Ironman Copenhagen

The alarm was set for 5:15am. Race Day.

But this day really started in June 2012 when I was 'swimming' in the tropical waters of Maui and then running the Kona Marathon on the Big Island a few days later. The seed was sown. I wondered if I could actually do a triathlon. Ultra distance cycling was in my blood having competed a range of long rides including three Paris-Brest-Paris 1200km events.

Back to 2013: My gear was all ready from the previous night, so it was a quick change and off to the 7eleven to get a pastry and a coffee. Racing away from home makes you more flexible in your nutrition.

One change of train and a 15 minute walk and we were at the swim start.

This was really happening. The worst of the nerves were now gone. They really went with the swim I did here on Friday. Time to finalise my bike set up. This is pretty easy as you had to hand in your bike bag and your run bag with the bike check in last night. I had a great bike rack location. Last row before the bike exit. Easy to find.

Crown Prince Frederik

Crown Prince Frederik from Denmark was racing today with the professionals and all the age groupers. Triathlons really are a sport for everyone. They are expecting 200,000 spectators on the course. The organisers thought about family and friends with lots of information about the best places to see your athlete on the various legs of the course.

The Pro's left at 7:00 but my start time was not until 8:05. Although this is an Ironman, they decided to keep with the wave start that was planned for "Challenge Copenhagen".

I had an energy drink 20 mins before the swim start - Perform. Eventually it was time to line up. In my familiarisation swim I swam basically the first section to the first bridge and from the last buoy to the finish. This was great as it gave me confidence. I was worried that the water was going to be cold but it was just fine, around 19 degrees C. This was to be a good swim for me. Clearly the work put in at the "Swim for Fitness" and the tri club aquathon sessions was paying off.

It was a one lap swim that passed under three bridges (twice) so it was great for spectators. Elizabeth could spot me and could not believe how well I was going. With my lack of experience I was not really sure how hard to push (this would be a re-occurring theme of the day) so I concentrated on trying to keep my stroke slow and long. There was the usual hustle and bustle of the swim, but I was glad to be in the mix as it meant that I was not dropping off the back. I even managed a bit of drafting. Before I knew it the swim was over and I was really excited when I saw my time. 1:24. Not quick by many standards, but I was so excited as I was worried about getting timed out! Later, my Garmin showed my that I actually swam 4.1 kilometres so I must practice swimming straighter.

The swim done: Bring on the Bike!

T1 went without incident and it was on to the bike and through the main part of Copenhagen before heading up the coast into North Zealand. The first part of the course was flat with a side breeze assisting. Once the course headed inland it cut through forests and small villages and things got a bit harder. There was more of a head wind and it was a bit hillier than I expected. Once we hit the hot spot at Holte it was incredible. On the hill up to the aid station people lined the course 20 deep, cheering, yelling and banging things. I saw Elizabeth there, which was great. She looked like she was having a great time as well.

The course was well marked and there was a well-stocked aid station roughly every 30kms. With hind-site I could have taken less on the bike.

When we turned in to the country on the second lap the weather took a change for the worse. The wind really picked up and we got rain. In some of the forested sections it was really starting to get dark. This was a bit of a problem for me as I wear prescription sunglasses when I ride. In one of the small villages I was sitting about 15 metres behind the guy in front on me when we encountered a farm vehicle coming around a blind corner. He headed off the road and 'almost' kept it upright. I stopped to see that he was ok, which he was, and then it was off again into the rain. Eventually it passed and once we hit the main road again, the speed increased as the headwind moved to a cross wind.

I knew I was starting to suffer on the bike as I had neglected bike training for swim training. It was a call I made because if you don't finish the swim in time you don't get to play in the rest of the game. I could not wait to get to the main road that headed into Holte as I knew that after a few hills it started to flatten out. The intersection never seemed to arrive.

I was making sure that I kept spinning, riding comfortably and keeping my head clear as I still had a marathon to complete but I was surprised that I was still passing people.

Before long I was back in central Copenhagen and it was time to run. This was totally new territory for me. Yes, I had done some brick sessions in training, but nothing like this. Into T2, and they took your bike and racked it, kids scrambled to grab your blue run bag and give it to you and then it was into the change tent. I was planning a complete change here and as I had got pretty wet, this was a great idea. Clean dry socks were great (fantastic last minute suggestion by my wife). Volunteers even picked up you bag when you were finished with it.

I thought the scenery and spectators on the bike course were great, but the run was quite incredible. Basically four 10.5 km (ish) loops along the water front in Copenhagen. The crowds were incredible. There was a Kona spot up for the athlete who had the best cheer squad and many were obviously going for it.

