Ironman Austria 2013 – Miriam Staunton
Okay, so it started about 2 years ago, when my sister in law, Marie, accidentally on purpose left me a copy of Don Fink’s ‘Iron Fit’. Both she and my brother in law John had completed a couple of ironmen each and had been trying to get me to sign up. The book got me thinking that it might be possible. I always said I would never run a marathon, but did in Dublin2011. I had said I would never do an Ironman, however tracking all the pulsers last year in Frankfurt, I knew I had to be part of this. So I bit the bullet and signed up for Austria with Nirvana.
I decided to follow Don Fink intermediate plan, and Karl Gohery gave me an excel format of the plan, which laid out week by week what you needed to do, all you had to do was enter your race date and it worked out your 30 week plan. Training started December 2nd. Minor hitch was that I was turning forty 5 days later, so anyway birthday and Christmas done and got stuck into training in earnest in early January.
I am a cub leader in my spare (ha ha) time, so I took a decision to step back a bit and try to do no weekend activities, just Monday night meetings. A typical training week looked like this.
- Monday rest day & cubs
- Tuesday 60 min run before work, club swim in Balrothery
- Wednesday 45 min turbo with 15 min run
- Thursday 60 min run before work and 60 min turbo in the evening
- Friday club swim in Westpark
- Saturday long bike with short run
- Sunday long run
Busy week, but you kind of get into the rhythm of doing it, plus with the plan laid clearly, I just took the decision to follow it pretty much to the letter.
I got the box room set up with turbo and treadmill as my husband travels a bit with work, this allowed me to train without leaving the house. One Wednesday night I was completing my brick on the treadmill, when Aidan (5) got out of bed and came in looking for a drink. Next morning I was up and having my run when he came in again and looked at me, then said ‘mammy, have you been there all night?!’ It cracked me up!
So weeks tick by anyway, base training into build and then peak and taper and finally race week.
I was flying out with my brother in law, John. We left Thursday late afternoon for Frankfurt with an hour to make our connection to Graz airport. We made it on time however on arrival at Graz after 11pm John’s bag arrived, but mine didn’t. So spoke to the lost luggage lady who asked where I was staying, once she found out it was Klagenfurt she told me the bag would have to go to that airport. ‘If your bag is in Frankfurt, then it will have to go to Vienna and connect to Klagenfurt, you should have it by Friday evening’. Minor panic, but I guess I could get everything I need at the expo if I had to. I had shipped my bike with shipmytribike.com. This was an amazing service and I would highly recommend anyone travelling to a race to work around their scheduled races. Not have to unpack and repackage the bike was a major bonus, and really reduces risk of bike issues in the race. The guys were so nice too and gave us great support on the day itself as we’ll as providing a top notch service. Thumbs up.
Registered on Friday and collected the bikes. Did a bit of shopping at the expo, has to be done.
Cycled the bikes to the hotel for a little spin, hotel was great and meeting people we knew all over the place. Yay, my bag had arrived after its spin around Austria! Relief all round.
Saturday we had arranged to go in for the practice swim, so up early, breakfast and down to the lake. The amount of Lycra, compression socks and neoprene around the place was a level I had not experienced to date. You could also spot the Irish at 50 paces, with the glow of white off them!
We got into the lake and swam out a little bit, it was warm, 19 degrees, clear & calm. This did a lot to calm the nerves and some of the lads even stopped off at the coffee boat, for a shot of coffee mid swim. Then it was into the race briefing. Here we met lots of other Irish from cork TC, Wicklow and Lough key. Wetsuit swim was announced, 10 m draft distance and feed station details. The guy briefing was great and got everyone pumped up, I just wanted to race when I left! We still had to rack our bikes and put in transition bags. Nirvana had brought my bike up to transition for me, but I went back to the hotel to pack my T1 and T2 bags. List checked and treble checked, bags packed and back to transition. Left some air out of the tyres, racked my bike and memorised bag locations. Walked transition to get it all clear in my head.
Back to hotel, feet up and plan for an earlyish dinner. Pasta buffet in the hotel at 6 bells. We were all jittery at this stage, so we ate and headed off to an early bed. At 7pm I took half a sleeping pill, to help me off, and about an hour or so later I nodded off. Woke a few times, but reasonable pre race sleep. The alarm went off at 03:50, shower and down for brekkie. It was chock a block with triathletes, porridge and bananas. Quick call to John to wake him, his clock had been set Irish time so he was an hour behind!
Hop in a taxi to transition with a few others and put nutrition and drinks on the bike and into the bags. Pump up the tires. Myself, Jarlath and Padraig head out to the swim start. On the way we stop to see swim out and we talk about how happy we will be to see that sign again.
Off down to the swim start, quick toilet stop then sun cream, glide, wetsuit and we drop our street bags in. Anti-fog into the goggles and down to the beach. Nerves and excitement are palpable. I tell myself, be brave, enjoy, you can do this.
