Becoming an IRONMAN

When I first signed up for my first triathlon 8 months ago, I had no idea how much the sport was really going to change my life. Since doing my first one at Port Mac (70.3) I have raced in Noosa (OD), Auckland (70.3) and on the beautiful south coast of NSW at a place called Huskison for their long course race. The Thursday before last I made my way down to an awesome part of Australia called Melbourne, to race in the grand daddy of all the triathlon distances, I went to race a full distance IRONMAN the following Sunday. 

A full distance IM consists of a 3.8km swim, 180km bike and finally a full marathon, 42.2km run. "What the hell have we got out selves into?" was the exact words I said to Bacon as we packed our bikes into the Giant van and made the trip down to sunny and sometimes not so sunny St Kilda.

When you arrive in a town that is about to hold an Ironman it has a vibe to it that can only be felt and not described. Maybe its all the overflowing nervous energy from the 2200 competitors all milling around the expo looking for last minute gadgets that might save them seconds or even minutes. In a race of physical endurance that can last up to 17hours the saying "every second counts" really does comes true.  

After a few commitments with the company's that have supported us along the way finally Saturday night rolled around and we were about to get our last night sleep before one of the biggest days of our lives. By this point I wasn't nervous anymore, I knew the big day was just around the corner and I just wanted to be out there on course with my fellow "Ironmen to be" giving it everything I had.

Pete Jacobs did our IM Live interview. Legend!

Tips off Crowie, handy!

Im definitely the slowest bloke in this photo.

Press conference

RACEDAY:

4:30am: My alarm goes off. I looked up to the ceiling and said to myself "It's show time".

4:31am: Nervous pooh time! This to me is the most important part of race day. On the toilet I take a few deep breaths and ensure I rid my body of any waste that may decided it wants to weigh me down or slow me up later on. A port-a-loo stop the morning of or during race day is nothing short of the most traumatizing experiences of any athlete’s life. They must be avoided at all cost!

4:45am: Eat breakfast and get together everything I need for my race. This gets checked three hundred and forty two times before I walk out the door.

5:10am: Bacon and I roll on out of our St Kilda HQ and head over to pick up the other boys, Whippet, Bagas and Quinno. Unfortunately today we had to leave Bisho behind. Bisho got sick as a dog the night before and was unable to race.

6:10am: We arrived in "windy" Frankston and I'm like a freaking jack in the box. The stench of race day is saturating the sleepy town and I couldn't be more excited. As we park up at Maccas, Whippet and Bagas make a bolt for the toilet. Clearly they had unfinished nervous business to attend to so myself and the other boys make our way to bike transition where we add nutrition and pump the tyre's on our bikes to make sure they are ready to roll when we come screaming out of the swim. Fortunately for us we got to rack our bikes with the pros and who happens to be in there tinkering with his bike, yep you guessed it, 3 time World Champion Craig "Crowie" Alexander, our god father. Crowie was there for us during our BSc Tri Trip when many of us lost our half Ironman triathlon virginities back in October. Today, here he was again, ready and willing to give us some advice on the big day of it all, THE IRONMAN! He said something along the lines of "Go out there and have fun, it's a race to the finish but enjoy the journey along the way". What a legend.

Making it easy for us to find our bikes.

6:40am: *Breaking news* Due to unsafe water conditions the race has been cut short. The swim will now be a one-lap course measuring 1900m. My first reaction was "WHAT THE, I’m not going to be a full Ironman by the end of the day. I'll be 1.9km short. How will this affect my calf tattoo? Do I shave some ink off the M?". In all seriousness though, after assessing the condition myself I can understand organizers reasoning for the shortened the swim. Conditions were probably about the worst you can get in the bay at Melbourne. There were 2 foot waves breaking way out the back and the wind gusts were just down right crazy so unless you were lucky enough to have been training with Spot Anderson at Bondi Fit or you were a regular surf swimmer, the full 3.8km swim distance in those condition would have been unsafe to say the least and I respect the organizers decision.

