by Coach Atul Godbole
The long Sunday of 2nd Dec 2018 in the charming town of Busselton in Western Australia ended with me hearing the magic words “Atul, you are an Ironman”. About 14 hours and 32 minutes after I started the 3.8k swim in the morning, and after further biking 180K and then running a full marathon of 42.2K, the distances which makes up an Ironman race, the very long day had came to a close. I had completed Ironman Western Australia (IM WA)!
The seeds of this Ironman were planted in September 2018 when I had to unexpectedly cancel the Berlin marathon which was on the 16th of September. I was upset at having to skip this race. Since participating in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships 2017 in September of last year, I had set aside the swim and bike training completely to focus on my running. My bike was still in the bike bag since my travel back from the USA for the World Championships. I had continued to swim now and then for a couple of months after, but my last swim was back in December. I focused on running to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. For an entire year I gave it my all. However, for some reason or another, a good race was not falling into place. I was looking forward to Berlin Marathon. So having to cancel it was a big disappointment.
I introspected a bit. I decided I cannot hold up doing an Ironman indefinitely. The Boston qualification will happen in due time. So I searched for potential Ironman races. Ironman Western Australia was the last suitable race of the season. The next one was Ironman New Zealand in March 2019. That would mean I had just 2.5 months of training. Let me swim and bike for a bit and then take the call. The entries for Ironman WA were historically open till close to the race.
So here I was, in Berlin marathon race week, doing my first swim and bike in a looong time. The first few swims felt awkward but I soon got my rhythm back. The short rides I did served to dust off the rust from my bike legs. After about 2 weeks of testing the waters (no pun intended), I registered for IM WA.
I had little time for ramp-up, build and taper. I planned all the weeks meticulously. The down weeks, the build phases, the peak weaks were all planned. I felt I had to do a half Iron-distance race in this training cycle. Luckily, there was Deccan Triathlon in Kolhapur just 2 weeks before IM WA, not ideal positioning so close to the IM, but it will have to do. I managed to secure a substitution entry for Deccan Tri.
Training went well. Expect for a bout of sickness from food poisoning, all the planned training was done with focus, consistency and diligence. The ramp-ups to the swim and bike workouts were done as planned. I was satisfied with my swim training. The bike training was planned to be barely sufficient to allow me to complete the distance. I had expected my run to suffer due to the addition of all the swim and bike hours, but surprisingly I was actually running faster than ever!
Soon enough it was race week! I was feeling good. I was feeling confident that I would be able to tackle the race. The race plan was pretty simple: there would be no racing! I would focus simply on enjoying the race and completing it with as much “comfort” as possible. Swim as per training, bike very conservatively and try to run well for as much distance of the 42.2K as I could. Racing will never enter the picture at all!
On Thursday late night, I arrived in Busselton, the sea-side town about a 2.5 hours drive from Perth. Busselton was hosting IM WA for the 15th year. On Friday I went to the Ironman Village setup around the Busselton Jetty for athlete check-in (bib collection in running circles) and got all my stuff including the race number tattoos, blue bike bag, red run bag, the swag, and the bib itself. I wandered around the expo for a bit and went back to the hotel to rest.
On Saturday, I took my bike for bike check-in. I was not aware that one of my bar-ends had fallen off, so I was asked to get that fixed first before my bike would be allowed to be checked in. So I went to the official bike mechanic and got one. I racked my bike at my allotted number, and stored the transition bags in their respective places. Ironman always uses a blue bag for the swim-to-bike transition (T1) , where you put all your stuff you need for your bike like helmet, googles, etc. You access this when you come out after the swim. The red bag is for the run stuff, which you access at T2, the bike-to-run transition.
The rest of Saturday was spent lying around in the hotel room, a bit anxious. A short evening stroll on the beach to free the legs, an early dinner and it was off to bed for the long day ahead.
I woke up at 4am and got prepared. Reached the race venue by 5:30. I did some last minute final checks of the bike, topped up the tires, put the fluids in place on the bike and waited.
The swim was in the Indian Ocean. It was a wetsuit-optional swim, however as expected, 99% of the athletes had put on their wetsuits. Last year’s swim was cancelled due to a shark sighting and I was thinking that it would be too much of a coincidence to have the swim cancelled two years in a row.
