Geoff Hurst, you are an Ironman! Part jeden.

I may have given away the ending in the title.

Paul had asked me the day before the race if I was nervous. I don't know how coherent or uninterrupted my reply was but I don't think I was particularly. I was determined, I knew it wasn't going to be easy. I knew that if it was within my control that I would finish the Ironman. I knew that there was no way I could ever give up nor not give my all. I knew that I had been inundated by support in the form of generous donations to Macmillan, kind words, companionship in training, bicycle repair, support at the race and much more. "Come back with your bike or on it" Nicky's note greeted me as I strode into the living room of our rented Tenby cottage at 0500hrs on race day.  Facetious but the amount of appreciation that I have for everything that my family, friends, colleagues and more have given me in the run up to this event would not let me drop shield and run away if it were in my power. More than that though I really love pushing myself through a pain barrier and coming out the other side a stronger person, a week on and I'm still riding on endorphins. You learn something about yourself. The reason that I was confident was that I had put the training in and my kit was tried, tested and repaired to standard. I knew I had it me emotionally and it was now just time to get it done, get it ridden, get it round (in the words of my sister).

Three bagels with peanut butter, coconut water, energy drink, coffee, two banananananas for breakfast.

Jan and I made our way to transition and there was already quite a buzz in Tenby. Our walk took us past the top of the cliff that the marks the run between Swim and T1. A strong wind kept a flag there proud and its pole straining. A vision of the flags atop the hill fort of Edoras struck me. People were making their way to the beach to get to the front of the swim and have a chance to go in feet wet as I was bimbling into transition so I abandoned Jan in a fashion that I'm sure anyone else would have thought rude and dived in to sort my stuff. First I realised that the food that I had with me was now in the wrong place as I should have put it with my bags the day before. Then I realised I had a flat front tyre despite inflating it the night before. A bit of a worry but I put it down to gremlins and just re pumped up. Then I leant my pump to various other athletes whilst getting my wetsuit on. An element of panic set in as I felt that I was running behind schedule until I tried to put my wetsuit on over my casual shorts. I gave myself a stern talking too, called 'oooooh' when someone exploded an inner tube, then got myself sorted. I realised at that point I had forgotten my timing chip. Jan to the rescue! Never has a carrier pigeon so freely flown to sky nor gun dog bolted for the prize as when I told him my predicament and an RV. I met with Corin and his brother Merill in the now dense pack of wetsuit clad warriors marching their way. No I thought of a better one. I met with Corin and his brother Merill in the now dense pack of penguin like wet-suited triathletes, huddling and shuffling their way through a press of supporters to the beach, all aware that things were due to kick off soon and that the marshals seemed to be getting a little jumpy. I came around the corner towards the RV and saw Jan, posed for some pictures with the chaps, sorted my T1 bag and headed down to the beach.

I had to borrow a Garmin watch off Jan as I charged mine thinking that 95% wasn't enough. Unfortunately I charged it on laptop which wasn't plugged in so it drained the battery. When he is able to upload my results I'll post them. He also took lots of pics I'm looking forward to seeing. Pester him..

Swim
As the Readett brothers and I got to the back of the throng on the beach the Welsh national anthem began, marking the beginning of the race. I walked forward a bit further to the back of where the crowd started to thicken but the race had started and I continued my stride straight into the water. IT was very choppy and I was overtaking as soon as I started swimming. This meant subjecting myself to a fair few kicks to the face and the occasional high spirited friendly punch as I went past. I couldn't often see the buoy when sighting unless I happened to be on top of one of the waves at that point so I went for the more distinctive RNLI boat and the general direction of the mass of swimmers that I was amongst. To the first buoy as I worked my way forward in relation to those around me I realised that this was not to be the swim I had expected. I promised Geoff that if he worked hard to the first buoy, went for the shortest but busiest route and got around that the pack would thin out, the waves would be at a different angle and all would be well. I lied. The other side it seemed just as busy, I couldn't see the buoy so I went with the pack again and concentrated on getting power into my strokes to keep moving even though the effort level was much more than I'd have hoped. Some paddle boarders indicated to me and some others that we were off track and far the wrong side of a boat so I diverted myself, found some space and had an OK swim to the second buoy. As soon as I went around it we were being pushed into the shore and the majority of people were swimming in the wrong direction. I was swimming at 90 degrees to some people who often when they hit me changed direction. A couple more busy patches and I was coming out of the water for the end of lap one. My swim hat was popping off my head where it had been knocked so I adjusted it, saw that I was running late (As expected) according to the watch and ran up and down the beach. The second leg I focused more on my stroke in being efficient and sighting to make a more direct route. The jostling for position didn't diminish but it was slightly less frantic. I thought that the second lap was much better but according to my rough calculations that didn't seem to be the case. As I came out of the water there were some dazed people around me stumbling up but I felt that a run was in order.

