Almere IM Report

I had considered not blogging the race report from Almere IM race. However, I think I need to in order to remind me of what I went through and how not to prepare for an IM race. You simply cannot get away with being hap-hazard with the prep – especially the days prior to race day. Obviously being healthy helps too!

The race was exactly what I did not want – survival! I like to race and my IM was certainly not that! 4 weeks prior to the race I was in good – nay, great - form! Then this injury occurred. Previous blogs detail the injury so I won’t bore you all with that. The trip to Holland was doubling as a family holiday; get the race over with and then enjoy some time at Centre Parks.
Problem No 1: Domestic stress. Julie’s Mum was diagnosed with Cancer and we had problems with our pet dogs.
Problem No 2: Night ferry crossing on the Thursday night prior to racing was way too close to race day! Nobody slept much and we all arrived in Almere (after getting lost) very tired and grumpy on the day before race day. But I had to register and sort my bike out for racking - All this in terrible weather and before we had even checked into Center Parks. A bad combination and the family were very fatigued! Oh, and so was I! Despite being very tired, I didn’t sleep much that night.
Problem No 3: See problem No 3 above! I was up at 0400 and not feeling good. More problems to come.
I met up with Jase as we set up transition. The weather was not great and the swim looked quite choppy. It was a land start, with a run into the water. I say water because I am still not sure whether the water is an estuary, reclaimed land or simply a huge river/lake? It was not salt water but there were huge swells that made me think that this was the open sea! It was actually quite bad and I was being thrown all over the place. But it was the same for everyone so I just cracked on with it. I tried hard to up my stroke rate and use a short choppy stroke, rather than a longer smoother stroke that suits me. However, I was struggling – a lot! As I reached the swim exit, I clocked 1:12 something as my time. I was happy enough with that, considering the conditions. As I removed my wetsuit, I realised that I was seriously cold. . . .
Problem No 4: The cold was really getting to me. This would be a theme throughout the event
I set off on the bike shivering and desperately trying to get warm. The wind was noticeable and it was obvious that there would be no fast bike time from me today. Overall the bike didn’t go too badly. There were more sections on narrow bike paths than I remembered and the corners on these paths brought the average speed down. There were sections of the bike where the wind was behind and you could cruise above 25mph and there were sections that were into a block headwind. In general, the wind gradually increased as the bike leg progressed. Lap 1 out of 3 was completed around 1:47 by my watch. This was not too far away from my target of 1:45 but I was still very cold! My feeding was going well and I was not tired. There was a break in the weather on lap 2 and I began to warm up. Ahhhh, the sun felt so good! I was moving much quicker and began to feel good for the first time in the race. Then, disaster! I missed a turn! I was drifting away in the cruise zone and rode straight past a left turn! Quite how I missed it I do not know. I suppose I lost 2 mins max, so no real damage done. I made lap 2 around 1:44; so still on track. The sun was replaced by more cloud and wind for lap 3. There was some rain too and I began to get cold again. I eased up into the wind to conserve energy and I figured that I would be into T2 around 5:20, which was ok. The kilometre markers seemed to take an age to come during the last 20k and I was ready to get off the bike for sure. That said, for a 112 mile ride, it seemed to go quite quickly. The major problem was that my leg was hurting – before I even started to run. Doh! Not so happy as I knew there would not be a pain free run, despite being drugged up with pain killing brufen tabs.
Problem No 5: The injury was going to be a big issue during the run!
I set off on the run with about 6:43 on the race clock. If I could run to potential I could salvage a 10 hour something for a finish. Within the first mile I knew it was all wrong. The leg was hurting and I was starting to limp. This was having an effect on the running balance and after 5 miles, my legs were just hurting everywhere. Some of this pain was due to the lack of running during the previous 3 weeks prior to the race but my entire run form was all over the place. The run was a 3 lap course and I was very surprised to complete the first lap in 1:11. I entered the second lap and became aware that I was limping more. People were passing me like I was standing still and was very cold again. I was not working hard enough to generate any heat and I was shivering badly as the rain came down again. I had seen Jase starting his second lap and he looked ok. I hoped he could salvage a decent race as the weather was certainly not helping matters. During the second lap I saw some fence posts on my left. A thought came to me: was I actually running slower than walking pace? So I conducted an experiment byt timing myself between 10 fence posts; once doing my hobbling run and once walking. To my horror, both times were the same! It was more painful to run (hobble etc) than walk. So I decided to walk as fast as I could. I felt even colder doing this, so I walked for a while and hobbled for a while. I approached the start of the 3rd lap. Should I drop out? Maybe I should have but it just seems wrong! So I hobbled walked round the final lap in a terrible 2:11. I had completed the marathon in 4:54 and was in a bad place! Walking was just as painful as hobble running and I just about raised enough movement to look as though I was running as I crossed the line in 11:38:50.
So there we have it; a disaster, to put it mildly. The days that followed were basically just more pain and hobbling. I seriously thought that I had damaged my leg in a serious way and so wished that I had not started the race. It is only within the last few days that the leg has started to feel better. Indeed, i visited the physio today and now have a walk/run schedule to help me back into running. I also have a rehab strengthening exercise to nurse the leg back to strength.

Get this. This evening I did 20 mins of 30 sec jog, 2 min walk. The leg held up. Just 4 days ago, I could hardly walk. How weird is that?! So now I am hopeful of recovering. But I will place a huge emphasis on conditioning and injury prevention.

Will I attempt another IM? I really do not know. I thought that I could race this one and I was very mistaken. I would need to learn my lessons and be better prepared during the week prior to race day. Racing and family trips really don’t work that well! So I would need to plan a race in isolation and ensure that we all get a family holiday as a pure holiday!