Ironman Western Australia - TriathlonFull Ironman

A good swim in cool crystal clear water. Despite a mass start of almost 1700 it was very civilised and I quickly pulled away with the lead pack. The water was a little chopping at the far end of the jetty and part way back in but nothing significant.

Overall it was an easy swim but I still hate wetsuits.

The course is two laps and mostly flat. Busselton has a reputation for strong winds but for this event they were only light to moderate. Parts of the road were silky smooth but much of it was slightly to moderately rough. I was on a road bike so I suffered far less than competitors on TT bikes.

Overall the bike course was great and my time was good enough considering the minimal training I did.

I had some intermittent right knee pain in the last 30km to 40km but I didn't think anything of it.

The run leg started well. I walked for the first eight minutes then went into a comfortable 3/1 walk/jog. I was warming up at the end of lap 1/4 and my pace was picing up nicely but then I started getting intermitant right knee pain. I kept up the walk/jog until 3/4 of lap two hoping it would work itself out but when it didn't I dropped to a straight walk.

I was making good time at 6+km/h but not long into lap three blisters started forming on the balls of my feet and mild discomfort quickly escalated to extreme pain and then agony.

The whole of the final lap was pure hell and instead of a time close to 6 hours I ended up with a 7.5+ hour marathon.

I need to find a way to prevent blisters.

This race went downhill this year. The organisers did everything on the cheap, including transition bags. The bike course changed from 3 to 2 laps to reduce crowding but they increased entries by 400 so it was even more crowded.