Ironman Lanzarote 2012 - Race day

Well apart from been woken at about 2am by my sister calling whilst at a party with Paul Heaton, I actually had a pretty decent sleep and woke by the alarm at 4am. After getting up I swiftly polished off 4 muffins which was breakfast, along with a sports drink and a banana bar - whilst making sure I had everything that I needed for the day ahead.

Once down in transition it was a final prep of the bike with the food and drink - with the nerves really really kicking in :0)

Once in the wetsuit the nerves were now at another level. As you can see from my face.

At this point I wasnt feeling good at all - and the confidence wasnt exactly showing - especially after my prep swim on Thursday :0(  Anyway after a mad mad start where 1600 people surge into the water - I was finally able to put my head down once I got to the first buoy about 150m out - from there onto a left turn I gradually got into a rythym, not a quick one but a sort of rythym anyway!!!!!  Once at the next turn about 1km down I really did start regretting not putting the pool time or learning from last years swim :0(  Any made the first 1.2 mile loop in 45 minutes - not good although it did take 3 mins to get into the water according to my chip :0(  things actually went from bad to worse though as I really did tire quite a lot on the second loop - and finally got out after another 48minutes - absolutely exhausted :0(  a split of 1 33 - OMG what a F******* nightmare - but what more did I deserve after averaging less than once a week for 6 months!!!!! I vow not to race now until I can swim properly :0(  Anyway on getting out I did see Julie and her dad cheering - and I was over the moon just to get out - so had a decent shower whilst removing my wetsuit :0)  which added up to a rather poor 12 minute transition - but too be honest I was goosed!!!!