IRONMAN New Zealand 2016: my first Ironman

10th, 8:29:38. Swim 46:36, bike 4:31:30, run 3:06:15.

Well that’s my first Ironman done and dusted. It left me with very mixed emotions. If you had of told me going into the race that I will go 8.29.38 I would have been over the moon and taken it any day. If you then said that would only be good enough for 10th I’d have probably laughed at you…. But that was the case at Ironman NZ this year. In a way it was a perfect storm, best conditions I think they have probably ever had in Taupo combined with a power house field of on form athletes due to the cancellation on Melbourne Ironman (Asia pacific Champs). Lets take it back a little bit.

I had a very good build up which specifically started after the Tauranga half 8 weeks ago. I sat down with Cam Brown and went through a bit of a nonspecific plan that I could then take back to my coach Nathan and fine tune to me. Those 8 weeks were probably the most enjoyable training weeks I have had to date. Cam and I pretty much trained day in day out with each other and I got to learn a lot from the legend. The only real hiccup in the build up was 3 weeks to go I developed two very painful lumps in my groin where I sit on the saddle. The doc’s were not really sure what they were so they rushed me through with an MRI which uncovered that I’d developed a couple additional Bursa between the facia layers down there, due to the large increase in cycling volume that had become inflamed.

This probably only kept me off the bike 4-5 days, which 3 weeks out may have been a blessing in disguise as I was very tired by then. The final few weeks until race day went well, although mind blowingly slow at some points, I JUST WANTED TO GET STARTED. Race day finally came around and it was time to get to work. On the start line there were a lot of nerves in the whole group of pro’s and the normal start line creep occurred. The Cannon went off and it was a fast start. I got straight on to uber swimmer Clayton Fettell’s feet. The swim was fairly uneventful, I was very happy to be on Clayton’s feet, which I stayed on to until he had to quickly stop and adjust his wetsuit about 2/3rds the way through. I then took over the lead of the main pack. Dylan had started out to the left and was a little further up.

I lead the main pack into the shore and was second out in a time of 46.36, which I was very happy with. Our pack included Clayton (AUS), Callum, Terenzo, Anthony Costes (FRA), Paul Mathews (AUS) and Guys Crawford. It’s a long run up to T1, which was great as it gave me the opportunity to pull up my new 2XU custom race suit. On to the bike and the pace was on from the start. Terenzo had a fast T1 as usual and was pushing the pace straight away. Up over the first hill I was trying to stay with Terenzo, Paul and Anthony but I felt they were pushing too hard as the first 15km my power was 310W, which considering my power plan that I had worked on with Best Bike Split was for 270-275W I decided to pull back a little.

I was glad to see that the others riding with us (Callum, Clayton, and Guy) must have made the same call and we worked together for the next 30km. At that point the fast charging group lead by Cyril Viennot (FRA) and Cam Brown came charging past with a few others that had been in the second group out of the water. At that point the pace really elevated with Cyril on a mission to catch the trio leading upfront. This is where my peak 1h power was for the race (307W or a NP of 318W), it was hard!! But I had to make the call that this was not the time to let a group like this go. I think there were about 12 of us and I just had to hope some of them were over exerting themselves.

Coming back up the hill for the end of the first lap there seemed to be a bit of a pace let off, so Callum and I went to the front and tried to push the pace through town and back up the hill for lap 2. At special needs just over 100km in I was leading and picked up my bag, this is where Cyril attacked and started to build a lead. Over the course of the second lap I felt better and better and the group started to dwindle until it had come down to Cam, Terenzo, Callum, Crawford and I into T2 with Cyril about 2mins up the road.

It was a relief to get off the bike. I didn’t have the best transition as a few of the pins came out of my race belt that I had to re thread but then it was on to the run and my legs felt good. I was 5th out on to the 42.2km run leg. I slowly worked my way up to Terenzo who was running in 3rd after we had passed Cyril who was walking with cramps 1km in. I Caught Terenzo around 3km and we ran together for the next 10km. We definitely ran a bit to fast as the first 10km we covered in under 37min but the rhythm felt good. Just before the end of the first lap (14km) all of a sudden I was desperate for the toilet. I tell you when you need to go and they are spaced out every 2.5km that feels like an eternity.

I ran across the road to use one of the bike ones at about 16km and then again at an aid station around 19km. Luckily at the 21km where we have our run special needs bag I had put some Imodium in there for ‘just in case’ and I took them and they sorted me out straight away. So I could now focus back on running. I think by this point I was in about 5th and really starting to feel the effects of the day. For the next 21km all I could do was focus on myself and give it my all. The first half of the last lap (28-35km) was the toughest part of the race mentally and physically.

My ITB’s and quads were so tight and sore, but getting to that far turn for the last time gave me a new source of energy and I picked it back up and ran home strong. The last 2km through the thousands of people watching was truly amazing and even better than I imagined. The crowd support in Taupo is like no other. And then finally I made that sweeping left-hander on to the Great Lakes Convention centre grass section were the famous Ironman red carpet was waiting. I was running down there in 10th place going to break 8hours 30mins and it felt amazing. I got goose bumps as I heard the voice of ironman say “You are and Ironman”. This was something I had dreamed of since I started the sport when I was 12 years old.

The guys up front had absolutely smashed it, and I was over the moon to hear that Cam had won and smashed the course record by 7-8mins. I am very proud of myself and absolutely loved the distance. I can’t wait to do another one, but for now its back to focusing on the 70.3 distance for the remainder of the year. I hope this block served its purpose and gave me a huge base to work with during the next few months. I’m off to Boulder CO again in a couple weeks to start my USA part of the season. Thank you to everyone for all your support especially my main sponsor Ricoh, with out Mike and his teams support I would not have made it this far. Until next time Regards, Mark

What I’d tell an athlete now

Ten years on, the part I'd point an athlete to is the first 15km of the bike. My plan said 270 to 275 watts. I was riding 310. I backed off, and most of the guys who didn't came back to me on the second lap.

The other thing is the Imodium I'd put in my run special needs bag for no particular reason. I needed it at 21km. Put the just-in-case items in the bag. One of them earns its place more often than you'd think, and a first Ironman has a lot of room for things to go sideways.

This report was written in 2016 and has not been edited since, beyond reconstructing paragraph breaks that were lost in the original PDF. No wording has been changed.