What happened (posted 29th August 2006)

Sunday’s event was an unforgettable experience and in spite of the discomfort, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Everyone who had even made it to the start line had put in a heroic performance just to get to that point – the event itself only the culmination of countless hours of grinding and relentless training.

In amongst the competitors, some stood out even more. There was a wonderful looking dread-locked Italian who had cycled up from Florence to watch his friends take part, before deciding half way here to get on the phone to the race office and enter the event himself. The bravest competitor was a guy who had broken his collarbone crashing during the bike stage, but had the medics fit a sling so he could go on to complete the marathon too – totally amazing…! There was even a guy that looked no older than me for whom Sunday’s race was his 86^th Ironman.. I wonder what his wife thinks about that…

Some of the figures were interesting – the top speed attained on the bike split was a full 58mph! I personally managed 47 down the sweeps of Cosmore Hill and even that felt extremely fast. The winner was in the process of finishing the entire event as I arrived in from the bike leg with a whole marathon ahead of me.. How did he do that?? His finishing time was 8 hours 36 minutes – nearly a whopping 6 hours faster than mine… I could now be regarded as a fairly fit person but these top guys and girls are simply incredible. I am in awe.

As far as my own performance goes, I’m chuffed really. There were a few scary moments when I ‘bonked’ spectacularly – twice on the bike leg and once on the run. My heart rate just pegged up at the high 170s and would refuse to come down in spite of freewheeling / walking. There was not a lot I could do in this situation other than drink and take some carb gels and wait for them to kick in - which they eventually did. I lost a lot of time during the early stages of the run when my rate would just shoot up even if I jogged a few steps.. It became incredibly frustrating. However, the body changes throughout and during the later stages of the run – due to eventual and inevitable dehydration – I couldn’t raise my heart rate above 135 no matter how hard I tried to run. My legs were just totally out of gas. In all, a real learning experience..

I do feel that if I could ever learn to run a little faster and more economically, I could take literally hours off my time. Perhaps next year… which is not something I would have said on Sunday afternoon..! Therein lies the drug…

Other than that, there were some interesting sights – a girl who overtook me with a beautiful sculpted carbon bike, long slim smooth brown legs and arms, a pretty face… And the hairiest armpits I think I’ve ever seen on anybody – and some alarming moments such as the guy who decided to pee at speed from out of the side of his cycling shorts when I was directly behind him…That had me on the brakes very quickly indeed. I credit a guy called Sean with the loudest fart of the day and louder than any that I heard, even on the climbs of L’Etape! – And, during the last two miles, I was actually overtaken by someone walking when I was jogging myself!

I was particularly taken by the two American gentlemen who walked side by side in animated and cheerful conversation for the entire marathon leg as if out for a post Sunday lunch stroll in Central Park - seemingly without a care in the world - while everyone else was in a silent, suffering world of their own. And I hugely admire the REALLY fat guy who you would hardly have believed capable of walking to the pub.. Good on you mate - a brilliant performance!!

Now it’s over, I’m not quite sure what comes next. I know that I’ve really loved the challenge of doing something that really was properly ambitious. I was a 16½ stone spectator at last year’s Ironman and a 12¾ stone finisher at this year’s. That’s been very good for my personal health and my regular stints in hospital in 2004 really do seem like another life - and body - altogether.

Along the way nearly five thousand pounds has been raised for the Q Trust - a supremely worthy and important cause - thanks to your support and generosity. I think that’s amazing.

There are a couple of quite different and exciting things that I’m going to investigate. In the meantime, I’m determined to keep well so there will probably be other triathlons and maybe Etapes in the future. I fear that I could very easily become lost without targets of some sort.

As it is, I’ve managed to complete the 100m Tour of Wessex bike race, Sherborne School ’s 500m/13ml/5ml triathlon, the Olympic distance Bournemouth International triathlon, one of the toughest ever Etape du Tours and the UK Ironman since this year’s May Bank Holiday. I can’t quite believe that.

Official Figures

Some people have said that they found my personal stats from these events quite interesting so for them, why change the habit of the last few months..?