8:15am: After watching the pro field take off it was now time for me to experience my first mass start. Two thousand plus people all taking off together. It's a tradition in Ironman and boy, didn't I underestimate it. My previous race plan was to start wide but with the changing of the course, that went out the window. if I started wide I would have been swept down the bay with the current and had a to do a much longer swim. Instead, I some how ended up smack bang in the middle. NOT IDEAL.

Swim leg: As soon as Mike Riley (voice of Ironman) said "GO" it was like I'd entered the UFC octagon cage and I had to fight the best of the best to get my way out of there. In the first 10 minutes I reckon I got 5 punches on the chin and 25 people swam directly over the top of me. Once I got into some clearer water I finally got my rhythm going and was making my way to the first turning can but it was game on again. 500 people all trying to get around 2 little white cans bought me back to the octagon and the gloves were back on. All might be fair in love and war but Ironman triathlon swim leg is a whole other level. On my way back to shore I found some clear water again and started making up for lost time. I even managed to snare a couple of little chops along the way. Due to the strong current dragging everyone away from the finish chute of the swim I had two options. I could either swim against the current so I would swim straight up to it but It would be a much harder and longer swim or I could just swim straight back to shore but drift down the bay away from the chute. Being a faster runner than swimmer I chose the latter. I feel it paid off as I ran past several people along the shoreline.

Fight club

Made it out alive, just

T1 (transition 1) Swim to Bike: Coming out of a short swim in those conditions my HR (heart rate) is always going to be quite high so I just did my best to take my time and try and lower it. Once I changed into my riding gear I jogged out to find my bike and as expected, it was sitting all alone as the other Bondi boys had smashed me in the swim and were already a good 5mins in front.

Bike leg: Being 5mins back on the boys and trying to stick to my race plan was going to be hard but I knew I had to respect the distance of a full IM and not go out to hard. My plan was to race off HR and the first 45km was going to be at 130bpm, which meant I was about to sit back and watch half the field go past me. Yep that’s right, all those people I had fought and battled to get past in the swim I was going to sit up and let them sail on past. It doesn't seem right does it? But my coach, Spot Anderson had said to me earlier in the week "If 500 people haven't past you in the first 45km your going to fast." Funnily enough, I did pass someone in that first 45km and guess who it was, coach clown head, Spot. Spot likes to show us that anything is possible if you are willing to push yourself and on this occasion he was showing us that if your as naturally gifted as him you can complete a full Ironman with 4 weeks of training! After riding with Spot for a while and him reassuring me my race plan would pay off I dropped him. Not because I was going to fast but because he was going to slow. Although, all joke aside, 20 years earlier he would probably be winning the pros race at this point. 

Headwind, its a dirty word in triathlon and on this particular day we had plenty of it. Our first 45km was pretty much straight into it. It didn't bother me as much because I'd turned my speedometer on my Garmin off and was only looking at HR but for some of the field that were looking at their speedometer’s and saying "wait a minute, I should be going much faster than this, better pedal faster." they were heading for a very long day. 

One of the coolest parts about the Melbourne IM bike course is you get to ride on a brand spanking new highway and just at the turn around point is a massive tunnel with a very fast up and down section. The only problem is for all the gadget junkies like myself, your GPS looses satellite and you can never find out how fast you were going. I guess it’s like “the one that got away” story for triathlon. Only you yourself will really know how fast you were "actually" going.

Heading back into town with a tailwind and the slightest of descents was the greatest thing ever. Anyone that rides a bike and has climbed a mountain can understand what we were going through when we got to enjoy the ride back down although the only problem with getting back to Frankston was having to turnaround and do it all again.

