Congratulations to Phil for an excellent performance at Sunday's Ironman. He completed the swim in 1.20.01, the cycle in 6.51.39 and the run in an amazing 4.08.25 to finish well under his 13 hour target in 12.41.42.
About to embark on a little Sunday morning cycle ride - 112 miles of Dorset hills on a windy day!
Just starting the marathon and still smiling!
About 10 miles to go.
Phil's own race report to appear here shortly (when he has got enough energy to switch his computer on!)
21st August 2007 - Phil obviously made a quick recovery and here is his report!
Ironman 2007
I am temped to make this the shortest report ever for MNR, I did it, got the T shirt to prove it.
But after all the support I was given by you all, right from the 6.00am start in the lake. I will try and string a few words together.
After the constant rain on Saturday it was good to find it stopped on Sunday morning, the thought of having to spend 13 + hours in the rain and wind was not good. To my surprise the usual pre race nerves were not there (this could have been due to it being 4.00am and I wasn’t awake enough to notice). All the kit and bike had been handed in the day before so all I had to do was turn up and prepare for the swim which was the one bit of the event that concerned me, 1500 people all trying to swim around the lake as quickly as possible. The start of the swim was delayed for 20 minutes to make sure every one made it into the water after some parking problems (they needed Dave Webb’s expertise). But again this still did not bring on the pre race nerves and once we actually got under way it was nowhere near as difficult as I was expecting, in no time, well 1hr 20 mins, I was climbing out of the lake heading to transition for the bike ride. This was not the fastest transition of the day by any means, but when you are going to spend the best part of seven hours on a bike it’s worth preparing for it (that’s my excuse any way). By the time I came out the large group of supporters that had taken over the grounds of Sherborne Castle to see me take part in this event were thinking I had given up. But a full 13 minuets after climbing out of the lake I was on the bike heading to Dorchester for the first time. At this point I was on such a high the cycling felt effortless, this continued right though the first and second laps of the route, and as the photos prove, smiling all the way, even at the top of Lyon’s Gate where cameras were waiting to capture the pain. The final turn from Dorchester back towards Sherborne knowing I had 8 miles of hills ahead of me was tough but not enough to take that now fixed smile off my face. As I was approaching Sherborne Castle to go into transition again to prepare for the run, there were thoughts of "how am I now going to run 26.2 miles?" The swim and the bike had gone perfectly and I had enjoyed it, but could I, or would I be able to run 26.2 miles? Eight minutes later to cry’s of “what the hell have you been doing in there?” from Lin I was starting on the run and yes the smile was still there. All the advice of don’t run too quickly, start slowly, went out the window and I had soon completed the two laps in the Castle grounds at a pace I knew could not last. The pace continued though the town, if only to try and out run Martin with his camera. The footbridge with all its steps at Sherborne Hotel brought the pace right down; heading out along the A30 for the first time knowing I had to do it again was the only low point of the day. 11 miles down and 15 to go - I knew I could finish it but it was going to be hard. Having eaten and drunk enough so called energy drinks and bars to last me a life time there was only one thing left to try to boost the now depleting energy reserves, flat Coke. Not to make things worse I only tried a small amount, it went down OK but did not seem to make much difference. By the time I had reached the turn around point for the second time, about 19 miles, I had got a taste for it and was drinking it at every aid station, and by the time I got back to the dreaded foot bridge heading back to the Castle I had a complete new lease of energy - running up the steps two at a time. I don’t know if this was all down to the Coke or the fact I had worked out that I could finish in less than 13 hours, whatever it was it kept me going right to the finish line to collect the T shirt in a time of 12hr 41m under the dream time I had hoped for of 13 hrs.
I know this report is pushing towards one of the longest ever, but it would not be complete with out a big thank you from me. First of all to my family who have supported me 110%, putting up with me training up to six days a week, coming home from work and then disappearing again running, cycling or swimming, and the occasional pub run. Secondly to all of you who came out to watch the event. I was overwhelmed to see so many face right from the start of the swim to the finish line - as some of you know a friendly face and a shout of encouragement can really lift you and I got more than my fair share of that all the way round - thank you.
Will I do it again?
Jackie say’s not if it takes this long to write the report afterwards!
