Ironman Barcelona: Becoming An Ironman

We only see the highlights reel, don’t we? The red carpet. The smiles. The arms aloft. 

What we don’t see is what happens behind the curtain. The work that goes in. The struggles faced. The anxieties and self-doubt bubbling just below the surface. 

As a coach, I get to see that side. The unseen effort. The moments when belief falters, but commitment holds. It’s a privilege – to witness the process, the growth, the courage it takes to keep going.

And that’s why the finish line means so much. It’s not just the medal or the time – it’s the story behind it. The journey that built it.

Kate’s story is all of that. In the race report below, we see race day – the brilliant execution, the emotion, the result – but what we don’t see is how much heart went into it. How much courage it required. How much she’s grown through the process.

Her first Ironman – and a journey that shows exactly what’s possible when belief finally catches up with potential.

I won’t spoil it for you, but I would urge you to read it – and to feel proud of what Kate has just achieved.

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The Build Up

I felt confident about my preparation up until about 3 weeks before the event. Then the doubts started to creep in and I kept thinking I hadn’t done enough – I should probably avoid reading other people’s posts on social media about what they’ve done because comparing notes in this situation really isn’t helpful.

I felt I’d done everything I could to prepare for the logistics, with lists for everything and a detailed race plan. Fortunately I had a quiet couple of days in work before the event and I had a couple of days’ leave to get everything sorted before we set off for Callela.

Race Morning

The morning of the race felt a bit more chaotic than I’d expected. I massively underestimated how long it would take to sort everything out in transition – I hadn’t considered how busy it is when 3000 athletes are all in the same space at the same time, so getting from one end of transition to the other (and then back again because that was the only exit) took ages, even before I’d started sorting my things out.

I got down to the water with only 5 minutes to go before we had to get out again, but I got in anyway just so I could check my hat and goggles were on properly. It was a lot rougher than it had been during my practice swim on Friday, and I knew that this would mean a more challenging swim. I got out and then briefly met Becky before heading to the 1’30” start pen.

I got quite cold as I was waiting to start – air temperature was only 15C, and I was wet after my brief trip into the water. Fortunately the water was considerably warmer with it being very close to a non-wetsuit race, so I felt warm immediately on getting in.

The Swim

I managed the swim out to the turn at 500m ok, but after that I really struggled with sighting the buoys because you needed to be at the crest of a wave when sighting in order to see anything. I tried some water polo strokes a couple of times, but I find that much more exhausting than normal swimming, and I couldn’t maintain it long enough to actually see a buoy. In the end I just followed the other swimmers, hoping that at some stage I’d sight at just the right moment to spot the next buoy.

I abandoned any plans to try to draft – the water was choppy and I felt like I was being thrown around all over the place. When we turned and did the return journey closer to the shore, the waves were much bigger, and sighting became even harder. I also started feeling a bit seasick and had to resort to a bit of breaststroke a couple of times so that I could see where I was going and let the nausea settle.

I was very pleased to see the exit arch, and I managed to successfully get out of the water without falling over (not everyone around me achieved this!)

The Bike

T1 went well. Washed the sand off my feet with a bottle of water, got my cycling kit on and headed off onto the bike course.

The first half of the “out” of the out and back was quite undulating, so heart rate and power were up and down, but nothing harder than I’d been doing in training. The second half in the out direction had a brutal headwind, and I could see my pace dropping, but stuck to my power and heart rate targets. The first half of the return leg was fast because of the tailwind. After a toilet stop at the last aid station, I headed out onto lap 2.

I was overtaking a lot of other athletes on the second lap. I was surprised that I overtook most on the uphill sections, even though I wouldn’t regard this as my strength on the bike. By the time I got to the bit with the headwind, I was feeling a bit achy in my shoulders, but held the aero position because I could see that I was 1.5-2 mph faster in that position than I was sitting upright.

The rest of the ride felt relatively comfortable apart from the saddle discomfort that is to be expected after 6 hours on the bike in the same position, and I was pleased that my legs still felt good on the uphill sections towards the end of the lap.

The Run

T2 took quite a bit longer than expected. A load of very coarse sand fell off my timing chip and into my sock. I didn’t notice until after I’d put the sock on. Unfortunately by this point I’d already lubed my feet, and the sand stuck to it, making it difficult to remove. A quick toilet stop, and I realised that I still had sand in my sock, so had to remove it again to sort it out. I also had to stop about 3k into the run to remove one stubborn bit of sand from under my big toe because I knew it would cause problems later on if I didn’t.

My legs felt good when I set off on the run. So much so that I had to hold myself back and stick to the paces I’d done on my long runs in training. I was tempted to push the pace a bit and/or miss out some of the walk breaks, but I remembered reading your race report from Leeds and decided that was a bad idea.

The hardest part early on in the marathon was ignoring the spectators cheering me on and trying to get me to run again. I’d got a plan and intended to stick to it. Later on it was less of a problem as more and more people resorted to walking – by the time I got to my last lap the vast majority were walking with only occasional bits of running in between.

I completed lap 1 and still felt good. I took a gel every 30 minutes and a cup of water and a cup of coke at every aid station. Towards the end they only had caffeine gels left, so I used my own Lucozade gels from my race belt and special needs bag to fuel the last hour or so.

By lap 3 I was still feeling pretty good. It felt harder to maintain the same pace, but I could still manage it relatively comfortably. Several people commented that my run form still looked good and I looked fresh. I knew when I started lap 3 that I could definitely finish, and I enjoyed that last lap, knowing that the red carpet awaited me at the end.

Nutrition

Nutrition and hydration went exactly as planned – gel just before I went into my start pen, gel in T1, then something every 20 minutes on the bike. I went through about 7 bottles of electrolyte on the bike but it was quite humid and my trisuit was absolutely caked in salt when I’d finished, so I think I needed it all.

I had a gel every 30 minutes on the run, and a cup of coke at every aid station. I took Salt Sticks every hour on the run as that seems to suit me better when running than taking electrolytes in my water.

I had about 30 minutes of nausea halfway through the run, but I was still able to eat/drink, and it settled later on. That’s the best I’ve ever managed my nutrition in any event.

Reflections

I feel like pretty much the whole thing went well. I had a race plan and stuck to it. Although I felt good on both the bike and the run, I didn’t allow myself to get carried away because I knew I’d pay for it later if I did. I’m pretty sure that’s why I overtook so many people on lap 2 of the bike and why I was one of the few still running at the end of the marathon. I spent the whole race waiting for the wheels to fall off, but it never happened. The only time I was regretting my choice to enter the event was during the swim when I was feeling sick and just wanted it to be over.

My main takeaway points are that I can achieve far more than I think I can, and that I should wash the sand off my timing chip as well as my feet!

“I was hoping for 15 hours – if I had a good day – so absolutely made up with that!”

I far exceeded my expectations in terms of what I could achieve. I was trying to calculate my likely finish time during the run, and thought I would just make a sub-14 finish, so was absolutely amazed when my watch said 13.35 as I crossed the finish line.

The only downside of this is that I’ll probably never manage such a well executed race ever again!