The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 8,700 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 15 years to get that many views.
Click here to see the complete report.
Sport is a great leveller and teaches us so many important lessons about Life!
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength,” according to ArnoldSchwarzenegger.
I think one has to acknowledge that this is quite an appropriate quote and particularly apt for Ironmen athletes. Sometimes we get the outcome we desire and train so very hard for, but more often than not we struggle, we persevere, we suffer hardships, but very importantly we decide not to surrender.
One of the most significant races in my Ironman career to date was arguably the 2009 Specsavers Ironman, where I endured a 6hour 15 min marathon run to finish one of my hardest days in sport. But, it was days like that where I persevered, although I contemplated quitting, that have made all of my races since that day a little bit easier.
Most successful people in life achieve because they consciously cultivate good habits and finishing, like winning, becomes a habit. Appreciating each and every opportunity becomes a habit and there were quite a number of South Africans who were afforded the opportunity of testing themselves at the World Ironman 70.3 Championships in Las Vegas on Sunday.
There were no medals or titles for the South Africans (although ex South African Darren De Reuck now a US Citizen won Gold in the 45-49 AG) but there were lessons learnt, experiences gained and friendships forged.
The upside down flag!! L to R: Darren De Reuck (new World Champ 45-49), Alec Riddle, Abel Esterhuysen and Paul Wolff
I was up bright and early to get to the Swim start, as T1 closed at 06h00 and you could feel the excitement and tension as the American National Anthem was sung and the Pros were cut loose at 06h30. I was in wave 4 with all males 50 and older at 06h45, so it was quite a large group, but I got a reasonable start and felt I was swimming well, but was a tad disappointed with my time (same as last year).
Swim start
I had a much better Transition and got going on the bike and immediately one could feel the temperature climbing. The conditions were certainly a little tougher on the bike this year, but I also had to work much, much harder to try and stay in touch with the leaders in my Age Group and wasn’t climbing as well as I did last year.
Biking into T2
Still managed a 2h38 bike split and dismounted 5-6 minutes off the lead going into the run, so was still quite hopeful I could make a run at the leaders, as I really think my running is better than this time last year (although it’s not showing just yet).
The run was like a furnace with the temperature climbing to 103 Degrees F by mid-day, but I set off on the first lap trying to run conservatively. By the end of the first lap, try as I might to get into a decent rhythm I could not and it was as if my engine was mis-firing. It was kind of surreal as here you are in a World Championship race and there is no petrol and you are running on empty.
Starting the run
So mid way through the half marathon I knew I wasn’t going to defend my title successfully, so now it was a case of can I get onto the Podium? Well we all know now that I could not and as hard as I tried there were far better prepared athletes on the day than me who were worthy winners of the medals in my category, but I struggled on and persevered, finishing ninth in 5 hours and some change.
Disappointing? Most definitely, as you want to do your best, you train very hard, you sacrifice so much, as do many others close to you, but it is these tough days that make the good days more enjoyable. So I’m still coming to terms with my disappointment, I’m still trying to digest the events of the day and to work out what I could have done differently, as we can learn a great deal from our mistakes.
I’m sure that many other South Africans who participated in Las Vegas will have similar stories to tell, but rest assured everyone prepares as best they can, everyone strives to perform to the best of their ability, but there are very often 100 of the best age groupers in each division. This year it wasn’t to be for me personally, but I will be back for more and I salute the winners on the day for preparing and performing brilliantly in extreme conditions.
Man down in the Massage Tent!
I was very grateful to once more have an opportunity to learn more about life and sport, on this incredible journey. Next stop Kona!
In a world where people are often measured in terms of wealth, material possessions or status, how would you define being the Best or being Successful?
A dictionary may define best as “of the most excellent, effective, outstanding or desirable type or quality!” That is a pretty good definition, although it is very broad.
Remember, there is nothing noble about being superior to someone else, the true nobility lies in being superior to your previous self.
So in a material world where far too often we are judged in terms of worldly standards, I thoroughly enjoyed the book entitled ‘The Training Camp” by Jon Gordon.
The book is a Fable about excellence and talks about what the Best do better than others. There are 11 key lessons and I thought they may be worth sharing, as these are things we can all strive towards in an effort to become better, or more successful. For more on this, follow the link….. http://ironmansa.com/2012/09/04/eleven-traits-of-the-best-of-the-best/
The past week and my final week in Boulder:
As mentioned previously the highlight was the arrival of my Family and it has been wonderful to be able to show them where I have prepared, to introduce them to new friends and show them some of the beauty of Boulder.
It’s been a busy week, with the kids running in the East End 2km, the Boulder Creek 5km and enjoying a tough 3km swim session with Flatirons Swim Coach Wolfgang Dittrich. This afternoon both Camryn and Jamie will be having a personal swim session with 5 times World Champion Simon Lessing and tomorrow they both spend a day at school in Boulder.
Camryn, Dad and Jamie pre the Boulder Creek 5km
This past week was a good week from a training point of view, as I seemed to come out of my little ‘training slump’, the highlight of the week being a 40km bike time trail, with a 10km run off the bike and for me, the numbers were very positive. You see I’m one of those people who are not the best of trainers, in the sense that I generally need and thrive on competition to dig deep and work at a higher level. I’ve always struggled to produce good training sessions (unless somebody irks me), so very often I’m going into races never knowing my true form, but simply putting in the hard yards and believing in my ability to dig deep and fight to the bitter end.