My 3rd 45km back out and into the headwind my HR was sitting on 145bpm and I was still feeling very comfortable and that’s where the magic of my race plan started to unfold. Coach Spot had said to me when we road for a while on the first 45km out "You watch son, from 90km onwards its going to be like a war zone out here, there will be people dropping like flies and you will start to pass all the Muppets that have blown up from going out to hard." Guess what, that’s exactly what happen, and I did it with the biggest smile on my face. The real fun began for me at the turn around for the second time. I had 45km to go, a tail wind, a descent, 2 caffeine gels and had never felt better in my entire life. At some points during that last 45km I was sitting on 60km per hour and laughing out loud while saying to myself "This is the best feeling ever". I was literally high as a kite on triathlon racing! Oh and not being a coffee drinker maybe a little high on caffeine but who cares it was so awesome and I didn't want it to end.

Rolling

Out of the saddle, very rare for me. Haha yeah right!

T2 (transition 2) Bike to Run: Unfortunately all good things have to come to an end but it wasn't going to happen just yet for me today. I did have a little case of Jelly legs as I dismounted the bike but nothing to bad. I was still feeling really good and ready for my marathon.

As most of you know, myself and the other Bondi Lifeguard boys are quite competitive so when I got off the bike and was getting changed in transition I was asking people how far in front the other guys were? Some people told me both Whippet and Quinn were about 20 minutes. 20 minutes is a long way, thats 4km at 5 minute pace. Having already run 3 marathons I had my suspicions that Whippet, who had never run one before was going to underestimate the distance and go out a little hard. Well I hoped he would anyway, so off I went, on the hunt…

Run leg: People are always guilty of going out too hard in a marathon and I am one of the main offenders. Today was no different, my first kilometre was 4:20 minute pace which is way to fast for the marathon I had intended to run, so over the next few km's I bought it back to 5 minute per km pace. Thanks to coach Spot I made my marathon decision based on risk. What pace could I maintain, 5:15min or 5min. The risk of me being able to hold 5:15 for the entire race was 100%. I 100% felt I could hold that pace but would that be enough to catch Whippet and Quinn. i didn't think so, so I went for an 80% risk of 5min pace knowing at some point I was going too hurt but catching the boys would be worth it.

In marathons you run with people that are trying to maintain the same pace and I ran with a lovely fellow also named Andrew for quite some time. He was a few years older than me but boy; he was fit and a lovely fellow to boot. Having two Andrews running side by side also gave the spectators that read our race bibs quite a thrill and they cheered extra loud for us which we thought was great and really kept us going. Unfortunately I lost Andrew at about the 17km mark but I had demons to chase down and my race was only really beginning.

At the 30km mark I was still feeling surprisingly good. I had nailed my nutrition thus far and was so excited to bring it home. I did think I would have caught Whippet and Quinn by now but it wasn't to be and I had almost given up… Until... one of the many legendary supporters from team Bondi Fit that showed up. Laura Siddall, a Sprint distance world champion and friend of mine pulled up next to me in a full Zebra outfit on a push bike and said, "Reidy, I know you don't like being told this, but your looking really good and Whippet is only 1 km up the road". That was it, that’s when I said "Right, lets do this shit" and I turned on the after burners. 

From the 31st km to the 36th km where I finally caught Whippet I really dug deep and pushed myself to run faster. I was really starting to hurt around then but my competitive nature and the fact that I have never, and probably after this will never beat Whippet at anything again in my life, totally took over me. When I saw him up ahead a big feeling of relief just came over me. Finally I had caught him. From then on I did what any other athlete in my position racing a mate would have done. I did my hair, wiped the sweat from my brow and pretty much made myself look as fresh as I possibly could. I then casually jogged up behind him and whispered in his ear “Now is a good time to be thinking about your running technique” then cruised on past him. I’m pretty sure his response was “You bloody a-hole” but little did he know what was “really” going on inside me. I was starting to hurt pretty badly and at the 38km aid station I thought it was going to be all over. I slowed down to grab water from one of the lovely volunteers and my right calf and hamstring went to rocks. It was like someone had just poured quick dry cement in my leg and I couldn’t go anywhere. All I could think was “holy shit, he is going to catch me and go past me just like I did to him”. The next minute one of the volunteers saw what was happening he raced over with what he said was the miracle cure and smeared it in my mouth. As first I was like “What the bloody hell is that” but no sooner did I realize it was none other than Vegemite? Vegemite contains salt and helps cramps but at the 38km mark when you have been racing for over 9 hours and have the breath of a thousand Goannas a paddle pop stick of vegemite isn’t exactly tasty. But it did do the trick and after thanking the volunteer I hobbled for a bit and then found my stride again. I had a quick look back for Whippet but he was nowhere to be seen.

