Welcome to the Ipswich triathlon club handout.

The Bridge Triathlon is a new event which I only entered on a whim, as my family live nearby and couldn't really understand what all this triathlon stuff was about, so I thought I'd demonstrate. Unusually for me, I didn't have an injury/disease/unsightly rash going into this event, so I had no excuses as Tom (the Human Potato) and I rolled up to the venue at 5:30. The race is held around a lake on the Bridge industrial development, right next to the QE2 bridge. Access was very easy and the trip down from Woodbridge took about an hour.

The small but scenic lake meant that fitting in the 1500m swim course required a lot of buoys, and the somewhat off-the-cuff race brief left a bit to be desired. Nevertheless, nobody went astray as the lead swimmers were kept on track by canoeists. Our 7:15 wave start was a bit delayed, but the sun was blazing and spirits high as the start horn went. The swim was a revelation for me as I finally managed to crack drafting, even though it was more down to luck that I got on the toes of somebody doing the right speed. This meant that I was out of the water not long behind Tom - suspiciously quickly too, so I think the course was a bit short.

Transition was nicely laid out and we headed out onto the bike, which was unusual in being on a closed (and very flat) dual carriageway. It's an excellent spectator course - 6 laps means lots of opportunities for vocal support. The organisers had added a shorter 7th lap which led to some confusion, but as long as you kept count you were fine. For a straight road, it was actually quite technical - a sharp u-turn at each end, straight over a couple of roundabouts at speed, and a side road with a 180 roundabout in the middle. It's a race worth doing just to practise your bike handling skills without cars around, and with the motivation of having competition to make you really chuck it into the bends. Smooth roads and (by my GPS) a short distance meant I was off the bike in good time and out onto the run course.

Earlier waves and the out-and-back loop meant that the run was busy, and it was surprisingly picturesque, for an industrial estate. The blazing sun helped in that respect, probably... The Olympic was a 3-lap run, pancake flat and with no shade. I'm not a fan of wave starts as I never know where I am in the pack - it's too easy to get caught up in trying to stay with someone who's on their first lap while I'm fading fast on my 3rd. It is for me anyway. Still, I came home to the cheers of the modest crowd in 2:06:23, a PB for me.

The organisers have put together a great little event, which was well-supported by London and Kent clubs. There were a few organisational issues, but they've already identified them and said they'll change them for next year - I'm definitely coming back. It's well worth doing, if only because the flat course is great for a PB, and the closed roads make it a little different. And don't forget Bluewater is just down the road for any post-race retail therapy!

Great goodie bags too...

After some 7 months of training and planning my first Ironman - Frankfurt, Germany was finally here.

I had a frenzied last day at work on 30 June (it's quarter end results time) then finally got off and headed to Bungay for the summer series 10k ( a final tune up in 43:58) and then left for Heathrow for a trouble free flight to Frankfurt on Thursday am. I had my bike built then went off to the finish area to register. This was the first time the sheer enormity of the event hit home, the huge finishing stands were being finalised and the square and surrounding streets were dominated by the event/expo. Bike check ride done later Thursday, then went on a tour of the bike course and briefing Friday pm.

The tour of the bike course began well and we tracked out of the city, and found the first hill 'the beast' and salivated at the long, smooth descent on the other side and then blundered around trying to find the next landmark, the cobbled 'Hell' section. Somehow we eventually stumbled across the signs actually marking out the bike course - race day would show that we had found a completely different hill as 'the beast'. LOL. There was just had time to do a portion of the course, following signs this time, before heading back to the briefing in a hot ice hockey arena. 2 pieces of news in the briefing: non wetsuit swim confirmed, and temperatures were due to be 40 deg for Saturday, with thunder overnight and then backing off 3 or 4 degrees for the race Sunday. Bloody hot, in other words. This was all making my target time of 12 hours look pretty challenging, alongside the extra 5km already added to the bike a couple of months back due to a roadworks detour.

I had as a long a lie in on Saturday morning as possible, as a mate had warned that the night before is not the time for a restful night's sleep, and then headed off to rack the bike and check red and blue bags in. I decided to have a small dip in the lake after, just to get a feel for the water - and it struck me then that this was the first OW swim I'd had, non wetsuit. Course was laid out, so I went out a couple of buoys and back and felt better for it.

After exiting the swim the stomach went. I assume pure nerves - it shrivelled to the size of a walnut, and filled up with battery acid. It was bloody uncomfortable; and stayed all afternoon and I could not even eat a really big meal at the last supper. Tension was definitely in the air, smiles forced but it was great to share time with the rest of the gang and support. Streets were full of celebrating Germans after their world cup win, wind had picked up and it threatened to be stormy for a while. Got back, laid out gear for the morning and set alarm for 3:15am.

