Initially I was pretty disappointed with this race. I trained as hard as I could have, while balancing a 1 and 3 year old, a full time job, having a Kyle who also does endurance events, and just general life stuff.
I entered with 12 weeks to go, caught a nasty nursery bug that had us all in bed for almost 2 weeks the day after entering, leaving me with 10 ironman specific training weeks (prior to this I was semi run fit following the Tallahassee marathon, and was dabbling in a couple of swims and bikes per week). On reflection this definitely isn’t enough to be super competitive in that stllar field, but I did the best I could.
I averaged probably 16-18 hours per week, with a peak week at 21, and the split was having the bike taking up most of it (around 12 hours), followed by about 6 hours of running per week and 3 hours of swimming.
As race day approached, surprise surprise there was drama! The week prior, Kyle competed in the West Highland Way race, feeling horrendous from the start and finishing up in 9th with a much slower time and position than anticipated. The following day we are told his parents had covid (they were looking after the boys) and Logan was sick multiple times. We tested him and, sure enough, he was positive. Kyle and I refused to test and just had the mindset that we have been vaccinated and boosted so what we don’t know won’t hurt us.
We travelled on the Friday (I ran out of holidays so was taking calls and doing emails in Schipol while Mum and Keith watched the boys), where I did have the pre-race excitement and thought surely everything will be fine, but then on the Saturday I felt like I didn’t have any energy. Saturday was pretty stressful as I had to register by 12pm (in a 45min queue in the 30C heat!), then travel to bike transition, which was only 10k away but it was gridlock with all the cars as transition didn’t open until 12pm. When we finally got back to our apartment, I was really tired but thankfully the grandparents took the boys to a swimming pool to give me some peace (to fill waterbottles with 16+ gels and all the other tri-faffing!).
I should mention that Kyle couldn’t come until the day after the race because he was directing his Moray Way 100 and Relays – he gave me his full blessing that I could do this race, as it is a huge part of triathlon history; a great one to do after a 5 year hiatus. Luckily, his volunteers were unbelievably helpful and the race went perfectly… until he got home on Sunday night to cancelled flights the following day (all sorted post-race night with a lot of stress!).
Up at 3.45am, I managed my porridge and coffee no problem, did some rolling in the living room, Lennox decided to waddle through wired as usual (so I got a good luck cuddle), and off Keith and I went to the swim start. Again, it was gridlock and I was nervous we wouldn’t make it there in time. We were literally driving 5kph for about 20mins and my start was at 6.33am. When we arrived, I needed some nervous cuddles, racked my bike, sorted my gear and said my goodbyes. I did miss my swim warm up but I wasn’t bothered by that as I had 9 hours to warm up.
I was in the pro pen, stood next to Daniella Ryf (who would go on to world record that day), Lisa Norden (silver medallist in London 2012) and Chelsea Sodaro (Kona champ last year) – I got a hug from Chelsea after saying we were doing it for all the mums out there, but they all looked super nervous and in the zone, so I didn’t want to do my usual nervous chatter! I did get to chat to Lina-Kristen Schink, who came 3rd in Challenge Almere at my last full distance race in 2018 – we gave each other a huge hug and got maybe 90 seconds to catch up!
In the water we went after the males’ cannon went off, and we had only 2 mins to swim up to the rope. I was calm and ready, lining up next to Lisa, hoping she would be good feet for me to jump on.
Our cannon went off, and off I sprinted… for about 10 seconds when my tracker was pulled off. Absolute disaster!! I don’t think it was intentional, but there were a lot of girls looking for feet and I was just really unlucky. I made the split decision to stop, look for it, wrap it back around my ankle and then sprint, thinking that it wouldn’t make much difference and would allow family and friends to track me but now I’m not sure it was the right choice. I went by a few mini groups that were a lot slower, found some feet I thought was fast enough but after a couple of minutes I realised we were going to slow, overtook, and by that time I was in no man’s land. I reckon I spent 52+ minutes completely alone in that canal, really down on myself.
I exited, so relieved that it was over, had a really quick transition and went to jump on my bike when…my chain came off. It happened a few times after a bike service, but I took it back and thought it was fixed, so no idea why it happened again. I had to get off, put the chain back on while literally thousands of spectators were cheering me on, and get back on like a massive amateur. I was so embarrassed!
Off I cycled and I was really out of breath, but I took it to be the stress of the chain. I was cycling pretty hard to try and make up some deficit and was just careless in the first few minutes. I went over the only pothole section of the course and lost my aero bottle, which had my maurten in it. I would have stopped to quickly get it, but I watched it explode as it landed. Instead, I was calm and knew I could just put iso from every station in my aero bottle holder.
15mins later, it was time to take a gel from my bottle behind my seat. I reach back and – noooooo – there was no bottle!!! It came off at the pothole too! It had around 10 gels in it!! I now only had 6-8 gels to play with in my 3rd bottle, so I made a revised nutrition plan there and then to sip it frequently and continue to take lots from aid stations, no matter how slow I have to go through them.
