Ironman UK, Sunday 19th August 2007

Report by David Waterhouse

This was my second attempt at the Ironman UK race. I took part in the inaugural event in 2005 where I got attacked by leeches in the lake and had my tyre blow up on the bike section. So there was an element of "unfinished business" as I set off down to Dorset on the Friday before the race. Weather reports had not been good for the race on Sunday with rain and wind forecasted for the big day. I arrived late at the camp-site after a lengthy delay on the M6 due to excessive traffic heading off to the "V" festival at Stafford. Saturday involved the usual registering, bike checking/racking, briefing etc. The weather was poor at this stage with plenty of wind and rain, and I was not very optimistic for the race.

The weather seemed to have improved on Sunday as the competitors changed into their wet-suits ready for the effort ahead. I spotted Bella Comerford, one of the pre-race favourites keeping a low profile between the marquees. The race almost set off on time with only a 20 minute delay due to traffic problems. This was welcomed by some competitors as it gave them more time to swim out to the deep water start line. The course was two laps round the lake which wasn't too arduous as there was plenty of buoys to follow and the lake is quite narrow. Large yellow buoys marked the course with long white ones at each end to mark the turn. It was these white buoys which I desperately looked out for.

The swim over with, it was onto the bikes and onto the 3 lap course. This turned out to be quite technical as it was quite fast cycling down to Dorchester, but hilly and windy on the way back. There was one stretch where the north-westerly wind was directly in your face. During the first lap I was having a chat with a competitor when we heard a kiwi voice shout from behind. It turned out to be Bryan Rhodes the 2005 champion and one of the pre-race favourites. He wanted to pinch a co2 canister from the guy I was talking to, which he proceeded to do mid-pedal stroke whilst being filmed by a cameraman on a motorcycle, I had to drop back and observe. The race is being shown on Channel 4 later in the year so it might be on TV. The local rotary club provided good support handing out powerbars, gels and Gatorade etc. and you had to perfect the slow down and snatch routine. It was on the second lap that the hills that had seemed quite innocuous on the first lap started to bite. The bike course is said to be one of the hardest in the ironman world with over 2000 metres of climbing. It is only when you realise that you have to go over the hills 3 times that it hits home. On the third lap some people were even walking up the hills. I made the bike cut-off by about half an hour which was due to the fact that I had a storming final leg on the tough cycle back from Dorchester where my average speed actually went up. This felt like a big achievement as I got timed out due to my tyre problems two years previously.

I wasted a little bit of time in T2 because I had put my socks in the wrong bag and I had to wait whilst one of the volunteers went to get it. So I ended up with a transition time of over 18 minutes. I felt that it was worth sacrificing time rather than risking having to abandon on the run due to sore feet. The run followed a similar pattern to the bike where I had an ok start, struggled in the middle and had a good finish. My effort was not enhanced by the fact I missed a turn and ran over a pedestrian bridge twice unnecessarily! As if it wasn't enough running 26.2 miles! After earlier being worried about making the cut-off, it became clear that this was not going to be a problem as I ran the last 6 miles. The last 3 miles were through downtown Sherborne on a Sunday night. There was hardly a soul about which was a bit eerie. All I could think of was making that finish line. Once I turned the corner I saw that there were still quite a few supporters left to cheer the last few finishers. After much high-fiving it was all over and I was an Ironman. There was plenty of food and drink on offer but I was quite bloated and so could only manage soup and a piece of flap-jack. I was speaking to one fellow finisher one minute and the next he went delirious and was carted off by the St. Johns Ambulance. I was one of the slower finishers but when I consider that over 100 people hadn't finished the race it made be feel satisfied that I had made it.

Results

Name	Cat	Pos	SWIM	T1	BIKE	T2	RUN	Total	Rank
Chris Clarke	M35-39	4	1:01:20	0:04:04	5:12:23	0:01:57	3:14:14	9:33:54	29
Rob Wilby	M30-34	53	1:10:50	0:05:21	6:16:55	0:04:36	3:41:28	11:19:05	236
Rob Arnold	M45-49	36	0:49:47	0:07:26	6:24:09	0:07:34	4:26:23	11:55:15	387
Duncan Hill	M30-34	91	1:07:51	0:14:51	6:46:14	0:06:06	3:50:45	12:05:43	438
Nathan Gladwell	M30-34	167	1:07:08	0:08:19	7:30:24	0:06:32	4:45:07	13:37:25	846
David Waterhouse	M40-44	200	1:36:39	0:09:25	8:13:52	0:18:40	5:55:48	16:14:19	1117

Read Chris Clarke's version of events

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