Thank you very much for your donations.
Ironman UK took place on Sunday. With 1600 registered competitors from 38 countries including quite a number of professionals, it was a big event. With 15% seeing sense and not even starting, and a further 15% giving up during the race finishing was my first goal !
The 4km swim was a problem free 1hr 20 minutes, well within my target range of 1hr15 to 1hr30.
The 180km cycle took a couple of minutes under 7 hours which was in line with my expectations as it involved a quite big hill (1000ft of altitude). This was fine on the first 60km lap, but by laps 2 and 3 was quite a challenge.
The swim and bike must have weakened the small of my back - at the end of a toilet break during the bike to run transition I stood up too quickly and a I pulled a muscle. This made the first 2 or 3 miles of the marathon very painful and I was on the verge of quitting. It was only your generous sponsorship and my supporters on the course that kept me going. Over the next few miles it started to feel better and was in the unusual position of feeling more comfortable with each passing mile. Combined with the unexpected hillyness of the run course my run time of 4hr40 was nearly an hour slower than my game plan !
I was the 660th male finisher (150th in my age category), so higher in the rankings than I expected but with a slower time (13hr17) than I had anticipated - so I guess everyone found it a difficult course !
On behalf of Scope, thank you again for generous donations.
David
