Beaten by the heat
My Ironman Adventure ended last night about an hour earlier than
last year after just eleven and a half hours. Some early morning bungles on my
part left me starting stressed after leaving my one bag at the guest house and
having to drive back to get it and rush in for the start.
Then great early morning conditions and faster swim than last year left me
climbing on my bike confident of a good day. Three punctures in the first and
second laps of the cycle leg left me humbled and contemplating whether the
gods were telling me something.
I stared fate in the face by leaving my pump and last tube with another
contender who was walking back from the 20 km mark with a flat tyre and no
other options.
I tentatively rode the last leg waiting to see if fate wanted to chat. She was
clearly on a tea break as I made it back to town and the transition without a
problem. I was about an hour slower than last year and the heat of 35 degrees
had taken its toll.
I managed the first 14km’s of the run with severe exhaustion and dropped to a
walk run for the next 5km’s before sitting down to take a rest and passing out
on the side of the road with nausea and a lot of dizziness.
When I woke I did the sums and realized that to walk the second half at
roughly 9 minutes a km would take three hours and I wasn’t motivated to do it
just to say I’m an Ironman for the second time.
I wandered, I would like to say walked, but it was more of a wander, the 2
km’s back to the medical tent where they helped me with an injection for the
nausea and some fluids to restore a rather depleted body.
It’s never great not to finish a race and while I will push hard at times,
today I walked away before I did any serious damage. Considering I got further
into the run than SA champion Raynard Tissink (admittedly he got to his
fateful point a little quicker than I did) and last years woman's champion
Bella Bayliss who both baled out with heat exhaustion, I was at least in good
company.