That was one of the longest nights of my life, even though I got up in the middle of it. Didn't sleep, full of nerves and fears (many irrational, some perfectly reasonable given what was going to happen). However, as soon as the alarm went I felt better - as if I was in the moment, not waiting for it. Bus at 4:30, and before I knew it was set up and ready.

One of the things I will always remember is that walk down the beach to the water. The tension, the atmosphere, the looks on people's faces as we filed down past curious onlookers staring through the fence was unreal. I had a small wobbly lip moment then filled with resolve, got in and got myself ready.

Before long the minute countdown was announced and we were off, the longest day had begun. I swam amongst the throng of bodies and fought for territory and space and was pleased that I looked after myself and kicked off someone who grabbed my ankle and fought off a couple of attempts to swim over me.

Soon things eased a bit, and sighting was great as they'd stuck a huge inflatable Powerbar bottle on the slope behind the lake which you could aim for rather than the line of yellow buoys. I think this helped the field in that aiming for that meant we slowly converged on the first turn, and so while it was a bit of a kicking, it could have been worse. First turn was a bit hairy though, a breast stroker planted his heel into my thigh and amazingly as we approached the turn I saw one guy was doing backstroke, his arms windmilling away. I don't know whether he swam all of it like this, or just used it to clear a path around the turn like someone macheteing through a dense forest but a remarkable sight.

On the way back, after the second turn, water cleared and I settled into a reasonable rhythm and knew I'd be OK. Reached the end of the longer first loop at 49 mins - quite pleased and I thought that 1:30 was on. This was longer than the 1:20 I'd planned for a wetsuit swim, but I'd have happily snapped an arm off for that before the start. Second loop was uneventful - I got a bit tired, drafted for a while, caught one thump in the eye but felt as if I'd swum pretty well overall. I finished at 1:32 ish and began to climb the sandy incline to T1, feeling relieved. Biggest fear and hurdle was over and I was still trucking.

T1 was composed at 6:45 - I had to get sand off my feet, and applied sun block even though it was currently cloudy and was away. Game plan for the bike was a conservative first lap at 130bpm, so I really held back on the fast glide into Frankfurt to get the heart rate down and settle into the ride and get my stomach sorted to start the nutrition plan. Nutrition plan was 5 energy bars (2 Mule and 3 Buzz), one per hour starting at 30 mins, with about 500ml of sports drink to make up the 75g carbs per hour. I'd also take water and salt tabs and then for the final 90 mins or so, off the solids and onto gels so that stomach was empty for the run. I missed my partner who was waiting on the bridge and then headed out of town.

First major incident was in the cobbled Hell section, where I copped a nasty chain off that took a while to free up. That cost about 4 minutes. I was glad I had taken advice and worn mitts as yanking a chain is a lot easier and less painful with mitts on. The roads were pretty good and I was enjoying the ride and sticking to both race and nutrition plans. Soon, though I knew I needed a good hearty No.2 and stopped at a toilet at the next aid station. Sadly I wasn't the only one; watching minutes tick and dozens of riders pass that I'd worked to overtake glide by while queuing for the toilet is hugely frustrating. Total delay was 7 minutes, but I felt much better for it. Last major hill on the bike course is a truly amazing experience - hundreds line the road leaving only space for single file to pass; the commentator whipped the crowd up and I got a rolling Mexican wave following me through the crowd. Unbelievable, and wobbly lip moment No. 2 of the day. After this the final 4 or 5 miles into Frankfurt barely involve pedalling as mostly downhill.

Going into town, you have your own lane marked with cones, while car traffic has to queue. Brilliant. Going though the tunnel was awesome: speed and darkness and utter quiet. Around this time two motorcyles passed, which was not unusual, then a bloke glided past at supersonic speed. 'That guy should work on his swimming' I thought, until I saw I'd just been lapped by race leader Raelert. LOL He had a big lead at the time, as no one else lapped me and I was still some way to go on lap 1. Turning left onto the road parallel to the Main river I saw my partner for the first time which was a huge boost.