Yesterday (Sunday) I concluded my Boulder training ‘block’ with a 4 hour bike ride up to Raymond and Ward (9,000+ feet) and it’s great to be able to climb for almost 2 hours at an average heart rate of 118, when 3-4 weeks ago the average HR was 30 beats higher. To me that is progress, not sure if it is the acclimatization to the altitude, fitness improvement or simply taking it easier, but I do know that my brain is able to turn those numbers into a positive. So now it’s time to back off, idle and look forward to a great game of Chess in Las Vegas at the World 70.3 Championships.
I mention Chess, as these races require an inordinate amount of patience and you very often have to react to your opponent’s moves, before striving to knock the Pawns off one by one and seeking that elusive check mate. Also treating the race as a game of Chess certainly helps to take the mind off the real pain that our body and mind has to endure, in order to be able to persevere and produce our best.
Perseverance is not about talents, nor time…. It is about Finishing!!
Perseverance does not demand more than we have, but all that we have.
Perseverance recognizes life is not a long race, but many short ones in succession.
So while I thought I knew a lot about Sport, I have realized that every day, every training session and in particular every competition presents another opportunity for me to learn more about Life, about persevering, about trying to be the best that I can be. This has been an incredible Journey where I am able to learn more about Him and who I am.
Pastor Bob Richards, an Olympic Pole Vaulter says “people are inspired when they see themselves as they can become and not as they are. It’s when they see themselves, not in terms of their weaknesses and shortcomings or failures….But in terms of what they can be, when they begin to believe they can be what their vision tells them…. That’s when they’re inspired.”
In this sporting Journey of mine I have tried to focus on seeing myself as I could become and no longer as I was and I certainly hope that I have learnt from my experiences along the way and that I could in some small way aspire to the Lessons learnt in the Training Camp.
Incidentally, the Journey has been more rewarding to me than any medals or accolades achieved along the way. In the Training Camp they talk about the Journey being more important than the Destination and that the Moment is more important than any success or failure and I would have to agree with this, as it is the opportunity that is the success and the reward.
“Success is like wrestling a gorilla. You don’t quit when you’re tired,
you quit when the gorilla is tired.” –unknown.
So the past two weeks has seen me training very hard (http://ironmansa.com/2012/08/27/key-training-block/) , possibly a little too hard, or more likely it’s the accumulative fatigue of 4 weeks of training, but with Kona still 7 weeks away, hopefully I am building a strong foundation for the toughest Ironman on Planet Earth.
One thing that athletes pushing themselves at or close to their limit need to factor in, is ‘recovery’ and very often the questions are how much can my body take, how hard can I push? The key question though is how much recovery do I need, without being considered (by yourself) soft? I’ve often heard that you need to push yourself through immense fatigue to toughen up for an Ironman, but this level of fatigue can lead to overtraining, illness or injury, so one has to be very careful. (To read more on this see….. http://ironmansa.com/2012/08/27/overtraining-tough-it-out-or-recover/)
The undoubted highlight of my trip to date was being reunited with my family this past Saturday, after being apart for a month. One can never underestimate the importance of family, the unconditional love and support that we receive and I am already experiencing the benefits of their arrival, with a couple of nights of great sleep. Undisturbed sleep will certainly aid recovery, something I have been struggling with a little of late.
This past week we saw the USA Pro Cycle Tour meander through Colorado and one of the best days of racing happened right here in Boulder. We spent the afternoon in and out of a Pizza place on Broadway, near Lee Road where the race came past. It was great to see Jens Voigt leading the breakaway pack, which included eventual stage winner Rory Sutherland.
I was also fortunate to visit the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, for the Gotye Concert, supported by Missy Higgins, which was quite a highlight. 
The previous week I had a near miss, if you can call it that, when I was in the latter part of a tough bike workout and became a little dizzy and disorientated. I had stopped at the traffic lights and when they turned Green, must have been thinking I was back in South Africa, as thought I could just clip my cleats in and proceed left. Unfortunately I didn’t have right of way and found myself turning into oncoming traffic and luckily for me the oncoming driver was very alert and braked quite hard, slowing down sufficiently to avoid sending me careering over his bonnet. Fortunately I got up, dusted myself off and both my bike and I were fine, but quite shaken up and the irony was that the accident happened about a mile from where I had broken my collar bone in 2010.
Besides doing the Heart and Soul Half Marathon (a Boulder Running Company event with Mark Plaatjies and Johnny Halberstadt at the helm) as part of my long run, I also did the weekly stroke (1.5k swim) and stride (5k run) at the Boulder Reservoir this past Thursday.
So quite a full two weeks have just sped by, it’s a little more than a week till we leave for Las Vegas, which should provide me with quite a stern test being the World 70.3 Championships. One thing is for sure, I should have a good idea on my progress as I build towards Kona. To all my South African friends, Spring is just around the corner, so don’t forget to set some goals, develop some plans and chase them enabling you to enjoy summer (life) without regrets.
Thanks to everyone for their support, the words of encouragement are much appreciated and a big thanks to my sponsors too.
