Aim 1 – Finish Aim 2 – New PB (under 13:30 if possible) Aim 3 – Drink more than 1 inch of beer without being sick afterwards.

04:15am the alarm clock starts to do it’s stuff, followed 5 minutes later by the alarm on the mobile phone joining in. Luckily I’m used to early morning starts so it wasn’t too much of a shock.

After downing a tasty liquid breakfast of High 5, we go in search of tea in the hotel’s restaurant, finding it full of triathletes in various states of consciousness, confidence and nervousness.  Shortly afterwards we make the 20 minute walk to the start area, rucsac full of wetsuit, drinks bottles, track pump and all the other trinkets needed for a day out in the Austrian sunshine.

Transition is full as 2200 people put liquid lunches on bikes & pump tyres (some past bursting point if the occasional loud bang is anything to go by). After doing one last walk through the transition, I rejoin Martine and start to don the rubber suit. Spotting Luggy he tells me where the others are and we wander over for a team photo after dropping my change of clothes off for later.

The start area is heaving as Martin & myself go in search of some water to have a quick warm up in. The warm up goes well and I manage to avoid looking like a drowning dog for once, then we wander across to the left hand start area as directed, rapidly discovering why this one has space in it – it’s on the inside line of the course.. eek. As we hatch a plan to wait about 30 seconds after the start cannon, some God botherer has been blessing the masses.

Next thing BANG!! …. We wait and then it’s off at a steady pace. Every time I look up to sight there is clear space just ahead and some how it continues all the way round. The only slight problem is I can’t see the smallish dark blue buoys against the dark background of the tree lined lake and dark blue swim hats, so I  just follow the pack I’m in the middle of. The only trouble is the pack decides to swim towards some bright yellow sausage shaped buoys, these then move as they are being towed by a boat and are advertising for Powerbar. From the shore apparently the whole line of 2200 swimmers could be seen performing an elongated S as we go off route and back on course again (bet that looks good on the helicoptor tv shots).

Soon I reach the first turn buoy (1500m straight out into Lake Worthersee) and turn left. With nothing else to think about I start to count the strokes whilst sighting on a large crane. 682 strokes later (approx 900m) I make the turn for home and sight just to the right of a handily placed hot air balloon that makes the entrance to the canal.

In the canal the support is amazing, with every inch of the banks lined with crowds. A useful current helpfully wafts me gently upstream through somewhat cloudier waters churned by the passage of swimmers. All too soon it’s time to get out. A glance at the clock shows 1:05 … about 5 minutes slower than I’d hoped for but given the detour and my decision to take it steady more than acceptable.

Grabbing my bag of bike kit I spot Martine & wave before hitting the change tent, finding an empty spot and upending the bag. Say hello to Swinders whilst changing in to full bike kit (I’m going to be out there for a while so it’s comfort for me). Then it’s off, each limb striped with sun cream to rub in on the bike.

After the mount line, the bike winds it’s way on some paths through the park before it reaches the road. It was here an Italian decided to try and squeeze between the barriers and me. Clipping the foot of the barrier and then me, there was only ever going to be one winner. As he hit the floor, I expressed my displeasure at his actions and despite my lack of Italian it seems he was able to understand the language of the foundry shop floor.

Out on the road people start to stream past and after a couple of miles I noticed the bike seemed to be hard work. Stopping I discovered my back wheel had been moved across by Mussolini’s antics and was now rubbing the brakes. A couple of minutes of fiddling and opening up the brakes sorted it, then it was off again trying to forget about the incident and to settle down.

By about 20 miles it had become obvious that my legs didn’t want to play today and I’d have to settle for spinning round the course (I now think I peaked about 2 weeks early somehow). The decision to put a 27 sprocket on, turned out to be a good one now as I could sit spinning & reading the slogans on the road up the first climb of note (on the new section of the bike route). The support was stunning with the hill lined all the way up, crowds shouting Hop, Hop, Hop and a full scale disco going on at the top.

