Ironman 70.3 St. Polten – Clare Dillon

This time last year I had just joined Pulse and remember hearing about a group that had headed to Mallorca to do Ironman 70.3 and was just amazed by them and completely clueless as to what this actually entailed. I had entered an Olympic distance triathlon in Athy but decided to drop down to the sprint distance for fear of drowning! Joining Pulse was my way of getting experience in the open water but I was soon sucked into the triathlon world.
The idea to do a Half Ironman started back last year as more of a holiday than anything. Mallorca was sold out so where else could we go…St Polten, Austria…sounds good where do I sign up…Siobhan you’re coming too. We soon discovered there was 3 others also signed up from Pulse, great stuff they could help us put the bikes together – sorted!
Training started in earnest after Christmas, like any good health kick the main bit, of which involved a long cycle on Saturday with a bit of a run to make this a brick session, long run Sunday and then mid week: 2 swims, track session, spin classes and some gym work. Club sessions were always the best although Monday night swims in the NAC nearly broke me each time – thanks Dave! I attended as many of the club sessions as I could, in particular the longer cycle on Saturdays. Cycling is definitely the one I find the hardest to do on my own, so having others not only pushed me but helped pass the time. In the run up to St Polten I completed an Olympic distance triathlon and half marathon to get some race experience and then all of a sudden it was time to taper aka not having a notion what to do with all of this free time…ah maybe I’ll clean my bike! The week prior to St Polten, Mallorca 70.3 had taken place and it was great to see all of these guys finishing so well over there particularly in that heat however suddenly the butterflies in the stomach were active and I was itchy to get going.

As the race was on a Sunday (when did this not become a day of rest!), four of us headed over to Vienna on the Wednesday (Richie was to join us on the Thursday) and picked up the 6th member of Team Pulse St Polten…”Frank the Tank” our Mercedes Benz van. Dazz got quite attached to that big guy, definitely the brawns of the operation. Arriving in St Polten first impressions was this place was fairly quiet, where are all the people? We quickly found the dining the establishment for the week La Dolce Vita…an Italian restaurant – Andrea was in heaven and soon best buds with the head chef. The next few days involved a lot of chilling out, small cycle to make sure the bike worked, few open water swims (who knew a lake could be this warm!) and a short run all just to remind the body that it wasn’t quite on holidays, there was a reason we were here! At registration it really started to sink in what we were about to do, the place was crawling with some serious looking bikes (oh my god the bike envy) and athletes to match….even putting Richie to shame!

D Day
Race day had finally arrived and after a night of tossing and turning I jumped out of bed at 4.15 thinking had I slept in! Had some breakfast, bit of a nervous one, don’t think I had ever seen Siobhan so quite! Over at the Ironman site, the place was buzzing with people rechecking their transition bags, making sure the bike was ok and sorting out the fuel for the day. Slight panic with Richie’s tyre but the bike mechanics soon fixed this up. Siobhan and I were in one of the last waves so we said best of luck to the lads and went our separate ways. Everything was going to plan however I needed to make one last toilet stop (remember if you think you need to go, go) so to avoid the long queue around the portaloos, I headed to toilets in a nearby restaurant which were open. These were lovely and clean way better than smelly portaloos…happy days until I tried to get out and found that the door had been locked on the outside. What the hell… there was no way I was going to miss this race I’d never be able to live that down. After some shouting and banging the door was opened by an equally angry cleaner, maybe I’ll follow the crowd and stick to portaloos from now on.