The past two weeks (week 4 and 5) in Boulder have seen me put in some really hard work but the accumulative fatigue has definitely caught up with me, so needed a little backing off (http://ironmansa.com/2012/08/27/overtraining-tough-it-out-or-recover/).
Some key sessions and insights:
For my run training in Boulder, I train with the RRB club, under head coach Darren De Reuck and we normally do two quality sessions and one long run a week. As i’m eager to do well in Kona, I’m pushing my limits somewhat (fortunatly I recognise that) and my 4th week totalled 100km, but it was last weekend that probably knocked me back somewhat.
On the Saturday I did 22km, including a hard track workout (3 sets of 800/1600/800 with 2 min recovery and 3 min between sets) and when you are doing a mile sub 5:50 (or sub 3:40/km) the 2 minutes between intervals is barely enough recovery, so over the course of the whole session you accumulate a lot of fatigue and experience some serious Oxygen Debt. This was immediately followed by a hardish 3km swim workout.
Ideally I should have ensured I had a few days easy running to recover, but when you are pushing boundaries you tend to push them till something gives. So the next morning I was doing the Heart and Sole Half Marathon, as part of a 34km long run and although I was awmazed out how comforatble I felt, running 21km in sub 1h40 and 2h 50min all in all (including stops), the accumulative fatigue would soon sneak up on me.
Bear in mind the previous weekend over 3 days I had done a 160km bike ride, 32 km of running and a quality session, which totalled 20km, plus 2 big swim sessions, so this wasn’t just a sudden ‘hit’. Anyway the Monday was an active recovery day and then Tuesday I did a 17km Fartlek session on tired legs (but was moving well), followedd by a swim and then a 50km bike pacing test. This started to show that there was too much fatigue in the legs, but still I was pushing on.
Wednesday I had an easy 1h40 min run on the trails, it was very hot and I think I was a little dehydrated, which wasn’t clever…. took the rest of the day off.
Thursday I needed to do 6 x 10 min hills on the bike, aiming for some decent Watts, but struggled to hold the Watts after the third one and although I completed the session, I knew my legs were shot. Ian Rodger, who has been helping me with my biking picked it up a lot earlier than I did and had been trying to cut my cycling back for a few days, but I had been compounding the problem by continuing to push hard on the run side.
Anyway, seems we are on the same wave length now and I’ve cut the running back a lot, which will freshen the legs up quite considerably and I could already feel less fatigue when I rode 160km yesterday, at about 34km/hr average for most of the ride, except the final 20km when I just spun easy.
So this week and next will be very low key runwise, while the bike (and the swim) requires another big week (for Kona) before I start a mini taper into Las Vegas.
Lessons Learnt:
1. Listen to your body.
2. Don’t think you are a young Pro, when you are almost 52.
3. Watch for any signs of over training.
4. You need more recovery than you think you need.
5. Running can hurt your body (more than biking and swimming).
6. Rather arrive at the race 100% helathy and 90% fit, than 90% healthy and 100% fit. You will have a far greater chance of doing well.
7. Where possible seek the input of an independant 3rd party or coach, as you are training in a cocoon and want to push hard, to prove you have what it takes.
8. Lots of Recovery required, massage and in my case, Compression Boots and/or Ice Baths, as have access to great facilities at All Sports Recovery.
Another thing that athletes pushing themselves at or close to their limit need to factor in, is ‘recovery’ and very often the questions are how much can my body take, how hard can I push? The key question though is how much recovery do I need, without being considered (by yourself) soft? I’ve often heard that you need to push yourself through immense fatigue to toughen up for an Ironman, but this level of fatigue can lead to overtraining, illness or injury, so one has to be very careful.
Over the past two weeks I encountered one of those ‘slumps’ and very often you try to push through, thinking I need to tough this out. Fortunately, I’ve been training with Heart Rate, Power Meter (bike), Speed and Perceived Exertion all of which are indicators athletes use to look for progress in their training. However, we can also use these indicators to see if we have hit a Plateau or have stopped making progress and an old friend, Ian Rodger, who has been helping Conrad Stoltz has been giving me some training input on my cycling and made a few very interesting observations.
Although the indicators came through in a couple of cycle ‘test’ sessions, the extreme fatigue in my legs had been caused by running much harder and longer than I had been accustomed to. Add the altitude, heat and ‘struggling to sleep’ into the mix and you have a number of additional stressors that can impact your body, over and above the swim, run, biking.
So I was heading for a case of overtraining, something I would have struggled to pick up myself as being an athlete, you are very much in a cocoon and don’t see it coming, as you want to tough it out. It so often takes an independent 3rd party to witness the signs and to recommend additional rest, so I was grateful not necessarily for the couple of rest days, but for the opportunity for the body to absorb what I had subjected it to, with the knowledge that I will rebound stronger, fitter and fresher.
Spotting the signs is one thing, doing something about it is another. People say we need courage to train hard, but I think the hard training is the easy part, as it goes with the turf ,if you have the time and especially the appropriate training environment like I’m currently experiencing. To me it takes far greater courage for an athlete to tone things down, to back off what they truly believe they need or to change their training programme.
Last year I noted that I had done an extremely good track session (super fast times for me at altitude) and fortunately Paul Wolf, a fellow triathlete and former Biokinetician, who knows sport very well, picked up on it and wrote me a reply warning me of over doing it. That was the perfect mail, with the perfect timing and I backed off, tapered well and ended up having a great race in Las Vegas, whereas I had planned to push for one more week… it could have been disastrous.