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8 comments:
We were both completely overawed by the whole event. It looks hard enough seeing snippets on TV but being there really brought it home. Well done Phil, we always knew you could do it!!!
Richard Said:
Sunday morning 26th August saw the Westgates at the Langport 10K, part of the Somerset Series. There were rumblings of discontent among some of the competitors about the lack of current table positions for the Series, and of any explanation for this lack. Bit like the old British Rail: “We know there isn’t going to be a train for 5 hours, but we’re not going to tell you”.
Nice to see Dave C again, in fact we spotted him halfway round the route, doing a bit of recce-ing? as we drove in! Lesley set me the task of pace making in a PB attempt. I prepared and carried a list of split times to give her 48:20. She insisted I kept all the information and current progress to myself and just ran in front of her at a sustainable pace. By 2K she was 30 seconds down, but we clawed the time back and by the last kilometre I just encouraged her to go as fast as she could. More by luck than judgement (I didn’t look at my watch during the last K) she finished dead on 48:20 beating her previous PB by 18 seconds. On a hot, humid day she calmly packed her vest away, insisting it was clean enough to wear again. Everyone else was dripping with sweat. Dave C finished in a respectable 41:29 giving him overall 55th place. Lesley was 25th out of 144 ladies. The rest of the day was busy – shopping on the way home, weeding and lawn-mowing and then out to Torbay for my evening 10K Regatta Race. While it turned overcast for Langport, it turned back to blue skies at Torquay. This was my first time here and it was a largish field of 447 runners. It is part of the SWRR championship, so I was hoping for a reasonable time, although it seems certain I will be relegated off the top section of the table. I set off at a reasonable pace of 6:35 for the first mile, but slowed a bit to finish in 42:05. By some coincidence I finished 1 second behind Amelia Hall (ex SWRR), who now runs for Torbay. I drew with her at Bampton. I was also 3 seconds behind Rob Millward of SWRR whom I always have a close race with. I found Torbay to be a good well-organised 10K and I enjoyed the two laps round Paignton Green going past the slower runners. Apparently there were about 74 prizes with age categories split into 5-year bands, with 3 prizes each. Of course I won nothing but I know my place lowly, mid table middle-aged sloth who thinks he can run.
After a hasty fish and chip supper in the Riviera Centre car park it was straight on to a pub in the middle of nowhere for a quick drink with Lin and Martin. They were doing a DIY Marathon of Britain. It seems that in order to lessen the weight of their backpacks they took no food, tent or sleeping bags. This meant living on road kill (even though they claim to be vegetarians), raiding farmers fields for in-season vegetables and sleeping rough. Apparently the Sidmouth Constabulary had several reported sightings of vagrants on Saturday night! Incredibly they ran about 85 miles over the holiday weekend and believe it or not actually put on weight!
Inspired by Ironman Phil’s performance I got my bike out of the garage on Friday. Even though I cycle everyday at work, a paltry 80 minute afternoon cycle left me weak-legged, shaking, hungry, dehydrated and sore. Respect to Phil!
Ignore that bit about the vest, it certainly was washed!
After witnessing Richard's cycling can't wait to see him swim.......
Richard said:
Sunday 2nd September saw the Westgates at the Burnham Beach 10K (approx) race, number 11 in the Somerset Series. All appears well on the SS front with an up to date men’s and ladies table available for the first 10 races. By chance the Westgates are 2nd in each table. However with only today’s race and possibly Brent Knoll to better our scores it will be certain that we will sink down the tables. There are enough races left for any half decent runner who has done only 3 or 4 races to post some good times and claim the medal positions. However you can’t say it’s over until the fat lady sings, so we’ll see in November.
This was my third Burnham and Lesley’s first. As usual there was a stiffish breeze but fortunately there was only a short section where we had to run head on into it. The rest of the beach section it seemed to blow across. Lesley was disappointed when Brian Beale announced that we wouldn’t actually run round the old wooden lighthouse as the tide was in. (Apparently the tide was considerably higher on Saturday and the race couldn’t have happened). I can’t understand why so few people come out to this race. There is free parking and good facilities at the centre. How many opportunities are there to race for 3.5 miles on a wide, sandy beach? This year the sand seemed quite firm and a good pace could be maintained. However we all slowed when we turned into the wind and then off the beach into the dunes. We were soon on good off-road paths, then another section of dunes and a last beach section to the finish. I did all I could to catch two runners in sight ahead but realised several hundred yards from the finish I had no chance. Glancing behind the next runner was way behind and I felt really tired and a bit lazy so walked and jogged to the finish in a time of41:08. Lesley was soon home in 47:59 looking her usual fresh as a daisy self.
