Crazy Ironman Adventure
Date:2 September 2009
After Challenge Roth, I was extremely motivated to get back into training and back into another Ironman as soon as possible. After weeks of trying to decide on races, Natalie and I decided I should be daring and try something I’ve never done before, two Ironman races in just 2 weeks.
So, with only 10 days to go before the race, I entered IM Kentucky, having already entered into IM Wisconsin to be held on 13th of September.
I kept my training hard until Tuesday before the race, including 40km of running on Monday and 130km of cycling on Tuesday. After a mad rush to get all my training in and getting all my kit packed, I boarded the plane en-route to Indianapolis via Joburg, Dakar, and Washington DC. A short 2 hour drive after the 31 hours of flying and hanging out at airports due to a Credit Card malfunction, and I had arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, home of Colonel Sanders’s famous fried chicken, and boxing legend Mohammed Ali.
There was no time to check out the route due to all the press commitments and briefings etc. , so I was going into the race totally blind. This didn’t really bother me as it wasn’t my key race, merely a warm up for Wisconsin. All I knew for sure was that there would be no wetsuits in the swim, and the bike course was pretty hilly (undulating), which suited me fine. No wetsuits was a bit of an issue for me, as I was the only pro in the race without a speed- suit (which is just like an ultra thin wetsuit that caused all the commotion at the latest swimming world champs). But I just shrugged it off and kept telling myself that this wasn’t my main race, just the warm up.
So needless to say, when we got underway the following morning at 6:50am, I quickly got dropped from the leading bunch. I did manage to get into the second group, but had to work really hard to stay there. I was having to swim so hard, that my calves started cramping, and I had to try kick with my feet pointing downward (something swimming coaches always tell us not to do). Luckily I only had to stop once to try stretch the cramp out, so I never lost touch with the group, but we did lose 8 minutes to the leader(comfortably my worst swim result ever), and 4 plus minutes to the front group. But still I wasn’t concerned, I was just doing a warm up.
The first 15km of the bike was flat and fast, but after that it was all either up or down. No major climbs, but hundreds of short steep bumps, followed by short steep downs. I quite enjoyed the ride. I tucked in behind eventual race winner, Ukrainian Victor Zymtsev and German Swen Sundberg, and just followed their pace. My legs were a little heavy and tired on the ups (due to all the training I’m sure), so I had to work hard on the downs to catch back up. But after 120km I was comfortable with the pace being set and managed to keep myself relaxed and easy for the rest of the ride - telling myself I was just warming up. In the end, we didn’t ride too poorly. A 4hr43min cycle saw our group come off the bike in 2nd place, about 8 minutes down on the leader, and eventual 2nd place finisher Luke McKenzie from Australia.
When we started the run I was feeling great. The other two guys had taken off like a shot, but I kept myself back, mindful that I had to do this all again in 2 weeks time. By 15km I was getting a little carried away and managed to catch my two cycling companions again, and then started thinking about a high overall position, so pushed a little harder to try get away. By 21km Victor started pulling away, and being the fantastic runner he is (he ran 2:43 in the end), I didn’t try to go with. I was happy in my 3rd position, the gap to 4th was 3 minutes and I felt really comfortable, so I put it into cruise control and tried to take it as easy as I could to save my legs. I finished in 8hr39min and remember thinking to myself “how easy was that?!!” It honestly felt like nothing more than a long training day.
Next day I did a little jog, Tuesday an hour on the bike, then an 8 hour drive to Madison, Wisconsin, for part 2 of my first ever double header Ironman. It’s Wednesday today, so 11 days until the next big one. I hope I’m properly warmed up, and I hope I’ll have something left in the tank to have another decent race. I’m looking forward to it, so please check in again to see what happens next in Raynard’s crazy Ironman Adventures.
Raynard
| 
News Article
