Ironman South Africa 2008 by Robin Frankland
April 26th, 2008 by Robin Frankland
The first lap of the run seems almost lonely by comparison
It’s been a little more than a week since IMSA and while everyone has been congratulating me, I have still not been able to come to terms with my result which I find incredibly disappointing.
My day started a little apprehensively as I awoke to grey skies and rain. I had memories of the 2006 race where a storm overnight made the swim really tough and I thought we may be in for a hard day. Fortunately my fears were unfounded and the sea was perfectly calm, setting everyone up for a great start to their day.
Then disaster struck! During the warm up my Polar HR monitor stopped working. Having never raced without it as a guide, I wasn’t sure about how to pace my effort so as to ensure I kept enough gas in the tank for the last half of the race. Of course there was nothing I could do now and just hoped that it would sort itself out by the time I got onto the bike.
I started right behind the pros and amazingly it seemed much less frantic than previously. This may be due to the fact that I can confidently swim under 60min these days and therefore clear the crowds at the start.
Exiting at the end of the first lap I was about 2min behind the main group and was looking at a very fast swim if I kept things going at this pace. Somewhere between standing up in the shallows and diving back into the sea, I encountered a dizzy spell which resulted in me tacking out to sea on the second lap and losing touch of the group I was swimming with. The dizziness subsided at about 2.5km and I found a small group to draft off but I had lost a few minutes and had to swim hard the rest of the way to make up time.
Entering T1 and still feeling good at this point
Into T1 I looked up and saw 56min which was good enough. A quick check of the HR monitor showed that the screen was still blank but I figured I would try sort it out on the first 2-3km of the bike.
The skies were still grey which got me thinking it was going to be a fast bike ride and I felt really good as I climbed up through Walmer for the first time. By now I had given up on the HR monitor and accepted that I would have to ride on feel. I have become accustomed to passing lots of people out of T1 and wasn’t concerned that perhaps I might be going too hard at this stage. The weather on the other side of the course was not as good, with patches of rain and the wind starting to blow. Nonetheless I was on schedule for my best split prediction of 1h35/lap at the end of 60km (my only time check coming as I passed the start finish clock).
At 70km I cruised up behind Lucie Zelenkova, who had been my training partner over the last few weeks, and I shouted words of encouragement as she was literally miles ahead of all the other women. Then suddenly the dizziness returned. I had been following my hydration/nutrition program as best possible (I normally use time intervals to determine things) but hadn’t skipped anything, quite the contrary, I had probably eaten and drunk too much. I battled to the turn around and used the tail wind to maintain a high pace while relaxing my effort and attempting to eat some Powerbar to settle my stomach. By 90km I was feeling ok again and set about minimising the damage.
I have this love-hate relationship with the bike course in PE. While I tend to put in good performances there, I always struggle with the section from 100 - 120km. Funny enough the same section doesn’t bother me on either the first or last lap and I suspect it’s largely mental but I never enjoy that section.
Onto lap 3 and I could feel things weren’t perfect. The dizziness had returned, the wind was in my face and I was battling up the climb through Walmer. I had lost 4min on the previous lap and wasn’t going to get them back now, in fact I was facing up to losing even more time unless something changed quickly. By 150km nothing had changed and I figured I would just cruise home and try run hard.
T2 was amazing, the crowds cheered me on loudly and I was so glad to be off the bike. I fluffed my change a little by forgetting to put Vaseline on my toes but had the presence of mind to stop and take my shoes and socks off again to remedy that.
Running out of T2 and away from the finish area was different from previous years. There were very few people on the side of the road and it was almost quiet as I passed a few athletes running in the opposite direction. This all changed as I came back past the finish area and the crowds went crazy, not for me of course but for Raynard and Francois Chabaud who were heading the opposite way.
It was about now that I realised how much I relied on my HR monitor. You see, while I was close enough on the bike using feel as my gauge, I had no idea of what to do on the run. As we all know, at this point your legs are pretty much fried. You are unlikely to have ever trained with this much fatigue and I needed my stop watch to keep me running 4.45/km. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t capable of maintaining the pace and just got progressively slower as the pain set in.
Soon any hope of running 3h25 was gone and I had no clue of what to do next. I just ran as hard as my body would let me as my mind was blank. I vowed that I would run the last 4km hard and did just that but by now I was a spent force and it was too little too late. I did however make up two positions, one of which was in my age group, but that was of no consequence as I had failed in my quest to break 9h30.
Disappointed? Yes!
In retrospect I have to be grateful. If that was a bad day, then I got off lightly. There were many others who had bad days and finished way off what they are capable of. I certainly learned something new and that is to always have a plan B. Spare HR monitor, different training methods, time checks from people on the side of the road, whatever it may be, there is way too much invested to assume that everything will be perfect on the day.
Congratulations to everyone who posted PB’s and finished. Some may say that it was a favourable day for good times but there is no such thing as an easy Ironman and you still need to complete the 226km’s for it to count.
To my family, friends and sponsors, thanks for all your support. We have traveled a long road together and I hope that you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Who knows what the future holds but I do know you will all be part of it.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:59 am
sorry to hear it did not go your way - you must have really felt like you were going into such a huge thing blindly and even if you were pacing yourself I think it is your mental state of mind that just feels unprepared so one is afraid of going too hard or too slow! It is amazing how we have become dependant on technology… anyway better luck for the next one and thanks for sharing your experience…. it always helps us to try and be prepared for the unprepared!
