I’m writing this in 2014, so it will be brief and contain only the most memorable monents!<\/p>\n
This was my first Ironman and I had absolutely no idea what I would be in for.<\/p>\n
So how did I get here?<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I had just moved back to Australia in 2005 and had previously completed one Sprint and one Olympic distance tri. \u00a0I soon hooked up with the tri club here and found myself signed up for my first half ironman in Meningie (SA) in 2005. \u00a0I had no clue, and an absolute shocker, coming dead last and just making it inside the cut-off of 7:30. \u00a0BUT this was probably one of the last times you needed to qualify to get int an Ironman. \u00a0Although I came dead last, there were only 3 in my age group, and none of the above wanted to do an IM. \u00a0So the spot on offer rolled down to me and I was in!!! \u00a0Scary huh?<\/p>\n Come race day, I had pulled up with a bit of a chest infection after inhaling some water during a practice swim. \u00a0So all was probably not going to go well. \u00a0But this was the first year the race was in Port mac, the atmosphere was fantastic and I was nervous as hell. \u00a0And determined to finish. \u00a0Can you say stubborn?<\/p>\n SWIM<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The start was quite emotional, with the mass of people, cannon for a start gun, and choppers overhead. \u00a0I tried to keep out of the worst of the washing machine, and tried to keep a slow and steady pace. \u00a0Comfortable.<\/p>\n BIKE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I began to get wheezy within a few km of getting on the bike, and although I kept taking my ventoin, I didin’t improve. \u00a0Needless to say it wasn’t fun. \u00a0I crawled off the bike after 7 and a half hours, having consumed only 1\/2 cup water and 1\/2 cup flat coke, owing to the fact that my breathing difficulties meant I couldn’t keep anything i my stomach.\u00a0I was feeling pretty bad and getting loads of cramps in my legs – I had to get off the bike a couple of times to stretch.<\/p>\n RUN<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The run didn’t help things much, and I managed to get into a rhythm of jogging 50 steps and walkign 50. \u00a0My breathing couldn’t cope with the running effort, but my legs hurt more when I walked. \u00a0Frying pan-fire sort of stuff. \u00a0I kept re-calculating my splits as I was determined to make the cut-off. \u00a0It wasn’t pleasant, but I made it in 16:24. \u00a0The finish line emotion of that first one was amazing – but the next few weeks of recovery weren’t so inspiring.<\/p>\n I wanted to do another one, but it ended up being a few years until I managed to get all my ducks in a row (including training a heck of a lot more!) and made it to Busselton.<\/p>\n 2006 was also the last year you needed to qualify for IM Aus – not you just have to be quick on the keyboard to enter online.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m writing this in 2014, so it will be brief and contain only the most memorable monents! This was my first Ironman and I had absolutely no idea what I would be in for. So how did I get here? I had just moved back to Australia in 2005 and had previously completed one Sprint […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathsoutdooradventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathsoutdooradventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathsoutdooradventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathsoutdooradventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathsoutdooradventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/cathsoutdooradventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296,"href":"https:\/\/cathsoutdooradventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/175\/revisions\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathsoutdooradventures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}