I did an oly and a self run, one man half in the run up to outlaw.

Partly because of reading this thread I too have signed up for outlaw as my first ironman distance, most I have done previously is one olympic distance tri, and even then I didn’t exactly cover myself in glory on the swim leg.

Im feeling much the same as StuF

steve-g. I’ve been at previous ones (bike leg twice as a team and feedstation crew this year) and the atmosphere is fantastic.

Just need to get a plan and some training in 🙂

That’s good to hear.

I’ve ordered the Iron fit book mentioned on here, and with over 10 months to go anything is possible right. Running is, in theory, my strongest leg, and since my solitary tri experience I have had another year of working on my swimming. It’s going to be a journey thats’s for sure

You may be interested to read my account of IM Zurich from July 2013. Since done a few more including IM South Africa this year too.

I think everyone has already said what needs to be said really, although I have skimmed some of them. Don’t underestimate how important nutrition is – if you don’t get the calories in you will run out of steam on the run, guaranteed. The old phrase train as you race, race as you train is important here – practice eating what you plan to do on race day and see what works best for you. Find out what will be available on the course and see if your body is happy with that, or whether you need to be self-sufficient. You don’t want months of hard work going down the drain just because the particular brand of electrolytes gives you a dodgy tummy!

Cheers, Rich

Good luck munge chick and any other IM Wales contestants

How did peepz get on?

What an absolutely amazing weekend! I cannot recommend doing an Ironman enough, it has been such a fantastic experience the last 9 months. Here’s a race report (sorry if it bores anyone!).

We headed up to Tenby on Thursday evening and discovered our house was ON the run route and 400m from the finish line. Did a practice swim on the Friday and thought “bloody hell it’s choppy” never seemed to be getting closer to the buoy and there were these MASSIVE jelly fish on the beach. Luckily I didn’t see any in the sea!! Made me really nervous for race day, all those stupid last minute panics kicked in and I spent weekend thinking I might struggle to get through the cut off .. despite doing 1:12 for 3.8k in the pool! Yes stupid irrational worries.

Woke up at 0430 on race day, had a pot of Muller rice then headed off to transition to check my bike and put on my race nutrition (fig rolls and jelly beans!) and bottles. Returned back to the house and had my 2nd breakfast, museli and a banana. Met in transition at 0630 to be paraded down through the streets to the start line, started getting nervous but was also incredibly excited. Stood on the beach with an amazing sun coming up not quite believing the big day had finally arrived but actually feeling surprisingly calm!

Got to the beach and decided I was heading left as at the first buoy I’d been told everyone squashes right to get around it and so I wanted to be a little out of the way! Set off and what a washing machine! The waves were HUGE, you couldn’t sight the buoys due to the swell, I was getting dunked and squashed constantly. Goodness knows how many mouthfuls of sea water I swallowed. People were throwing up around you in the sea. As you reached the first buoy the huge RNLI lifeboat was there dragging people out of the water. Completed my first lap and discovered I’d done it in 34 mins! Gave me huge confidence, ran up the beach as fast as I could to get back in, struggled to get back into the water as being 5ft 4 the waves were crashing me back but battled on. Even the pro’s were hesitating to get back in! Smashed out the second lap to a 1:14 swim time, I have never swum that fast before and I was on a real high. Run 1k up the slope and through to T1 was amazing the crowds were crazy deep through town and being female the cheers I got were even louder! Out of 2000 entrants less than 200 were women.

Full on change for the bike.. no way I was pedalling 112 miles in tri shorts! Off I went, had a horrible stomach for the first hour, bloated and trapped wind from swim was dreading it but after an hour it subsided and I started eating! Fig rolls, Powerbar and banana’s. Just kept on pedalling and trying to keep it steady as we had a cracking tail wind for the first 35 miles so was aware this would turn! Loved the bike, loved the hills .Heartbreak Hill in Saundersfoot was like riding the TdF! The crowds were engulfing you and cheers were crazy it made my ears hurt and it brought tears to my eyes. Second lap I found hard mentally simply because I was getting bored but carried on feeling good. I ended up stopping 5 times to have a wee so I knew I was hydrated.

Into T2…full on change out of cycling lycra and into running shorts. 2 laps of run I was really strong, started the gels… lap 3 had to start walking the hills it was hurting. At the end of lap 3 which was about 19 miles I just wanted to cry but as I ran past our house my support crew went mental and pushed me around the corner into the last lap. All of the last lap I knew I was close to 14 hours and I kept run walking but just couldn’t go any quicker. As I came under the arch and turned left into the finishing shoot the atmosphere and emotion was amazing. I have never smiled so much in all my life, the feeling was amazing 9 months of hard training had paid off! I heard the man shout “FRAN YOU ARE AN IRONMAN” .. I saw my support crew and just had the largest smile ever!!