T1
Move fast and clear
those mortar holes.
l want to see plenty
of beach between men.
Five men is an opportunity.
One is a waste of ammo.
Keep the sand
out of your weapons.
Keep those actions clear.
l'll see you on the beach.

Knowing the end of the swim ahead was a relief but I knew that it opened up a battle up a beach and hill before I could get on with the biking war and marathon occupation. I jogged up the hill until stopped by weight of people walking up the zig zag slope. Lining that route were the purple bags in which we had left our trainers. As number 2104 mine was right up the top. As I came up the last zig (or possibly zag) I saw Paul and Jenna at the top so had to pretend that I was feeling fresh of foot and sprightly of pancreas. I got changed in front of them in what seemed like slow time as my wetsuit (despite copious amounts of baby oil) refused to fall off me. I waved farewell to the Barry Seligman contingent to cross the road to see C on the shoulders of Jan with N and E behind. It was amazing and so important to me to see them at what was in a very not true way a third of the way through the day. It was about 0830.

I jogged to transition with wetsuit in a purple bag which felt really odd.

When I got there I had to run to my bike bag, shove some food down my face, switch glasses, run to my run bag to stash clear glasses, run back to bike bag to get cycle kit on, run through tent to bike to be told I should have dumped my kit bag in a pile. Went back to my bag to be told my another marshal just to leave it. Got my bike and mounted at appropriate place.

Bike

This could be a really long post if I allowed it... excuse me dear reader/ Part of this is me attempting to record for my own memory what was an amazing experience.

As I left transition I saw my dad who had seen me on the way into transition but I don't think knew he was being referred to when I yelled DAD! I overtook quite a few riders and I stupidly decided that perhaps I was going too fast and backed off a bit. I say stupidly because it was a section of the race that was very much suited to me and probably wouldn't have affected me too much. I had promised myself before hand I would go by me own perceived effort rather than comparing myself to those around me and I was below the effort I should have been. Having driven the course was useful but I realised that it seemed a bit worse in the car. On the other hand my back was not 100% from the beginning and I had left transition really needing a wee. Little did I know that this would be the biggest mistake of my race.

The bike course (here: http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/emea/ironman/wales/athletes/course.aspx#axzz3EGi56HLw
) is two loops. One large and one small. The first extends further out to the West then finishes in a hilly portion. The second loop is just the hilly bit again. Coming back from the town of Angle and that whole leg out West was beautiful but I really needed a wee. I was really uncomfortable but I stubbornly thought I couldn't stop so early. When I got to the 'feed station' there was a big queue for the loo at Angle so just concentrated on eating and carried on. I had thought of Chrissie Wellington's advice (passed on to me by Corin) of just going to the loo whilst on the bike but it wasn't something I was practised in nor too keen to do with number of spectators. Instead of going aero into the headwind and using my massive thighs to head East into the strong headwind I therefore sat up and begged extremely uncomfortably. This continued until Narberth, a town upon a big hill, where my morale SOARED. Firstly because I realised that like an absolute nob my speed distance time calculations were very wrong and I was doing better than I thought and secondly because I saw my mother in law Helen and her friend Dilys who gave me a hearty cheer. Lastly because I got off my bike, had a wee, downed a litre of water, ate a substantial amount of N's energy bar, a banana and an energy bar then remounted. A Phoenix arising from the ashes doesn't have shit on how I felt as I remounted. It was about 1210hrs, I was comfortable on the Defy, my legs were feeling fresh still and I was overtaking a lot. I was into the second half of the bike and back to enjoying cycling. The hills on this section were rather grim. There was a section of 16% climb where a number of people were pushing the bikes up on the first time let alone the second. The best climb though was in Saundersfoot where, riding up the first section of the hill (12% I think?) the crowd was so thick and loud that I couldn't help but smile and work hard. Steady up the hills was my motto for the race as a larger chap. On heartbreak hill I was pleased that many of those who overtook me at the beginning of the hill flagged towards the top to be steadily passed by me again. Jan ran alongside me for a good section of this which was great fun and incredibly motivating.

I saw my Great (in two senses of the word, used to be three but he lost weight) Uncle Peter and Aunty Rosie on the way down from there. I've never known a man to be so seemingly at home whereever he is. GEOFF! I heard boom accross the road as I passed them.

I then heard Paul and Jenna but didn't see them as I came into Tenby. I noticed some blobs then heard my name then replayed in my mind that it was them. I wish I had gone faster down that hill but I had in my mind a sharp corner at the bottom which didn't exist. From there it was onto lap 2.

To be continued.

Some more donations might help my memory.
thttp://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/GeoffHurst

I'll proof read this some time.