This year my main focus is Kona, although I am also racing Las Vegas 70.3, so I am doing a lot of extra training, longer runs, more weekly mileage, longer bike rides, swims, etc, etc. Once you add disturbed sleeping patterns, high altitude, heat and stronger training partners into the mix, you have training stresses that you are not accustomed to, you are highly motivated and have all the time in the world, so you are pushing as best you can.
So a week ago Sunday I had just concluded my best ever training week (see http://ironmansa.com/2012/08/27/key-training-block/), 100km of running including a super fast track session followed the next day by a long run, plus biking and swimming. I thought things were going great and was ready for the next week (just gone by). Then I did a light Fartlek session, followed by a swim on Tuesday and a tough bike workout in the late afternoon and sent the data back to Ian, who immediately recognised the HR was higher than expected for the session and the Watts I was pushing, so he had me back off on Wednesday.
Thursday was another test/tough bike session on Jamestown Hill. Once again the data was not what it should be so a total day off on Friday and must be honest was glad to say goodbye to that 120km ride, as my body was tired. Saturday was a relatively easier day, followed by a 160km ride yesterday at a very good average for me, so I think I’m getting back to full strength, I think I’ve absorbed the hard workloads, I think the recovery has kicked in and now we can look forward to the next 7 weeks of preparation for Kona.
I would recommend that you think of your body as you would a sponge used for washing cars, if you use the sponge regularly every day, day after day, it may lose it’s shape or elasticity and need to be replaced (in the body’s case it may need some rest and recovery or it gets ill/injured). If you use the sponge sparingly, it almost always returns to it’s normal shape and is ready for another session. The challenge is finding the balance.
As an experienced athlete and coach, you know that you will experience 2 or 3 slumps in a 12 week training period, especially when long distance travel (time zones), altitude and heat are added into the mix. I experienced a mini one in the first week of arriving, a full blown one this past week, now I need to keep an eye out for the next one, unless I keep the training nice and balanced.
The good news is that I had this ‘extreme fatigue’ in and out of my body a good fortnight before Las Vegas, so hopefully I may be on an upward curve going into Las Vegas, which is what we as athletes are always aiming for. Hold Thumbs!!
Probably not much to report, other than this was a fun day in very warm weather and a great prep to see where I am with my fitness and my training. The only non-fun part was the Oxygen deprivation at this altitude!
I cycled down to the check in and transition at 05h30, to check in my bike and kit (transition closes 06h20 and the Pros start at 07h00) and then it was a long wait till my wave at 07h45. It was actually quite a surprise to be introduced by the announcer, along with cancer survivors and war veterans as we waited in the water (every age group has their own starting wave). I once again started too fast, probably because of the Altitude and I blew up horribly in the swim so that hurt, both physically and mentally.
Due to the poor swim I started the bike fairly conservatively because I was scared of the altitude, but felt so comfortable at the end of lap one (1h14), that I decided to push the second lap (1h08) and I was breathing heavily and my legs were screaming for levity, but I kept on pushing wanting to run on tired legs.
Into bike transition and I saw a bike or two in our racking area, so knew there was still a couple of guys in my age category ahead, but was determined not to punish my running legs. Even so I had trouble slowing down the first lap and it is amazing what a difference a week makes at altitude, as last Saturday I struggled to run 4:30’s for a 3 mile interval but this week I was comfortable at 4:30’s for the first few kilometres of the run off the bike, which was most pleasing.
Enjoyed some support from Conrad and Liesel Stoltz out on the run course and also at the Boulder Coaching Refreshment Station, which always helps. Ran fairly comfortably all the way and backed off even more on the second lap to finish in 4h 43 min, then had some pizza, a massage, packed my wetsuit and kit and cycled home. Tried to call the family, but they were sleeping already and then checked the results, to discover I had finished 3rd to two very good age group racers Terry Nugent (4h30) and Dave Clark (4h34) and I will have to keep an eye out for them in Las Vegas.
Thanks once again to my sponsors, in particular Isuzu, to my supportive family, to my work colleagues and employers and to my hosts here in America.
Boulder 70.3
IRONMAN: ‘Anything is Possible’
In this Ironman Race Report I’m going to share with you the Mental Challenges (Demons) that I and am sure that many of us face when we are striving to go to places we haven’t been before. Yes, I am opening myself up to scrutiny in a sense (never easy) and the reason I am doing so is that I think many others go through similar mental roadblocks and hopefully this may help a few of them to work (better) through such situations in the future.
If there is one thing I’ve learnt by doing Ironman competitions is that if you can prepare for an Ironman and complete it, then ‘Anything is Possible’ in your life going forward. It’s such a mental challenge (physical too) that it raises your ceiling and you start to believe what was previously thought impossible.
It is easier to cast a Vision, set bigger goals and dream mighty dreams once you’ve completed an Ironman as you are able to see yourself as you can become, as opposed to viewing yourself as you are now, which is very often the major obstacle that prevents us from chasing our Dreams.