You would not believe it, but when I was strolling on the beach the previous evening, I saw a finned-fish breaking the surface of the water! Was it a shark? Could have been a dolphin or a whale too! Are there even dolphins in these waters? Who knows! In any case, I was hoping that it was not a shark and if it was that nobody else saw it. I did not want the swim cancelled!
Luckily, no such incidence occurred and at around 6:45am, we started going in the water in a rolling start. This is where 2-4 athletes are let in the water every few seconds. The athletes race time starts only when they cross the timing mat placed just before they enter the water. It took around 15 minutes for the entire field of 1200 athletes to enter the water. We were supposed to self-seed ourselves according to our expected swim finish times. I seeded myself in 1:20-1:30 wave.
The swim course was a new 2 lap course, but designed strangely. Instead of the usual rectangular one with the long sides perpendicular to the beach and a very short side parallel to the beach, this rectangular course was the other way around. As a result there was some chop felt while swimming along the long sides parallel to the beach. Not that big of a problem, all said and done.
The swim was pretty uneventful. I was expecting to swim between 1:25 and 1:30 and so was pleasantly surprised when I exited the water in 1:22.
I took my time in T1 (the swim to bike transition). This is not a race, I kept reminding myself. I did not want to screw up the long bike by acting hastily. I made sure I had all my stuff for the bike: helmet, googles, gloves, arm sleeves, nutrition, puncture kit, etc, etc.
The bike was tedious to be honest. The route was pretty scenic, the weather was ok, but I did not enjoy the bike all that much. When have I every enjoyed the bike? 🙂 Give me a swim and a run any day instead. It was a 2-lap course with lots of winds throughout the course. I had targeted an easy ride of 7 hours. I did the 1st loop in 3:35, so pretty much on target. I did tire a bit during the 2nd lap, and finally after what seemed like an eternal last 30-45km, completely the bike in around 7:30.
T2 (the bike to run transition) was somewhat leisurely too. After a bite and a drink, I was out to start the run. Just 42.2K of running and its done! It was pretty hot during the bike, but it was not felt as much on the bike. As soon as I started running, I started heating within the first few minutes. The run was more of a run-walk – I ran from aid-station to aid-station (which were around 1.5-2K apart). Many times I walked in between too. At each aid-station, I doused myself with water to cool myself. Drank some cola. Ate some watermelon. Watermelon had never tasted so good!
The 4-lap run course was entirely along the Busselton waterfront, going to either side of the Busselton Jetty. The crowd support was very good with lots of cheerful and enthusiastic spectators egging us on. At the end of each lap, there was an exit towards the finish line. If you were on your last lap, you took that exit to the finish, else you go straight. That was hard, having to go straight!
Towards the end of the 2nd lap, as the sun started to set, it suddenly got cold and as time progressed, it got colder still. Luckily, I had forgotten to take off my bike gloves in T2 and so had stuffed then in my back pocket. These gloves now proved useful against the cold. It was very difficult to tackle such extremes in temperatures. Just half an hour ago, I was cooling myself with water, and now I had gloves on! In the last lap, I even wrapped myself in a space blanket, but found it very awkward to run in that so discarded it after a few minutes. Next time, I will be better prepared should it get so cold.
On every lap, as we came near to the jetty, we could hear the sounds of the finish line (which was just opposite the jetty) and the fabulous commentator Pete Murray’s voice. Every so often, I would hear “xyz, you are an Ironman” as somebody crossed the finish line. Soon it would be my turn. But not yet, not just yet. Just 2 more laps and 21K to go!
The last 2 laps of the run were faster than my first 2 laps. I just wanted to get this done and over with. To get out of the cold. Strangely, while I was very cold, I was also having cravings and thoughts of a nice cold drink at the finish line. And I wanted to simply lie down somewhere warm and soft!
The last 2 laps went by like a dream. I don’t remember much, expect that when I was running, I was running faster than the first two laps. I remember that I stopped at one aid-station to apply Vaseline under my armpits – the chaffing from the tri-top was killing me. I also remember taking a decision to stop eating and drinking so much at the aid-stations. It was making me feel cold and it was not allowing my stomach to settle down to run properly. Drinking during the late stages of a marathon is a vicious cycle – the more you drink, the more you feel like drinking even more, and the more it affects your run. Its best to clamp down even if you feel like having more.
