I'm focusing on the process rather than the time but I still wanted to do the best time possible, and wetsuits are responsible for a 10% quicker swim in general. Still, is what it is and no point crying over warm water.

Rest of the day: 15 minutes each of swim, bike, run. Bike check-in, bags dropped off, then mainly chilling and trying to commit carbocide (following the Ben Greenfield advice to stay high fat/low carb till the day before and then go nuts on the carbs... let's see how that works!).


Time for movie in bed now. I'm not one of life's great sleepers, especially before a big race when I find it extra hard to drop off, and last time around I think I got about 90 minutes of sleep. So just not going to force it tonight - the benefit of all those heinous 2-3am bike starts in Dubai is that tomorrow's 4.30 wake-up seems like a lie-in.


Final thoughts: Austria is supposed to be a pretty quick course and I can, therefore, only assume that the bike is 30k short and the run is only 30k... we ahve a non-wetsuit swim on a swim course that, apparently, measures a bit long; then, seeing T1 today, it involves getting out of the canal, running through the Swiss cheese hotel and crossing a main road (which I assume is closed, rather than us having to dodge the traffic or wait for the lights to turn red...) before getting anywhere near the huge transition! My T1 could be longer than my swim split!


Oh well, whatever, this time tomorrow...

prepping bag before dropping them at transition

the steed is ready to roll

huge transition - this is about quarter of it!

bikes being checked on the way in

there's an amazing festival atmosphere down in the race area - very cool

swim exit from canal

then you run under this bridge at the Swiss cheese hotel

down along this road in front of Swiss cheese hotel (don't think that's its official name, by the way!)

then across the main road and down that road opposite...phew!

   

Ironman Austria: day 2 - more chilling...

(couldn't be bothered arranging pics artfully so find them all at the bottom)

A great second day in Klagenfurt as the town and lake front really came alive with all things Ironman. I made an early start and took a bus down to the lake where I did a 35 minute swim and the water was every bit as lovely and clear as it looks fro the side. It's certainly not cold but I wasn't baking hot getting out either so it came as a surprise to hear that wetsuits may not be allowed as the water's too warm - we get a decision tomorrow. In terms of final age group positions, a non-wettie swim helps me but it's not so good if going for the time.

After that I met Sean (lives in Fujairah and we have several friends in common) and he's a lovely bloke - nice to have a bit of company throughout the day. He's been here for a few days now and ridden the bike course twice and was telling me about it. Everyone seems to agree that it's not an easy bike and feels very testing while out there, but just seems to produce good times.

I had a massage from a local Austrian lovely who could have doubled as a Baywatch babe - not the worst part of my day by some way - then had lunch with Sean at a nice caff along the lake before coming back to town for a 15 minute run and a few hours of relaxing.

Tonight was the pasta party - I only stayed for an hour or so but, like the rest of this huge event (2,800 competitors!), it was incredibly well organised and good fun. The highlight being a 20 minute dance-acrobatics demo from a big group of Danish kids. Superb!

Hoe early - going to watch a movie on the laptop with a glass of wine and hope to get a really good, long sleep. Tomorrow we get down to business with the race briefing, bike and bag check-in.

bridge over the canal that the last 1k of the swim goes down

part of race village

more pics of beautiful worthersee

race expo - apparently europe's largest outdoor sports show 

pasta party

Ironman Austria: day 1 - arriving in Klagenfurt

The fun and games from the airport continued a little once on board the plane - let's just say Austrian Airlines won't be winning any awards for luxurious facilities or sufficient leg room in the near future - which meant I got a few minutes' sleep here and there. From Vienna Airport, a couple of trains got me to the main station and then it was a relatively pleasant and extremely picturesque four hour train journey to Klagenfurt.

view from the train

I'm going to blame tiredness over stupidity but, at the first time of asking, I sort of snoozed past Klagenfurt and it was only when I saw the Ironman village that I realised. So I had to get off at the next station and catch another train back. 

not Klagenfurt

This did allow me to see the Worthersee lake and the top part of the run course and, I have to admit, the bright turquoise waters of the lake totally took my breath away.

Eventually, I got to my hotel, unpacked but couldn't be bothered to put my bike together so I went for a wander around town and decided to go down to check out the Ironman village and register before it got busy - usually on Friday. 

view from the hotel

The town is lovely - sort of small, traditional city with lovely architecture that is joined to the Worthersee by a several kilometre long canal which is also where part of the swim takes place and part of the run follows. The walk was much longer than I expected but gave me the chance to recce that section of the run course.

the canal

optimistic graffiti artists

Registering was straightforward, and the expo was impressive. It was, as predicted, still quiet but there were loads of stores, some selling brands I've never heard of. I looked around for 10 minutes and bought a couple of CO2 cannisters I needed, then had an ice cream down on the beach overlooking the lake. Beautiful.

Back to the hotel, bike together and it was time for a ride. I rode the first 15km or so of the 90k loop (it's a two lap bike course) and it's fair to say that it's anything but flat. But the rolling terrain is lovely, continually asking questions and forcing you to concentrate. A road block on the way back meant I had to divert inland and tackle a couple of decent-sized hills. I span up very easy but I don't think a couple of hills will have done me any harm. It was a really enjoyable ride and the road surface is almost as good as in Dubai.

more Worthersee views from the bike ride

After a shower, I went to the town square to wattch the Germany v Italy match with several hundred others but only lasted 20 minutes. 

imagine if Austria were actually in the Euros!

may need one of these for my bike come Sunday

streets of Klagenfurt

I was too tired and wasn't in the mood - home for pizza and a glass of wine was a much better idea. All in all, a good day here in lagenfurt with the only downside being that organisers are talking of temperatures reaching 37C on Sunday. I may have the advanatge of coming from Dubai but I still don't like or race well in the heat, so I'm about to say a little prayer for clouds before going to bed.