I can tell you that I thought I was exceptionally well prepared for IM this year and mentally I was in a good place. Sure I had not done as much cycling as in previous years (due to training partner Raynard Tissink having moved to Cape Town), but I had worked and improved both my swimming and running quite considerably, or so I thought. If there was one concern it was that in race week I didn’t rest enough and I tried to do a little too much in helping other people participating in IM. Having said that many people are working a full week leading up to IM but I guess for me it was a little foreign and draining.
The weather conditions did not worry me in the least, as my motto is the ‘tougher the better’, but for the sake of the event, the majority of the participants and the spectators I would be happy with calmer conditions and the possibility of a fast time. Not to be though, so time to focus on the job at hand and embrace the weather conditions!
It was icy cold pre-dawn, probably close to 10 Degrees and I was getting ready for the start with fellow competitor and friend Graeme Gill and we had to strip off our warm tracksuits in the pouring rain to put on our wetsuits…. Brrr! Lucky to bump into my wife Michelle after double checking bike/nutrition in Transition and then it was down to the start area (lost Graeme along the way) and I was fortunate to bump into another friend, Roger Hooke, a man who knows the sea better than anybody and did I tap into his knowledge, which helped my swim immensely… thanks Roger!
The 15 minutes before the start was unbelievable, the atmosphere, the excitement, the nerves, the anthem… it was mind boggling as always. A quick little Prayer and then the Cannon fired and we were off and this was my first trouble free start/swim to the first Buoy. The first lap was quite a breeze (excuse the pun), but the second lap was a beast of note, especially the back straight towards the harbour. However, I was swimming very well or was under the impression I was going well in my brand new Orca 3.8 wetsuit, which incidentally is the best wetsuit I have ever worn, wow the development of wetsuits has come a long way since 1990.
I exited the water frozen to my core and when I saw the time going into the transition tent (70 minutes), I was a little disappointed, but in hindsight seems the swim wasn’t too bad for me. Anyway a lightning slow transition (probably because I was shivering from the cold and thank goodness I had packed my arm warmers) and I was off on the bike to face the dreaded gale, which I think if it had raised it’s ugly head an hour earlier, the swim may have been called off. Race Director Paul Wolf and his team did an amazing job once again, but he must have had a few anxious moments late in the swim, for the safety of some of the slower swimmers.
Note: The Pros and top AG’s were 15-20% slower than normal on the swim, equating to 20-28 minutes slower for those trying to beat the swim cut-off, so to those who did make the swim a big congratulations and to those who didn’t keep trying as that was mean. You will never fear another Ocean or Ironman swim again!
The 180km bike ride (3 laps) was going to be a test of nerves, a test of survival and a battle of the mind and it wasn’t going to be made any easier by the fact I would ride past my tempting driveway (home) six times. Well it didn’t take me long to realise I was going to have to ride on feel, as my computer was malfunctioning (perhaps the rain) and I had made a Primary School error and forgotten my Garmin in my hotel room (which I managed to get from Chris and Michelle Howes at Personal Seconding at the end of the first lap….. thanks guys for your support and help throughout the race). All good I thought, as one needed to beware of overcooking the legs into the headwind, so I took things easy into the wind and rode within myself with the wind, but unfortunately I realised early on that my ‘bike legs’ had deserted me and I knew I was in for a tough race.
Note: One thing I have learnt in my training and with a Power Meter, is how easy it is for the Watts (Power Output) to sky rocket on the uphills and into a strong wind, so we were facing a lethal concoction of both all the way to the turn. Hence, the need to restrain yourself and ignore a computer staring you in the face at 15km/hr if you want to have legs for the later laps and the run.
This Ironman was becoming an Ironman with a difference! Yes, they all present unique mental and physical challenges, but this was a race where one had to try and work with what you have on the day, the hand you are dealt and we had all been dealt a tough hand. As much as I say you have to try and work with what you have, this was one of my biggest mental examinations. Picture the situation, you have won the 2011 70.3 World Championships in your Age Group (so you are a marked man); you have recently been named Isuzu’s Ironman Brand Ambassador which had got off to a bad start with the East London 70.3 (5 punctures and 35th place in my Age Group) so you are feeling the pressure; you have sacrificed a great deal from a family and a work point of view; you have trained your butt off and you are pursuing a 27 year goal of going to Kona? There is a mighty big Monkey you need to get off your back and it is all going very pear shaped all too early!!!!
As I had mentioned my ‘riding legs’ weren’t feeling quite there, but initially you try and over-ride the negative thoughts, believing it may be the wind, but then a few local Ironmen come past you (guys who you normally ride similar too) and the mind begins to wonder? I’m talking about guys coming past when you are looking for parking in comparison, it’s sort of mind blowing to say the least and a fairly unfamiliar experience.
So it was a case of trying to be patient, trying to save whatever legs you do have for the run, in the hope that you do at least have running legs. The toughest part of an IM is leaving your pride at home and letting people pass you in the hope that you can catch them later, although in this case it was not letting people go by choice I simply could not respond. One of the amazing things was that although I wasn’t cycling fast and was slowing lap by lap, as the wind was getting stronger and I was getting fatigued, not as many people did come past as in previous years, so perhaps most others were struggling too, so there was a glimmer of hope.