It was dark around the run course as we went farther and farther away from the jetty on each lap. There were portable floodlights at various points but they were not enough. Some sections of the run course were pitch black. We were given glow rings to hang around our belts or necks as reflectors.
Finally it was my last lap. During each lap, we were given a different colored wrist band to wear. This was a sort of indication and reminder for both the athlete and volunteers as to what stage of the run the athlete is in. I collected the orange wrist band, indicating it was my last lap. As I came round to the end of the lap and near the jetty, Pete’s voice grew louder and louder. The spectators saw that I had an orange wrist band on me. Knowing that I was about to finish, the spectators broke into cheers. I even got a few pre-emptive shouts of “You are an Ironman” from excited spectators. This time, I finally made the much awaited exit turn towards the finish line instead of going straight for the next lap.
Pete’s voice was booming in the long finish chute. Bright lights were turning on and off like disco lights every time someone entered the final stretch of the finish chute.
I was sprinting at this stage. A woman was finishing a few meters ahead of me. For a second, I thought to overtake her but decided against it. It would ruin her finish and her finish line photos (and maybe mine too!). Better to let her have her moment of glory. I slowed down into a jog and let her hog the finish line. As she moved away, I broke into a sprint again. I got high-fived by Pete as I sprinted past him. And then he uttered those magic words just as I crossed the finish line: “Atul, You are an Ironman”.
It was finally over. The long hard day had been 14 hours and 32 minutes long. I could finally stop moving forward. I could finally just stand still. Even though I had not raced as such at any point during the day, I was tired. I was cold. I felt thirsty. I felt hungry. I could feel cramps coming at various points in the body. 14 and a half hours of covering 226 km over water and land will do that to you.
A volunteer approached me and placed a beautiful medal around my neck and a big beautiful finisher towel around my shoulders as he congratulated me. I was guided into a finish tent where there was food and drinks. However, even though I felt hungry and thirsty, I could not get anything in. Just did not feel like my stomach would take it. I just sat there on a chair and closed my eyes, thinking about the day. Replaying the journey.
The most vivid memories and visions of the day flashed back. The swim visions were nothing but black arms waving and thrashing about in the water with the occasional yellow (sight) buoys and the pink (turn) buoys. The transition with its vast array of bikes mounted in neat lines. The bike course with endless stretches of roads, most of it unshaded. The run with the ocean and its gentle crashing waves. The jetty going into the ocean. The spectators lining the course near the jetty. The festive finish line atmosphere.
A one-armed athlete. He completed too! A fully incapacitated athlete being pulled by another athlete. This pair completed strongly too! Can you imagine completing an Ironman while pulling another person in a raft, on the bike cart, and then pushing that cart ahead of you for 42.2km of the run? Well, I actually saw that being done! Athletes of all shapes, sizes and ages were participating. The day had a 95% completion rate as I came to know the next day.
I was broken from my visions by another athlete who had just finished and was going around the tent congratulating everybody. He was excited! And happy! I finally managed to drink a few sips of Red Bull, but that caused a wave of violent shuddering. I was suddenly very very cold again. I asked a volunteer for a space blanket. That provided some relief.
I got up to move around. Sitting still would have only made matters worse. I walked around a bit around the finish area. There was a massage center but there was no way I could have lied down for a massage. I would never have gotten up. I was barely keeping cramps at bay.
I proceeded to exit the finish area. I was given a nice finisher tee as I exited. I then collected my bike, my transition bags and proceeded to the hotel. The day was finally over!
I did not sleep well that night. I woke up early. But that morning I finally managed to eat something. I drank a lot of coke and electrolyte drinks. I drank hot tea and coffee. For the next 3-4 hours I was either eating or drinking. Hot or cold, sweet or savory, it did not matter. If I saw something even remotely edible, I put it in my mouth.
In the afternoon, I went back to the Ironman Village for the award cermony and the Kona roll-down ceremony. Pete Murray was commentating again which was always entertaining. A couple of persons were inducted into the Ironman Australia Hall Of Fame. 5-time, 10-time and 15-time IM WA finishers were honored. This was the 15th edition of IM WA, so this meant the 15-time finishers had participated in every single edition of this event!
The podium finishers and the Kona-bound age groupers had raced like beasts. And it was their time to rejoice. I basked in their glory wondering if and when I would one day be one of them. It will be hard. Very hard! But something worth aiming for.
For now though, I am an Ironman. It is worth something and a time to rejoice!