The next 3.2km really hurt, I started to feel it everywhere and was at some points a little delusional but that was all forgotten when I got to 1km out from the finish and arrived at the Giant Bikes on course party. Running through there was nearly as good as the finish line. I knew a few people there and one especially named Clint Kimmins screamed, “This is it, this is what you have trained for. You’re gonna be an IRONMAN. Bring it home and really enjoy it”. So that’s exactly what I did and I started to feel much better. I ran the last km at 4:30 pace and didn’t even realize. The finishing chute is a bit of a blur of excited emotion now that I think back but I definitely do remember Mike Riley saying “Andrew Reid, Reidy, you are an IRONMAN” and it was the best feeling ever. I crossed in a time of 9 hours 24 minutes and 31 seconds, which was much faster than anytime I had dreamed of.

Running with the other Andrew

Hunting

Very happy to be finally finishing

You are an IRONMAN

After the race I got a quick massage, ate some food, had a beer and went and hung out at the finish line with friends and watched other legends become IRONMEN. I couldn’t catch Quinn in the end, he was just to good on the day and raced exceptionally to come home in 9 hours 12 minutes. Whippet came in only 6 minutes behind me. If it had of been a longer swim we may have ended in a sprint finish to the line. Bagas (Gavin) also exceeded all expectations and flew home in a blistering time of 9 hours 53 minutes. As for Bacon, what can I say about this guy! He is an absolute machine. In his first ever Ironman he took out 3rd place in his 25-29 age group with a cracking time of 8 hours 38 minutes. He was also the 49th overall home in a very stacked field. Keep your eye on Adriel “Bacon” Young, he is on his way to the world championships in Kona this year and I’m expecting big things.

Whippet, IRONMAN

Bacon, IRONMAN

Bagas, IRONMAN

Quinno. IRONMAN

Whippet, on the drip in medical.

I must say a big, huge "thank you" to the wonderful people at USM events, Ironman Melbourne and all the volunteers for having us on the day. They put on such a professional event that leaves everyone with the best memories that last a lifetime. I can’t recommend Ironman and triathlon as a sport or hobby enough. It has already changed my life for the better in so many ways.

I have also got to say "thank you" to all the wonderful companies that helped us along the way. This has been an amazing journey for all of us and we couldn’t have done it without you all.

A special thanks to Coach Spot, you may come a cross as a little insane but there is no way in hell I would have got across that line feeling the way I felt, in the time I did without your training and knowledge.

IRONMEN

I’m going to put my focus into getting faster at 70.3 half Ironman distance now with the long term goal to get quick enough to qualify for the 70.3 world championships in Las Vegas.

My next race is the SunSmart Ironman 70.3 Busselton in 6 weeks and I cant wait!

Thanks for tuning in.

Get aero :)

Reidy 

Racing the clock

As I get older, I learn more and more about myself everyday. Over the past 6 months I have learned that I need goals in my life. I need things to strive for or I struggle for motivation. The City 2 Surf was the last of my running goals I set when I gave up smoking. It's always been one of my favourite races and is one I really wanted to do well in. Unfortunately I didn't get under my goal time of 50mins, I could only manage a 51. Seems I have a problem where I come up 1 short :) Remember the Gold Coast Marathon? Want sub 3 went 3:01. WTF? I'm not disappointed and am not making any excuses. I gave it my best and that's all I could have given. On the other hand I have learnt a few valuable training lessons and plan on never making particular mistakes again.