Lap one and 60km of the bike leg completed and you ask around for the time, to try have an idea of how you are doing and somebody shouts it’s after the 9 O’Clock News…. What a sense of humour failure I had, I mean I had hit this point at 8h44 last year and now it truly dawned on me that I was in trouble. The ride up to Mount Pleasant was even tougher on the second lap and now my Mental Demons were coming to haunt me, as I started to wonder where I was in my race for that one elusive qualification slot for Kona. It’s almost like there is some hard wiring within one’s brain because some of these Mental Challenges were similar to the things I used to grapple with and succumb to as a young athlete at school. Over time I have worked on the mental side and toughened up somewhat, but in Ironman 2012 we were faced with radical weather conditions and I was being haunted by even more radical Mental Demons. (read section on Mental Demons/Challenges later in report)
Eventually the 180km bike came to a relieving end both physically and mentally and now it was time to start getting focussed on the foot race and although there was some confusion on Ironmanlive.com, as they had the Belgian Stefaan Vervisch listed in the 45-49 category, my wife had bumped into his sister after the swim and she had told Michelle that he was actually in my category so I was fully aware that we were in fact racing each other (although I was secretly hoping we weren’t). The crowd support was immense, but compounding my mental struggles was the fact that many were following Ironman live and seeing that I was ‘supposedly’ leading my age category and hundreds of people were screaming “Alec you are leading, you are going to Hawaii”, yet I knew I was second and was facing the toughest challenge of my sporting life. It was like riding the worst roller coaster ride ever, as my stomach was churning in similar vein.
Trying to remain calm, but also trying to close the gap to the Belgian I was thrilled to find I at least had some good running legs and the first lap it was a case of trying to keep the lid on the pace and not to panic and blow my whole race. So I aimed to run 4:45’s (other than Admiralty into the wind) and clocked 67:30 for the first lap, but to my dismay I had lost another 4 minutes on the leader and was now 22 minutes adrift.
I recall thinking my only hope now was that he had gone too hard on the bike and on the first lap of the run (he had averaged 4:30’s for the first 14km), so I kept plugging away knowing I was giving all that I had. I had to try and remain mentally strong, as physically I was being beaten into submission but I kept on telling myself to keep on fighting. So I plugged away on the 2nd lap, running marginally under 5 min/km for most of the kilometres, but lost a further 3 minutes. Going into the last lap I knew I had come up against a Superhuman performance and unless a miracle happened the Belgian was going to the World Championships in Kona, Hawaii and I was going to be left trying again in the future.
So onto the last lap of the run….. it was absolute torture, the pain in the legs, the burn in the lungs, the ache in my heart….. and your mind plays all sorts of games with you. On the one hand you are trying to come to terms with the disappointment of coming up short of your goals and on the other you are trying to keep yourself motivated, as there is always the chance that somebody could still run you down from behind. Your body wants to slow as your mind tells you so what if you are 3rd and not 2nd, but thank goodness I didn’t as it proved to be vitally important. (see Silver Lining later in report)
I sort of trudged through that last lap, thanks Ryan (Junior) and Claire Horner for the encouragement towards the end as we shared in our suffering and thanks to the amazing supporters, coming out in that weather to lift us along the Beachfront. I was keeping an eye on any 50 odd year old trying to chase me down from behind and eventually I hit that beachfront for the last time and found a reserve tank of energy that had been hiding, so upped my tempo to the finish line and was thrilled to hear PK’s voice in the distance. The last kilometer was like a blur and then I turned towards the finish, was thrilled to give my supportive kids Camryn and Jamie a high five, to run along the red carpet and to hear the words “You are an Ironman!” as this time I felt I truly was. Then an exhausted reunion with a very supportive family and some special friends but I was overcome with emotion, I was internally disappointed, I felt I had let people down, the tears flowed, but later on reflection I knew that I could not have done anything different on the day to change my race and I was beaten by one of the performances of the day, a 50 year old from Belgium who finished 35th overall.
So I was beaten, but I am not finished and I will get up off that canvas and I will stand on that start line in Hawaii later this year and dedicate that race to three fallen Heroes, my Stepson Reece, my Dad Harry and Jesus who Blessed me with the Talents to persevere and to believe that our best days are not necessarily over and that we should continue to Dream big Dreams!
My Mental Demons/Challenges
I’m not sure if talking openly about them is the right thing to do, but perhaps that will make me stronger next time, perhaps it will help ‘Burn the Boats’ so that there is no thought of surrender, no thought of slowing in the future. Hopefully other people may learn something, find a way to counter their negative thoughts, to overcome their mental demons and if one can then it was worthwhile.
So let me share some of the thoughts racing through my mind, thoughts that I was trying to rip out of my brain and toss them into the Ocean. It’s incredible, a weakness if you like but you just have to find a way to conquer your innermost challenges and fears if you are to have any chance of achieving your goals, or finishing a race like this one.
The Silver Lining
So Ironman 2012 taught me one big Lesson, it was to try and push those negative thoughts aside, to keep on force feeding myself with some positives (although they were hind to find in that Storm), to dig as deep as I could and then find a little more, because you just never know what may lie in store on this Journey of Life.
I raced Ironman 2012 for 10 hours 50 minutes and some change and for many of those hours I was taking body blows that almost had me pull over to the side of the road and slow down.I gave it my all – all of the time.
I did not give up. I did not give in.
