Sorry if some of you think that this is long but the ironman race is longer so deal with it!!!

On a shannonside spin one Tuesday evening in late May 2008, the train (Adrian) asked me would I do an ironman and of course I said I would, thinking he meant a few years down the line. Conor overheard the conversation and decided if the train could do it then so could he. Both of the lads were a lot heavier than they are now and at the time this was a massive undertaking to both of them. I knew Dave McCourt was already looking to do one and Mick Macken was persuaded to come too after saying never again after his previous 3 ironman races. The earliest we could do one was 2009 and now we had to pick one for 2009 as the races book up over night. France and Lanzarote are brutal tough even by ironman standards, UK could have dodgy weather, Germany is often extremely hot and humid (although relatively flat), so Austria was chosen over Switzerland on a 50/50 decision. The 2008 race was booked out in 19hrs so we had to be ready on the laptops at 12am on the night after the 2008 race. Luckily we all got in as it was sold out in 92mins. 2700 spots sold out in 92mins.

Now it was for real and as a “veteran” of 4 sprint triathlons (one uncompleted) at the time of entry, I realised that I had a lot of work to do and do a few Olympic distance triathlons that summer. I read the race reports of others and was inspired and scared shitless at the same time. (Gerry Duffy of midland has a great report of Nice 2008 that I read 4/5 times over the past year).

I had only learnt how to swim from scratch 18 months before the time of entry, I only owned a bike for a year and was running a year although as I played football I thought I was better than I was.

The chances are that I was only going to do this once so I decided that I wanted to give it my best shot and not just complete the race thinking I could do an hour faster if I did the race again a month later. So back to the internet looking for training plans and 9 months from the race, I started training. I found a decent plan and kept it going but was often tired and unmotivated. After looking again at forums on the net about the type of gear needed, the cheapest way of improving was to find a coach.

By pure chance on another training spin I bumped into Morgan Fox who was intrigued by the whole ironman race and offered to help. After a meeting where he interviewed me (to make sure I don’t waste his time) and a bike fitting I felt that at last I was on my way to achieving my goal of giving it my best shot. This was early February and within weeks I had Dave McCourt signed up with Morgan too and this helped training immensely, to have someone waiting for you on those mornings when you’re not in the mood and whingey is great motivation to get up.

The months passed by very quickly and a half ironman in Lisbon and a few smaller races made me feel stronger and stronger as the months went on and when we left for Austria I couldn’t have felt better.

On arriving in Austria we discovered that the lake was of drinking quality and a beautiful temperature to swim in and the roads were of the best quality you could get. In Ireland we do not have roads, we have a series of coincidences. We got our last bit of fine tuning in and we were ready. On Saturday we prepared our transition bags, which was probably the most stressful part of the whole race as we had never done this before and also our bikes had to put back together and tested to make sure all was ok. We checked and double checked each others bags. When we put our bikes and bags in, I relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the day.

At 4am the alarm went and I was delighted to have got in 5 hours sleep. Down for breakfast and the hotel was buzzing with athletes getting in their much needed calories for the day. Dave had prepared some pasta from the night before and the 2 of us ate as much as we could. I went back up for a shower and prepared my drinks for the bike and we left for the race at 5.30.

I somehow was very relaxed and was relieved as in previous races, keeping food down has become a problem and I didn’t want to waste time in a line for a toilet when I could be warming up. The atmosphere at the race start was just unreal and I never expected so many people, so early in the morning. It was almost difficult to get to the swim start through the crowd. When in transition the music was first class (take a listen to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gHZ2eoOk-I) and we felt like gladiators as we lined up for the swim.

