Mission Accompllished

Where to start?

That would have to be the whole Ironman NZ experience.  
The taper into race week was great, the week leading into race day in Taupo went well.  The only issue was the fickle weather which deteriorated significantly all week, and as many will know lead to the cancellation of the full Ironman race on the Saturday and a substitution with a half Ironman distance on the Sunday.  
While it was better than no race at all it was a huge disappointment to miss out on the end goal.  
That race went well given the circumstances and weather, knocking 15 minutes off my race time compared to the December race over the same course.

Coming back to Australia without the tick in the box was very frustrating.  The race organisers had intimated that there would be some avenue made available to put things right.
At this point I was very frustrated with the whole thing and was struggling to plan, train or even think about it.
While waiting to hear what might be provided by race organisers the training levels were very low, partly due to recovering from the shorter race but mostly due to lack of motivation with no clear goal in mind.
A month later and the goal was back in place.  On April 6th the entry to Ironman Australia at Port Macquarie was confirmed.  The race was for May 6th and this did not leave much time to refocus and get the preparation right.  The training software I use calculates a measure of readiness and this reported a level roughly 10% below the level I had going into the Taupo race.  
As such I went into the race with an even more conservative approach than I originally intended.

I had never been to Port Macquarie but it is a lovely spot to race and the day dawned cold but with a beautiful day was in store.


The Swim

The 3.8km swim is in an inlet area and involved picking a way through a number of moored boats.  It was warmer in the water at 21 degrees than out and the swimming conditions were very good, the inlet location meant the conditions were very calm.  There was still the usual mass thrashing in the water, kicks to the head, goggles knocked, legs and arms swamped by people coming over the top.  My focus for the swim was simply to relax and get to the finish of this leg.  It would be my longest ever swim session and there was no thought given to pushing the pace.  Near the end of the first of the two laps the velcro closure on my wetsuit was starting to dig into my neck.  This became pretty sore and messy and was just another issue to deal with.  After 69 minutes I exited the water very happy to have that leg out of the way.  I walked to the transition tent in no rush to save a few seconds getting out on to the road. 


The Bike

The bike leg was a 2 lap ride out to North Haven and back.  The course had some rolling hills in there, including a very steep uphill 200m section on Mathews Flinders Drive.  The road surface was also quite rough due to some flooding over recent months and there were instances where riders crashed simply due to those road conditions.  
There were only 7 riders who broke 5 hours for the ride which is a very low number and shows that the course was far from an easy one.  On the New Zealand course in 2011 24 riders went under 5 hours on a very wet day. I was pretty happy with Lap 1 and went through the halfway mark in 2:49, or 32kph.  Pretty good going that was not to be maintained.  The end of this lap was the first chance to see the support crew.  My wife Deb, and her sister and niece were about 2k from the turnaround which meant I got to see them twice in very close succession.  A great pick me up at that point.

Just as for the swim this was to be my longest single bike ride and fatigue started to creep in from around 150k onwards.  During the last 30k, which included the main steep uphill sections, I was reduced to an average of around 28kph and this brought the average for the full 180k ride down to 30.5kph.  While tired I did get off the bike feeling pretty reasonable given that over 7 hours had elapsed and was ready to get out on the run.  Total ride time - 5:54.
During the ride I made sure to eat and drink as much as I could and this was to prove important later in the day as I never felt thoroughly drained.


The Run

It is many many years since I last ran a distance greater than a half marathon and 'glass' heels have certainly curtailed my ability to put in the distances required to run properly.  Running is the most demanding of the triathlon legs. It generates the highest heart rate levels and does the most damage to the body. The Ironman does not really start until the run gets underway and it is always intimidating to know that even full time professional athletes can be brought to an abrupt reckoning by the demands of the day topped off with a full marathon.

I started the 4 lap 42.2k run just after 2pm and by now the day was pretty warm but after training in the heat and humidity of Brisbane it was quite pleasant.
The first 4k of the run went through pretty comfortably at a rate of 5:40 per k.  After that initial burst the pace dropped off to about 6:30 per k for the next 17k.  This is terribly slow but understandable,  the problem was that worse was to come.  The race provides splits at various points on the run when timing mats are crossed.  The next two splits were 4k at 7:03 per k and then 6k at 8:39 per k.  There was a fair bit of walking in these sections.  With a lap to go I realised that if I did not buck my ideas up I was not going to break 12 hours.  Going into Taupo my goal was to get as close to 11 hours as possible so this was a real wake up call.  With the help of the support crew who gave me plenty of support throughout the run I managed to pick myself up and drive through with 4k @ 5:40 again before reverting back to around 6:30 per k through to the finish.


End result:  Hearing the race announcer announce those magic words : "Keith Sherman, from Hawthorne, You are an Ironman" was just an amazing feeling as I ran down the raucous finish chute to sneak under the 12 hour mark with a finish time of 11:57:46.  The feeling of finally crossing the line after such a long day and to just stop moving forward was just indescribable. 


After ten odd minutes in the recovery tent, having a bit of a drink and some food I wandered out wrapped in my foil emergency blanket to find the crew waiting patiently.  Stumbling and shivering it was great to see them and know that I was on my way to a spa bath and a glass of celebratory champagne.  

A big thank you to the support crew Deb, Megan and Charmaine for all the support and cheering on the day and to all the followers via txt and web.

More to come soon.
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