I ran the first 10 km at my marathon pace but got nervous that the infamous wall was going to come crashing down on me (again the lack of experience). I was using a run/walk strategy. 4 mins run, 1 minute walk and I wanted to try to run the whole 42 km fairly consistently. I backed off a little for the next 10km and kept chugging along. Each of the laps finished near the finish line, so it was psychologically difficult to see runners finish and you had to turn left and keep going.  This got tougher on each lap even though I knew that some of these athletes had close to an hours head start on me. You had to collect four arm bands. Red, green, black and eventually the coveted white band indicating that you were on the last lap.

The darkest section for me was between kilometres 22 and 23  as I was starting to cramp in the hamstrings. I decided to up my fluid intake a bit and have some of the salted crackers they had at the aid stations. This did the trick, as long as I made sure I finished eating the cracker when I still had some drink in your hand. The aid stations were great, clearly marked with what was available - water, High 5, Coke, Red Bull,  gels, energy bars, fruit, crackers and sponges.

I'm always amazed at the volunteers at triathlons who give so much of their time, energy and enthusiasm so that I can have a great day following my dreams.

The organisers had partnered with Samsung to allow family and friends to send their athlete a 'boost'. They could send a text message or video and when the athlete passed a sensor near T2 the message would appear on the big screen. This was great. Really like cheering from home.

I must admit that I was waiting for the wall to hit but it never did. Yes, I was tired, but not excessively considering what I was doing.With hind sight, I should have pushed the whole marathon harder. However, a by-product of this, was that I could really enjoy the last 10km passing many people who had resorted to walking or stopping. No one passed me on the last lap. Although the crowd was dwindling on the last lap and the empty cups were starting to outnumber spectators (downside of being in the last age group wave), there were still groups out there cheering you on, trying to get every last athlete home. One guy said "keep going Greg, I'll be here for you on your next lap" - and he was.

The last few kilometres were simply to be enjoyed. The crowd started building again as I approached the last kilometre and I could feel my hamstrings just starting to cramp again. There was no way I was stopping on the way into the finish line. Down the home straight, past Elizabeth, onto the red carpet, high fives for everyone including the finish announcer to hear the words... Greg Lansom from Australia, you are an Ironman!

The medical people took one look at me and ignored me then it was on to get the medal, the gold space blanket and some food and drink that was not High Five). I caught up with Elizabeth. It was such a special feeling.

This was the culmination of my first year of competing in triathlons. 12 months ago I could just swim 25 metres but I was able to focus, plan and executed step by step my journey from club distance, olympic, 70.3 and onto Ironman.

The Ironman distance is not for everyone, but as an athlete who has focused on long endurance activities for some time, it certainly is a pinnacle. Getting out of bed at 4:30 am some days (5:00 was my sleep in days), commuting to Sydney, training whatever the weather, had payed off. I had done the best preparation I could given my circumstances. I had a plan for the race and executed it. I could not have asked for more. My bike went great and I need to thank Ryan from Spearman's Cycles for the work he did we me to get the best fit for me. Even after 180km on the bike I was still comfortable.

I was hoping for somewhere between 13:30 and 12:30 hours. My total time was 12:19:37 I was stoked. The splits, swim 1:24:08, bike 5:56:06 and the run 4:41:59. The main aim at Copenhagen was to experience and finish an Ironman. I did that, and loved it.

Now for Melbourne...

A new bike - time to get more serious for Copenhagen

What sort of bike to take to Copenhagen for my first iron distance triathlon, that is the current question. Do I replace my old trusty Giant OCR with a new sleek racing bike or a time trial bike? After talking to many experienced people and Internet searching I decided to go down the path of getting a time trial bike.

My local bike shop, Spearmans in Wollongong, has looked after me for years so it was straight down to them for advice. They look after many of the people from the Illawarra Triathlon Club so have quite a bit of experience with tri bikes.

I decided on the Giant Trinity with HED wheels for racing and the standard wheels for training. I swapped out the standard chain rings for a compact set and swapped out the standard tri bars for Profile. Also I put a Fisik Arione Tri 2 seat. They only had a red one, but it give the bike the look of a red back spider!

On my first ride with it set up it was a stable as a rock. Great.

Two days after I picked it up I had the NSW Triathlon Club Championships at Forster. I was so impressed with the initial ride I decided to take it and race with it.

Mooloolaba Triathlon

17 March 2013

The Mooloolaba Tri Festival is a great festival on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia. There are events for elites, age groupers and beginners. Over the course of the Festival there are around 9000 participants. The events include 5km runs, kids events, an ocean swim and the triathlon. An added bonus was the ITU World Cup and Oceanic Cup events. It was really great to see the elite men and women race. They make it look so easy, whilst going so fast.