Happy with a PB but really wanna go under 50mins one day.

Good gang that ran for the WSPA raising money for the animals.

Yes I did lose a bet with Hoppo and will be wearing this while
 rollerblading the promenade at Bondi at some point this summer. OH DEAR !!

1 out of 3 isn't bad... so close on the others :(

I'll never be a podium athlete and it's something I'm totally cool with. I just really enjoy always trying to better myself. There are people on this planet that have to work really hard do well at their sport of choice and then there are people with natural ability. Unfortunately I am not the latter. Don't get me wrong, people with natural ability still have to work hard to achieve their goals but things like running and swimming, to name a couple,  just seem to come easier to some than others. Take my good buddy Whippet for example. I've been working with Whippet on the beach now for about 10 years. Whippet is a natural athlete, full stop. He excels and slots into the "above average" bracket at anything he has a go at. Kerr Box is another one, must be something in the water at Bronte where they both grew up. I'll never forget one year, many moons ago, it was time for us to do our annual Lifeguard test and many of us, Whippet and myself included, had only just returned from Indonesia after filming the Bondi Rescue Bali spin off show. Now I'm not going to lie,  we had more than just good time over there and training was replaced by way to many nights drinking bintangs and jungle juices in many of the island paradise's beautiful plunge pool bars. This act of treating our bodies like rental cars led us being "VERY" out of shape and nervous about the 800m pool swim we had to do in under 13mins. Oh and the M-Shape (run, swim & board course) we had to do down at the beach right after. That year, thanks to some ridiculous cram training I just scraped in swimming a 12:59 in the pool and I'm pretty sure I came last in the M-Shape with 3 seconds to spare before I would have failed and had to re do my tests a month later. Whippet on the other hand, jumped in the pool with, I think 1 light training session up his sleeve and swam a 9:55, then on his way to the beach for the M-Shape, wobbles through McDonalds drive through and orders a breakfast that even Fat Albert would've been sweating over. He then proceeds to beach and comes 1st in the Ironman course. Now I don't care what anyone says, without natural ability, you just can't do that...

I have set myself some new goals and am taking on a whole new sport... Look out Triathlon world, myself and some of the lifeguard boys are coming to get our asses kicked by you. This all came about when some of us went to IM Melbourne and raced in a team, we got a little taste of how amazing the sport of Ironman triathalon really is and we want more. There is 5 of us lifeguards that are signed up for Port Mac 70.3. It's only a half Ironman, but I have no doubt its going to put me right in my place at the bottom of the Ironman food chain. On the other hand, I'm really looking forward to the challenges that lay ahead. For most of us the bike leg will be very testing. I personally know I have a lot of work to do on the bike and in the swim but hopefully, thanks to the help of an Australian champion triathlete, Spot Anderson, I can improve on my weaknesses and improve. Spot owns Bondi Fit where he helps people from all walks of life achieve their lifelong swimming, biking and running goals.

New set of goals:

Port Mac 70.3 (half ironman) Oct - Lose my virginity to IM triathlon !
Noosa Tri (olympic distance) Nov - Enjoy the festival and have a crack at Olympic distance !
Perth IM (full ironman) Dec - Just hope to finish my first & get the Monkey off my back !
Melbourne IM (full ironman) Mar 2013 - Have a real good crack at it & try to go under 11hrs !

Riding with Whip and Bacon... We are such lycra rookies...

Rookie mistakes: Bike riding in fingerless gloves in winter is one I will never make again.

My beautiful Giant bike is my new girlfriend... She sleeps in my bed and we never fight... ever.

