Ironman Western Australia - TriathlonFull Ironman

Great swim, very clear and quite shallow, I thought the tide must have been going out as the first turnaround only took about 40 minutes to reach. I started in the back wave (based on time) but quickly caught some of the next wave, sighting was very easy, just keep the jetty on the right-hand side. Navigation was easy but keeping away from other swimmers who couldn't keep a straight line was much harder.

Nothing, had a great swim. Enjoyed it most of the way, there was a little chop on the way back, but I couldn't believe the time, during training I was sure I was going to miss the swim cut-off but it went really well.

After exiting the swim we headed through some fresh water showers, across the road and picked up the T1 bags before going into the change tents. I had decided to wear bike shorts for the bike leg so changed into those with a tri top and as the weather was a little chilly put on arm warmers aswell.

Next time I will spend more time getting used to the longer bikes rides using tri gear and not change during the swim to bike transition.

The first lap went really well, fast and smooth out to the first turn around, the second turn-around was further than I thought and was a bit windy heading back into town. The second lap was ok but by the third lap I was struggling a bit, my feet got overheated and had to ride with the right foot on top of the shoe for a while to get some feeling back into it. Spent most of the time on the aerobars for the first two laps and then on the hood for the last lap. towards the end I just wanted it to end and get off the bike. Heading back into town and through the town to transition was a great feeling, the support from the spectators was great. Tri Travel had organised to take our supporters out onto the middle of the course for the first lap so it was great to see them.

The temperate was around 22c which is similar to what we had trained on recently in Auckland which was nowhere near the 35c we had been expecting, drinking on the bike was fine probably drank a little too much making a number of bathroom stops around the course and to stretch.

This was the longest I had spent on the bike, in training the longest ride was 6hrs and about 130km's in distance, will look at spending longer in build-up and perhaps even a tri-specific bike for the races. Overall I was happy to complete the 180km's but doing it in a shorter time would be great. Nutrition on the bike was fine but I got fedup with the bars I had and the endura was much sweeter than expected so stuck to water and gu as much as possible.

At the end of the bike crossing the line there were bike catchers for the bike, had taken feet out of my shoes prior to finishing so managed to run down to the change tent to pick up my bag of which there were not many left, changed into fresh shorts and shirt, applied lot's of sunscreen (but not enough !!!), grabbed a couple of gu's and headed out onto the run course.

Next time would probably look at not changing the whole day to get through transition quicker, but comfort above spend was the plan for this race.

I felt pretty strong on the run and was very happy with the time for a first marathon, with the knee problems I had early in training I was expecting this to cause a problem but in the end with the massage and physio it didn't. The plan was to run between the aid stations, walk the aid station to refuel and run until the next one, this went well for the first two laps but around the 33km mark I went into a mixture of running and walking for the last lap. Nutrition was mainly good, went onto the coke after the first lap which is like rocket fuel, had a couple of bananas along with the gu's every 45 minutes, at one point was getting a bit of gut rot so went onto water for a couple of aid stations.

The run course was quite spectacular as the follow the paths along the beach out and back along Geographe bay, past the restaurants and some residential areas, the hardest part was passing the finishing chute where you could see people crossing the finishing line as I still had one or two laps to go. As I passed the finishing chute I took a good long look down there which kept my going around the laps. Based on my lap times and how long it was until the cut-off I knew I was going to cross the finish line and just enjoyed the run.

It got dark halfway through the last lap which meant finishing in the dark, the support was good until the end and at the last aid station about 2km's from the end they all broke into a song to get us home. I had plenty of time to plan the run down the finish chute and you could hear the build-up right until you turned the final corner and saw the lights and the finish. Running down the finish chute was amazing everytime you raised your arms the crowd cheered, I stopped a couple of times to high-5 some people, waved to my wife, run under the people arch and crossed the finish line to become and Ironman.

Training, training and more training, perhaps a longer buildup.

After crossing the finish line, we were escorted into the recovery marquee to be assed for medical before being discharged for a massage and food. After a quick drink and chat with the nurse I headed outside to see my wife, thanked her for her support and then went back in for a massage and then after putting on lots of warm clothes went for the post-race meal.


Based on experience, fitness and the training I had done I think the timing was pretty spot-on, it would be nice to have spent a couple of hours less out on the course.


With this being my first (of hopefully a few more) Ironman I was more than happy with the race and the experience of becoming an Ironman, the race was a great day and apart from some of the time on the bike I had a fantastic day.

I would recommend Ironman Western Australia as a first Ironman or a great place to visit from overseas.