Race report for sponsors and supporters…

 

The quick version for busy people

 

I finished!  And I can honestly say the reason is that all you guys sponsored me –after the bike course I was feeling so utterly exhausted I was seriously contemplating pulling out as I didn’t feel I could run 42 metres, never mind 42 km.  Then I thought of all of you sponsors and decided I should at least run the first 5km and see how that went before giving up… and the next.. and the next … (which really shows the true power of money – I was desperate to avoid giving refundsJ )

Brutal weather conditions – temperatures rising up to 38 degrees at some points of the bike course – meant that this race was about survival rather than posting a fast time.

After getting calf cramps on the swim even surviving was not going to be easy and I left my legs somewhere on the top of the hill called “The Beast” midway through the second lap of 90km during the cycle ride.  After 15 minutes in transition between the bike and the run, half of which was spent thinking about retirement from the race, I set off at extremely slow speed, made use of every aid station and 20 power gel packs, and crossed the line after 14 hours and 26 minutes.

I could see the pride on Lorna’s and my son Jack’s face  - it was all worth it.  I am an Ironman!

 

Thanks a lot for sponsoring me

 

Steve

 

The more detailed version

 

Let me start with a reminder why my friends and I picked Zurich as our Ironman venue for this year

1)   it’s guaranteed to be a wetsuit swim which helps people who are less naturally buoyant and makes up to 15 minutes difference in times. Wetsuits are allowed in water temperatures up to 24.5 degrees and lake Zurich never reaches that temperature

2)   the air temperature is quite cool compared to other Ironman events so minimal risk of overheating

3)   the average time in Zurich is among the lowest of any Ironman event

 

In 2013 things proved to be a little different as Zurich went through a heatwave that peaked on the day of the race

The water temperature rose from 18 to 25 degrees during July in the weeks leading up to the race so no wetsuits were allowed

And the air temperature was in the 30’s for most of the day, peaking at 35 in Zurich city and getting up to 38 degrees at the tops of some of the bike climbs.

 

Whose idea was this anyway?

 

At the race briefing we were advised to rip up any target times that we had and throw them in the bin as this would be more about survival than generating a personal best result – as someone who is very prone to muscle cramps which is exacerbated in the heat my thoughts of a time somewhere between 12 and 13 hours were duly scrapped – on the plus side as this was my first Ironman just finishing would make it a personal best!

 

The day itself started with breakfast at 4.30am to shove as many easy to digest calories in as possible – I can tell you that forcing down 7 white bread and jam sandwiches at 4.30am is an ironman event in itself.  In theory breakfast should have followed a good night’s sleep but due to a combination of no air-con in the room, nerves and a head full of the insane number of organizational items that you have to get right for triathlons I had literally zero sleep the night before - not the best preparation.

 

Swim - the swim course is over 2 laps with an exit after the first lap, a run across a small island and back in for lap 2 for a total of 3.8km (3.8k is the official distance – my in-built sat nav system is somewhat faulty when swimming so I most likely covered over 4k).  My friends had prepared me for the day before the race by swimming over me, knocking my arms, grabbing onto my legs and testing my ability to recover from a (surely unlikely?) two man takedown to simulate the mass start with 2500 swimmers which proved very valuable.  I’ve never been swimming in a washing machine but I suspect an open water mass start is similar.  Having said that, lap one went surprisingly well and took 52 minutes which was where I hoped I would be.  However, half way round the second lap I started to get a bit of cramp in my left leg – the middle of a large lake is not the best place to go into muscle spasms so for the rest of the lap I swam very gingerly and threw in a few hundred metres of breast stroke.  This meant lap 2 took an hour and 10 minutes for a total swim time of 2 hours and 3 minutes. Unfortunately with 30 metres to go I got a bad cramp in my right calf muscle and proceeded to flounder around in front of all the spectators as I tried to shake it off.  Not the smooth stylish finish to the swim that I was looking for and with another 12 hours of racing to go the prospects of survival were diminishing!

 

I spent 10 minutes in transition rehydrating and stretching the calf muscles before setting off on the bike course – the good news is that if you’re really slow in the swim it’s easy to find your bike as it’s the only one there!

 

Lap one on the bike went according to the (revised) plan - I was being rather careful not to push hard to avoid setting off the cramps again but clocked a respectable 3 hours 20 mins for the 90km – if you’re thinking that sounds a bit slow bear in mind that there are 650 metres of steep ascent in that 90k so overall for the 2 laps you climb the equivalent of the UK’s highest mountain.  After battling up the final climb on the course, aptly named “Heartbreak Hill”, it was onto lap 2 with temperatures continuing to climb – here I made a mistake on the flat section when passing an aid station – I threw my nearly full isotonic drink bottle into the designated cast off zone (to avoid 1 of the 8 ways the Swiss officials had dreamt up to get disqualified) just before the station to pick up a cooler replacement only to discover that this was a water only station – sounds innocent enough but in those conditions getting the hydration, nutrition and electrolyte balance right is critical and going on water only for the next hour was not helpful.  Possibly as a result of that and possibly just due to the heat I slowed dramatically in the second lap, so much so that our supporters tracking my times thought I had had a puncture! The most physical activity I’ve ever done previously in 38 degrees is raise my hand to attract the attention of a poolside waiter in a hotel and by the time I got to the top of the Beast for the second time after around 150km I decided that I was just too exhausted to do the marathon but at least I should continue round and complete the bike ride.  The second lap took 3 hours 55 for a 7 hours 15 minute total ride time.

 

I crawled into the second transition zone thinking that I would just park the bike and retire but then realized I might be able to walk the marathon and still finish inside the 16 hour cut-off time.  After some deliberation I thought I owed it to all of you sponsors to at least set off at a gentle pace on the run and see how far I could get before walking.  There are 4 loops of 10.5k for the marathon so I got to see Lorna and Jack and friends each time, which really gave a much-needed mental boost.  Sponges, ice, gels, rehydration salts, water and isotonic drinks provided the physical boost at the aid stations and helped me cope with the heat. That kept me going for the first half marathon and for the second half the temperature began to drop towards 25 degrees as the predicted thunderstorm rolled in not a minute too soon.   25 degrees is still not exactly cool – the highest temperature ever for the London marathon has been 22 degrees and it’s not allowed to start if it’s 25 – but all things are relative and when you’ve been running in 30+ degrees, 25 feels great so the second half of the run actually felt a bit easier than the first half. 

 

I eventually crossed the finish line after a 4 hour 40 minute marathon for a total time of 14 hours 26 minutes.  It was definitely the toughest endurance test of my life but in some of the worst possible weather conditions and despite having leg cramps just over an hour into the race I still finished!  Of the 2500 race entrants over 600 either chose not to start or did not manage the full distance.  As I ran up to the bright lights of the finish line the race announcer screamed out “Steve- YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!” – what a great feeling!

 

Thanks a lot for sponsoring me! 

 

 – I’ll keep the website available for another couple of weeks so if you know of any stragglers who were intending to donate but forgot then please feel free to forward this e-mail to them.

www.justgiving.com/SteveLister1