The 'Longest Day' Triathlon 2002

By Andy Norris

It was 4 years coming, working up from Sprint, Olympic, Half Ironman^® and finally my first Ironman^® distance race this summer. I was quietly hoping for sub-10 hour and a top 10 finish in fact I came 8th in 9 hours 52 minutes and what a fantastic race.

Conditions were ideal, overcast and cool. I drafted on the swim and came out in 1 hour 9 minutes, and already up in 30th place which was a fantastic swim for me. I had a bad reaction to the algae in the water though and sneezed my way through the first 25 miles of the bike. I then got going and put in a 5 hour 27 minute bike section, maybe a little slower than I could have done, but I felt sleepy and tired at times and found it hard to eat enough.

The run was going well until about 10 miles in when I got really tired and found it hard to keep my eyes open. I started swaying and kept looking to the next patch of grass to lie down on and have a sleep. Fortunately I pushed through and picked up on the last lap of three and sailed home. I knew I had started the run in about 20th place, but once other people joined a lap down I had no idea what position I was in. As I came into the stadium for the final 400 metres, the commentator said that another guy and I were racing for 8th place, so I took him on the track and did a sprint finish.

I felt I could have done more. I should have had more rest in the week leading up to the race and also should have eaten more on the bike. On the run I had two cups of coke at each 1-mile aid station to wake me up, and scoffed down mars bar, malt loaf, jaffa cakes, jelly babies, berti bassetts, chewits and banana giving me a run time of 3 hours 15 minutes. I lost five pounds in weight during the race, mostly down to dehydration. I had a complete two weeks off training afterwards which was great as I have followed up with some other great results this season.