500 pros and age groupers are going off at 6:45; the other 2500 of us are off at 7am. Bang they’re off, and then we are all wishing each other good luck and waiting. Time slows down……but then bang and we are off. We walk in quite calmly and start swimming. It’s busy, but not mental. 5 mins in I am feeling ok, calm. First buoy passed, am feeling great. Thinking to myself, I’m swimming in Ironman Austria. Breathing bilaterally and happy. Then passed the second buoy and turn at the third. It’s busy at the third; I get a knock, recover and go. The sun is in our eyes and when I finally sight the buoy, it’s a good way over to the right. Head over and turn again. I’m headed for the canal now, cannot see any buoys but follow the people in front. Someone told me to aim for the middle of the canal to avoid the reeds. Water starts to get murky, I must be nearly in the canal. Yep, it’s very murky now and extremely busy. 900m to go. There’s a current and it’s with us. Under the bridge, so many supporters. Turn the last bend, swim out sign. I think of Jarlath and Padraig. Get out and check my watch, 01:13, delighted. Was hoping for 01:20 and would have taken 01:30. Thank you Colin Bolger! Then run to transition. On the way Alan Carolan’s wife her sister spot me and big shout out for pulse. I cannot keep the smile off my face.
Into T1, can’t find my bag. An English girl points me in the right direction. Wetsuit off, number on, sun cream spray, helmet, glasses and bike shoes. T1 is very busy, I pack my stuff away and drop the bag back. Pick up my bike and out on the road. It’s very busy, so I’m extra careful as people are clipping in and spectators shouting. Off on the first lap of the bike.
It’s two loops of 90km. There are two climbs. First 15k is pretty flat and I’m flying and enjoying it. The road is busy though and it is not possible to keep 10m draft distance. There are loads of marshals but don’t see anyone getting carded. At the first climb there are loads of supporters. Hopp,hopp,hopp they shout and crowd in around you. I feel like I’m in the Tour de France. The scenery is amazing with mountain backdrops and really blue lake, I think of Dave Adams saying ‘love this shit’ and I say it out loud. Second climb is two climbs with a little recovery in between. I meet Ben Cunningham (Paul’s brother) and I say to him at the top ‘it’s no Sally gap’, I wasn’t quite so cocky next time around!
Am drinking and eating as per plan, but my tummy is not feeling great so I ease back on the food. In retrospect the plan did not include enough drinking.
Get back to Klagenfurt and the support is amazing, I spot lots of tricolours. Back out for lap two. It’s getting hot. My chain catches on one of the smaller drags and I hop off and fix it. Back on and start to count down. The hills start to hurt but when I got to the top of the 2nd climb I knew just 30k to T2. I couldn’t wait to get off the bike. Into t2. Stop the watch 6:11. Not bad at all. Wanted sub 6:30. I racked my bike, toilet stop then sun cream, change and go.
Out onto the run. Slow and steady. It’s two loops as well. Wanted to run 6 min kilometres and walk every aid station. It was hot. The support was amazing. Pass Orla and Ciaran all pulsed up and get a lift. First 5 k done, then 10k, then run into city centre. The place was buzzing. You run into one old square and ring a bell to make a donation to race charity of choice, then through into a second square and around the dragon statue, back to ring the bell and out of town again along the canal. 20k done and I’m starting to feel rough. Then I’m into my second loop. I see Orla and Ciaran again. I ask them ‘how much longer?’ They give me a lift. However I can feel my heart rate sky rocket and I’m starting to feel pretty sick. 22k done and I slow to a walk. I cannot get my heart rate under control. Decide to myself, if I’m walking I’m doing it fast. Seeing people I know all the time now, but can’t work out where anyone is. My brain is not working so well. Back into town, but the string is gone off the bell, they must have reached their limit. I am strangely disappointed. I wanted to ring it again. I am doing 8.5 min/km. I reach the 38km point and an Irish supporter asks me do I need anything. I ask for salt. He gives me a salt tablet into my water and slug it. 5 mins later I am feeling better and break into a slow jog.
Nearly there now. I can hear the music. I can hear them shouting ‘you are an Ironman’. Last kilometre, I see the guys from shipmytribike and they shout my name. Reach the T junction, turn left to finish. I am overcome, I can’t believe it. I turn the last corner, I see the clock. 12:40, my brain had long since given up trying to work out where I was time wise. I pointed to my name. The announcer called it out. I stopped briefly before crossing the line to soak it up.. I get my medal and the volunteers are trying to assess if I’m ok, I am. I am an Ironman. Jarlath, John and Alan are there. I am overwhelmed.
I get into the recovery area, shower, massage and food and feeling human again. We all go up to the grandstand. It’s dark now and the atmosphere is even better. I see Mark Kelly cross the line. Then Marie, my sister in law.
I head back to transition. Nirvana take my bike and bags, making life very easy for me. My phone is hopping with texts and calls.
Back to the grandstand for the finale. Everyone needs to cross before midnight cut-off. The crowd is totally pumped up. Music blaring. The last competitors cross line. Then the fireworks. A spectacular end to an amazing day.
The race day was made extra special by having so many of us there. A big shout out to all the Saturday cyclers and Tuesday and Friday night swimmers for making the journey fun!
Finally a big thank you to my husband Dave, who headed up the support at home and made it possible for me to do this.
Written by: Miriam Staunton