We wished each other good luck and waited for the start which was just some fireworks. Is that the start? I think it is said Adrian and we walked (not ran) into the water and we were off under some great music and bells and whistles and cheering. My attitude to the swim was that I will get clobbered, but take it and stop going on about it! Sure enough I got hit hard twice early on but to my amazement the water opened up in front of me for 5-600m and I settled down to enjoy the swim with some great music in my head to keep my rhythm. Around the first turn at 1400m in 28.50 (yes I looked at the watch) and they hit me from every angle even though it was relatively clear leading into the turn. Another 400m to the next turn and I didn’t feel anything when expecting to be clobbered again. Back into the sun and sighting was proving to be difficult and following others became the order of the day. I had no idea where the entrance to the canal was and had to veer sharply left to get in near the end. The last 900m was up the Lendcanal and was a cattle mart as the canal is 15m wide with only about 10m of that deep enough to swim in. The banks were lined with people who made a hell of a lot of noise and provided a great atmosphere. Back in the water and anyone who slowed up for a split second created havoc for himself and those behind as there was nowhere to go. There are a few clips on utube that give ya a flavour of what it was like. Out of the water in 1.17 which was 1min behind schedule to pom pom girls and the biggest carnival you could imagine.

T1 was strange with everyone changing in a tent (sexes separated of course) and I put on cycling gear as a good chamois was needed for 180km. I put socks in my run bag and not my bike bag though and did the bike in bare feet as a result.

The plan for the bike was to hammer the flat and go easy on the climbs, to eat every 10km and drink every 5km ( the garmin was set to go off every 5km). I had 3 nutri grains (6 halves), 6 gels and 6 mini rolls (2 jam, 2 nutella, 2 nana thanks edel) of not more than 3 or 4 bites. I also wanted my heart rate to average 160bpm so as not to worry if the average speed went up or down.

Into the bike and I was cruising along for the first 20km and I went easy up the first big climb up the Ros Egg to the most amazing atmosphere. People lined the route with bells and whistles with a dj playing some great tunes and lots of people not wearing very much, having a party. Supa Marc they shouted as I passed and hup, hup, hup which at times I felt like telling them to” hup off” when I was flat to the boards and another horn went off in my ears but I couldn’t stop smiling as this was the most awesome feeling. Flying down the decents I couldn’t help notice the fantastic scenery and I realised how lucky I am to be able to do this. Up the Rupertiberg which was the biggest climb and the atmosphere continued. For a so called flat course I used every gear on the bike 4 times over and the climbs had knocked my average speed way down. Anyway the last 26km was almost all downhill with a few sneaky momentum stoppers thrown in along the way but still a very fast section back to Klagenfurt where the crowd were having a ball. I went looking for the irish flags that our supporters had and was absolutely delighted to have found them and gave them a wave before hammering off again. At this stage I had not seen any of our lads and was worried as Conor and Dave are usually out of the water before me and I still hadn’t passed them on the bike. I hoped they were still ahead but later found out that I passed both of them in Transition or just before without any of us noticing (transition was big). The first lap on the bike was done in 2.34 which was an average of 35km/hr and slightly off the 2.30 I hoped for.

On the third quarter (I didn’t do 180km, I did 4x45km) I hit a flat spot and the 6-8 guys who were constantly passing me and repassing me after I passed them had started to go slower. I had settled into their rhythm but realised that my h/r was coming back down and so I decided to hammer away again on 125km. Soon after I met Mick, and after a quick hello, I kept the foot down. This gave me a boost as to pass someone as good as Mick meant I was going fairly well at worst. I kept the work up right till the last 2km where I came in, in a peloton as there was no room to pass.

The second lap was just under 2hrs 44 which gave a total of 5hrs 18 which was 8 mins down on what I hoped for. My average h/r was 156bpm and I ate 14 of the 18 bites to eat as my stomach felt dodgy at times. At this stage I felt good and as the transition was long and I didn’t want to run that far in bike shoes, I unclipped my feet out of the shoes before getting off the bike like I would in a short race but the ground was scorching to run in bare feet and it made me look like I sprinted through transition like a pro. I threw the socks on and grabbed a few more gels and off I went on a little run.

