Race Reports: Ironman Swansea 70.3
“When you can’t do something you love, you gain a new sense of appreciation for it.“
Sammie’s race report from Ironman Swansea 70.3. But it’s more than a race report. It’s a story about courage, about doing what you can, about making lemonade from lemons, about gratitude.
Have a read and maybe it will inspire you when things get tough in your own training and racing.
The Weeks Leading Up To Swansea …
Six weeks ago I started getting abdominal pains in my gallbladder, this was new for me so Chris made me go to A&E given the potential serious conditions that give rise to abdominal pain. After 12 hours of being sat there, the consultant ruled out infections or anything immediately serious. Leaving gallstones or endometriosis in the gallbladder. The consultant turned to me and said if it is endometriosis, you know as well as I do there isn’t much we are going to be able to do to help, the medical world doesn’t know enough about this overly complicated condition. I was praying it was gallstones. The reason for this is because if it endometriosis in / around my gallbladder these symptoms could occur every month. Two weeks of the month could render me unable to walk. Unfortunately an ultrasound revealed no gallstones so I’m waiting to the gynaecologist, which will as it has done previously, result in a third laparoscopy.
Having signed up for Deva Middle Distance, I had to drop out. I genuinely love training and racing, training is never a chore, it is the part of my day that makes me smile. I’m grumpy if I can’t train. So to spend two weeks doing jigsaws (I can’t binge watch tv) and listening to audiobooks, was a killer. Even when the flare up died down, I struggled. My body was fatigued all of the time, I couldn’t eat random things like vegan butter, avocado and mayo without getting pain. I also had pain in the morning before eating something substantial, so that ruled out any morning sessions. Once I was able to I ticked off as many sessions as I could in the lead up to Swansea.
On top of all of this, I’d been put forward for promotion which involves presenting your business case and an interview the week of Swansea … and Jenson (🐶) was unwell.
I’d signed up to Swansea in the hope of a world championship place but after all of the above I just wanted to race.
Pre Race
For the past two weeks, I have adopted the following mantra ‘I can deal with anything Swansea throws at me because I am a warrior’.
“I am a warrior!”
When it came to travelling down, I was filled with excitement alongside nerves. Mainly I was happy because I was getting to do the thing I love.
Carb loading
I hate it with a passion. I’m not a foodie, I eat because I have to not because I want to. Hubby on the other hand, this is the only bit of triathlon he likes.
Race day
Being an advocate, I live by the mantra ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’. If you go into tribunal with bad preparation, prepare to get your bum handed to you. It’s the same with triathlon. I know exactly what I am doing when in a triathlon, I practice putting my goggles on my head and taking my wetsuit off quickly every time I go for an ow swim, exact what order I am going to put my stuff on in each transition, if the weather is hot what changes in my nutrition etc. Cool. Calm. Disciplined.
The Swim
I seeded myself at 30 minutes. I had swam well at the Ivan Percival swim so if I could hit that time again, I would be happy.
Getting into the swim, guess what song came on … Thunderstruck. Perfect timing.
As soon as that swim started, I knew I would be off my usual pace. The swim was in a dock and there wasn’t much room for swimmers to spread out. It was chaos, I’m always up for a fight in a swim but this was ridiculous. As much as I tried to find space and rhythm, it wasn’t happening. I spent the whole swim trying to fight my way through, people drafting off me who decided to take chunks out of my ankles and feet. People sandwiching me in, hitting me in the face, pulling me back by my feet and swimming across the front of me. Thankfully, although we don’t practice this level of closeness at squad swimming, we are much too polite, I have developed all of the skills and the confidence to deal with this thanks to Bryan and my squaddies 💕
Out of the swim with basically a sprint distance run to t1. I had put a pair of trainers to pop on but after the battering I ran with them in my hand instead.
T1
Having a sprint triathlon background definitely hurries you up in transition. One dude might as well have made a cup of tea with his faffing. Not for me, in and out.
