Ironman 70.3 Zell am See Kaprun - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

The atmosphere at the start of the race was incredible. The huge crowd, TV crews, thumping music and large contingent of athletes created a surreal atmosphere. They had a nifty little remote controlled helicopter camera that panned over the 1,800 athletes warming up in chest-deep water near the start line. Every minute a deep baritone American voice announced "5 minutes to go!", etc. Suddently the start line lifted out of the water and the hundreds of athletes became a whitewater maelstrom of flailing limbs. It took about 5 seconds before the people ahead of me moved and we were off. My swim start was fine with not that much barging and elbowing. I started about 2/3rds to the back, and the same to the right for a counterclockwise 1 lap course. About about 200m in I started struggling to breathe and swallowed some water. Switching to breaststroke didn't help much and I started to hyperventilate a bit. At one point I had to give myself a mental slap across the face to pull myself together, which helped. It took me about 1km before I realise that I could do this and relaxed a bit. What really didn't help was that the next wave had started only 5 mins after us, and at around this point the quicker swimmers in that group started swimming over us stragglers at the back. My swim form was pretty poor throughout, with frequent switches to breaststroke to rest and I never quite found that sweet spot of rhythm and confidence. Stomach cramps and nausea added to the challenge. Overall, a pretty poor swim regrettably, but my swim time was surprisingly ok at 39 min (target had been 40 min). I could probably have shaved off about 3-5 minutes if I had managed to keep focus. I really wish I could redo that swim, but I was relieved when it was over.

Swim to bike transition was better. I felt a bit dizzy coming out of the water, but the crowds, pumping music and helpful volunteers made a massive difference and boosted my spirits tremendously. I grabbed my bike bag, stripped my wetsuit, sat down to put on my socks and cycle shoes (this took a while with some cold hand fumbling), gulped down a gel, put on my helmet and had one slow release Ibuprofen in anticipation of my knee flaring up later. It had started to drizzle lightly and I couldn't decide whether to use my sunglasses or not, so eventually hooked them on my trisuit and jogged through to my waiting bike. I passed through the transition tent, which was absolute chaos with hordes of athletes falling over each other trying to get into their kit. The tent was steamed up completely from the warm wet bodies and cool air. Some of those Austrians were apparently not shy at all and men and women alike bared their bodies completely in the open. The combined effect was strange and reminded me a bit of a scene in that movie Eyes Wide Shut. I grabbed my bike from it's prime position next to the exit and shot off.

The bike leg was awesome. I quickly found my groove and started off with high cadence to warm up my knee properly. By now it had started raining quite hard and I was very pleased to have my sunglasses with me to keep the water out of my eyes. It was quite difficult to see though. The route was breathtaking and circled the lake twice. The course was slippery and my brakes were pretty near useless in the rain. I very nearly didn't make one of the tight turns and had to clip out of my pedals very quickly to regain balance. I meticulously followed my nutrition plan, which was 1 gel in transition, 1 gel after 45 mins, then 1 Powerbar at 1:30, then gels every 45 mins afterwards. I had a large bottle of water with 2x Nuun tablets in for a savoury electrolyte drink to balance off the sickly sweetness of the gels. I also took the Powerade bottles at every station (every 20km) and made sure I finished it all before the next station. Pretty pleased with my nutrition plan actually and I never felt irritable or in low spirits which can be a sign of hypoglycaemia. I spent about a third of the time on the aerobars and this made a massive difference to my wind resistance. The course was very flat apart from a few rare undulations, so it was blisteringly quick. Because of the plentitude of athletes and the narrows roads, I was almost always in a group and despite trying to avoid drafting, some aero advantage from the guy ahead was inevitable. I often found that I ran out of gears, even on flat sections, so quick was the course (or I need higher gearing...). My neck wasn't used to the low position though so I had to sit up regularly. My split on the bike was 2:42, which was much faster than I had planned. There was one serious crash on the course and they had to rescue someone by helicopter, which was a bit depressing to see. I'm not surprised really, given the slippery roads, wet brakes, visibility problems with the rain and the insanely high speed we took around tight corners. I didn't have triathlon bike shoes with proper ventilation, just mountain biking shoes, so the rain pooled inside them and soon my feet were completely submerged in water with a lot of water sloshing about. It wasn't that uncomfortable, but not ideal. Tri shoes would be a good upgrade eventually. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the 90km bike leg and sped into T2 with a smile and feeling strong. I think my pacing had been spot on and I had just enough energy left to cover the run. If anything, I probably could have pushed a bit harder on the bike to save 5 or so minutes.

