Race Date: Sunday 6th October 2024

Well here we are at 07:05 Sunday 6^th October 2024, my  friend,  Simon Austin and I going down  in the lift with  a lot of worried and anxious faces to start a very long and  exhausting day while our support  crews were still in the hotel room in bed.

Now this is all because someone  had a  bright idea a year ago ( me, and thinking  about it  now  it’s not the best idea I’ve ever had) and said we’re 60 next year  let’s do another  long distance triathlon after a 10 year break. Simon stupidly agreed and that was it. Entries  opened  for Calella Barcelona Ironman 2024 ( for those  of you who don’t know what an Ironman is, it’s a triathlon consisting of a 2.4 mile swim,  112 miles cycle and 26.2 marathon run to finish  off with) and that was it straight  in there with our hard earned brass. We were now signed up for Ironman, that was the easy part.

The hard part was to come  early in 2024 when  had to get off our bums and do some  training. We both thought we’ve got this we’ve done it all before. Well  yes we had done it all before when we was 40 yr old and 50 yr old but I don’t think  we realised how hard this was going to be on our now 60 year old bodies.

Training  started  well as we had both been  running through the winter. Open water swimming at Rother Valley started in early spring meaning we had the whole  Open water swimming season  to train.

We had to then incorporate cycling into our training. We started with  some  rides in the Peaks but  the course profile  was fast and rolling which is nothing like the Peak District so we went  out Lincolnshire way. This meant  we had to  battle  the head winds a lot, but got the flatter routes in, building up over 100mile rides.

Everything  was going quite  well apart from feeling  shattered all the time.

5 weeks to go, bang my calf just went after a mile on a run. Got booked  straight into physio and it wasn’t  looking good but Sally gave it her all in treating me  over the next 4 weeks. Without Sally’s treatment  I would  never have got to the start line with Simon. The problem was  I hadn’t run for 5 weeks before race day, so had no idea if I actually  could  run after the swim and bike.

I was happy  with my swim/ bike  training  so my strategy for the run was to run/walk and see how it went. Not nervous at all now, what could  go wrong?

So travelling  to Calella was pretty  much  uneventful until  the taxi turned up for the four of us and said he couldn’t  fit all our luggage and bike boxes  in which we had specified for. We managed  to get everything in and off to Calella we went. The next few days were spent  registering and getting  our goody bags, soaking  up all the hype and atmosphere. Saturday  bikes and all our transition bags were placed in transition. All that’s left to do is  carbo load and  get a good night’s sleep, like that ever happens  before a race!

So race day morning back in the lift carrying  our wetsuits, drinks and in our race gear all chatting  about  previous  races or how nervous  they are because it’s their 1^st ironman. Wetsuits  on, goggles at the ready waiting to go down the starting funnel on the beach. I realised  I forgot to  vasoline up ready for the bike, too late now but I knew I  was going  to suffer later. It was a rolling start, setting  so many off every 3 or 4 seconds. You then  run into the water and start your swim. The sea conditions  were quite good  compared to previous days. So started nice and steady, tried to stay away from the main swim group  as it like being in a washing machine.

I couldn’t  help but observe how clear  the water was and how far I could see. Then I  started seeing the  jellyfish  appear near me, thinking how  beautiful they were  in full shape  swimming in the water instead  of being  just a mass blob on the beach. Swim  going well  along the coast then a short stretch away  from the beach and onto  the back stretch  back along the coast again. Got a bit crowded and  couldn’t see much at all, then  ouch what was that across  my toe. Well those beautiful jellyfish decided  it was time to have some fun and start stinging some  swimmers,  me being one of them. They  got me again  once on the wrist and  then across my nose. No adverse reactions just uncomfortable.

Out onto the beach and upto transition. This bit I didn’t rush as made sure I was dry and comfortable ready for the ride. Simon  had passed me on swim and left  transition way before me, so I knew  I had my work cut out  if I was going to catch up with him. Coming out of transition  I saw Cathy ( my wife) cheering me on and taking  embarrassing  pics of me not looking  my best at all. Cycle  conditions  were really good, hardly  any wind and the sun wasn’t  out yet so it wasn’t  too hot at that point.

Their main roads put us to shame as they are so smooth, so with that in mind  i started making  good progress and everything was  going  to plan. I’d  got all my gels and drinks  on board and  a bag of jellybabies as my treat later on 2^nd lap. There were drinks/gel stations every  so often which I was able  to grab the odd banana now and again. 1^st lap done and got the daunting thought  of doing it all again  but it went really well to be honest. Swim and  bike  plus transition  was bang on schedule leaving me with a huge buffer on the run if things didn’t work out.

So bike racked up in transition, I’m all changed ready for the run( well as ready as I was going to be). Nice steady walk grabbed  a few drinks, saw Cathy  again taking  more embarrassing photos. A few metres later, I saw Simon  with his wife. Asked  what happened, and he’d  had mechanical failure on his bike  so couldn’t finish. I was very disappointed and sad for him  as he had put a lot into the training. But one had to move on.

The run was 3 laps with the first being about a mile longer. Ran most of first lap, walking  at drinks stations then  on start of 2^nd lap my left heal  felt like  I was running on a drawing  pin. I later found it to be a nice big blister on the ball of my  heal and also developed one on the right heal  too. So 2^nd lap I walked most of way but quite fast. The transition and finish line were a mile apart and you passed  the finish line 3 times on the run before  going down  funnel for a 4^th time. And you went past the transition area twice on each lap. Anyway  by the time  I was doing  my 2^nd lap, the winners and lot faster times were  getting  all the gear out and  going home. On seeing  this and being  in so much pain  at this point I was tempted to just give in and go collect  my stuff too. It was shear bloody mindedness that stopped me, at times  like that it’s not just your body that has to be strong  it’s your mind  too.

Still everything  was going to schedule  and planned  to run more on 3^rd lap, which I did but not as much as I hoped to. 3 miles left and  I was  well  on target  for under 14 hours which was much better  than I hoped for on the start line. Anyway  going into last 3 miles my feet  were  in agony and then  my back was in pain too so much I couldn’t  run or walk  straight. So I did the last mile hunched over just hoping it didn’t  seize up.

I finally crossed the line in 13hrs 47 min and 57 seconds

Swim – 1hr 24:13

Transition 1 – 14 min 13

Cycle – 6hr 19:31

Transition 2 – 18 min 24

Run – 5hr 31:38

2729 finishers out of 3800 entries

My position overall  2437

46^th   M60-64 out of 65

I had already  said beforehand that I  wouldn’t  do another long distance after this one, even if I had failed to complete this one. It takes  a lot of your time, energy and will power just to get to the start line, never mind actually  completing the event  as well. For anyone  that undertakes and achieves this task it’s a massive achievement both  mentally and physically. I feel  blessed  to have such wonderful friends, family and wife(Cathy) that have helped me through the training and the race.