In other news, we just had our annual lifeguard physical tests and this year was an extra special one for me. Today was the first lifeguard pool swim and M-Shape surf ironman test I have done as a non-smoker and boy did it feel good. First up we had the pool swim and I was hoping to go under 11mins. It was a big ask but I thought I may just get there with all the extra swimming training I had been doing. After giving it to myself I came in 11:13. Still happy but much more work to do. Next we went down to the beach for our IM and I came out of the water after the first swim mid field. The one thing I really did notice being a non-smoker was while in the transition from the swim to the board where I would normally be gasping for breath, I found myself feeling good and having a laugh. After another swim, 2 boards and 2 runs I finished up 3rd behind Whippet and Azza. I've never finished 3rd at anything In my life so I knew something must have happened and I found out later Hoppo and Maxi got held up for some reason and I had to give myself the 5th. I'm still happy with the 5th and am looking forward to my next showdown with Chappo in the lifeguard challenge in Feb. Hopefully it's a little closer than today and I don't beat him by a good 3 minutes again :)

Also, a little while back I was out playing around shooting some underwater photos of Whippet and Corey as the water was so clear and a pod of Dolphins decided to swim straight into the bay at Bondi. Check it out here: 

I will do my best to keep this blog updated more often but since taking up this crazy sport of Triathlon and and my many jobs I very rarely get any free time. Im thinking about switching to a Vlog and just post pictures with captions on here also. What do you all think?

Thanks for stopping in :)

Reidy

My confession

Wow it's been a long time since I've written a blog post, I hope you're all still interested. This one will be short and sharp but I am going to be getting back on the blog program over the next month and start to do it every 2 weeks or so. 

My life is almost taken a total 180 since March this year, well maybe not a 180 but a few things have definitely changed dramatically. Around 3 months ago I set 3 big goals for myself. The 1st of them to try and run the 21.1km Sydney Half Marathon in under 80mins. The 2nd being to run the 42.2km Gold Coast Marathon and try go Sub 3hours. And the 3rd to run the 14km City to Surf in under 50mins.

Now I know some of you think I'm already pretty fit and the goals I have set myself aren't that hard. Well I have a confession to make, I've been a closet, 12 a day smoker for the past 20 years of my life. Some of you might say its disgusting and I am inclined to agree with you. It's not something I'm proud of and I really did always hate it but unfortunately I was addicted. Funnily enough, I could always pass my physical tests for work but was just never really competitive when it came to our lifeguard races. I was always in the bottom 10 and always had this attitude that "If I could still pass my tests then it can't be doing me much harm" or so I thought. Its a whole new world out there once you are released from its claws and thats exactly what happened after I was hypnotised.

Since meeting my saviour, Lucy the Hypnotherapist from Lucidmind 6 months ago my life hasn't been the same. I can't put into words how much better my life is now and for what she did for me I will be forever be truly grateful.

Nick Chappy my buddy from Shift 60 put together a training program for me and the fun began.

First up was the Sydney Half Marathon where I wasn't overly confident of breaking 80mins as I'd only been training properly for about 4 weeks and my PB over that distance was 86mins. I ended up running coming in at 78:21 and was over the moon.

Nick Chappy and I happy after the race.

Very happy with my time.

Next up was the Gold Coast Marathon but unfortunately it didn't quite go to plan. After my Half Marathon time I got overly confident and made a huge rookie mistake thinking I could maybe run a 2:50. I went out way to hard and blew up at the 27km mark, things went down hill really quickly after that. I ended up running a 3:01 and was devastated. The thing that got to me the most is that I know I could have gone 2:59 and I would have reached my goal. It was still a 7min PB for me as the last Marathon I ran in Melbourne was a 3:08 so I was still happy but I will get under the 3 hour mark one day. The highlight of the weekend was by far the after party the crew at BodyScience put on for us after. We had a house right on the beach with DJ's, fun people and ice cold Coronas!

With Dan Mac at the start line!

Running 3:55 per Km and thinking I'm killing it at 10km mark.

High 5's all round at the 20km mark.

Okay, welcome to the hurt locker, 32km mark... GET ME OUTTA HERE, I WANT TO QUIT...