I did not give out. I am one of the Lord’s warriors –
a competitor by conviction and a disciple of determination
Amazingly there was a silver lining as unbeknown to me this year an additional slot was allocated to our Age Group and I was sitting at the Slot Allocation when Race Director Paul Wolf announced two slots for our Age Group.
So here I was Blessed with a Gift of a Qualification spot for the World Ironman Championships in Kona, Hawaii in October 2012.
The 27 year wait is over (if I can stay upright on my bike and not repeat 2010’s disaster) and when I stand on that start line in Hawaii I believe I will have WON, irrespective of the outcome on the day.
The Lord’s Gift to me was my Talents and my Gift to Him has been trying to learn how to maximise my Talents. I am learning all of the time and as Abraham Lincoln once said “I will prepare and one day my chance will come.”
Perhaps this is my Chance!
Thank You to my Sponsors, in particular Isuzu, but also to Orca Wetsuits, Cytomax, Oakley, Action Sports and Online Innovations. Thank you to my work colleagues at Consolidated Financial Planning and last but not least thanks to my Family and my Friends, your support means the world to me.
“I will prepare and someday my chance will come, “ said Abraham Lincoln many, many years ago. Gary Player’s often misunderstood quote mirrors those words when he says, “ The more I practice the luckier I get.”
My view is that Luck is when Preparedness and Opportunity meet. So it’s important to be well prepared, so that if opportunity does present itself you are ready and your chance shall have arrived. We have no idea when opportunities may present themselves, I know in the past I missed many opportunities because I was not prepared and I thought I was unlucky. So now it’s all about being prepared for the opportunities that may be out there and then we seemingly get lucky.
Life is all about agendas…..we all have one and many of us are pursuing them. I have an agenda, a sort of road map and it may be perceived as a selfish agenda or roadmap. It includes my dreams, my desires and wants for my life. I do want to inspire others along the way, but still if I’m brutally honest…. It’s still about me, which worries me at times. How do we know if we are on the right track? Well this is one of our biggest challenges in life. One of my favourite verses is Proverbs 16:9. It reads, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” So I have made my plans, I have practiced hard, I have prepared to the best of my ability, I can never be sure if I’m on the right track, if my chance will come, if the opportunity will present itself….. so it’s time to hand over control and give of my best and deal with whichever hand I am dealt to the best of my ability.
“In the dust of defeat as well as the laurels of victory there is a glory to be found if one has done his best.” — Eric Liddell
As adults sometimes we forget to dream and we settle into a comfort zone where time just breezes on by and waits for nobody. Yes, I was once a spectator of life and in no time at all I had lost a Decade just like that. Fortunately I awoke before I checked out of Mother Earth with the ‘dance’ still inside of me and I have once again become an active participant in Life, chasing my dreams.
This past Sunday I did the SA Ironman 70.3 in East London, an event which comprised a 1.9km swim, a 90km cycle and a 21km run. Having hit a wonderful high in winning my age category at the World Ironman 70.3 Championships in Las Vegas last September, I was probably expected to be at the forefront of my age category in East London.
However, things don’t always go according to plan and although I was better prepared than ever before for the East London event, the script had me facing challenges I had never anticipated or would even have dreamt about in my wildest nightmare. But, I am learning to roll with the punches and deal with the hands as they are dealt and amazingly enough, wonderful opportunities very often surface from beneath the obstacles, as long as you have an open mind.
Usually I do all of these events as a solo competitor, so doing this event as a Relay was a totally new experience for me, but it turned out to be quite pleasant in the end…..and if you are confused, then I suggest you read on, as it was quite an amazing experience.
Race day dawned ever so perfectly, with great weather and ocean conditions and I had enjoyed the perfect sleep, so awoke excited and keen to do battle with not only my fellow age groupers (50-54), but also with some of the promising youngsters in the race too. I am fortunate in that I tend to handle pressure fairly well, in fact I thrive on it, so I was fairly relaxed lining up on Orient Beach for the start of the swim leg, after saying a quick Good Bye to Michelle, Camryn and Jamie.
I had a great start (Wave 3) and was swimming really well until we caught the back of the ‘Wave 2’ group just before the second buoy and then I lost my way a little, but was still pleased to exit in 32 odd minutes, good enough for 6th in my age group. A reasonably neat transition and out onto the bike course for the hilly 90km bike leg in seemingly perfect conditions. I was ready to test what I thought was some really good bike fitness, which when combined with a lean body (5kg lighter than 2011) could lead to a really good time.
So the first leg of my Relay was going well, as I was flying (for me) through the field, even though I was trying not to push high Watts up the climbs. I was in my element, as I was doing what I love most, I was competing and testing my physical and mental abilities…. ….But then, things started to go pear shaped as I felt my rear wheel deflating at about the 22km mark. I remember saying to myself stay calm, this is not an issue and I pulled over to insert some slime and air from a special canister I had purchased in America. That worked like a charm, or so I thought and I was back on the road in no time and quite chuffed that I had only lost a minute.
Then, disaster struck as the tyre went flat within a kilometre…. Now you are faced with agonising decisions, do you try one of your precious bombs and hope the slimb will hold, or do you change the tube first to be sure? I opted for what I thought was more certainty and less risk, thinking I could get this changed and still be a contender, so I whipped out all my spares and probably did a world record change….. back onto the bike and in responding to the banter of some of the cyclists I was passing, I said well let’s hope that is the last puncture for the day….. only to hear BANG! It was an almighty burst and in the heat of the moment, in the midst of the race I roared my disapproval and I’m not proud of the word that left my mouth to express my utter frustration, so sincere apologies to all those in earshot.
