At the time of writing, its almost the end of January 2017 so I wanted to get my race plan down for the final chapter of my journey, IRONMAN UK in July.
Remember always where my journey started.
Unable to swim a single length front crawl, not ridden a bike for over 15 years, not able to run more than 10 yards without wanting to stop…..
Offer me a guaranteed finish and a time of 15 hours right now and I would snatch your hand off!
Like all first timers I have one eye firmly on the cut-offs.
For those that are unaware, IRONMAN have strict cut-off times at various points throughout the race.
Unlike many other races organisers, who adopt a ‘we don’t want to upset anybody’ type approach, ask IRONMAN what happens if you don’t make the cut-off’s and you get one answer:
You are out of the Race!
Simple as that!
I adore IRONMAN’s attitude in this regard and I adore the cut-off’s – it’s what makes the event so magical (This statement better not come back to bite me on the arse!)
So with that in mind, lets look at my race plan from a cut-off perspective:
Race starts at 6am
According to IRONMAN it takes 15 minutes for all the athletes to enter the water
Worse case scenario I get into pennington flash @ 6:15am
I am allowing 1:30 for the 2.4 mile swim (my 1.2 mile 70.3 swim was 40 mins & that was in the North Sea – Penny flash is a duck pond by comparison (again this better not come back to bite me on the arse either))
It’s now 7:45 am
I am allowing 15 minutes in T1 (I know, but I don’t care, i’m doing it)
It’s now 8am and the cut off to start the bike is 8:30am
For the 14 mile bike ride from Penny flash round to the start of loop 1 I am allowing 45 minutes
Its now 8:45am
Each 47 mile bike loop I am allowing 3:30 for each one (u do x2 loops)
This means I will be ending my first loop at 12:15 and the cut off is 13:15
The next checkpoint is at David Lloyd and Ironman allows 1 hour to get over there
Guess how long it takes me in training?
Exactly 1 hour (Gotta love Ironman)
This means I will arrive at the David Lloyd checkpoint @ 13:15 and the cut-off is 14:15
I will then end my 2nd 47 mile loop at 15:45 with the cut off being 16:30
15 minutes to get round to T2 so the time is now 16:00
15 minutes in T2 means I will be starting my run after exactly 10 hours and the cut off to start the run is 10:40
I will then have 7 hours to complete the marathon!
So there we have it, my plan is in place, this page will no doubt prove to be a continuous point of reference for many weeks to come!
I must remember this plan the next time I start thinking about spanking all my energy trying to move two places up a Strava leaderboard!
To your amazing journey!
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