The plan on the run was to eat a gel every 5km and water at every aid station and to try and average 165bpm regardless of speed.

The first km is always what the body wants to do and not what it can do or is forced to do and I was delighted to see on my trusty garmin (greatest toy/training tool ever) that I had done 4.44 with ease. I was hoping for a 3.30 marathon which is 5mins per km and wanted to average 4.45min/km as long as possible while keeping the h/r at the level mentioned above before the inevitable suffering began. The course was 12km loop to the west of the iron city and 8km loop to the east of the iron city followed by a 2km loop to the finish. This split the course up nicely into 4 quarters. The first loop was in the heat and as it got up to 30c with very high humidity, the start of the marathon at approx. 1.45pm local time was fairly brutal. At 5km I was still moving smoothly but needed to take a whizz. I found the nearest bush just as Marino Van Hoeknacker (the race leader) passed by. Luckily there was no camera with him. I fiqured he was 23km ahead of me which gave me a boost too. Also at this time Stephen Bayliss (3rd place and staying in our hotel) passed by (21km ahead). It took him 4km to move out of sight which again gave me a lift. Then I realised my heart rate monitor had slipped down to my stomach and was giving crazy readings so I couldn’t rely on it anymore. All I had was average speed to go on and this was not the greatest idea ever but I had no choice. After I stopped my legs couldn’t get going again and no matter what I tried they wouldn’t listen to me. The second loop was in the shade and I speeded up a small bit as the difference in temperature was massive. I knew now that the 1st loop for the second time would be the toughest part of the race. Anyway I averaged 5min 10 for 23km and then the suffering began. I don’t know if it started because I acknowledged it or the heat became too much or I stopped taking my gels at 15km as my stomach was getting a bit dodgy. Up till 15km I ran every aid station as I was throwing water down my back and mouth. I started to walk the aid stations as I had to get some electrolytes into me as I went as far as I could with gels. This meant stopping to get the drink down and starting again. I also took the odd banana piece and some watermelon which was easy to take. The speed was now irrelevant and I was in “get the job done” mode. I met each of the lads at various points on the course and it gave me a huge lift to see them as I knew they were ok and I tried to come up with some support or words of wisdom but I don’t know how much good it did.

Back in the iron city and I had a 4k run followed by another 4km run and another 2km run to do. The brain works in mysterious ways and ironman marathon makes no sense. Some big well toned athletes would be walking slow, but then someone in their 50s with an awkward run would go past as if I was standing still. Anyway keeping the focus and asking my legs to lift for each step as I do in chi running was proving difficult. I looked at the garmin and the average speed was now high 5.40s and my kms were hitting close on 7mins. But I kept running, through the thunderstorm which took my focus off the pain and cooled me down for a few minutes and back to the iron city. With 2km to go I met mick who was now 6km behind and he gave me a high 5 and a “well done boy” and then Dave who was just behind with a “nearly there horse” and I knew I was going to be an ironman. I even speeded up slightly in the last 2km and then started thinking about so many different things and the effort that I put into this. I hit the turning point where the marshall asked me if I had 2 laps completed and I managed a smile in answer and for some reason started doing airplanes (john fashanu goal celebration) down the last 200m and up the shoot and into the most surreal atmosphere and music. Then I crossed the line, where Claire was waiting for me and I hugged and kissed her before my body realised the race was over. When I stopped moving, my body went into shut down and I experienced every emotion under the sun. How could I be so happy and be in so much pain? I walked to a little wooden fence that I could sit on with my brother Butthead and tried to take it all in. My mind went back to a hospital room in John O Gods in the summer of 2000 when I had to change my life dramatically and I was afraid that I would never see great days again. This was a day greater than I thought was possible and at that point the tears streamed out and the relief to be able to do that was immense.

