From Injury To Ironman Podium: Sara’s Ironman Wales Report

From Injury To Ironman Podium: Sara’s Ironman Wales Report

The Build 

After being injured this year, I had just ~10 weeks to build my running back. I took confidence in the weeks of strength training and physio that build my calf back, and in mobility / activation exercises that really helped to manage back pain. It’s not that I didn’t trust my running – normally before a marathon I’d “test” my run fitness in training by pushing it hard – so I knew I could do it before being on the start line. This time, I had to believe that my training will get me through the run, but I didn’t know it. 

I reccied the course in July, I cycled it 3 days after riding 12h time trial. I was exhausted at the time, still chafed, and it was over 30C in Tenby (my Garmin was reading 46C) and the tarmac was melting. It took me over 8h and my friend Magi was on the front the whole time. In retrospect, riding the course when knackered was a good idea, as in my memory, the hills were longer and steeper than they were on the day. 

Overall, right before Wales I knew my cycling endurance was good, and in the build up, we added some tempo intervals so I was feeling pretty sharp on the bike. My bike was serviced by the mechanic and clean (I wasn’t leaving anything to chance). I practiced my nutrition and then practiced it again, including the mini carbload and breakfast. I memorised which aide stations I’m going to pick water bottles to get to the hilly part of the route as light as possible.

My swimming felt stronger than ever. That’s a silver lining of leg injuries – you end up swimming more. I think strength training also helped quite a bit – it took longer into the swim before I felt fatigue. Swim across the Mersey boosted my confidence about swimming in choppy water. It also really brought home that I perform my best when I feel playful rather than competitive, so this was the approach I was taking with me to meet the dragon. 

In the spirit of controlling the controllables, in the build up I made sure I was getting quality sleep, and that my nutrition outside of training session was on point. And a few weeks out, I did my best to fend off work stress too.  I was ready.

T – 1 

Arrived to Tenby Friday evening, in the rain. 

On Saturday morning I joined Ian & Al for a swim. Just before the swim I told Ian how I always have some pre race injuries, I seem to convert to an agent of chaos. And look at me now – almost at the start line and no drama. The sea was calm, I was feeling good. 

The Jellyfish Sting!

I got stung by moon jellyfish pretty much right away. I congratulated myself for being a more experienced swimmer because I knew what it was and I didn’t freak out. Little did I know… 🤣

Ian and Al turned to the shore and I carried on swimming the whole lap with another swimmer next to me – we were turning around the last buoy and something grabbed my chin. It felt like a horse bit it off clean, it was so painful. I thought I got caught in some fishing equipment and it ripped my chin off.

I was shaking from the shock but realised no one can hear and before the help arrives, I’ll be back in the shore so I may as well carry on swimming.  Eugh. I was whimpering in pain and asked the guy I swam next to if I still have a chin, I thought I was bleeding from it. He looked at me like I had 3 heads, clearly not understanding why I’m asking this. I found Ian and Al on the beach who quickly realised I got stung by something bigger than the moon jellyfish. 

Ian later said he didn’t want to freak me out but I looked like I got punched in the face by Mike Tyson (I felt like that). 

After a visit to pharmacy and checking with Jan what to do with that, I spent the rest of the morning pulling barbs out of my chin and scraping it with a card, watching my chin swell. It really was painful.

The rest of the day was uneventful. I registered – got assigned a number 2000 and took that as a sign that I will be 100% fine tomorrow –  that was the bit that relaxed me after the jellyfish encounter. I racked my bike and hung my bags, caught up with some friends, and stayed off my feet as much as possible (all day of rain helped with that). Tom arrived in the evening and we went for some pasta, I then had an early night.

The Swim

Got up at 5ish, topped up my transition bags, used the toilet, saw Magi. We were both nervous and excited. My chin was now covered in blisters, still swollen. I covered it in ocean glide (swim line) and spent the rest of pre swim morning preoccupied, making sure my goggles are nowhere near my oily chin. I was now apprehensive of that swim, worried I’d get stung again. Gave Tom a big kiss and headed into the athletes pen that took me to the beach. 

I seeded myself between 1:10 and 60min. The sea was significantly more choppy than the day before – but I told Bryan that I’ll take the chop over the jellyfish so I took the chop as a good sign. I felt emotional on that start line, it’s been a journey to get here! The Welsh anthem, the fellow triathletes shaking hands and wishing each other good luck, the pyrotechnics got to me and I was crying happy tears. 

Few minutes later we were off. A few water polo strokes and I was confident in my direction. The chop was in my face, I switched to breath to my left to avoid swallowing water, and I shortened my stroke to get through this part.

I was keeping the pace quite easy on the first lap as I knew the tide will be worse on lap two and wanted to leave something for then. Round the first buoy and staying out of trouble, spotting my line nice and early, just like we practiced. It may have been the first triathlon where the physical contact was minimal for me. On the approach to the second turn buoy, I spotted my line again, accelerated and got out of that crowded sections quickly. Turns out I now have different gears when swimming.

