Race Report: S Moody’s Roth 2014

By Steven Moody

The build up to Roth

For me, Roth was not about simply completing an ironman – I had done that before in Frankfurt in 2010.

I was going to race it and I was aggressively targeting a sub 10 target. I never hid that fact from anyone who asked.

For me, I find when you put an honest target out there and people raise an eyebrow doubtfully when you tell them – it becomes a massive motivation tool when things are tough training and/or racing as I find myself thinking – “F%%k you I will prove you wrong”

So with the A goal set for the season – I meticulously went about planning/prepping for the race.

• The first step in this journey was sitting down and explaining the goals/training cycles to Yvonne (the luckiest girl in the world) – having been through an Ironman training journey before I wanted her to be aware of the time demands and sacrifices ahead of us both. In fairness to Yvonne – she is very laid back and has numerous interests of her own so it was more a case of co-ordinating schedules. Checkbox ticked!
• The second step was reuniting the dream team of myself and Coach Tadgh C. Things had changed somewhat with Tadgh’s training group expanded considerably from 2012 when we had last worked together. I was no longer an only child and now had to deal with a number of screaming, attention seeking siblings (did I mention Ellen is in the group?) – however after some adjusting (and key pig tail pulling and tactical wedgie-ing) I had established myself as the Alpha male in the group and balance was restored. Checkbox 2 ticked!
• My third step was, after much soul searching and agonising – I decided I had to break up with …… Falcon – my long serving Cervelo Tour soloist …. This was probably the hardest part of the journey as myself and Falcon had been together for close on 5 years and had some great times together. But there were shinier things out there and my wandering eye was caught by a sleek Cervelo P5 with all the trimmings. So after a considerable time scrimping and saving – I had enough coin for the introduction of “Hawk” into my life – thanks Base2race – she is a beaut. Falcon was sold off as part of the process. (Gut wrenching) checkbox 3 ticked
• The fourth step was booking all the necessary asap to get them out of the way – Roth registration, AerLingus, shipmytribike etc. (Credit card melting) checkbox 4 ticked
• Finally, I braced myself for the training onslaught and the incessant whats app flow of information (the latter actually put the greatest strain on my relationship …. Cheers lads!). The plan/game was afoot…

Pre race

Fast forward 9 months ….. it is now July 17th and I am in the airport with a nervous and excited group of Piranhas. My training had been meticulously planned by Tadgh and executed by myself. I was feeling stronger and fitter than ever before in my triathlon career and I was looking forward to just getting going.

Seeing such a large proportion of the original people signed up actually travelling to Roth was a huge boost. They say the two hardest things in an IM journey are firstly getting to the start line and secondly getting to the finish line. 28 piranhas had done the first part (including a bucketload of IM virgins) and all looked determined to finish the second part.

With such a large group there is always an added element of drama. Even so, when one of the group sent an emergency text asking did anyone have a spare front wheel on day 2 in Roth – I thought to myself – this takes the biscuit! Now in her defence – Erin-who-shall-remain-nameless – did not forget the wheel as she has before with runners, googles, flip flops etc – but a crack had appeared in her wheel in her final bike test. I mean what was she expecting – I mean what idiot brings a spare pair of wheels all the way to a race in Germany??? The kind of guy who is meticulously prepared that is…. Steven the hero replied yes – you can take my spare …. An audible sigh was heard all around the Holiday Inn express in Numerburg when the message was read – everyone wanted the group to suceed on the day….

Race day

Race morning duly arrived and the alarm clock went off at the obnoxious hour of 4:00 …. I looked over to my right and there was my room mate Neil O’Brien doing pull ups rambling about getting the guns ready to fire. After beating him in an arm wrestle – I headed for breakfast and met the crew. Liam and Darren had their usual table for two and gazed longingly into each others eyes like a couple sending the other off to war. Leo was holding audience with anyone who still believed he knew Conor McGregor (this was now reduced to the 2 non English speaking chambermaids). Stephen E and John W were talking about topping up their tans and how much they took the sun well. Casso and Pat L were still trying to work out a system whose kids were whose. It was all going on.

A quick breakfast ensued and then it was all into the rental car convoy to get to the canal (we had all racked our bikes the night before). There was little time for messing as I was in wave 2 right after the pros and just before the birds. In my mind this was perfect – minimising the time hanging around and the incentive of chased by all the females 5 mins after – I selected the theme tune from Benny Hill from my mind palace to be my swim song and I was set … no not only set …. I was meticulously prepared.

I hopped into the water aware that Brian O’Sullivan and Derek Leahy were in my wave too …. Noting the two of those lads can get handsy when nervous – I was happy to keep to myself. The cannon went off and the swimming started. It was all nice and pleasant as no-one wanted to scrap at the start of such a long day. My only issue in the swim having to deal with some American’s rotten halitosis as we had inadvertently synchronised breathing cycles. I knew he was American as I recognised his dodgy porn start moustache from transition. I mentally noted that I now hated “Rick” and would beat him today for trying to melt my face/goggles with his death breath. On the plus side – it did give me an incentive to pull away and off I went.