Into the recovery tent where I got the most fantastic massage which got my legs moving to a snail pace. Soon after Dave and Mick came into the tent and we got our certs, medals, finisher t-shirts, streetwear bag back and food. I was so proud that the 5 of us came through with flying colours. We got our bikes, bags and went back to the hotel and got a bite to eat. We went back and people were still finishing which gives us an idea of how well we did in terms of time. We saw the last man cross the line and he was greeted by the winner and then the fireworks went off with the music still blaring. I didn’t want the day to end but when it did I realised that I AM AN IRONMAN.

I have to thank all our supporters Anne, Andew, Eimear, Martina, Edel and  baby Anna.

Conor (butthead) my brother for the effort he put in to get out there and be there at the finish line, I owe you loads little bro!

Morgan Fox who became not only my coach but my friend. He knows more about how the body works than I will ever know and his enthusiasm and effort was relentless. When I rang him one day and asked “can he talk”? The answer was “since the age of 1 and a half”. As Claire said, I cant believe theres 2 of ye the same!!! Hope you enjoyed the journey Morgan, the first of many hopefully.

The other 4 ironmen, Conor whose enthusiasm was unwavering, Adrian whose kind words were always a pick up, Mick who is just a pair of compression socks away from being a top class athlete (ha ha) and in particular Dave McCourt who became my friend, training partner and confidante. Those mornings when we hit the bike at 7am were worth it “horse”.

Dave Warby who has been with me almost since I started swimming and is constantly keeping an eye on me, cajoling me and looking after me in so many ways. Thank you Dave, we’ll continue in our quest to improve In the future.

And last but not least to my girlfriend Claire who has had to put up with early mornings, long days away, picture no sound when the body is too tired to talk among other things. To share the moment with you at the finish line was something I’ll never forget.

My total time was 10hrs 48mins and 44secs. This was 18mins down on my hoped time (yes I know the rest of my hoped times don’t add up to this but I had to allow for mishaps etc).

The time is totally irrelevant but you must have an aim if only for training purposes and then you forget about aims as you race. My training aims were to break 10 hrs and unfortunately it was only spoken about in hushed tones as the negative reactions can affect the process. It is important to avoid those who are negative and stay with those who think you can reach the stars. If you reach for the stars you may get higher than you think is possible even if you don’t quite reach the stars. This has changed my perspective on all aspects of life in how much I can improve in my job, as a person etc.

So after 111 swims, 149km swimming, 76 hrs swimming, 95 cycling spins, 6445km cycling, 233hrs cycling, 102 runs, 1144km running, 109hrs running, 1 duathlon, 2 aquathons, 1 charity swim, 2 cycle tours, 4 cycling races, 3 cycling time trials, 2 sprint triathlons, 1 olympic triathlon, 1 half ironman, 1 ironman, 2 crashes, 1 ambulance and 2 feints later, what the hell do I do now?

5 triathlons, Dublin marathon, Lisbon half ironman, the euros in athlone next year and whisper it, IRONMAN SWITZERLAND 2010, to maybe get that feeling just one more time. 

A few observations or natterings:- Breast strokers should be banned from all lane swimming and races. Im getting tired of getting kicked or hit by them.

The swim in ironman is an aerobic swim and can be done by anyone who can swim 100m and just ups the distance like a jogger does when running.

The bike in ironman can be done by anyone who keeps eating. I now know that I can cycle for 300km if I just keep fuelled.

You will suffer in the ironman marathon, however you can walk as much or as little as you want and this makes the ironman marathon achievable.

The ironman is more mental than physical and all shapes and sizes as well as ages were spotted in Klagenfurt.

Cervelo bikes which cost €5000+ are obviously free in Europe or at the most all you need, is to collect 10 tokens on a corn flake box to own one.

We have mixed up the price of zipp wheels and zipp firelighters in Ireland judging by how many I saw with them.

Its easy to remember what side of the road to drive on by the position of the drivers seat in a car. A bicycle however is different …………….

Being able to put a bike back together and in particular to the same spec. (ie saddle height etc) is important.