April 28th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hi Robin
Well Done. It cant always go your way, it still a great result.
Not as disapointing as my race
Interesting that both you and Raoul comment on how important your heart rate monitors are (and Raoul’s footpod) to have a good race. Your timing seems better than Raoul’s though, he was on a 4 hour bike it seems (3×1:20=4hrs)
Out of interest, both heart rate monitors and footpods or any pacing device other than a stop watch are not allowed in championship running events so world records are set without them.
The first sub 8 ironman (I speak under correction) was done with no timing device or bike computer, just feel.
A few studies have shown percieved effort to be a better indicator of effort than Heart rate.
I personally would love to race with power and would hate to run wthout a stop watch, but the km markers do seem a bit haphazard in PE, so maybe i should concentrate on running on feel. Actually i should just concentrate on running the whole way.. hah hah
April 29th, 2008 at 5:25 am
I think 100-120km bike crisis is typical - it happens to me every time and also my coach warned me about it. I do not know why, I can ask my coach if you want and see if he knows the reason or if it is just an observation.
I know how you train Robin with your work and family obligations so it is amazing that you have these results. It would be great to see what you would do if you dedicated yourself 100% to Ironman (can anyone ever really do this?).
So I think your result is amazing. You have confirmed your result from earlier this year (was it 9:17 in Ironman Western Australia) because Ironman South Africa is one of the hardest courses in the Ironman series. It is not hard like Lanzarote or Ironman UK which is quite obvious that it is hell and you hold back from the first second, but it is hard in a sense that it always gives you some hope, sort of cheats you that you can maybe go a bit faster, but in fact it is not possible.
Ironman South Africa does not have huge hills that you know in advance will make you slow. It does not have super heat or mountains on the run. So people tend to expect more while in fact, I think, Ironman South Africa is a super hard course. Partially it is hard because of the conditions and partially it is a huge test for the mental attitude.
I know so many people who are totally confused by this race - including me. In Challenge Roth you know you can go fast and you do, in Lanzarote you know you have to survive so you do that. I have no idea what to do in Ironman South Africa - the race is in that most horrible limbo - inbetween going hard and survival.
If you are a PRO than you always go hard, but at around 9:00-9:30 it is most hard to figure things out. You are not taking it easy but you can not give it all you’ve got either.
I think you have done very well in this race - I mean you finished it within your ability.
Every time you accelerate yourself you need to learn how to pace yourself over again. And Ironman South Africa is the toughest place to experiment with pacing. I think you have done very well. You managed to run all the way though and still finish in a very good time.
It is an experience from which you learn a lot.
I do not know what you expected but I would be happy to just finish Ironman South Africa - I know I can do around 9:20-9:30 on a normal easy course but I know the risk I would take if I would chase in PE so anything that includes me finishing the race would be good.
I think you have done great!
April 30th, 2008 at 3:48 am
not bad - most people consider their race a smoker if they can do what you can do.
Lawrence - apologies mate. 1:40 a bike lap was my first lap. 1:20 is the last 30km of IM France.
Heart rate monitors are important but feel is key too. I didnt have 1 heart rate monitor reading in my race either, but I stuck to the plan of around 1:45 a lap on the bike, and 1:05 on the run. The footpod was a great help to calm me the hell down on lap 1 of the run, I was smoking it waaaaaay too hard out of T2.
Interesting about world records as well and no use of timing aids like HRM`s and Footpods, etc… how does that work for World Cycling champs with powermeters? I have seen them on the track guys bikes and they use them for cycling in Tours, but I know alot of guys tape the wattage LCD closed and just keep distance and speed on there.
I find my HRM and Footpod give me consistency, and teach me what my limits are in training, by tempting blow-up, so that I know how hard to push on raceday. I would never race a 1/2 IM or a Olympic distance with a HRM - i tried it once and it scared the crap out of me, I averaged 186 for 2 hours at sealevel that time.
You will have better, and worse races, I guarantee that. Elite age groupers are always pushing the limits and at times, we go KABLEEEEEWWWIE!!! but other times, we are unstoppable.
See you out there man.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:38 am
I hear u!
Pacing devices are not allowed in running races.
Bike and TRI dont seem to have same restrictions, not sure about ITU distance run or lets say in the Olympics!
L8r
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Thanks for the kind words, like I said, if this was a bad day then I have to be grateful.
I found this article by Paddy Cloete on the Ironman South Africa website useful in absorbing everything and if you haven’t read it yet, it’s worth the 5min.
With regard the technology, I would have been fine with a stop watch and nothing else but to go cold turkey on such a big day more than just shook me, it frustrated me and made me extremely angry which hardly helped the situation. As such I have discarded the offending HR monitor and bought a new one and will certainly ensure that from now on my T2 bag has a cheap stop watch as a spare in it (now don’t get any ideas about stealing my T2 bag, its going to be a R9.95 cheapie alright!
).
On the bright side of things, I have discovered the joys of Suunto and can recommend their products to everyone out there.