Got stung by a second jellyfish, on my hand, this time I knew what that was. On lap one I wasn’t overtaking many swimmers and a few overtook me. Little run around the Rock and in for the second lap. I felt quite relaxed, even excited to put some pace into the second lap, catching up and overtaking. I felt good about this swim – got out of the water feeling like I made the most out of it. 

The Bike 

Run up the zig zags, quick wetsuit off, hat on to start warming up, run to the T1, more layers on, and I was on the bike. I was cold for the first 30 min and worried it’ll stay like that but luckily I warmed up. I was riding to normalised power and watching my HR to keep it low. I allowed myself to spike the HR within limits up hill, and made sure it recovered on descents. On the first lap I stayed in aero position as much as possible to make the most of the flat sections and descents. I felt the first loop was done very quickly. 

At the start of the first big loop my back was really sore, I found it hard to stay in aero. I was getting overtaken and had some flashbacks from the 12h TT when I was in pain for the whole day. I tried some breathing exercises to help with pain and some stretches. Didn’t think it’ll make any difference, but it did. I gave myself a permission to not force it to aero position till it feels better, which took pressure off my mind. I begun looking forward to hill as my back was fine going up. And the hills were way shorter and flatter than during the reccie ride so that was great too. 

Started to overtake people on the way up. Got to Narberth, the spectators were great there. I knew that the Wiseman Hill and the Heartbreak Hill were coming and I was ready for them. And they didn’t disappoint – the crowd was 3-4 rows deep, doing Mexican waves and I spotted Milly shouting there for me. I was emotional again, crying happy tears again. It was surreal, felt like the hill was happening to me, I didn’t feel myself cycling.

Bombed it down to Tenby and turned around onto the final big lap. My back was feeling better, I started staying in the aero position, catching up more athletes. I did a little body scan and realised that apart from my hand being swollen from jellyfish sting, my legs were feeling pretty good, and I didn’t feel that deep-in-the-bones fatigue. My mood was getting better, I was playing with the dragon just like I hoped I would.

The Run

Quick T2, fresh socks and a plastic bag full of gels, a hat. I was feeling curious about the run, wanted to see what will happen, and that was the correct mindset. Zero expectations. My back felt better than it did during the preceding month – actually I felt better than on the bike and that made me laugh. I heard my name called and saw Milly again (she was everywhere!), I spotted (heard) Sarah Louise from Mersey Tri calling my name – familiar voice made all the difference but the support on this course was something else. I was getting emotional – again! I carried on nudging my head towards positive self talk. It didn’t feel natural but it made for a better company on a long day. 

The first uphill run probably felt the worse, legs a bit heavy after all. Once I realised I’m going to run in loops (I love a looping course), and I’ll be collecting colourful bands for each lap, the part of my brain that’s really into splitting runs into small chunks and counting the fraction of a marathon left was delighted. I can honestly say that at no point of that run was I thinking about running a marathon – I was running 14 min segments, on repeat, paying zero attention to pace, just trying to feel good and make the most of this 14min. 

I spotted Danny near the timing mat and he asked how I was feeling – I gingerly said ok, but I was feeling way better than expected, just didn’t want to jinx it. I also thought that of course Danny is at this part of the course – the part that made me think about the Squad mates (because I knew people will be tracking and I knew each time I’m stepping over this mat they have an update). It made sense to see Danny there. So I was also quite emotional there – again. 

The first 20km flew by, I thought I now should start feeling rubbish, but I was still feeling pretty good. High fiving Ian, Al, Magi, making sure I high five every kid who I could reach, saying diolch and thank you to all spectators.  The crowds were getting more and more tipsy and their support more and more raucous – I was loving it. I spotted Tom – finally- we had a big kiss and I felt super grateful for being there and for his support. 

32km in and I was still feeling ok. Tired now, but not injured. I run with my Mersey Tri club mate Andy for a bit – a big boost.  And then I realised I’m on my last lap. Danny run with me for a bit, I begun to allow myself to think that I’ve got this. Wow. I was soaking it all in, thanking the dragon for a good day.  Last stretch to the red carpet, I rung that bell, and heard that I was an Ironman. Later I found out I even snuck onto the AG podium.

Reflections

So much happened during this race, it’s hard to put this experience into words. I’m grateful I was able to do it, what a privilege it was to experience that course and that support and to share it with friends. 

The race couldn’t have gone much better for me. In retrospect even the jellyfish was somewhat lucky – any other location could have easily stopped me from racing. I feel lucky I was able to execute the plan which takes some focus while also feeling quite playful and easy-going about the whole thing. 

The race really emphasised that the importance of strength training for me, don’t think I would have been on the start-line or running that well without it (thank you Milly!) I was also proud to realise my skills have progressed, those open water sessions with Bryan made so much difference. I was a different athlete to who I was last year – I wasn’t winging it, I had a whole toolbox of tricks (thank you Bryan).

I think Bryan also drilled into me being patient on a race like that and I felt like I was. My trust in the process was on another level, and I actually developed quite a solid mind game that I was able to use to my advantage. Didn’t realise that about myself ‘till then. 

I felt a lot of love for the squad and my triathlon friends who sent so many well wishes and cared about how I did on that day – and because of that being in Tenby felt like being a part of something bigger than Ironman.