Best party ever... Thanks BSc

In 4 days time I will try and reach my 3rd goal. In 4 days time I'm going to try and run the race of my life. In 4 days time Christmas comes to runners and the gun for the 41st City 2 Surf will be fired. The C2S is, as far as I'm concerned is one of the greatest fun runs on the planet. 85.000 people all running 14km's from the city to get to the beach and have a beer. What more could anyone want? This will be the 7th time I have run it but only the 2nd time Ill be racing it and hoping for a fast time. The last time I raced it was 4 years ago and came in around 53mins. This year as you know, my original goal was to break the 50min but things got interesting the other night at the footy when Hoppo, Kerr Box and I were exchanging some friendly banter over a beer. Many people don't know this but Hoppo used to be a very good runner back in the day. He only weighed 72 kilos and ran the City to Surf in a blistering time of 48:52. Well anyway, the challenge was thrown down and a bet was waged (thanks to Kerr Box). If I beat Hoppo's time of 48:52 in this years race Hoppo has to Rollerblade 2 laps of Bondi's promenade in a specially made Body Science Leopard print Mankini. If I DONT make the time then I have to... GULP... Now if any of you have ever seen Hoppo or I on rollerblades then you will understand that its not healthy for either of us to be doing it.

Very honoured to get a seeded bib, hope I do it proud...

Ciao for now...

Reidy :)

I want to be an IRONMAN !

Sunday 25th of March 2012 was the day a seed was planted in head. That seed is to grow into making me an IRONMAN ! 

Our adventure to Ironman Melbourne 2012 all started the day of our 100km treadmill team world record attempt up at Shift60 gym in Bondi. We had just smashed the record and raised much need funds for the Kids Foundation. After the event I was chatting to a lady from the Kids foundation named Susie. Susie is an IRONWOMAN herself and was telling me all about her experiences in these crazy races that can last up to 17 hours. She mention that her foundation received an entry into the teams section for this years Melbourne Ironman and asked if we would like put a team in with myself doing the Marathon run leg, yes all 42.2 Kilometers of it. I was hesitant at the time as I had only ever ran one before on the Gold Coast and swore black and blue I'd never do it again. With only about a month to prepare and after chatting with Adrial "Bacon" Young (swim) and Clint "Clipper" Kimmins (bike) we decided we'd do it. What had I gotten myself into?!

To prepare in total I think I ran about 100km over 2 weeks. It probably wasn't the best preparation but all I could think was "hey, if there will be people doing all 3 legs on their own, surely I can get through a marathon by myself".

Biggest run before the marathon was 30km Many-Bondi with V

Another training run. 16km

Before I knew it, Saturday the 24th of March had arrived and we were down in Melboure getting ready to race the next day. There was another motivator in Team KIDS Fdn's race as another lifeguard team from Bondi was entered as Team Ironman Aus. Now as most of you know we are quite the competitive type and neither wanted to lose! The other team, made up of some very athletically talented lifeguards was  Ryan "Whippet" Clark (swim) Greg "Bisho" Bishop (bike) and Gavin "Bagas" Stevenson (run) and they wanted to beat us as bad as we wanted to beat them but it was all friendly of course. 

After a huge carbohydrate loading session together for dinner we said our goodnights to each other and went to bed knowing at some point the next day we were each going to be in "THE HURT LOCKER" !


It was a 4:00am when we woke on Sunday morning which is never nice but the weather was perfect for IRONMAN racing with no wind and cool temperatures. We packed the car and left our hotel in St Kilda and headed 40km south to the sleepy little town of Frankston where the IRONMAN race was to start at 7:00am. Once there Bisho and Clipper made some last minute adjustments to their very expensive bikes and we headed down to the water to see the start of the race and wish Whippet and Bacon luck in their 3.8km swim in a dark and Murky Port Phillip bay.

About 16 million $ worth of bikes here...

Final bike adjustments

Whippet and Bacon, ready to swim.

Swimmers setting off in the dark.