A few quick calculations showed that I was heading for a 6:30 bike split, which on top of the 1:30 swim put me in 3:45-3:50 odd marathon territory for a sub 12:00. This was not good, so I decided to up the pace for lap 2 - that, and hope that I could avoid the 10/11mins of stops taken on lap 1 as I knew I would need 4 hours plus for the marathon. Second lap went by quickly and uneventfully - I passed loads and worked through the field, and felt monstrously strong especially on hills. Nutrition plan seemed to be working although the real moment of truth would be on the run. I finished the bike in around 6:10, so about 6:00 of cycling and felt good. I was exactly where I wanted to be - more than 4 hours to do the marathon, still feeling strong and focussed. Sub 12 was on, my feeling was it was there if I wanted it enough and it would be about mental strength. T1 was again slow, but I wanted to change socks and apply more sun screen as it has suddenly got extremely hot and sunny and was away in 3:05 - according to my overall watch time I had 4hrs 7mins to do the marathon. Fantastic the way one helper takes your bike, and another gets your run bag.

I frolicked off on the run like I was fresh as a daisy and banged out 2 miles in 16 minutes. I was beginning to overheat and realised this was a suicidal and unnecessary pace and throttled back to 8:30mm. Plan for the run was to stay at 8:30 as long as possible and build a buffer - if that buffer became enough that I could get home at 10:00 mm pace then I felt sure that no matter how ugly it got I could still shuffle at 10:00 mm and thus would be home and hosed. The alternative was to go out at 9:00 mm and hope to maintain a much closer to even pace. Nutrition was gels at 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 - the last 3 caffeinated. I'd have sports drink and water, switching to flat coke around 16-18 miles.

It was definitely much hotter now, but I was avoiding the worst of overheating by throwing water and sponges over myself at every station. However, this soaked my trainers and I knew the wet was causing a nasty blister. At halfway in 1:53 odd so I had 2:15 to do the remaining half marathon. Easy peasy. WRONG!!

The sights of the IM marathon are amazing - pain and suffering everywhere. Everyone runs with pain, and you can see it in every stride and on every face. Things got really ugly for me in that third lap. I dropped to 9:00 mm, 9:20's and then 9:40's and began for the first time to walk through aid stations. My partner saw me twice a lap and that was amazing. She told me that two mates were a lap ahead and that was great, was so pleased they were having such fantastic races - they came in at 10:40 and 10:47, both first time Ironmen too.

The blister on my foot exploded and I could feel warm fluid in my trainer. Running became shuffling and it hurt. Third lap finished and I had about 1:15 to complete the final lap (I think, things got hazy). It was so difficult to run and walking would be such sweet nectar for my sore, tired body and mind but no way, no way in a million was I going to run/walk to a 12:30 when I was this close. I'd trained too hard, wanted it too much so I shuffled on. The miles slowly went past and knew I was home as long as I kept going. The 21st mile was my first 10:00 mile, but I kept the rest under 10:00. At 24 miles just shut everything out and carried on, not even stopping at feed stations and clocked the two quickest miles since early lap 3 at 9:26 and 9:35.Bringing it home in style. Turned onto the red carpet, saw the stands and cheering crowds going mental, a moment that will never leave me, and crossed the line to become an Ironman after 11 hours and 53 minutes. Marathon was fractionally over 4:00 hours.

Saw my partner hanging over the barrier and had a long hug and we both cried a while; the emotions come boiling up and you just can't stop yourself. I staggered off into the athletes village.

I was pretty out of it and didn't make the celebrations and end of the race at 10pm - it was room service, patch up my foot - the exploded blister area looks like raw meat; and got up at 1:30pm next day, long after Hawaii slots had been allocated.

Ironman Germany is a brilliant race, the organisation was flawless and every competitor is made to feel like a VIP. The crowds and hype are incredible, the Germans love Ironman and every road is 100% traffic free for the duration. You really could not ask for more from race organisers.

Now it's time for some rest and the quest to find the answer to the question 'what next?'.

Okay, so I've been asked if I was going to do another 3000-word race report. The answer's yes, but here's the one-sentence summary if you can't be bothered to read it:

A brilliant race - great organisation, fabulous country, the best crowds anywhere, and you get to legitimately expose yourself multiple times.

In slightly more detail....

I rolled into Nuremberg to meet the rest of the 8-strong Ipswich contingent on Thursday. Having read Ross' report from last year (and suffered at IMUK 09 from not allowing enough time), I gave myself a good few days to settle in, prepare the bike and do some top-level eating. The temperature was in the mid-30s, and I was hoping the forecasts of rain on Saturday followed by a cooler Sunday were true. After putting the bike together, I took it for a quick spin in downtown Nuremberg, and slipped into UK riding mode, taking an expeditious course around some red lights. This resulted in being pulled over by a Polizei Wagen, blue lights and sirens and all, and being lectured by 2 tooled-up coppers. I narrowly escaped an on-the-spot fine, and they demanded to know what I was doing in Nuremberg. After a bit more of a grilling, they said 'good luck' and sent me on my way (shades of The Great Escape there.....).