My T2 transition was dreadfully slow. The moment I got off my bike I felt that dreaded pain in my right knee which I had been fearing. Just the jog from the bike rack to the transition tent was painful. Because of the cold and the water in my shoes, I had lost all feeling in my toes and my right big toe started to ache. My spirits plunged, so I sat down on a bench with my T2 bag to try and sort myself out. I couldn't see how I could complete the half marathon if my knee would get any worse. So I smothered my knee with both diclofenac and ibuprofen cream and put on my knee brace. I was hoping that the brace would warm up my knee somewhat. I also took 3 Ibuprofen pills, which I knew was risky because it can cause stomach problems, especially on a tummy that had just had pure sugar for the past 4 hours. Funnily I had to keep batting off an overly zealous friendly volunteer who kept trying to put all my stuff into my bag, while I was trying to get stuff out of it! I then stuffed 3 high caffeine gels into my pocket and dragged myself to the portapotties, where I really struggled to get out of my sodden trisuit to relieve myself. Overall, I took a dismal 10 minutes in transition, but it was all productive and a necessary investment for the discomfort of the run that lay ahead, so I didn't feel bad about it. A two-piece trisuit and no knee problems would have saved my at least 5 or 6 minutes here.

The first few minutes of the run were the low point of my race. My knee ached at every step and I was already limping a bit. My feet were still frozen and uncomfortable. It didn't bode well for the next 20km. Thankfully, the combination of the pills and cream kicking in, as well as my body starting to warm up, started to help and the pain subsided from a jarring ache to an acceptable but annoying distraction. By the time I reached the 3 km mark I was in town amongst the music, crowds and general festival atmosphere and my spirits picked up tremendously. I managed to pick up my pace a bit and my knee felt better. My plan was to have a gel at every 5km mark, with a caffeine gel at 10km and 15km to redline myself to the end. That quickly degenerated into a gel at almost every station and as much cola as I could toss down my throat. I walked through almost every station to give myself a few seconds to drink the cola, then pushed ahead. The race course consisted of three loops, but the road was quite narrow in places, so the bottlenecks became very busy and I had to dodge people all the way. The atmosphere, especially in the town, was amazing! The middle 15km were steady and solid. I passed hordes of people and felt that I was climbing up the rankings. I found a groove, got into my own little private world and started to enjoy the race again. At the 18km mark I was on the home stretch and glanced down to my watch to see that I was still well under 6 hours (my race plan), which was a pleasant surprise. I surged ahead on the final loop in anticipation of the end. My knee objected to the change in pace though and my steady jog became a bit disjointed with a distinct limp. Nevertheless I charged ahead. The crowds were fantastic. I think they spotted my grimace and discomfort and roared encouragement. I strongly favoured my left leg, so the muscles on that side became very fatigued. That didn't matter because the end was in sight. Running down the finish chute was the highlight of the race, with throngs of supporters along the side screaming my name, pumping music and at the finish line a bunch of scantily clad pompom girls cheering us on. In a total daze of exhilaration and fatigue I floated over the line with a massive grin.

Post-race beer!


My target had been 6 hours, so I comfortably beat that at 5:39. Everyone did really well though, so I think this course will go down as a very fast half-ironman. If I had managed to stay focused on the swim, streamlined my transitions a bit, pushed slightly harder on the bike, and crucially, didn't suffer from a knee injury, I think I could have shaved up to 25 minutes off the time with the bulk of the savings on the run. Still, an amazing inaugural half-ironman for me and an truly amazing experience overall.