With very minimal training, Whippet, being the freak of nature he is in the water came out of the swim in (49:03) just in front of Bacon by about 1min & 45sec. He went so hard he actually vomited as he ran up the beach but that kind of determination from both of them for their teams set the standard for how we were going to race for the rest of the day.

Bacon gassed..

After a very quick change over by both teams, Bisho and Clipper were on their way to hell (so to speak). They had 180km of road ahead of them and 2 team mates each that wanted them back first.

Clipper and Bisho, ready to roll...

Timing chip change over.

Lets go Clipper...

Clipper is a former pro surfer, Gold Coast lifeguard and now an IRONMAN in the making. He has been training very hard and is set to do his own full IRONMAN in a few months time up in Cairns so he was always going to have an advantage over Bisho as he had only trained about 8 times on the bike due to work and other commitments. Although you can never... ever underestimate someone with Bisho's athletic ability.

The bike riders were hammering along.

The turn around point before heading out for another 90km

Clipper came in after about 4hours and 57mins of pedalling his guts out and passed the timing chip off onto me with Bisho coming in only 44mins behind him sending Bagas on the hunt to run me down.

Bacon decided to try and throw Bagas off his game by interrupting his nap before his run. I thought it was funny :)

One of my motivators..

So here I was, running my second ever marathon. I was a little nervous and even more excited, but mentally ready. I did my first kilometre in 4:11. Way to fast ! In my only other marathon I underestimated the distance and just crumbled around the 35km mark from going out to hard so there was no way I was going to let that happen to me again and pulled back a little. Not to much though as I know Bagas is a good runner and I wanted to win this one for my team. I ran the next 36km at an average of 4:29 per km and felt really good. The whole course was fantastic, quite flat for the first 20km with some slight hills in the last 22km. There was aid stations at every 2km and crowds cheering you on every time you looked up and needed motivating. Around the 36km mark another teams runner came up behind me and we ran together for the last 6km, pushing each other harder and faster with every km. His name was Rob and he was a very good runner, I knew it was going to come down to a sprint finish. Once I could see the finish line about 1km away I remembered why I was there. To raise awareness for the Kids foundation and do my best for my team so I just took off and went for it. I could hear Rob's feet, he was staying with me. He was right on my tail for at least the next 500m so I kept on pushing myself until I couldn't hear him anymore. I ran that last km in 3:47 and crossed the line with my teammates Clipper and Bacon in an overall time of 8 hours and 57 minutes. We were so stoked and ended up 4th in the open mens team. I couldn't feel the pain from my run just yet, I was to excited from smashing my first marathon time of 3:18 by 10mins and running a 3:08. Bagas came in not long after me and also crossed the line with his teammates with a personal best marathon time of 3:35. It was especially a great effort from Bagas as his training was also minimal because of his wedding 2 weeks prior to the race. There were smiles all round from both teams as everyone had given their best for each other. We were all 1/3 of an IRONMEN and proud of it !

14km out and the white pins are feeling good. Thanks for the pic @Kelscha

My Garmin stats

The course

Bagas was Happy but Sore !

Being the blokes we are, we all had a thirst for a well deserved beer after a big day. We raced back to our hotel, had a hot shower, donned some fresh threads and headed back to the finish line to talk story and be inspired by the other athletes that had already finished and to watch others finish. We even got the honour of catching some of the athletes with IRONMAN towels as they finished, it really was amazing!

Well deserved beers

Bacon met his hero, Greg Welsh. 5 x World IRONMAN champ

One on the many legend solo finishers

IRONMAN is one of the greatest experiences of my life. The men and women that do these races solo are all my heroes. It doesn't matter if you're a professional like Craig Alexander winning in a time of 7:57 or you're just an average Joe or Jane finishing in the dark in a time of 16:50 you are a true champion to me. They put their bodies through hell and come out legends and I am in awe of you all.


My next goal is to be back there next year doing it solo. I want to be one of them. I want to join that elite club of legends.

My little IRONMAN buddy...

IRONMAN, I will be back...


Reidy :)