I’ve just had a vicious prod in the ribs, so I’d better mention she was first female Vet45 and received yet another prize!
"Yet another prize"!!! This time it was a proper trophy, the sort that Lin has loads of, but the first to grace the Westgate house.
Congratulations Lesley, I suspect it will be the first of many...............
Whilst Richard and Lesley were enjoying a nice flat stroll along the beach, Martin and I were toiling up and down cliffs at the Corfe Beast.
Less than ideal preparation - an 85 mile run the previous weekend, two nights camping with YTRRC (which meant two largely sleepless nights and too much beer and ice cream) and 3 - 4 hours on our feet on Saturday walking the coast path from Corfe to Swanage....
It was quite a hot day - unlike last year's mist, wind, rain and cold weather, and we started near the front to try and avoid the bottlenecks at the first stiles. It was a bit disheartening to see a couple of our Yeovil team mates (who we usually beat) go storming off into the distance across the common, but by the time we had climbed the hill, crossed the road and started heading for the coast, we had them in our sights.
I was working really hard to keep up with Martin and at the first really steep descent he got away from me as I got stuck behind some very cautious people teetering down in slow motion. Some dangerous leaping around got me past them and I caught Martin on the climb up the steps on the other side - all 130 of them! We were also gradually hauling in our team mates ahead.
A nice flat section along the coast followed, then turning inland and dropping into the next valley, before, all too soon, heading back towards the coast and the climb up to where the next set of steps began - a mere 160 this time!! We passed both Steve and Matt from Yeovil on the long hard climb to the top, but Fred Fox was on our heels and we both wanted to stay ahead of him if we could.
Once the top of the steps is reached all the hard work is done -you begin heading inland back towards Corfe across some fields and then down through some woodland tracks. Martin was starting to pull slightly ahead of me - my legs were shot after all the climbing - but I was still passing other runners who seemed to have been beaten by the steps.
The sting in the tail is always the climb up to the common - with the castle in sight I always think I've finished and Fred was right behind me urging me on when I was forced to drop to a walk.
At last, the final turn into the finishing field and a desperate sprint to stay 2 seconds ahead of Fred, and finish in 1.44.47 with Martin a few places ahead in 1.44.14. The time was slightly disappointing but good enough to give me third place in the lady's race.
At the finish we caught up with Dave Webb who had run his first Beast in about 1.40.
Great race, shame about the T shirt. Why do race organisers think that runners would actually want a bright orange T-shirt......?
Next stop, the Grizzly!!
Richard said:
Sunday saw the Westgates at the postponed 2007 Grizzly. It made a great change being warm and dry before the start as the race is usually held in March. I set off at a confident pace, working to a sensible HRM rate. Felt really good for the 1st 8 miles or so but realized I must be going a bit too fast when I passed Rod Appleby and even briefly flashed past the Ironman himself. Inevitably I paid and was suffering by 15. Had some great support from SWRR Ian Pang who was spectating but ran part of the beach with me. At the bottom of the climb off the beach a shout went up “move over Yeovil coming through”. Lesser mortals trembled and pulled into the rough. Lin and Martin, who had obviously paced themselves properly, went past smiling as if they could do 50 miles of this. My last 3 miles were a struggle with an increasing desire to throw up; this meant I more or less stopped drinking, this meant I felt increasingly weak and dehydrated and started getting leg cramps. The Ironman looked back and offered some words of encouragement and stubbornly I pressed on and finished. After the race words like “I’m giving up running” and “I’m a failure” were about all I could manage. However by 5pm my overwhelmingly distressed stomach stopped complaining and was ready to accept sandwiches, drinks, chocolate, bananas, tea and biscuits. All is now well in the world and I can’t wait for the next run. Grizzly memories are still a bit patchy and painful so I’ll leave it to someone better qualified to describe the race. Lesley romped home covered in blood after a nasty fall, and now has a better “attending ambulance certificate” than the one I got at Bicton last year. Many thanks to Axe Valley Runners for another excellent run.