The course wasn’t too interesting. The roads were smooth, it was undulating, and I do like 2 laps to remember things on the 2nd lap. Debbie Downer here though was just really lonely on lap 1! I rode completely alone for around 90mins! No one in front, no one overtaking. It was mentally tough to keep pushing power. I did try to ask the motorbikes how far back I was, but they didn’t hear/understand me. I was still out of breath and just wanted something positive to happen.
And then the slower swimmer girls overtook me and I wanted to just stop there and then and DNF! It was really tough to stay positive at this point, but I just tried to keep them in sight but weirdly had no energy to stay with them. I tried my best to have positive thoughts, saying that nutrition is important in this heat so relax and don’t overbike and undereat or the run will suck, and sticking with my little plan.
Just when I needed it, there was Solarburg!!!! You have no idea how much I needed a big steep hill to knock me out of my funk! I literally got goosebumps and tears going up this hill. For those unaware, it is like a TdF climb, where hundreds of spectators line up next to you, cheering and clapping up maybe a 3 minute climb. It is near the end of each lap, and it got me to continue on to do lap 2.
Lap 2 had the slower athletes, along with the relay cyclists, making it way more interesting and busy on course. There were all shapes and sizes of both bikes and people (my favourite was a big boy with a literal lunchbox backpack filled with sandwiches – he was making a day of it!). Unfortunately, there were also multiple packs of “through-and-off” cyclists, overtaking me like I was standing still in their massive drafting packs. After about a dozen shouts from me telling them to stop cheating, I gave up wasting my energy. This makes me appreciate and respect the pros more; they are up front being constantly watched. These guys were barely pedalling going 25mph.
Anyway, I got a much needed “Go Debs” by fellow Speedhubber Henry about ¾ in and it was so nice to see such a young talented guy so many times on course! I think I may have beaten him by a mere minute in the end, but until about 12km to go on the run he was on fire!
I went through the motions and got off the bike super relieved. I took my time in transition, to regroup my thoughts. I asked for suncream which the volunteers lathered on (made it a wee spa experience), got my supershoes and watch on (at time only – I didn’t want to know the pace!) and started negotiating how fast I’d have to run to just break 10 hours. 10 hours is a respectable time, I was suffering, it was nearly 30C, blah blah blah.
I was barely running upright (toddler-caused back pain is the worst after a 112 mile bike ride in the TT position funnily enough!) and then I saw Freyja (she was my bridesmaid and travelled over from NZ with her daughter and husband Aki, who was also doing it before popping back to the UK for a visit!), so patronisingly told me I looked great. I needed to chat to someone about what had happened (6 hours in silence after my experience 10 seconds into the race was really hard for me!) and instantly felt better for getting it off my chest. She was really supportive and amazing as always (she went to Rio in 2016 so knows the athlete mentality!) I left her with a much better mindset: I no longer had any potential mechanical/technical issues left as only my legs were guiding me, and I actually felt excited to just run. But then 1 minute later I quickly jumped into the woods, peed, struggled to get the suit back up, started walking while showing a bit too much to passers by, but after a few more strides I now I felt like a new woman!
It was a flat canal path, not tarred, pretty exposed to the sun, but not too windy. You could see a couple miles ahead, so knew where the aid stations .were, but also where the strugglers were. I just started picking people off and making it a fun game. I was in a good place again, had no idea of my pace but was just happy not to be struggling. After about 8km, I passed another pro girl and even managed a surge (it wasn’t needed but I didn’t want to risk it!). Then I passed another, and another. A few males that clearly overbiked were suffering too, so I felt like by picking them off, as well as looking forward to my next mystery gel flavour at the aid stations (mojito was by far the best!), time flew by!
Suddenly, I was past half way (1.36) and heading back into Roth. This part was mentally tough as you pretty much pass the finish line but have another hour or so to go! And the last 10km is basically half uphill, turn around, then half downhill. There were a few walkers on this uphill so my new challenge was to not walk, no matter how slow I ran. I ran around a mini lake which had loads of spectators, so when I raised my arm for them to cheer louder, the cheers were insane and that gave me the boost I needed to finish in an even split (not like me at all!)!
When I got to the stadium, Mum and Keith were waiting for me with the boys (they went to Playmobile Land nearby, as waiting around in the heat would have been torcher for them all), threw them over the bannister, and I walked over the finish line with my little besties, who were both excited yet confused as to what I/they were doing.
Overall, I reckon I would have been closer to 9.10 on the day, without my tracker/potential covid issues, but I did the best I could and am so proud I never gave up. I crossed the line in 9.25 and 11th pro female which, given it is the best women’s field in European triathlon history, I need to be pleased.
Also, I was 1st Mum. 5 years ago I would have shrugged at that! But now I appreciate how hard it is to be a parent while balancing work and life! To all working mums out there, you are amazing and this was for you!
Will I do another full distance? The training – albeit my 8 weeks plus taper – was not sustainable for me and my lifestyle BUT I know there is a sub-9 in me on a perfect day…
Kyle Runs & Deb Tris 