The rest of the swim itself was remarkably uneventful – aside from some futile attempts to grab some of the females who sped past me (for drafting purposes!). The canal was very easy to sight so up I went and down I went. I was a bit disappointed to see my swim exit time as 75 mins as was off target but I put the head down – charged into the changing tent and got my wetsuit off. I paused only briefly at the exit of the tent to assume the pose of Christ the redeemer demanding “Cream me Fraulens” to the lines of young German girls armed with what I hoped was sun cream. There was a lot of tittering and giggling from everyone but it was a fun time that had to end and off I ran to Hawk.

Smooth enough exit and we were off. Even at just before 8 am – you could feel the heat in the air. Despite being slower in the swim than I had hoped (was to discover in hindsight that swim was long – 4.1km – damn you Germs – could you not be cliché on the efficiency thing for once), I consciously did not go mad on the bike early. I had gone through this scenario in my head and the plan was to reevaluate timewise where I was after 40km.

So I stuck to the plan and monitored my nurtrition, hydration, cadence and power – it was all going to the meticulous plan. Heat aside, the road surface was genius and on the flats it was easy to maintain a good steady speed. Now if you had believed the hype – Roth has the fastest bike course in all the world. I would like to correct this statement – it does in its ar$e – it is fairly lumpy and there are some tasty climbs that break up the rhythm (Frankfurt is a much faster course in my opinion).

That said, the support along the route was great and the countryside magnificent. I was actually enjoying this and despite being in one of the early waves, I was passing cyclists which was giving me more and more confidence. More so after my time check at 40km I had pulled myself back into contention for a sub 10 finish. A lot of furious mental calculation had me predicting a 5:30 bike split and thus I needed a 3:15 marathon or 4:30 min/km (most of my brick sessions had been run at 4:15-4:20 min kms – I knew I could hold this pace) to slip under the ten hours. I was still in the game …. Just….

In terms of getting a boost along the way to keep on track – there is little I can do to describe the Solarberg experience …. Which is the hill at 80km along the course … it is literally a 1km long wall of noise/people with only room for one bike at a time with thousands of crazy people literally inches from your face roaring at you to climb. It is probably the one and only time I will understand what a professional Tour De France rider experiences… and in doing so, I cannot understand why they need drugs – this was the biggest natural high I have ever experienced.

Solarberg in itself was worth a winterful of miserable cold N2 spins…. Looked at the garmin – we are still on track. Focus…. Focus…

Ironically that was also my last thought just before the wheels came off (literally and metaphorically) was “It is still on – hold this pace for 60km and you have the 5:30 bike split … focus … focus” …. Then it happened – not so much as a pop …. More a sickening sound of rim touching pavement – I had punctured on the bottom of a hill on the course at 120km ….

Despite every muscle in my body screaming “YOU DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS – PANIC”, I refused to panic and went about trying to change the tube. Off came the front tyre, out came the replacement tube, tyre levers out … keep calm Steven…. Keep calm …. OH MY JESUS where is the valve extender (small piece of metal that attaches to the valve to allow the tyre be pumped when it is a deep rim wheel). Check second tube …. Nope…. Ok take it off the burst tube …. Jammed …. Oh bollox…. This was not meticulously planned …. This was all my own doing … this was something I should have checked

I had flagged down a motorbike marshal and requested a bike support – he said he was on his way – how long I inquired weakly ? He did not know….

I surprised myself – as I would have expected to have a meltdown moment …. But I actually entered a zen like period of calm … it was if I was facing a firing squad and there was nothing I could do…. A really nice Irish couple had spotted me and tried to help but to no avail so we sat and chatted whilst all number of cyclists whizzed by me. I saw my goal disappear during this time… I saw my re-evaluated goal also disappear… I offered the couple some sweat drenched fig rolls – they politely declined…. I wondered if I would finish….

I also saw Paul O’D, Erin Sullivan, Frank O’Connor and Darren Q pass by and all of them inquired whether I was ok. Whilst appreciating their concern – I shouted at each one in turn to keep going as I in no way wanted them to have to interrupt their race to assist in resolving my issue

Eventually after some 50 mins of waiting in the shade – a fancy support truck came along and they were brilliant – the tyre was swiftly changed and I was given a hefty push up the hill to get going – even before I had a chance to say goodbye properly to my new Irish pals who had diligently waited with me for the entire crisis. I will miss them … whatever their names were….

To be honest – I could not get going for the next 60km as my mind battled with the option of DNF-ing as what was the point with no target or even PB to be achieved the way I was limping back to t2 like a slowly deflating balloon. The only thing for sure was that I had to get back – as chucking my bike into the German countryside would be a costly decision and also leave me with a long walk home.

In the end it was just a long cycle and I was still in two minds whether to run when I arrived in t2. Regardless, I picked up my run bag and walked into the tent. It was as I sat on the bench – I had a flashback to Casso’s t-shirt from yesterday which had emblazoned “Death before DNF” and I snapped out of it instantly. “You are right” my mind processed “Casso will kill me if I don’t finish – he said so on this t-shirt – lets just get going and enjoy the run and get us a finisher medal”. It was a day for that sort of logic

So off I ran and consciously decided to do a run/walk strategy between the aid stations which were 2 km apart. Compared to my original plan – I was only jogging at this stage averaging over 5 min/km but I was having fun with it – I shouted support at any of the Piranhas/Fingal lads I spotted and high fived the crowd. This was fun but not in the way I had originally envisioned.