The Bike
When a pro triathlete says to you it’s a slow bike at Swansea because of the hills, you know you are not getting a pb on the bike. In saying that hills don’t scare me after Alpe D’Huez, hills pay the bills and I love them.
“Hills pay the bills and I love them.”
For the duration, I was hurting, I felt sick, I had to switch from 2 bars and a gel to 1 bar and 2 gels because of the sickness however I loved that bike course.
The sun was out, the scenery was gorgeous all I was missing was my cycling buddies. I knew some of these roads as Chris’s auntie and uncle had a place off Oxwich Bay which brought back some lovely memories of Jenson having a great time on the beach.
The course was very steep both on the up and down. Anyone who knows my cycling knows I love downhills. In the TT position as much as I could but then when a descent was too steep, I tried the ‘Tom Pidcock’ approach, bum right the way back, flat back, peddles flat at 15/45, covering/on the breaks with my head low and arms tucked in. Racing lines through those bends. Probably not to the same level that Tom would achieve but I made up some good time on those descents.
I didn’t appreciate until Southport triathlon how much my riding had come on from last year to this. Bryan and I had been working on my run because my bike has always been decent enough so I thought I’d plateaued on the bike.
The realisation hit me on the hills, I was on my TT bike passing people going up the hills, many on road bikes. I’m quite heavy for my size so this normally doesn’t happen. Although when one of your best mates is one of the best female hill climbers in the country and she gives you many tips and hints about hill climbing whilst you are panting away and she isn’t breaking a sweat, it helps. Love you Frances 💕
“I didn’t appreciate until Southport triathlon how much my riding had come on from last year to this. The realisation hit me on the hills, I was on my TT bike passing people going up the hills, many on road bikes.“
On one particularly hard hill, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ was playing. I choked up. Bloody Nora woman this hill is hard enough without you having a little cry and adding to the inability to breathe. I really hope people didn’t think I was crying about the hill 😂😂
About 50 miles in everything started to hurt, my tummy was in agony, my pelvis, shoulders. This is one of my symptoms from endometriosis, random pains come on. The only way to explain it is like having flu or after a night out at uni, you feel battered and random bits of you hurt but you aren’t sure why. I was seriously worried I wouldn’t make the run. I told myself I would even if I walked it all.
T2
No issues, talc in my shoes and socks definitely helped. Thanks to Ian W, I remember to watch for ‘sticky fingers’ and took my bike computer with me!
The Run
I started off strong, 5.40 pace felt good. Come on sub-2 hours. Then between mile 2-3 runners tummy made itself known. This isn’t unusual for me so I can judge when it is an emergency …. and it is an EMERGENCY. Unfortunately it was the latter but there was some toilets at the aid station around mile 3. No queue so I stopped. I felt better for it.
After this though I was worried about taking on gels and tummy issues. I managed one and a half gels with coke and water through every aid station. I knew that wasn’t going to keep me going especially with how bad my body felt off the bike.
The first 10km I was set for just over 2 hours. As hard as I tried to increase my pace, my gallbladder pain increased. It’s like trying to run through a stitch. It was annoying as my legs had it in them to keep pushing but the pain was too much. I thought of Daniel at Roth, run for nine minutes at the pace I could maintain then walk for one minute. It helped.
The final 3km were killer, I was broken. My feet hurt because I’d stupidly put on my old trainers which need retiring and the ground felt hard. Come on 3km you have got that in you. Counting down, it was the slowest 3km mentally I’ve had to get through. I saw Chris with about 1.5km to go. Cheering me on.
I knew I had missed the PB I wanted but I still was on for a half marathon PB (triathlon and standalone run) so I concentrated on that to the end.
The Finish
I’m not a teary person though yesterday when I crossed that finish line there were tears.
Happy tears because I was doing the thing I love.
Race Reports: Ironman Swansea 70.3
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