Reaching the main climb of the Rupertiberg about 45 miles in, I managed to over take a few people despite the poor legs before gravity joined in to launch me down the long descent back towards the turn point.

Coming into the turn point strangely alone for a moment the commentator was announcing “ladies & gentleman, you are watching some of the fittest & fastest athletes on the planet” …. That’s it I thought, I’m about to be lapped by the leaders but no one came past. Just after I grabbed my bag at the special needs station, took out the bottle of isotonic drink and handed the rest (extra inner tubes & cartridges) off to Martine who was outside the hotel some 200 yards further up the road.

The 2nd lap was more of the same, tired legs, over taking a few who struggled as the wind got up and the sun got hotter. On the section between the 2 climbs, the dreaded thunk of rim on tarmac bought me rapidly to a halt to fix a puncture, not the quickest of operations with deep section rims. Luggy slowed to check I was ok as he went past and shortly after I set off again.

Unable to deter a Germany rider who was blatantly drafting behind me for the last 10 miles, I hit T2,  where Martine informed me Martin was in the change tent as I grabbed my run kit. 6hrs 38 for the bike, way off what I’d managed in training but there wasn’t a lot I could have done about it today. So I took comfort in the fact it was faster than in Lanzarote even if they aren’t comparable.

The run is a figure of 8 course, and the first bit along side the lake left me wondering where the advertised shady run started as by now the temperature had reached 35C in the shade (& 62C in the sun apparently). Having trotted along calculating that each loop would be 10.5km, it was a bit of a rude awakening to be still heading away from the finish at 11 km, still the scenery was good with snow still on the mountains beyond the lake. On the return leg I met Ant Gray suffering with cramp on his 3rd loop and after a few words left him to walk onwards.

Trotting back through the cross over area in transition & on to the 2nd loop I spotted Martine and asked her to get me some pain killers as I’d foolish lost mine somewhere. This loop was more interesting and better still shady as it followed the canal into the centre of town past loads of old buildings. The run also went through an underpass and of course it had to be a Brit using it as a urinal. The support going through the town squares was fantastic but I declined the offer of beer in favour of more suffering.

Gobbling down the pain killers offered by Martine at the start of loop 3, I was just starting to feel pleased to be still trotting at 23km when the back muscles finally quit. Reduced to trotting & walking alternately over 200m sections, all plans of target times went out the window in favour of just finishing.

On the return through the crowds, I managed to lift the pace back to a continous trot aided by my previous intake of vitamin I (Ibuprofen) and as it started to swill round my bloodstream things started to get a bit easier. I managed to keep going all the way to the turn round the Lindwurm statue in the town centre. Medal round my neck and sporting a fetching gold spacHaving just scaled the North face of the Eiger to exit the underpass, I soon met Chris Blount running the other way, this now meant both of us had to try a lot harder, Chris to catch me & me to stay ahead of him. The gap was about 2km at most and thoughts of him pounding after me produced my first proper running that allowed me to actually over take a few doing the Ironman shuffle. Km markers passing more rapidly, I soon hit the finishing chute, where Martine joined me for the run down between the crowds & pom pom girls - all played out on a big screen for those unable to fit into the over crowded stands. e blanket we chatted with Martin who by now was clean, changed & refreshed having finished over an hour before, whilst waiting for Chris. Somehow we missed each other despite the area beyond being only 10m square, so we headed for the change area where I managed a full bottle of free beer without being sick (followed by lots of pizza, chocolate muffins & more beer) and we also found a happy Chris. Overall not quite as I’d envisaged the day going but persistence won through for a new PB by 28 minutes and drinking the bottle of beer meant all targets had been hit for a memorable day out that I’d highly recommend to anyone. Thanks to Martine, Joe, Gillian, Ian & Judith for help & support during a trying year. Ironman Austria 2005 Photo Album