Swim
We watched all the other waves start and then it was our turn, along with 500 other women all equally as nervous. We were let into the water a few minutes prior to the start and I could see Siobhan’s head up near the front, I gave her a nervous smile we were finally at the start line. Not a second too late, the gun went off and we were off…legs, arms, heads everywhere it was crazy. I had started towards the back in an effort to avoid this as swimming was my weak link but I don’t think it really mattered. It took a while for me to settle down and get into a rhythm and it seemed to be crowded for quite a while. The swim part of the race had an Austrian exit with 1,000m in one lake and then 900m in the second lake. By the end of the second lake, I started to notice that there were blue swimming hats now in the mix, the next wave had caught up us. My goal for the swim had been just to finish it and get it out of the way so I was happy enough to be getting out of the water and going through T1.
Bike
The bike course was a 90k loop which involved 3 climbs. We had driven the route earlier on the in the week and Dazz had mentioned there would waterfalls of beer and chocolate fountains so off I set eager to get some of this! The first 20k of the cycle was on a closed section of the motorway which was amazing, it almost felt too easy as we sped away from the town I was even passing out TT bikes – yikes! My priority here was to get as much water and food in before I hit the first climb and the first aid station. I managed to catch up with Siobhan at the first town, was nearly in tears as I shouted out to her “love this sh*t”. The adrenaline was definitely pumping going through these little villages where the locals were all out cheering us on as we weaved through the narrow roads. The first hill brought this down slightly. After the first hill you cycled through vineyards and along by the impressive Danube where over at the other side villages and some small ruins could be seen. Driving the bike route before the race had been great, allowed us to take in such scenery (I had been warned to keep my head down and no taking pictures on the day!) and also pick out certain markers. I knew the first hill was tough enough however we had downplayed the second hill. Prior to the race start, I had described the second hill to two American girls as a just a bit of a drag. Thankfully I didn’t see these girls after the race, turns out it was a serious climb more like Sally Gap – oops. However what goes up must go down. Knowing that the roads were closed meant that you could just go for it on these parts however I did tell myself repeatedly that I wanted a TT bike after seeing a group of girls that I had passed on the uphill just take off going down. Once over the 3rd climb I knew we had just over 10k to go and I was having the time of my life. By the last 10k wind which we had been dreading had picked and despite the fact that you were going downhill you were still peddling hard right up to the end. Arriving back at transition I traded the bike in for runners, had a toilet break and then set off on the final leg.
Run
The run involved 2 loops going from the Ironman expo and heading into the town of St Polten along by the river. The first 4k of the run was straight into the wind. I could feel a pain in my foot and was starting to get slightly worried. This was only May, I did not want to be injured for the rest of the summer so I decided to tip away and try and get some bit of a pace going. Passed Andrea “bellytop” Talpo heading into the town and high fives were passed. There was no way you could miss him with those yellow sunglasses. Siobhan’s friends had perched themselves nicely outside a bar in one of the squares and it was great to have them supporting, definitely got me buzzing again and I managed to pick up the pace a bit as we headed back out along the river to the Ironman expo although had to remind myself to stop talking so much I was winded after passing them! Dazz and Andrea had finished at this stage and were out supporting – “go pulse” – both seemed happy enough to be finished. Back out on the second lap and the wind had picked up even more but on we battled. I had decided to stop at every second aid station for water. I had taken on gels and food on the bike as I had a feeling my stomach wouldn’t be able for much at this point so avoided them. Passing by our support team the second time, they confirmed Siobhan was out on the run – delighted and I was on the home stretch and feeling really comfortable so upped the pace to get me to that iron mile. Running up the finishing shoot was incredible. You suddenly forgot all of the long days of training out on the bike in the lovely Irish winter weather and hours spent running around Phoenix Park when every else was at home in bed reading the Sunday papers. I knew I had given it my all leaving nothing behind and suddenly felt almost invincible…half an iron man…wonder would Robert Downey Jr agree! There was one thing missing, my partner in crime, Siobhan. I managed to get back out to the finish line to cheer her on and she equally looked like she had given it her all but delighted that the finish line wasn’t too far away!

Five pulsers had entered this race before Christmas and all five managed to succeed in getting over the finish line, successful trip for all. Dazz had done extremely well just missing out on a place in the European championships at the end of the summer but still that didn’t dampen the happy faces on all of us. Logging on to Facebook later that day and seeing all the messages from friends and family and particularly messages from fellow Pulsers confirmed what we had achieved and made it feel even more special.

Needless to say celebrations commenced that night in our favourite Italian restaurant and continued in Vienna until we finally headed back to reality. St. Polten proved to be a great choice for a race, well organised as I suspect most ironman races are and fantastic scenery. For me this year has been about realising that you can do anything you put your mind to, the only thing stopping you is you… everything is possible all you need to do is believe.