Cairns 2011

2011 was a busy year. First up was Cairns in June.

Challenge Cairns was an iron distance triathlon, an ironman in all but name ('Ironman' is a trademark of the World Triathlon Corporation and they guard use of it fiercely). An iron distance triathlon is a 3.8km swim, a 180km bike ride and a 42km run, in the shortest possible time. Male professionals finish one in around 8 hours with the cut-off being 17 hours (the start is at 7am making cutoff at midnight). If you don't finish by the cutoff, you aren't classified as a finisher - no medal, no towel or t-shirt.

I trained using the 30 week 'Just finish' plan from Don Fink's Be Iron Fit book. The plan is time (and heart rate) based rather than distance based which I both like and dislike - good because you know in advance how long your training session will be, but bad because the race itself is distance based, not time based. I trained fairly well, I did probably 90% of the training sessions with regards to duration but plodded along rather than doing the fast interval sets that the plan prescribed. I don't remember exactly what my goal time was - 'just finish' is probably what I told people - but sub-14 hours may have been on my mind, made up of around a 2 hour swim and transitions, 7 hour bike, 5 hour run. I have done a stand-alone sub-four hour marathon so that felt about right, I got to the start line uninjured and was confident I could finish without any problems.

The two lap swim was slow as expected.

I trained with High5 gels, bars and sports drink with no issues on any session - long rides and runs were all fine. However on the morning of the race, for no known reason, I decided that I didn't need any sports drink on the ride - I could manage with just gels, bars and plain water.

Idiotic.

Did I mention that it was 30 - 32 degrees C and that I'm English, sweat a lot, and always do better in cold races?

The result: my quads locked up at 150km on the ride, so badly I had to stop and stretch them out. (Oddly enough this is a cherished memory - I stopped on a small creek bridge, in the shade, and there was no-one in sight or sound, forward or behind me, I was near the back of the pack. A small breeze rustled the trees as I went 'aargghhhh' and tried to stretch my legs out).

I made it to the end of the bike ride, ran about 7km - then the rest of my body started cramping - first legs, then arms, shoulders, hips and, infamously, my tongue. Yes, your tongue can cramp. I could barely walk (due to leg cramps, I don't walk using my tongue) and was asked a couple of times by an ambulance crew if I was OK to continue. I had worked out that I had enough time left that I could walk most of the marathon and still make the cutoff so that's what I did. I collected my medal, the smallest towel that could be given that name (it's known as 'the bar runner' because it's just about the size of those bar towels) and my t-shirt. I was miserable and a complete grumpy sourpuss to everyone who came to support me and was rightly given a good talking too afterwards. It's a long day to spectate too. Lessons learnt: (a) be nice to your supporters however you may be feeling, and (b)  while there may be no scientific evidence to support the use of salt to avoid cramping, my n=1 experiment said differently.

Results:

Swim	Bike	Run	Finish	Gender	Gender Place	Category	Cat Place	T1	T2
1:36:54	6:57:23	6:24:55	15:15:30	M	450	M4044	80	0:06:17	0:10:18

I finished in the 96th percentile - i.e. 96% of the entrants finished before me.

Garmin stats: Swim, Bike and Run (the Garmin cut out before the end, also the heart rate strap wasn't working properly throughout).

The race only ran one year - in 2012 WTC took it over and it became an Ironman branded race. This means I'm one of only about 1500 people worldwide who have a Challenge Cairns finishers medal. Sweet.

Pre race, about to wetsuit up - this may have been the last time I smiled that day.

 I like that one because you can't see my moobs.

This isn't fun any more. Can I go home now? No, you still have another 15km to walk.

I didn't say 'never again' though - how could I? I was already entered for Ironman Western Australia in December 2011. But before that there was a multi-day bike ride to do..