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Ironman Malaysia
Ironman Malaysia
Without any real chance to think about (except for 20 hours on air planes) I was on the start line for Ironman Malaysia, several thousand kilometres away from my original race destination in Lake Tahoe, and several degrees warmer as well.
A few people asked why I didn’t just head to Ironman Chattanooga the next weekend and on the same continent. I may have mentioned earlier, but I didn’t think the down-river swim and big bike packs would really suit me, plus Chattanooga was technically 2 days later than Malaysia and with maintaining form/fitness on my mind I felt that time was of the essence.
So I jumped on a plane in San Francisco with my better half in tow and 3 flights, a few movies, and many airline dinners later we made it to Langkawi with exactly 36 hours to find my feet.
I tried to find them straight away with a little jog in the dark around transition area. Not too bad I thought considering the last 48-72 hours.
Friday was jam packed with the usual last minute organising, registration, and briefing. The monkey zone was real and I was disappointed that we wouldn’t see any jacked-up monkeys on triathlon nutrition, as the no-feed zone was also real.
We managed to find pizza and beer for my standard pre-race meal, twice in 1 week, and although it wasn’t one my all-time favourites, it did the trick that night and the next morning for breakfast!
2 weeks with very little training had me wondering how the body would respond to 8-9 hours of battering, but one thing was for sure and that was that I was extremely fresh.
I felt very good in the swim and cruised through that to make sure I didn’t burn any matches early on. The only real excitement from the swim was getting stung by jelly fish twice. The first one pretty much punched with my hand and wrist, while the second I unfortunately punched with the side of my face and shoulder. Apart from the tingling and annoyance of it all the only real side effect I noticed was a numb ear.
On to the bike and things were already heating up. It is safe to say that I have had better legs, but 180km is a long way and they would arrive at some stage.
The first section of the lap is pretty hilly for bout 15km and takes quite a toll. Then it flattens off for about 30 and through this section I managed to get going a bit better. The monkey zone is through KMs 45-60 and is constantly rolling, while the last 30 flattens off again with a few good false flats thrown in.
Patrick, the eventual winner, caught me at about 85km and we rode together until the start of lap 2 where he made a passing comment (while passing me), “I’ll do some work now for a little bit,” by little bit I assumed he meant the whole remaining 90km because there was no way I was riding with him! Next thing you know he’s on the side of the rode with a dropped chain and I was back in front. It wasn’t until 120km that I saw Patrick and Karol (3rd) again. They caught me, passed me, and rode off again. It seems you can’t really pass me though and expect to get away with it scotch free, as 15 minutes later I saw Karol on the side of the road with a puncture.
It was at 120km that I had my last gel and calories for the bike, my back was pretty much useless by this stage and my stomach wasn’t feeling much better. I lost 9 minutes to Freddy (2nd) through the last 60km and it is safe to say that I wasn’t looking forward to running a marathon with depleted legs.
Tim Beardall also made the mistake of passing me late on the bike (on his way to a 4.27 ride), as I caught him 500m in to the run after he had 3minutes on me off the bike. If any other pros are reading this, keep that in mind ;)
Anyway, on to ru…..n.
Dead.
I had nothing from the word go and I knew it wasn’t going to be one of those ‘the legs will come around runs.’ I slogged it out for 42.2km, stopping and walking every aid station and to my utter disbelief, drinking nothing by coke. It was hot, hovering around 40d and extremely humid. I was even stopping and lining up for the water buckets, very polite I know!
9hrs and 26minutes later I crossed the finish line. A tough day in all the usual and many unusual ways.
Malaysia was by no means a reflection of the shape and form I knew I was in for Tahoe, so it was a very disappointing to have had such a tough and problem filled day. But, in hindsight I could have had a great day and raced well in Tahoe only to have ended up 4th there also, that was the quality of the field there. My main objective for racing an Ironman at the end of the year was to gather my first points towards Ironman Hawaii 2015, and for that it was mission accomplished.
Taking everything in to account I am pretty happy with the outcome and can’t complain at all.
I am sitting at home in Christchurch writing this race report 2 weeks later, without an ounce of exercise since the race. On Monday it all starts again in my build up for Challenge Bahrain in December, followed by Auckland 70.3 in January, and then on to my big one at Challenge Wanaka in February.
I hope all those in the North have had a good summer of training and racing and I hope all those in the South are looking forward to the coming race season as much as I am!
Catch you all somewhere soon.
Thanks as always for reading,
Cheers
Dylan
(Images courtesy of AsiaTRI)