Let's rock

I had hoped to keep blogging over my time in Wales but with an almost complete lack of signal and WiFi that did not transpire.

I ate a lot of carbs throughout the entirety of the time covered by this post.

Prior to leaving for Wales I was away on a genuinely inspiring conference with work which once again showed me that my team really is a microcosm for the passion and quality that makes up the DofE charity. Whilst there I went for a run to loosen up from the drive each way that I undertook and having managed to be blister and chafing free for some time managed to dent this record a few days out from race day on a 2.5 miler. Oh well.

Leaving for Wales was a slick operation in the Hurst household. Mrs Hurst had, with her usual project management skills, dragged order kicking and screaming (along with a toddler doing the same) out of the chaos that could have been our departure. There was an air of 'this is it' as we left the house, Mondeo almost filled to capacity, on our Friday morning excursion to Tenby. I had checked the security of my bike on the rack three times having recently been aware of two incidents of people I respect losing bicycles as they drove yet I was still very conscious of the Defy hovering behind me as we made our steady way West.

On arrival in Wales we found our cottage which was positioned directly on the run course, just adjacent to the access to the North Beach where the swim was held and about a 5 minute walk from transition. We settled in, I met Corin, I registered for Ironman and C registered for Ironkids. A quick glance over the merchandise had me certain that a return visit to the Expo was in order. I met the Macmillan team and picked up some supporting gear at this stage too.

On Saturday I arose later than intended but rushed off, abandoning the family to meet Corin for a pre race drive of the bike course. As I awaited his arrival Paul and Jenna said hello and gave me a potato.

The drive of the bike course was beneficial though I wish I had had an opportunity to cycle it previously to really get a feel for it as some hills that I worried about turned out to be mere mounds whilst some bumps that we felt in the car turned out to be leg and lung busters. Some of the downhill sections it was useful to see that I could take at speed or not in advance and it was good to get an expectation for how to pace myself as well.

The highlight of my day was racing Ironkids with C. We lined up in a pen with about 30 other nervous toddlers of C's age escorted by parents or guardians of varying levels of fitness. Two young volunteers were thrust up front to do a 5 minute warm up which only the front row could see. It was then anounced we had about 10 minutes to wait before the start. Keeping toddlers entertained, warm, attached, from screaming, focused etc was then a bit of a battle until we were given the 30 second warning. No count down aloud to stop people pressing forward but a 15 and 10 second warning had everyone on edge. The claxon sounded and the race became a melee of screaming toddlers being dragged or hoisted up under arms, competitive parents thrusting forward and a few steady heads (like C I am pleased to announce) who knew what to do and just started running. 500m felt like quite a long way with my 3 year old next to me. She looked a bit bewildered at times as the entire route was lined by screaming supporters whilst around us we either overtook those who had shot off too early or were passed by those who had suddenly decided a sprint was in order. The finish line approached, the same that I WOULD be crossing the next day, and she ran calmly accross, took her medal then was delighted to see her fan club, including her Granny who she had not already seen that day. I was really proud of her for just blocking out the hype and getting on with the run at a steady pace. She is an Ironkid.

The rest of Saturday was spent in relaxation, racking my bike and kit, drinking my traditional Guinness, spending time with the family, Paul, Jenna, Dad, Helen, Dilys, Corin, Peter and Rosie. My support team assembled. I went to bed about 2230 hrs after Jan arrived. I took him for a brief tour of the area then hit the sack, breakfast on my bedside table, alarm set for 0330hrs.

Next post the race but its time for dinner, 24 and some time with my wife.It might speed things up if you donate to bring me up to my target. Boy have I earned it... http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/GeoffHurst

nearly there

gosh darn I am flipping busy. Hopes of daily blogs have been overtaken by work, cadets, family, packing prep, osteopath etcetcetc carb intake goes up a little bit now. Time to take it easy and look forward to the race. I think I have more concerns about logistics than indo about the event at the moment.

Its the final countdown

Two weeks from now I am going to drink a lot of red wine. I miss a good quaff. With autumn drawing in I am quite keen to tackle some merlot guilt free.

Logistics planning is taking over from training now. A conference and busy time at work are making for not the most relaxed lead up to the race but I'm sure I can switch off from that when I need to.

I was thinking about the Dartmoor Vale marathon that I did ill prepared, injured and poorly paced last year. It was set up by the rotary club (or similar) down there and was marshaled by them and some locals. The race was a double lap of a rather large hill and on the winding, slightly bumpy and off-road decent there was positioned a marshal on his deck chair in a garden, yelling things at us as we passed. I remember the pain of the second lap leaving me temporarily as I realised the very strong likelihood that he actually always sat there in that chair, waving his stick at passers by and yelling but today they had put a hi-vis jacket on him. My yell of 'am I nearly there yet?' to him caused a great roar of mirth which cheered me even further.