As I bounced along I came along side John Wallnutt who was in obvious distress. We walked and chatted briefly – I advised for him to get checked in the next aid station if his symptoms persisted. He seemed ok to me as I left – mainly as he had enough of his senses to quip back to an elderly English gentlemen who was berating us both for walking – “ah would you stop and give me a shot on that – I need it more than you” – pointing at the man in question’s wheelchair. Thankfully everyone involved saw the funny side and burst into fits of laughter.

Moving on from that moment – I started to meet more Piranha’s including Aileen who was flying along, Erin who I thought was going to burst for joy when she saw me on the run course (she had thought my day was over), Paul O’D who I serenaded with a version of “I love you baby” as I thought his spirits needed lifting … I actually was enjoying the run …..

The run course itself is a little messy as it is a lot of out and backs and twisting/turning and by the time I got there – it was bloody crowded so I had to work my way through the numbers, which at times resembled a scene from the walking dead. At this stage I think pretty much everyone was on the run course and high fives/shout outs were exchanged with my puncture brother Stu R, Pat Linehan, Liam Oz, Finn D and John Staunton. I also shamelessly patted Darren Q and Frank O’Connor on the bum as I caught them on the course.

With all the waves/staggered starts and the way the run course meandered – it was hard to tell who was in the running for the top Piranha …. I did spot Derek L out front at some stage and Bosco and Casso who were more or less holding hands at this stage of their emotional journey. In the end it was Will Owens 9 month liquid diet of pure beetroot juice that gave him the edge to become 1st Piranha home in an impressive Ironman debut of 10:13.

For me I just kept clipping away and milked the crowd as I went along. I did up the pace a little when Paul O’D shouted at me at the 30km mark “You are going to catch a lot of people” – so for the last 12km I limited my stopping at aid stations and opened up the legs a little – it actually felt good. Another highlight was the catching of bad breath nemesis from the swim with 5km to go …. I did not stop to wish him well.

In my foreward in the Road to Roth newsletter, I gave all the newbies the advice to milk the finish chute when they get there and enjoy it….. I can without any hesitation confirm I did this to the max even taking time to assume my planned finish line move of “Alias from Platoon” (unfortunately some of the other finishers did not read the script and ruined the shot). My finish time – 11 hrs and 30 mins – 15 mins slower than Frankfurt.

Ironically enough I also in my foreward wished everyone would get the race they hoped for – however in the end with the heat (the hottest Roth in all of the 30 years on record) and the various dramatic twists and turns very few of us got that but we all finished!

After race thoughts

Ok on reflection how was my 2nd Ironman journey:

• Yvonne was brilliant in putting up with me for the last 9 months – I do owe her a number of date nights/weekends away etc and she deserves her own medal for perseverance – I could not have done this without her support (am secretly hoping she never reads this and even if she does it does not represent a legally binding contract!)
• The entire journey from planning to training to the race day was great fun and that was down to great support along the way – the banter was top notch and I cemented some great new friendships out of it
• I was well prepared for the day mainly thanks to Tadgh – he pushed me when necessary and reigned me in when required too
• However in ironman you need to accept that even the most meticulous plans can go array on the day – key is to keep calm, refocus and keep moving
• I am glad I found the stones to finish… a missed target trumps a DNF any day
• The day itself was enjoyable in a way I did not expect it to be …. Solarberg will definitely be a life highlight
• For me, there was a great sense of satisfaction in seeing all of the Piranhas finish their IM journey – you all should be proud of one another

But overall am I happy ? No as I failed … I did not achieve my goal and a lot of that was down to one small bit of missed preparation on my part (missing valve extender) … and that is the annoying part.

I know that even before the puncture I was tight on the target – but up until then I was still in the hunt.

Would I have been able to hold a 3:15 pace in the run in that heat? Being harsh on it – probably not but I never gave myself the chance to get there to find out.

Now before anyone posts up “you have not failed”, “you did great” etc – I am not looking for that – the fact of the matter is – I set a goal and I missed by miles …. I know I did not do myself justice out there in Germany and it is a bitter pill to swallow after so much hard work.

However, as my Dad once told me “When you get a kick in the teeth – you basically have two choices – you can either lie on the floor and feel sorry for yourself or you can get up and do something about it” …..

As is my way, I choose the latter and I will plan again for next year – and I will not quit until I complete that goal – so for those inclined – feel free to raise eyebrows/think I am mad/over ambitious … as I need all the motivation I can get ;0).

So IM 2015 anyone *?

* Not Roth though as it is the place where dreams go to die

Post script
It is only looking back that one appreciates irony and Ironman go hand in hand ….Why? Two reasons
Firstly, after my forsaking her, I found that Falcon was also racing in Roth with her new owner …. She beat Hawk’s bike split by 9 mins. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned eh!
Secondly, when tidying up the hotel room to leave I found a spare valve extender, given to me by Freddie for Quigs, on the floor – DOH!