Ironman Australia Part 3/4 - The Ride
This is my most comfortable part of any race. Coming from a cycling background I always feel at ease on the bike. As soon as I had clipped in, I heard people cheering for me, “This is great, only 180km to go, and then I’m onto my run”. Going through the streets of Port Macquarie, the atmosphere was electric, the athletes completing the 70.3 were coming back through so there were people everywhere.
I hit the first hill going out of town and was very prepared, thanks to the ride on the day prior. I kept in a comfortable gear and rode up seated, minimising energy use, if I lose a couple of seconds here and there, is it really going to make a difference over a 14 hour day? As I rode past Matthew Flinders drive, I looked across to watch the people struggling on their way up. I don’t envy them doing that after 80km of riding.
Through the quick right hander and then left down the road I picked up speed, Excited to feel the wind rushing past me. All I could think about was how amazing was it that all of my training was coming to fruition. No doubts in my mind, I have done enough. I decided that it was time to get some nutrition in so I tried my good ol ANZAC biscuits, this was a mistake. I couldn’t chew properly, I felt like I was getting lock jaw, not a nice feeling when you have 170km to go.
I spat the biscuit out, put the rest of it back into my pouch, and took a swig of my bottle full of Geligmite. Well by swig, I mean I squeezed the life out of the little bottle it was in and was able to get about 1 serving out. I know the taste isn’t the greatest, but I am able to stomach it and with no after taste it is the perfect gel to have during a long day.
When I got to the first aid station I decided to get rid of my ANZAC biscuits, and continue on. A few rolling hills later and I really needed to go to the toilet, all I could care about was when was that next aid station, I need to refill my water bottle and I was busting. It would have been at about the 30km mark when I came across it in North Haven. I pulled over and was about to lean my bike against the Portaloo when a lovely volunteer grabbed my bike so I could just focus on what I had to do.A minute later and I was back on the bike with 2 new bottles of water and feeling a lot more comfortable.
After a few more KM and I was riding through Laurieton, which was nice as it felt familiar having spent the last few days there, and with the supporters everywhere including a familiar SST face made it that much more magical. Over the bridge and through Camden was extremely scenic with the river on one side and supporters who were genuinely happy for us to be there. First turnaround done and back into Dunbogan which was a little uneventful but second turnaround down.
Through Laurieton, soaking in the atmosphere again, before it got to a quiet part of the course. I had to makes sure I was focusing on my nutrition. My aim was to get through at least the equivalent of one bottle of gatorade and finishing off the second bottle of water. This way during the aid station I could get one water bottle at the start empty it into my front reservoir for gatorade and then discard the bottle in time to grab a second at the end to store on the seat tube.
Heading through Bonnie Hills I started to feel a slight twinge at the end of my right quad, no biggie but not something your wanting at the 60km mark of a 180km ride. Between kilometres 70-77 was the worst part of the ride, I actually thought it went of for 15km. The road was flat and slow, where I normally would have been happily cruising along at 30-32kph rather than the 26kmh that I was doing. There may have also been a slight head wind and the only people around were the pro's passing me on their beautiful bikes. I was also sitting up sometimes as the different angle relieved my legs a little.
Ahh, glad that part was over. Coming up to the Port Macquarie Golf club and the worst of it was over, the crowds were back cheering us on, there were hills to take my mind off my leg and the monotony of the ride. Through the roundabout and up to the third turn around, now it was time decide how I was going to attack Matthew Flinders Drive, do I ride up seated, standing or walk my bike up?
I got there and had decided to walk it but as there were 2 other guys who were near, ego got the better of me. I got into my lowest gear and when I got to the bottom, stood up to grind my way up the hill that everyone had tried to scare me of. This was a hotspot for support as it would have been amazing to watch people overcoming this obstacle. Every revolution got me closer to the top, after the hump there was the final grind, luckily Elvis was there to keep me going so of course I thanked him with a "Thank you very much" in my best Elvis voice, his response of "You're a Hunk a Hunk of burning love" was in a slightly better impersonation voice.
At the top I was so relieved, a few rolling hills and I was back into town. I got to the end of the first lap mum was shouting out "Go Matty!" so the commentator decided to shout out for "Matty van Pelt" thanks mum, although turning around I was able to see Sapphire ringing her cowbell shouting for me. This was the highlight of my race, normally when I'm racing Sapph is too occupied with her iPad to notice me passing by and being the main reason for me to be doing this in the first place it was very touching to hear her cheering me on.
Heading out of town the hills felt a lot harder this time around, I guess 90km in my legs may have had something to do with this, once I got past the hills I started to get a pain in my right knee, I put this down to trying to change my pedal stroke because the quad was in a lot of pain by now. I was not looking forward to another 80km of this. But I figured all I had to do was make it to the run, I would be able to bare the pain as I would be using my muscles differently. During the boring part at Kilometres 100-108 I spent most of my time upright. Being down on the bars I felt like I had no power in my legs without pain so it just made sense to be upright.
Hmm this was not looking good. Going through Bonnie Hills, I was all over the place, seated, standing, down on the bars, upright, I just couldn't get comfortable. With 60km to go, I was counting down the K’s, and looking for the next aid station so I could go to the toilet again. I was a little concerned and know to never trust a fart during anything endurance.
I made it to the aid station in North Haven. I leaned my bike against the Portaloo but someone was in it this time. Luckily there were public toilets 20m away. When hobbling over to them one of the volunteers asked if I'd want them to bring my bike to me, but this time round I felt any extra rest was necessary. I got to the toilet, sat down, Oh No!
I was suddenly in agony, I barely noticed my leg anymore. My back had started to spasm. Would this be the cause of my demise? I'd forgotten all about needing to use the toilet and was just thinking about the pain I was in. Maybe 30 seconds later I remembered why I stopped in the first place, got up and hobbled back to my bike, stopping by the drinks station on the way.
Luckily this part of the course was flat, 58km to go. I tried any positions to minimise the pain. Going through Laurieton was nice in that there were a lot of people cheering, but this time my thought was all about can I survive through this? the flat roads were painful but any form of hill was going to be pure agony. I noticed this when leaving Laurieton to cross the river into Camden.
The scenery didn’t have the same appeal, my back was unbearable, I was spasming in other parts now, not just my lower back but around my ribs as well. Do I call it now? I came all this way, spent all this time and money, would people be disappointed in me? I know lots of people were following my journey.
