Challenge Copenhagen - IM Distance

In the months leading up to CPH, I was really starting to regret having ever entered the race. I was not enjoying the long, lonesome training, the constant 5am alarm calls and the feeling of constant tiredness from training or guilt from not training. Work had done a great job of ensuring that my training became a bit of a secret hobby whereby I would sneak in the odd session, rather than doing consistent weeks. An analysis of my Garmin training record from January up until two weeks before the race had me down for a weekly average of 8hr45. The plan all along was to try and go under 10 hours with less than 10 hours/week. However, this plan was not based on 3 hours one week, 12 the next, it was supposed to at least be consistent. In the last few weeks before the race, I started to relax a lot more as I stopped seeing it as a race and concentrated more on just trying to finish the race without having too many issues. I worked out a plan which basically just involved trying to swim round the hour mark, cycling 5 hours and then hoping for the best on the run...my main aim being to run to the half marathon point, any running after that was bonus time. There was a chance that this plan would work for a sub 10 hour, at the end of the day though, I was mainly aiming on finishing with a run that lasted as long as possible.

When race weekend finally came round, I felt pretty well tapered and was actually keen to get going (or get it over with). Travelling to CPH and then staying in a hotel which appeared, to any passer by, to be a Turbo hotel was quite cool. The only downside being that the hotel was in the midst of the most poorly organised renovations - the sort where they do all parts of the building at the same time. Anyway, they didn't make too much noise, that was my main concern. Pre race we had a few official things to get done, race briefing, registration etc...all done pretty much en masse without any issues, mainly as there was always one Turbo who had already done that and was subsequently assigned marshalling duties to get the rest in line. We had a little swim on the Friday and the water was cold, but my arms felt good, we also built the bikes up and then headed out for little spin to make sure all was in working order. I figured there was no need to try any running out...I was going to have a long enough warm up on the day and then a long time to get in to the run.

Race day itself rolled round and before I knew it, we were all headed back to the start to set off, on what seemed, like a ridiculous day of exercise...I was going to be exercising for about 10 hours?? Just seemed a bit impossible really. Mentally, I just broke the day down in to little blocks, nice hour swim, a few TT's and then 4 x 10k runs. That seemed, in my mind, to be a bit more manageable anyway.

The swim itself all went to plan, time wise anyway, I never chased anyone who went off in front, just concentrated on trying to stay nice and relaxed and just getting on with it. The buoys out there were a joke though, so much so, we all swam back in to the next wave on people after doing one of the turns. Luckily, no damage done so just kept on plodding away behind these two girls who had overtaken me at about the halfway mark. I got out in 56 something so everything was going to plan. I ran up the jetty in to the change tent - it was nice to have a little helper there to get you out of the suit and get the other bits of your kit ready. The offers to sort the vaseline out for the ride were less forthcoming. I cramped in a place on my legs where I was most concerned I would at this point....cramping after the swim was not a good start.

Out on the bike, and once you got out of town, the roads, scenery and tailwind were all exactly what the doctor ordered. I struggled to get the HR down in to the range that I wanted, but I decided to just keep on going, it felt super easy anyway, on and see what happened. Not having a Garmin which would last the distance meant that all I had was the HR and I had pasted the splits at which I should reach the aid stations to my bars. I went trough pretty much all the aid stations dead on time. I was up anyway, but knowing that the last 30k was in to a headwind meant that I knew I would lose some time on that leg. Still, the legs felt good and I managed to work my way through the malt loaf (this got very hard on the last few pieces). I had taken water at every aid station and used that to mix with my bottle of about 10 caffeinated gels. Coming back towards town, I was pretty confident that I felt okay and that I had almost managed to do the first 6 hours of the day to plan....this was good, I now had about 4 hours to try and cover 42k. My fear of cramping in the T2 tent never materialised and I headed out on the run feeling quite good about myself. All I had to do now was knock out some 10k runs.







The start of the run was good, I felt good and there seemed to be a lot of Turbo supporters out and about - this was exactly what I needed. I was going way too fast though so tried to keep slowing the pace down as best I could. I wanted to get as close to 5min/km as possible - preferably a bit quicker to give me some time in the bank for the inevitable collapse in times at the end. After about 5k though, I turned a corner and the cramp came back in the leg, same place as after the swim. This did not bode well, I had a long way to go and I had heard horror stories of people cramping and then having to walk for long periods. I decided to see if a policy of running it off would work - not sure what made me think this was a good idea - it worked though, amazing - the only problem being, I had to run a bit slower than I wanted to. Right from the start, I decided to walk the aid stations, taking gels for the first half and then moving on to coke, or whatever I felt like in the end. I had to stop for one (very long) wee after about 15k and lost about 2-3 minutes, but generally - believe it or not - by at the half way point, I was still running and even on track for 5min/km's. I just kpet on going, stopping about every 10k with cramp but then running it off every time - this was painful, but it worked. I eventually got to 30k and I realised that I had a whole bunch of time in the goody bag to get me under 10 hours....I couldn't quite believe it. This was improved upon when I went past the point at which I figured walking from a point in time would get me home in under 10 hours.

In the end, the last lap was not pretty, I was tired, the original high waves to fellow Turbos had now subsided, the cheers to other people were also now just faint whimpers in the wind. But....I was STILL running. I saw Paula on the course for the first time at about 32k and I was just so happy to tell her that I was still running at that point. Over the course of the last 10k, I kept on thinking about something a friend of mine had said about speeding up a bit at the end to make sure that you gave it your all. I did actually did feel capable of doing this and on a couple of occasions I tried to up the speed. The only problem was, this would be only materialise to be a short prelude to a cramp which induced a short stop and stretch. I had to just keep on at the same speed.

Happy = 10k


Not so happy = 30k.

Crossing the line was pretty good feeling, I had beaten the target time by 15 minutes with a 9hr45 and I had also managed to run a hell of a lot of the marathon. I couldn't quite believe it. All in all, I was pretty happy.

On a more retrospective note, even now, a week and a bit after the race, I have decided it is not for me this IM racing. The whole design of the race goes against my strengths and weaknesses. I have to sit around just getting through the swim and bike legs, the two legs I would normally go as hard as I could on to give me some time in the bank for the run. With IM, it was all just about saving myself for the weakest discipline, this is compounded by the fact that it is a marathon, you can't just fluke it, or get away with not being that quick for 40 mins. For me, I really had to save the legs just to ensure that I could run.

Next season, I'll be back on the shorter races I think. I like going as fast as I can for between 1-2 hours. I do have a marathon in Dublin in a couple of months however...main aim being to get a time that will allow me to run London in 2013.