My triathlon was somewhat slower.

I did not run at all in the week leading up to the Sunday. The sore knee I sustained previously was slowly healing, but was not there totally. This, alongside with getting a really sore throat on the Wednesday, was making me feel really nervous about this one.

When we arrived at Mooloolaba, the surf was huge. It was driven by a cyclone off the coast and had caused quite a bit of beach erosion. On the Thursday the organisers made the decision to move to the contingency course which is in the Mooloolaba River. The swim would be around one of the islands. This would mean quite a long run to T1.

This was going to be the first Olympic distance triathlon for Rochelle, my daughter. I'm very experienced, I've done one before :). We registered and collected our wave coloured swimming cap, timing chip and souvenir towel on the Friday to beat the rush and then checked out the Expo.

Saturday was the bike check-in and Rochelle and I attended a Triathlon briefing session lead by one of the local triathletes. This was good, especially for Rochelle as she was stepping up to her first Olympic distance race. In the afternoon, with the rest of the family, we set ourselves up near T2 and watched the ITU World Cup men's event. This was great to watch. Gomez won.


Sunday: Race day

The weather was going to be hot (around 32 deg C), sunny and no significant wind, all leading to a tough run leg.

The Swim:
As the water temperature was 27 deg C this was a wetsuit free swim. After a quick warm up in the river my wave headed off around one hour after the first wave. The buoys were hard to see as they were blue against the water and sky. Also the swim out beside the island was straight into the sun. Oh well, follow the person in front. Largely the swim was without issue, though I could tell when the next wave caught me as people would swim into my feet or across me. This does not worry me a much as it used to. I was reasonably happy with my swim. Not fast, but 35 min (Garmin time) for the 1.5km without wetsuit was fine for me. No panic attacks, no stopping.

I felt ok for the first 200m of the transition run and then with a click I felt my knee go. I hobbled into transition wondering if my day was over already but after a bit of self massage in the transition I decided to get on my bike and see what happened.

The Bike:
This was a pretty straightforward leg. Up the hill, onto the motorway, out 20km and return.

I had a good ride but my knee was sore so I did not go flat out. Even when you think you are going pretty quickly, some guys just blow past you like you're standing still.

Note to self: next time you reassemble your bike after a flight, make sure that the brake blocks are not rubbing on the rims for the whole event.

The Run:

T2 was slow as I tried to squeeze my bike onto the rack and nervously considered what lay in front of me. This was going to be the test. Unless I was in total pain, I was going to finish this even if it meant walking the run leg. The course was a scenic route from Mooloolaba along the coast to Maroochydore and back, twice.

In the Finishing Straight

The new plan, run 4:00 / walk 1:00 (ish). When I came over the Mooloolaba hill I saw many people walking. Clearly a lot of people were doing it tough in the heat, though I was feeling pretty good. Because of the knee, I just got into marathon pace and chugged it out. During the run I saw three people getting carted off by Ambulances (and a couple more at the end). I assume this was because of heat distress. It's unfortunate when this happens but at least the organisation was prepared for this.

I was keeping a close eye out for Rochelle, but there are so many women in black tri suits that I could not see her.

There was plenty of water out on the course so I soaked myself at every water station. This really helped with the heat. I'd learnt this lesson from the Kona Marathon. If you can't keep the heat under control you were really going to suffer. There was also Endura at one of the stations.

As I was coming up the last hill with about 1km to go I was feeling pretty good so I decided to go for it and finish strongly. My personal cheer squad of Elizabeth, Bethany and Kay were there along will many other people all cheering their own people as well as others, recognising the individual effort every person had put into the event.

After the finish it was refreshments it was shoes off and into the ocean for a cool down swim - as much as you can cool down in an ocean of 27deg C.

Wollongong Olympic Distance Triathlon

10 March 2013

Normally the day before a race I don't do any training. As this was only a B race for me I decided to go out and have a nice easy relating 6-8km run. Many people say that this can loosen you up for the race. On this occasion: BAD MISTAKE

My left knee starting getting a bit tight about 5km into the run, so I cut to run/walking. By the time I got home it was quite sore. On the outside of the knee.

I was really unimpressed with this as I was looking forward to Wollongong and have Mooloolaba next week. A decision had to be made. Run tomorrow or not.

In the end the call was, no run. I did the swim and the bike and then pulled out. Shame as I was having fun. I made the call before the race and I'm sure it was the right one. I didn't want to risk trying to run, not finishing this event and injuring myself and not being able to compete at Mooloolaba.

