Great to read the war stories. I’m sad, in a way, that my legacy spot came up before I bagged the automatic Q. I do wonder whether the fire will burn as brightly after my legacy race - these stories of achieving it do fan the flames, but you never know how things will pan out mentally after the actual race.
Current thinking remains…yes, the itch is not scratched. I am fired up to put down a race in October that says I belonged there even if my route was different - not yet decided where in M50-54 I’ll look to target to feel that.
As a fringe contender aged 53 with this year not a KQ attempt year realistically aging up to 55-59 presents an opportunity…
Anyway thanks for the knowledge shares. Sounds a great camp @Matthew_Spooner, hope it keeps working out.
With regards to rough roads I’ve always found the elbow pads most crucial, have ended up with bruised elbows and sore shoulders/neck.
I now have my own using some adhesive backed neoprene sheets from amazon. I use velcro to attach and have 3 pairs made up - 1,2 and 3 sheets thick which are easily interchangable as velcroed. For rough roads and/or long races the thicker sheets absorb much more vibration and also soften the position a fraction which also helps. I’ve done 12hr TT’s on rough roads so these lessons have been hard earned…
My other half got a nice bonus at work, and decided to spend it on a shiny new conservatory… with hindsight, it was a mistake on my part to describe it as a ‘turbo training room’.
The new pads on Cervello are absolutely amazing, I didn’t realise how much difference they made. I found in Lanza, riding on really rough roads, to relax grip almost completely on aero bars and take the vibration through the pads
This blog should be essential reading for anyone who has aspirations of Kona. You were right on the threshold of KQ from your very first IM, yet it still took 9 years.
You were the Age Group equivalent to Lionel Sanders. Even in 2019, when you prepared everything so well, losing nutrition could have spelled disaster, so glad you pulled it all together and really delivered a great result
Edit my post looks like a criticism, it really isn’t. I love your honest appraisal and openness about training. It highights how much luck and bad luck come into KQ. Most of us regularly make the mistakes you made
I reckon I’ve not smiled in most of my IM finishes; it’s just relief! I had quite a few very near misses with sub-10 so was usually disappointed back in the day. The others I’ve usually had a bad day, so again, no smile. The happiest I was, was the Cotswold 226, a small event of 150. My family were there at the finish, and I was so glad to see them; tells you what’s more important
I’ve pretty much had enough of Ironman now (still ‘only’ 8 over many years). I might try and do my 10th aged 50. Tbh I just need different challenges now. I have toyed with joining the Reserves, off the back of my Regular service; maybe even try for a green beret if they’d let me at my age; something I never got around to.
Outlaw 2011. Same time as 2010.
14th overall, 2nd in AG to an ex-pro.
Blew up on the marathon. Again.
Lost 20 minutes and saw that sub-10 dance right down the road.
Happy just to stop running around that f***ing lake
- of despondencey from that day…
