Dave D's Austrian Ironman memoirs
MY FIRST IRONMAN--- AUSTRIA
Dave Doust
My first planned venture into Ironman started in July 2005 when I entered the Austria 2006 event.
However a series of mishaps, ie. atrial fibrillation of the heart, DVT in the left calf & pulmonary embolisms in both lungs, put paid to taking part in 2006.
So un-deterred, I entered the 2007 event instead.
I was allowed to start some light exercise Sept 2006 & by Nov 2006 I had lost a couple of stone in weight & was starting to feel a lot better & fitter.
This is when my Ironman started really as I was now able to train for reasonable periods of time & had a couple of years of training to catch up on.
The training was built up over the next 6 months until 3 weeks to go when I started my taper. The taper was going fine until 1 week before when I pulled my left hamstring warming up for what was going to be a 1/2hr v.easy run!!
My final weeks taper was a complete stop! Except for spending £200+ on urgent physio, ultrasound & massage which continued up to the day before the race.
We arrived in Klagenfurt Austria
This weather continued on & off until the morning of the race. Dawn on Sunday however brought near perfect conditions-thank god!
We had got up @ 3.30am for breakfast & last minute stuff, dozed a bit then headed off to the race start.
The atmosphere was fantastic, thousands of people, music blaring away & great commentary by someone. This all served to increase the enjoyment as well as increase the nerves.
Last minute bits in transition, put on wetsuits & off to the start.
The swim is in a beautiful clear tasteless water lake which was @ 22C I think-seemed very warm anyway.
This is it I thought, too late to back out now so off we go.
At 7.00am 2200 triathletes “wandered” into the lake & we were off.
The swim start was not as bad as I was expecting, a few punch ups in the first few metres but it settled down pretty quickly. I’ve had much worse starts in the beach duathlons with 60 starters!!
The swim was uneventful but great-clear clean water & the last 800m was in the canal with both banks full of people cheering you on the whole 800m.
Toddled out the water-didn’t dare run in case the hamstring went & into the bag zone to collect cycling kit, change then walk into main transition to collect my bike with the world & his uncle running past me.
Swim split was 1hr 4 mins + nearly 10 mins transition! A doddle was the case!
Out onto the bike where I proceeded to ride past most of those who has just run past me!
The bike course is amazing, a few climbs but nothing too strenuous, with excellent road surface, plenty of feed stations, fantastic scenery & amazing crowds. You didn’t go far without someone shouting/cheering you on.
I had a nice steady ride mainly ‘cause I was a bit worried about my leg & also this was going to be only my second marathon ever + I new I had to pace things!
Back into transition with another walking session, a bit quicker T2, under 8 mins!
Reasonable bike split 5hrs 15mins.
Got 50 metres into run & dear old hammy went! But so many people cheering you on there was no way I was going to walk. The week before I thought I was going to have to walk the whole run, & was worried ‘cause I hadn’t done any walking training all year!
Then all those I’d cycled past proceeded to get their own back.
Off the bike 425th & finished 1091 !! what a shit!! Oh well, running was never my good point!
Ran the marathon based on approx 5K sections thinking every 5k jogged was 5k less to walk. Ended up jogging the lot in 5hr 18mins. I had no option really as you never went more than 20 metres without someone cheering/shouting at you to keep going!
My original target, other than just finishing, was to beat 12hrs so 11hrs 55 mins 3 secs just did it.
Completely knackered after but now plan to do another.
It was the most amazing experience. It is a fantastic event, excellent organisation, fantastic crowds, amazing atmosphere. It’s no wonder the entries for next year closed only 19 hrs after they went live.
Thoroughly recommend this event for your first ironman, tough but not too extreme & a great day.
Cheers
Dave Doust
