Melbourne Ironman

Last weekend I ran the marathon leg of the Melbourne Ironman as part of a team. I am not sure where to start in terms of describing what a mixed and amazing experience this was. Perhaps I’ll just start at the beginning ….

I came to be running the marathon leg of the Melbourne Ironman as part of a team primarily as a favour to my older brother, Al, who, in terms of those of us who are forever, long term, endurance runners/athletes (i.e., 30+yrs of running), is a “born again”/evangelical fitness type – i.e., someone who has come to it in mid/later life and for whom it has transformed his life. He was looking for a marathon runner on behalf of one of his triathlon/biker mates who wanted to enter a team. Long story cut short …… after some email liaison with his mate (Jeremy), we established that our ethos or approach to the race was similar – i.e., let’s give it a hard shot but with no performance pressure. And so Jeremy (the biker) and his 19yr old daughter, Jade, (the swimmer), and I entered as a team – i.e., Taylormade1.

Jeremy, Jade and I emailed and Facebooked a bit in the months leading up to the Ironman event but we had never actually met in person. Then, last Friday, 1.5 days before the event, I went to Melbourne and we met up for the first time. From our initial introduction I felt like we “clicked” – i.e., that we really were at one in terms of what we wanted to get out of the Ironman team event. This was confirmed for me as we chatted our way through the registration process on Friday and then when we drove to Frankston the next day (Sat) to check in Jeremy’s bike at the T1/2 transition area, and saw where Jade would swim and where I would start running from when/where Jeremy tagged me.

On Sunday am, while Jade and Jeremy got up at 4.30am to start our team enterprise, with Jade’s swim leg at 7.30am and Jeremy’s bike leg starting 1.08hrs later, I slept until I woke naturally without an alarm (for the first time in 3+ weeks!). Then, after a relaxed breakfast, a short walk to the shop for lunch supplies, and a train trip to Frankston (1hr), I stripped down to my running gear and waited for news of Jeremy’s impending arrival and my run start. We had signed up for the Ironman e-notification of when our team members went through certain points and so I had a bit of an idea from that, and Jeremy and my pre race day estimation, of how long it would be until Jeremy hit the T2/3 transition area and I started running. The only hitch was that the last notification I got prior to Jeremy arriving at T2/3 to tag me was when he went though 90km (i.e., halfway on the bike) and so I had no real idea as to whether or not he was still on track or if something had gone wrong or if the e-notification system had failed. So .... my wait for him at transition was somewhat concerned, nervous and uncertain. And yet I waited, telling myself I was ready to go whenever he arrived. As it turned out, he arrived about when he and I had anticipated. He racked his bike and ran shakily to me at the transition gate where I took the timing band of his ankle and put it on mine and ran off ... starting my marathon at ~2.45pm.

The marathon course was lovely. It mostly transversed the old Melbourne marathon course from Frankston to St Kilda with a few diversions along the beachside dirt tracks, rather than on the road, and incorporating at least four short, sharp rises, which I noticed most of the solo entrants walked up. I ran it all at a pace that I thought was reasonable as a last pre Canberra marathon training run (the Canberra marathon being my next goal event on 15 April), particularly given that my start time @ 2.45pm in the afternoon was totally out of the ordinary for me, not being a seasoned afternoon/evening runner.

42kms of storytelling cut short .... at the 42km mark Jeremy and Jade (in matching Taylormade1 outfits!) jumped out of the crowd and ran the last 200m with me across the finish line. We/Taylormade1 had done it! I had run the marathon in 3.30 and our team had completed the Ironman in 10.48 – i.e., a good performance both as individuals and as a team. WOW! and WHEW! WHAT AN EVENT!

My honest and lasting impressions of this whole experience:

a. I remain mostly interested in my own running and as a pre Canberra marathon event this was a good, solid last hitout;
b. Over the last few years my motivation and zest for competing – i.e., not for running per se but for competing – has waned. This team event, as well as the planned Wild Endurance 100km team event I’m participating in May 2012, has made me realise that running for others as well as myself is a re-motivating factor; and
c. Jeremy and Jade are lovely people, and I am lucky to have been randomly selected to participate in their Melb Ironman team. They are also accomplished athletes in their chosen disciplines – i.e., Jeremy – bike, and Jade – swimming. I have no doubt that competing as a team has made us long-term friends. I also have no doubt that each/both of them could do an Ironman solo if they really wanted to do so.

Finally, and perhaps most pertinently, my biggest observation from this whole experience is that runners – i.e., those of us who “just run” or who “purely run” – are indeed a different breed from triathetes or Ironmen or those who mix running with other sporting disciplines. I have great admiration for those who run and who also swim and bike ride, but the latter are not by definition runners per se or not “pure runners” compared to those of us who just run. Triathletes/Ironmen have a different approach to running and running sits in a different place in their (sporting) lives compared to those of us who are single focussed about it. That is not to say that one is superior or inferior to the other. It is simply to say that within sports or disciplines that may look alike or have some similarities, there are fundamental and important differences, and runners and triathletes/Ironmen are so not the same.

In conclusion, I totally enjoyed my team participation in the Melb Ironman, in getting to know Jeremy and Jade, and in being 1/3rd of a successful Ironman team, but I’m essentially a runner through and through. I have no desire to swim or bike. All I want to ever do is run.