3 places and 12 minutes from securing Kona slot
Pre-Race
Jeff Woodall of MSTC announced he was doing IM Barcelona 2015.
I loved doing this race in 2014, so it didn't take much to persuade me to take up a late entry for 2015, via Nirvana Travel.
Classic over-training by doing a full-distance 100% effort 3 weeks earlier at Challenge Weymouth, followed by an 80% effort at Gauntlet middle-distance 1 week prior to Barcelona.
Race Day
Perfect conditions with calm sea and 20 degrees air temperature with no rain and little wind or sunshine.
Swim:
Rolling-start to swim made a stress-free experience and easy to find correctly paced swimmers to draft off. Exited the water in 1:18 (2 minutes slower than PB but 4 minutes quicker than 2014). Bodes well for a good race. Wanting to shave 8 minutes off last year's finish time in order to get a sub-10 result.
Cycle:
Was approximately half-way in field of 2,400 at start of cycle. Therefore, over a thousand riders to overtake over the coming 112-miles. Got 12 seconds to overtake each one in order to avoid a drafting penalty. Decided to give it 100% and try for a first ever sub-5 hour ironman cycle. Not thinking about the run. Didn't want to stop for loo or fuel, so only drank 3 litres that I was carrying (15 gels, 3 salt tablets and 4 sachets of isotonic dissolved in the drinks system).
Plan worked well and completed cycle in 4:49, with only 2 or 3 cyclists overtaking me during that time. 19 minutes quicker than 2014!
Run:
Started with a stitch and indigestion so didn't take a gel for the first 40 minutes. Happy with the cycle and not too bothered about doing a great run. Started to feel good after first hour, so focused on trying to get that sub-10 finish. Got the maths wrong by a 15 minute margin and sprinted frantically for the last 2-miles in order to squeeze in under 10-hours. In fact managed 3:32, which was just 2 minutes slower than 2014.
Post-Race
Felt fantastic and scoffed a big meal including 3 beers. Usually feel rubbish after ironman, so this was a pleasant surprise. Couldn't believe the 9:45 finish time. Not surprised that 6 male 50-54's had finished quicker than me, because there are some insanely fast middle aged blokes out there who beat many of the pros.
Met up with Jeff and his family. Jeff swam 4 minutes quicker than me and would have matched me on the cycle if he hadn't got a horrid puncture. Jeff had completed a terrific sub-12 for his first ever ironman.
Massive thanks to friends and family who supported us. Brilliant comments on facebook and it was heart-warming that some people had been followed our progress on the live-tracker then posted updates on facebook. It really helps to have positive thoughts about that sort of thing whilst racing.
SWIM DETAILS | Division Rank: 129
|
SPLIT NAME |
DISTANCE |
SPLIT TIME |
RACE TIME |
|
Total |
3.9 km |
01:18:38 |
01:18:38 |
|
PACE |
DIVISION RANK |
GENDER RANK |
OVERALL RANK |
|
02:02/100m |
129 |
1318 |
1426 |
BIKE DETAILS | Division Rank: 20
|
SPLIT NAME |
DISTANCE |
SPLIT TIME |
RACE TIME |
|
Total |
180.2 km |
04:49:40 |
06:12:26 |
|
PACE |
DIVISION RANK |
GENDER RANK |
OVERALL RANK |
|
37.34 kph |
20 |
386 |
398 |
RUN DETAILS | Division Rank: 7
|
SPLIT NAME |
DISTANCE |
SPLIT TIME |
RACE TIME |
|
Total |
42.2 km |
03:32:03 |
09:45:39 |
|
PACE |
DIVISION RANK |
GENDER RANK |
OVERALL RANK |
|
05:01/km |
7 |
233 |
243 |
Originally from: IronMan Barcelona 2015 Results