On pulling over, somebody shouted that my valve had shot into the middle of the road…. we do strange things under pressure, so I ditched my bike and went searching for a valve I wouldn’t need (you brainless idiot I thought later), as I was going to change another tube. As I was carrying two tubes, this was literally and figuratively the last throw of the dice. I checked the inside of the Tyre and found nothing, so made the change and applied my final ‘bomb’ and all of a sudden another explosion….. well I think I joined the extreme Frisbee group, as my wheel got tossed deep into the bush and my race was well and truly done!
I had spent the past 10-15 minutes trying to remain in contention, but now I was frustrated, disappointed, depressed and agitated. I managed to retrieve my wheel from the bushes and thankfully most of those who came past (and it felt like thousands) shouted some encouragement and some even offered their spares. At this stage I was starting to accept my fate and was thinking only of finishing, the problem was that most normal tubes don’t fit my race wheels, so I was stranded and awaiting the back-up vehicle. I saw the ever smiling Paddy Cloete cycle past and I joked about a Chapter (“I will always Paddle back out”) from Shaun Thomson’s book, although I wasn’t sure I saw the humour in it at the time.
A lift was offered and it was so tempting and I recall thinking I could go and support my mates from the comfort of the side lines and fortunately I had the presence of mind to say not yet. Then, all of a sudden, my race, my whole day changed…… whilst awaiting the back-up vehicle, Team Garwood, comprising Father Kevin and his ever so brave son Nicholas*, came cycling past and in a moment my outlook changed. I started reflecting on how fortunate I am to be able to do these events, both in South Africa and abroad and in an instant I knew I was going to finish and finish with a smile on my face.
(*Nicholas was born in May 1998, six weeks premature. The umbilical cord was wrapped twice around his neck and he suffered from a condition known as Microphthalmia, where one of his eyes had not developed. It was not until he was six months old, however, that doctors discovered he had a severe and debilitating brain injury that would prevent him from ever being able to walk or talk.)
After what seemed like an eternity the back-up vehicle arrived and I was given more spares and after one more failed attempt to get back on the road, I received an adaptor and a foot pump and eventually got my rear wheel functioning again. You may be asking about the RELAY Team, well you see my first leg was as a determined competitor, perhaps a little too consumed in his goals, maybe forgetting to appreciate what life is really all about. As a competitor I had completed a 1.9km swim and a quarter of the cycle route before the ‘Team Garwood’ transformation and I took the Baton from the competitive Riddle, to complete the second leg as a fully-fledged participant.
I was going to attempt to do the final three quarters of the bike and the 21km run as a participant, with no hope of winning, no podium, no slots…. I was going to do what thousands of people do, people who make our sport what it is and I was going to encourage them, I was going to embrace the spectators and appreciate the volunteers.
It was a new experience for me, it was foreign and initially uncomfortable as I was no longer in my comfort zone. You see most competitors only know one world and that is to compete, to be singularly focussed, to cut out most of what happens in a race. So here I was seeing a race through new eyes, from a very different perspective and I loved every minute of it and I want to salute all those who tested themselves, congratulate all those who finished, in particular the 1,000 plus novices.
Very often we all get too consumed with the pressing or urgent issues, rather than the important issues. We get caught up chasing material things and measuring ourselves in terms of worldly standards and I am guilty of that too. Perhaps we need to stay in our lane and not aspire to be in somebody else’s lane, so sometimes we need to pause, we need to reflect, we need to appreciate the challenges that Nicholas Garwood and his lion hearted Dad, Kevin and supportive Mother, Cheryl, face each and every day of their lives. Unfortunately they didn’t make the finish line, as they missed the cycle cut off by about a minute and I hope they will return, I hope they will persevere, as when I caught up with Team Garwood on the bike, I rode next to them for a while, offering some encouragement and I saw the fire, the light in young Nicholas’ eyes. He so badly wants to cross that finish line and claim his medal, something many of us take for granted. Believe me if I could and if necessary, one day, I would gladly swop my competitive ticket, to guide Nicholas around the course, in the hope that he can fulfil one of his Dreams.
Then whilst running you witness a remarkable man like Hein Wagner, who is blind, taking on the Ironman 70.3 and you realise just how much we have to be grateful for. I was fortunate to accompany Hein to the Korean Ironman in 2006, not as his guide, but as a friend and fellow competitor. And when you spend time in his company, you get a new appreciation for the gift of sight. Perhaps Hein can’t see the way we can, but he has a clearer Vision of Life. He doesn’t have blinkers like we do, he can’t see the course, or the path he elects to follow, but he does so boldly and he hasn’t given up on his dreams, he does not dwell in a comfort zone, he does not let time or life just breeze on by and neither should we.
With Ironman anything is Possible! It’s time to start Dreaming and Appreciating the gift of Life.
God Bless these Ironman Warriors!!!
Thanks to all of my sponsors for their support, in particular Isuzu…. I chose the longer road this time and it was well worth the ride!!
The Riddle of an Ironman's Life 