Friday was swim practise day, and despite getting lost on the way to the swim start, we managed a quick dip in the bathwater-warm canal. Unlike UK canals, which are a sanctuary for shopping trolleys and manky fish, the Germans still move a lot of their goods around this way, and to have it closed for the race and for practise was a bit of a privilege.

Registration and drooling over shiny carbon things in the expo followed, and then back for lunch and more bike fettling. We went to the pasta party that evening - a good spread, if a little spoiled by being in the hottest tent in the world. Feeling slightly sick from too much linguine and chocolate milk, it was time for an early night.

Saturday was bike racking and last-minute panicking day, and it was a little nerve-wracking hearing the pros being interviewed on the PA as we set up. It was for me, anyway. The scale of the organisation was evident as I looked at the many rows of bikes and bustling crowds; it was almost comically well-organised.

Race day dawned - well, nighted, as it was dark when we got up and left after a cobbled-together breakfast. The wave starts meant we were scattered between 6:15 and 7:35, and the old nerves started as I heard the first waves go. It was great getting the opportunity to see the first pros come storming into T1 though. With about 45 mins to go, I changed and amused myself by seeing if any of the starts would go even one second late. They didn't.

Before I knew it, I was in the corral and in the water. I ambled somewhere halfway up the pack and got clear water pretty much straight off the start, but my drafting mojo wasn't with me. it's not the most interesting swim - up and down the canal, and I got a couple of gobfuls of water, but I was out in 1:07, which wasn't too bad for me.

For the bike, I had decided to go for the full bibshort ensemble, reasoning that time spent in T1 would be more than paid back in comfort on the bike. This entailed a full strip - no demure British changing tents here. My race focus was such that I failed to notice the volunteer girl picking up my kit and bagging it for me as I levered myself into said shorts and spread chamois cream around my business. She didn't seem bothered, but I apologised and headed off.

I had heard about the bike course, and seen it the youtube clips, but nothing can prepare you for how good this ride is. I have a limited boredom threshold when it comes to riding, but I loved every mile of it. Most of this is down to the road quality - billiard table smoothness means no fatiguing vibration/saddle sores. There are 2 climbs of note; the Kalvarienberg is a longish hill but with an exhilarating, twisty descent; and the legendary Solarerberg, which is a very modest hill that has an amazing atmosphere, as the crowds crowd in and cheer you up to the summit. I got caught behind some slower riders, but didn't actually care as the Status Quo blaring out and already-drunk, mulleted Germans put a smile on my face. All around the 2 laps, the local towns were out in force, with trestle tables and beer tents aplenty. I figured out that if you give them a bit of feedback, they cheer even more, so a few sprints out of corners or an acknowledgement of the crowd meant I got a wave of shouts to help me along. I lost a couple of minutes when I was pulled over by a marshal for littering after dropping a bottle (quite right too - I was miles away from the aid station), but I can't fault them - they were all over any drafting going on and I saw 2 people sin-binned for it. Still, not many people went past me, and one of them was Faris al-Sultan, so I felt quite satisfied with my performance.

5 hours and 15 mins of riding later, I came into T2 buzzing and after another full strip change (sorry again, Fraulein...), I fired up the iPod and headed out onto the run. The only plan here was to try and hold 8 min/mile, so I had to reel myself back at the start. That was probably a good move as the day was warming up nicely, but my pace still slowly dropped off with it. I had a small morale dip in the first mile as a rather chunky lady went past me, but I soon realised that the 's' on her calf meant she was part of the relay event, so I settled into a routine of walking the very well-stocked aid stations and running the rest (apart from the tiny hill at the end that I was busted walking up by Mrs's dB and Hance). The route meant that I got to high-five most of the ITC crew at some stage as we went in opposite directions, and still the crowds cheered us on, and in the case of one lady, held up pictures of naked women. Which was nice. The run ended with a circuit of Roth town square, where I gave the crowd a round of applause and got a massive cheer, and then into the arena to finish. I was over the line in 10:06:24, and over the moon generally.

Roth is an experience like no other - it fully encapsulates what a community can achieve when they get behind an event. All the volunteers, from the aid stations to the masseurs, were taken from Roth and surrounding towns, and they seemed to be loving it as much as we were. Even the non-volunteer locals, like the granny who had set up her own home-baked cake aid station outside her house, were doing their bit to make it a good race. I can heartily recommend it, and not just for the nudity. Get an entry in before it gets too popular!