It was hard to take the Grizzly seriously this year – a hot, sunny Grizzly with no gale force winds, no sub zero temperature and no mud? Unthinkable. I found myself thinking of it as an additional Mid Summer Dream and wondering how many beer stops we could fit in, not to mention a cream tea or ice cream or two.
Thanks to my recurrent calf injury rearing it’s ugly head again on Thursday evening I found myself on the start line with the same dilemma as I seem to have faced on far too many occasions this year - to run or not to run? I decided to place my faith in the pain killers and heavy strapping and give it a go (as usual).
Hard reality soon set in as, immediately following the start, we were directed down onto the beach for a kilometre of relentless struggle along the shingle. Phil and Richard began pulling away at this point and once we finally struggled off the beach they soon disappeared from our view, not to be seen again, we thought…………..
My legs already felt so tired that I was tempted to drop out when we recrossed the start line – sitting outside the Hook and Parrot in the sun for a couple hours seemed like a much more attractive option than a 19 mile run with 3000m of climb and I was already struggling to keep up with Martin.
Fortunately it got better as we passed through Beer and headed along the coast towards Branscombe – this year much of the course was inland once Branscombe was reached and although parts of the course were familiar from previous Grizzly’s and the Midsummer Dream, we also covered a lot of new ground. We were treated to bagpipes, drums and some kind of large wooden pipe which only Axe Valley Runners could arrange, and despite the dry weather of late, two dips into bogs, which although not as impressive in their depth as usual, still ensured a good covering of foul smelling mud.
A steep drop took us down to the Fountain Head pub and as we descended we saw a flash of bright yellow toiling up the hill the other side. Could it be a certain SWRR we asked ourselves? All too soon we too were toiling up said hill, at which point my calf decided that it really wasn’t terribly impressed with the treatment it was receiving, where was all the rest, ice and elevation? I decided that it was suitably compressed and one out of four was good enough, so gritted my teeth to the pain and carried on.
The return to Branscombe Mouth was a relief – at least we knew what was ahead of us now and the miles were dropping away. The support at the beach was great, especially as Crewkerne Running Club were marshalling that point and shouts of encouragement were gratefully received. Although I hate running on shingle I am quite good at it, I think being light gives me an advantage as I don’t sink in as much and I passed a lot of people on the section along the beach, but what really lent speed to my legs was the sight of Richard up ahead, and shortly afterwards a silver Maiden Newton vest caught my eye, but even more encouraging the red shorts of North Devon Road Runner, Vicky Skelton, who I have not been able to beat since before my broken hip.
With all this quarry in sight we skimmed across the pebbles and reached the Stairway to Heaven – the hard slog up the cliff face from beach to coast path, way above us - with new energy in our legs. The path is narrow with few passing places but we managed to barge Richard out of the way and get ahead of him. He did manage two words as we went past but one of them was very rude so I’ll leave it to your imagination.
At last we reached the top and a nice flat/downhill section along the cliff top. We passed Vicky almost immediately and set off in pursuit of Mr Ironman himself, flying past his “I’m running on empty” comments, and heading for Beer – an exhilarating, calf jarring swoop down the hill and then the muscle screaming climb up the other side. Martin was dropping away from me now – my blood was up and another female runner was in my sights. I managed to pass her before the final drop down to the beach and the last section, a cruel return to the beach, Martin a few yards behind me and the finish in our sights – if we could just make it off the shingle. The climb up the ramp from the beach was agony, but then all that lay ahead was 100m of concrete and the finish line which we crossed together in a time of 3.07.03.
We headed straight for the sea – nothing like a cooling swim after a hard run and it was much warmer than our usual March dip!
On checking the results at Race HQ we discovered that we were 93rd and 94th in a much smaller than usual field of 996, and that I was 8th lady. We found Richard and Lesley back at their car – Lesley covered in mud, blood and bandages but still smiling and Richard in his usual post race state of giving up running and taking up embroidery, which as you can tell from the above didn’t last for long.
Entries for next year’s Grizzly open this Friday – bring it on!
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