The Wollongong Triathlon "TriTheGong" was another of the Elite Energy triathlons. Again well organised, though by the time the women were heading off in the sprint waves later in the day they were running quite a bit late.

This was the first time I had to set up transition in the dark, and with very little lighting. Next time I'll put a torch in my transition bag. It seems to have everything else.

It was a wetsuit swim and right on 1.5km by my Garmin (for what that's worth in measuring swim lengths). The course was a M shape, heading to the northern breakwall back almost to the beach and back to the southern breakwall. In a flash it was over. Ha, ha. Actually it was my best swim. No issues, felt strong.

On to the bike my leg felt sore but ok. Three laps and really only one hill on the out and one on the way back in each of the loops. I still love it when I overtake people on time trial bikes. I thought it was a bit strange where they had the turnaround at Belmore Basin. The round about 100 metres up the road would have been perfect. I guess it was a road closure issue.

For a few long seconds I was very tempted to run but I reminded myself that I had made the decision. I found an official and gave them my timer so I could not change my mind. The DNF hurt, but not as much as my knee.

Later in the day Rochelle did the sprint and I got some good photos.

Splash 'n Dash

The weather finally broke for the Splash 'n Dash at Wollongong.

Walking around to the Start

First time out in the club colours

It was advertised as 650m swim and 5km run. The seas were still really big, so the organisers played a little safe by keeping the swim well within the harbour. It ended up a pretty good swim.

I was happy with my swim again, no panicking, no issues, though I did feel tired in the arms half way though.

Quick transition and onto the run. Ran Roger down in the first kilometre so I was pretty happy with that  as he is a good swimmer.

Overall time 35mins. This was about the same time I took in the swim alone on the Australia day Aquathon (debacle).

Then it was time to sit back and cheer Elizabeth on in the 5km fun run.

Basin to Beach: 2km Ocean Swim

The seas were absolutely huge this morning. There was no way that we'd be heading out into the ocean for this swim. It was an ocean swim organisers nightmare.

Fortunately Belmore Basin provides a good, reasonably sheltered harbour swim. All the other ocean swim around Sydney were cancelled due to the seas.

Three laps, totalling around 1.7km was the end result. My goal for this race was to be totally under control  Go out easy, swim my own race and have no breathing or panic issues.

It was a deep water start via a jump off the wooden pier near the restaurants. Mmm, decision here, googles on before or after the jump. I went for after, probably the wrong choice. Trying to get them on and the gun went off.

I was really happy with my swim. In the Australia Day Aquathon I was mowed down by the 30-35 male wave behind me. In this swim it was the females. They touched just as much but it was much softer, not straight over you.

The Journey to an Ironman distance Triathlon: Challenge Copenhagen (29 weeks)

Well it's been a long time between updates!

2012 saw the running of a couple of marathons. Kona in June and Sydney in September.

It also saw the beginning of the Triathlon era. The seeds were sown in the days before the Kona marathon, swimming in the warm, clear waters of Maui, and watered once we got onto the Big Island and the whole Kona vibe. Hopefully some day I'll go back and update that part of the blog (Kona done).

201 days until Challenge Copenhagen. 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run.

On a rating of 1 to 5 I currently give myself

• swim - 1
• bike - 3
• run - 3.5

This is based on the typical finishing place within my age/gender category. The swim definitely needs to improved. Currently it varies between slow and ok to 'please don't drown'.

Last Saturday was the annual Wollongong Australia Day Aquathon. I had a terrible swim. A few times now I have had the situation where, about 250 metres into the swim, I get this real panicky feeling. Generally focused around my breathing, but always I just want to get out of the water as fast as I can. On Saturday, this combined with reaching the turning buoy and the wave behind me catching up and literally beating me up. I was in trouble and not doing well. Cycling you can coast for a while, running you can walk. Swimming (with the next wave coming over you) it's harder to stop. But stop I did. I headed over to the nearest surf ski, held on, and got my breathing undercontrol. From a good time perspective this race was done, but I was going to learn from it and I was going to finish it. After getting my breathing under control, and a good chat with the lifeguard, it was off to finish the swim. Apart from some navigational issues, there was no more drama. On the second lap a quick wave to the lifeguard of thanks and I was heading home (the crooked way). In training we always go to the right of the catamaran

Out of the water and into the run and the world was good again.

From here on it was a game of chasing. Line up the next runner, chase them down - repeat. It was a good run course with a few km on dirt through the scrub. According to my Garmin it was all down hill all the way! An interesting proposition considering the run finishes at the same place it starts

For my age/gender category Swim 26/28, Run 7/28, Overall 19/28