Shadowman 2014 – Richie Mills

Shadowman 2014

I worked with an old marathon runner, he used to say that anyone can finish a marathon given enough time, the real challenge was doing it in a good time. Of course times are all relative to the person, one mans sprint is another man’s marathon. But when I signed up for HIM Mallorca I had his words in the back of my mind and I decided that finishing wasn’t enough, I wanted to challenge myself. I decided 6hrs was the target, I’m not sure why as a) I hadn’t done any of the distances to know how long they would take and b) even at PB pace for shorter distances I still wouldn’t make 6hrs, but it seemed like a nice round number so that was the target!!

I trained hard, changed the diet and was in the best shape of my life heading over, 6hrs was on. That was until I saw the course, at which time I decided sometimes finishing is enough!! 6hr 32min, way over target, but I didn’t care, my greatest sporting achievement, pushed to the limit on the run, I was proud.

However when I came home, a little voice at the back of my mind kept nagging about the 6hr target. I felt there was much more in me and that I could do it. So I decided that I would go again, this time on a more forgiving course with conditions more suitable to a fair skinned Irishman. And so I found myself on the start line at Shadowman looking for 32 minutes!

I was reasonably relaxed in the water, I moved close to the front before the start, befitting my new confidence in the water and fully expected to shave a couple of minutes of my Mallorca time of 35mins. There was a lot of bumping, I got knocked off several pairs of feet, you had to be real strong to hold your position, it was a bit of a battle. On top of that I didn’t feel good in the water, I just seemed real sluggish, I found it hard to stay with the feet in front. The turn was terrible as we hit a side swell and I got a few lung fulls of water and the swim home was equally hard as again I couldn’t hold the feet in front. I was glad to get out and equally glad to see Chris Donohoe so I could find out the swim time, 42mins he said. 42mins!!!! That was 7mins slower than Mallorca, now I had to find 39mins on my bike and run!

Luckily my transition times in Mallorca were terrible, 17mins in total, I knew I could shave at least 10mins of that and I was kind of using those 10mins as my emergency fund in case things didn’t go to plan, never thought I would have to use it on the swim though. This left little margin for delays on the bike and run.

My hope had been to make up most of the time on the bike. The course was almost out and back, unfortunately there was a cross wind, it helped a small bit on the way out so I knew if I was to make time it was on the 40km to the first aid station. I went out hard in the wind and rain, picking off racers one by one. I knew my speed was good, above 30km/hr, my target for the 90km, but once we turned at the outer point I knew my speed would drop into the wind. Chris caught me at 30km and we had a brief chat, neither of us was really loving the race or conditions and we knew it was going to get harder. He disappeared off and it wasn’t long till I hit the aid station. I got off the bike and had a quick toilet break. It was really to rest my back which gets sore after an hour on the bike. I checked the watch and using Chris’ 42min swim time calculated it was 2.11 to here. That was 11mins behind my target time and it didn’t fill me with confidence with the hard slog home to come.

We turned at 50km into the wind, it was a big national road with no shelter at all and seemed to be endlessly climbing, whoever invented the phrase “Go n-eiri an bother leat” had never done a HIM!! I was waiting for the next aid station at 70km, the plan was to get off the bike again and stretch the back, but it never appeared. I was doing some stretches on the bike to ease the pain when I hit a rough spot on the road. I heard a clatter and a shout from behind “Your glasses!!” I had taken my sunnies off as I couldn’t see a thing with the constant rain and they had fallen out of my pocket. I briefly contemplated not stopping but reckoned the 6hrs was unlikely now and they weren’t cheap so I went back for them. I caught up with Chris about 5km from home. He said he had averaged 30.6km/hr to that point, I knew he had started shortly behind me so I had a similar time. I did some sums in my head coming into T2 and reckoned I had 2.12 for the run to break 6hrs. This happened to be the exact time I did the run in Mallorca!

I went out onto the run feeling good, the plan was for 5.40min/km pace and walk the aid stations, that should give me a 2hr run. I was cruising comfortably at 5.35 pace when we hit a steep hill at the 2km mark. The calves started twitching and cramping but I knew the first aid station was at the top so I could walk and recover there. It was a relief to get some fluids and rest at the top and as I left the aid station Johnny Mercier past me and gave some encouragement. As I doubled back down the hill I past Niall O’Reilly, Liz HO’C and Chris, who was suffering bad with cramp but soldiering on bravely. We turned at the bottom of the hill heading out into the countryside. Niall caught me and gave me some stick cause both times I past him on the bike I was behind a Galway tri lad, he pulled in front of me to give some more “drafting” help. It wasn’t long till he pulled ahead on his training day!! I just tried to stick to my 5.40 pace.

I was hurting by the end of the first 10km lap, my calves and hip were the worst of it, but I reckoned I had 1.10hr to finish under 6hrs and still felt confident. The second climb up to the drink station at the 2km mark was torture. My already slowing pace was now down to 7.48 and I was dying for some fluids. I grabbed some coke and water and felt a bit better, but knew the 6hrs was in jeopardy if I didn’t pick up the pace. Liz caught me at this time, she pulled ahead but encouraged me to stick with her. I managed to stick pace with her about 10m back. We came into the last drink station at 16km together, I stopped for a couple of drinks and Liz ploughed on. 5km to go, I glanced at the watch, but was too tired to figure out how much time I had left. I reckoned I was comfortable if I kept the pace up. I caught back up to Liz with 2km to go. She said we were comfortably under the 6hr mark and I tried to relax and enjoy the end of the run.

With a couple of corners to go I put in a little spurt and as the finishing chute came into view a wave of pride and joy washed over me. What a day, a constant battle against the elements and the bodies desire to throw in the towel, but that just made finishing all the sweeter. Liz told me it was 5.49!! I punched the air in delight, I had smashed my target, that would shut the voice in my head up!!

As always huge thanks go out to my fellow Pulsers for all the encouragement and advice along the way. Special thanks and congrats to those who raced on the day and especially to Liz for pushing me through those last torturous 8km and James Durkan on finishing his first HIM.

As for the voice, it was quiet for a few days but has started whispering about going long. So I have decided that my next goal is to learn how to shut the bloody voice up!!