Finish: 14:05:55 …… I could’ve had sub 14 if I hadn’t stopped or 5 wee’s on the bike and 2 on the run 😉

I always said I’d never do another one … I’m already thinking Wales 2015 I’m coming to get you! Normally IM events have a 5% drop out rate, Wales his year had 12% due to swim. Over 50 people were dragged out of the sea by RNLI and 30 odd failed to make the cut off!

Alien jelly fish!

Sunrise on North Beach!

North Beach Harbour

Swim start

Run to T1!

Heartbreak Hill 2nd time.

Lap 1 looking happy!

Finish line!

Munqe-chick -Well done on an awesome effort.

Class! Thanks for taking the time to write that up.

When’s the next one?

Ha ha well I said never and I’m tempted to go and do Wales again .. see how fast I can go!! Mmm dilemmas x

Much respect. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain of it all !

An ex colleague is really into these he’s been trying to qualify for Haiwii for the last 4 or 5 years. He’s done Wales twice (failed to finish well down last year due to him mis-shifting his bike and jamming the mech into the rear wheel) and does Nice every year (he’s French)

The strange thing is… it wasn’t as painful as I thought it was going to be! BUT I trained so bloody hard for it, so that’s why I think I’d put myself through some serious training. My peak week 3 weeks out I did 21 hours of training! So on the Saturday I did a 6 hour bike straight into an hour run . on the Sunday I did a 3 hour run into a 1 1/2 hour bike .. and that was after 4 days of training already. I was training 6 days a week and fitting it in around shift work.
I have the bug and I can see the addiction with wanting to qualify for Hawaii, I’m still too far off 16th in my AG but hey I can give it a go again next year 😉

Mrs Lister is about to pull the trigger and enter Wales 2015. We live in Pembroke and she has been properly inspired. She’s not here tonight but I’m sure she’ll want to read your account Munque-Chick…
We probably cheered you on at the hairpin turn on Pembroke Main Street last Sunday!

EDIT…forgot to say well done!

Well done, top job and great write up. Be warned though it does get under the skin and never leaves

Great effort. From what I’ve read IM Wales is not an easy race. Rispick!

Congratulations munge chick.. It looked like a tough day, especially the swim

Congrats munge-chick! A friend did Wales last year, the course looked properly horrible – I’m glad I stuck with a nice flat one for my first 🙂

I could’ve had sub 14 if I hadn’t stopped or 5 wee’s on the bike and 2 on the run

This should be part of general race prep as well – there’s a decision to be made about peeing on the bike. Given you’re going to change entirely into clean run kit, you can gain a fair bit of time if you don’t stop… 😈

Well done Munge-chick.

I did IMUK this year, during the run I went into the darkest of dark places due to having a stomach bug 2 days before, my stomach was in bits. My body was screaming at me to stop but I wasn’t going to. I swore I wouldn’t do another but soon changed my mind. The feeling running down the finish chute is something else!

Massive congrats Munge Chick!

Lister, has she done any before? More than happy for her to email me if she wants any advice/ help.

SamB I raced Exmoor 70.3 tough half as prep and that was the first time I wee’d on the bike …however yes it saved me time but I thought it was the most disgusting thing, as it dribbles down your calf guards and collects in your shoe. Change in T2 .. end of race.. kit is smells wretched! I then decided it was so unpleasant I wouldn’t do it for Wales.. however next year I will live with the unpleasantness for a quicker time 🙂

Wors I had no dark moments, I think because I had trained so hard and I nailed my nutrition I was luckily .. although actually it wasn’t luck as I worked and planned for it!

Loved it .. still not entered but still plenty of time! Looking at doing the Long Course WEekend in Tenby in July too as that looks huge amounts of fun and since I’d never sea swum before that’ll give me some more prep time should I decide to enter .. which clearly I have just not clicked the “enter” button yet!!

Oh yeah 2600m of climbing on the bike, 400m of climbing on the run and this year probably 200m of climbing on the swim 😯

It’ll be her first, we knew lots of people who did it this year or last and she’s had it in her mind for a while.
Thanks for the offer of email help, she might do that soon.

I did the first ever UK first full Ironman in 1985.
Biggest mistake was overcooking the cycle leg, spurred on by other competitors. I got up to 3rd then died a thousand deaths on the run.

sadly my swim was slightly shortened due to very low surface temperature and it was prior wetsuit days. The doctor checked our hearts as we exited the water,
I’ll take it as full event though.

Ha ha first ever Ironman . I bet times have changed since then 😉 love it!!

Cheeky I know but if anyone fancied donating to charity as I did it for Macmillan cancer then the linky is here:

http://www.justgiving.com/Fran-WHYTE

Not cheeky at all and done.

My colleagues strategy on Haiwaii was to build up year by year with the goal of making it the first year into the new age category. I am sure that’s quite common, sadly he hasn’t made it yet.