Total Time – Start to Finish : 14:25:02

Swim (2.4 miles) : 01:14:34

Bike (112 miles) : 06:51:10

Run (26.2 miles) : 06:01:57

The balance between these collective times and the total above is the time spent in the transitions from swim to bike and from bike to run.

From my own Heart Rate Monitor

Total time recorded by my HRM not including ‘comfort breaks’ – 14:15:25 seconds.

Heart Rates:

100 – 126bpm – 4% / 00:37:59

126 – 146bpm (Aerobic) – 72% / 10:21:00

146bpm + (anaerobic) – 23% / 03:16:26

Average Heart Rate – 141bpm

Max Heart Rate – 179bpm

Calories burned – 10,495 kcal (wow..!)

Start Weight - 13st, 3lbs 5/8 oz (after two weeks of tapering exercise and a mind-bendingly delicious carbo-loading pasta cooked by Nikko Fronzoni on Saturday evening)

Finish Weight – 12st, 9lbs 7/8oz

If you really are into figures, I have every minute of my training logged since January on XL sheets. If anyone is interested in considering this sort of thing and you’d like to see these details, please let me know and I’d be very happy to email it to you.

Thanks

What kept me buoyant throughout the day was the quite amazing support of those who turned up to watch and keep me going or have supported me through messages and emails – it was so lifting and incredibly moving. I’m not kidding when I say that my goggles were full from the inside when I was greeted by my wife Hal and my sisters, Luce and Lui next to the inflatable arch shortly before the swim. On arriving at the water’s edge, I saw Jonnie Massey and young James, both of whom had also been at the similarly early start of the Bournemouth International Olympic Distance triathlon in July - all this before even plunging into the lake.

As I came in from the swim, the first faces I saw when tearing my goggles off were Nikko Fronzoni and Tim Whitmey – and on it went throughout the day.

A HUGE thank you to Hal, Luce, Lui, Tim and Nikko , Jonnie and James – all of whom I saw many times at various points around the course - and at the finish line, the entire Massey family. Thanks to Jonny Wallington and his similarly large family outside The Sun Inn at Dorchester (where else!!), to my friend and work colleague Sophie Jarret (what a banner!!), to Will and Rosie Edward who ran with me for a while, to Johnny Harden who seemed to be everywhere (!), to my trainer Martin Hill (encouraging or what!), to Sonia Fowler and Amanda and Peter Stuart for all running with me for the last mile and helping me make it in by my target of 8.30. I can’t believe that anyone else on the course had anything like this sort of support from the sidelines on the day itself - absolutely fantastic.

As well as this, before the race I made a point of reading the wonderful messages that have been placed on the Just Giving page or via email and post, and remembering these and thinking them through when the going got harder - which it did. It sounds corny but it really did help. How could I not get to the end with support like that? The messages I’ve since received since posting the fact that I had finished on Sunday have been similarly overwhelming.

Finally, I need to thank my lovely wife Hal who’s put up with so much over the last year. L’Etape du Tour and the Ironman are tough events that require serious and unsociable hours of training in order to stand a chance of making the respective finish lines. For her, this has now been nearly a year of very early mornings, disrupted evenings and lonely weekends - throughout all of which she’s been completely brilliant and kept everything together. I’m a very lucky guy.

The Week Magazine

Providing the greatest support for this was The Week magazine who donated £740 as part of a promotion linked to my fundraising.

The Week has over 100,000 subscribers and is perfect for those who like to get everything they need and want to know from the week's news in only one hour of their time!

It’s a unique digest of the best of the British and foreign media and, along with the news, you will find a selection of the best properties on the market, a review of the arts, a selection of gift ideas and much more.

The Week has supported the Q Trust before and of course, Quentin's daughter Charity Crewe is one of the excellent writers they have on their team.

TRI UK / Yeovil Cycles

In view of L'Etape and participation in the 2006 Ironman, I have also received great support from TRI UK Ltd / Yeovil Cycles, the UK's leading online triathlon store, whose UK retail outlet is situated in Yeovil just a few miles down the road from my home.

The store is an absolute treasure trove for all things triathlon and the staff, led by the charming Fred Hopkins are all friendly, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and helpful. I strongly recommend a visit or if that's beyond reach then link to their website on: www.triuk.com