Forestman Triathlon, 27th June 2010 - report by Tony Shoesmith (photos added)

Where do I start in my story of becoming an Ironman?

I guess I have to go back 5 years (yep, it’s a long one so make yourselves comfortable)

I was sitting at my desk at work when I received an email from an old friend; it was a photo of him finishing an event called “Ironman Lanzarote”. I had no idea what this was so I looked up the race details, a 2.5 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride then a 26.2 mile run. I thought he must have lost his marbles.

At that particular time in my life I was working in Welwyn Garden City and the only exercise I did was to cycle to work and back a couple of times a week from Hertford along Cole Green Lane. Around the same time of hearing about my friends exploits in Lanzarote, a girl who sat opposite me at work mentioned that she was taking part in an Olympic Distance Triathlon the following month, she knew that I cycled to work and suggested I give it a go. I gave it some thought over a few beers one evening and liked the idea, slightly inebriated and inspired by my mates exploits in Lanzarote I decided to enter.

A month later I finished the Triathlon (eventually), having been almost last in the swim and almost last on the bike, but I had loved every minute of it and was hooked.

A few days later I was having a meal and a beer at the Farmers Boy pub, I noticed these lycra-clad cyclists whizzing past the window. I walked around to the start line and got chatting to this very tall cyclist (Andy Lancaster), he explained what sort of race it was and said anyone could have a go. A few weeks later I turned up at Brickendon on a Tuesday night wearing lycra and riding a second hand road bike that I had purchased from ebay. I think I came last that night but I really enjoyed it.

Fast forward 5 years to June 2010. I had just turned 40. I had completed a few sporting events during the past 5 years including time trials, sportives, triathlons of varying distances, touring, I had even taken part (unsuccessfully) in a cycle road race.

I had spent the past 6 months training for my first long distance triathlon called’ The Forestman’. It is organised by a company called ‘Race New Forest’. It was known as the UK’s toughest but best Ironman race.

I chose the race for a number of reasons, 1) I only intended to do one Ironman distance race in my life so I wanted it to be in a nice location, 2) I wanted to choose a race with an interesting and challenging course, 3) I had seen reviews of the race and everyone recommended it. Plus from a logistical point of view it was easier to do a UK based race.

I entered the race in October 2009 and began training in December. It wasn’t a very pleasant winter and to begin with I really struggled to train, my plan was to do 2 swims, 2 bike rides and 2 runs per week. That was the maximum I could manage due to work/family commitments.

I was working in London so It meant getting up at 5AM and running in the dark with a head torch before work, cycling was also tricky as there was quite a bit of snow and Ice about, I was reduced to doing one turbo session a week and one Sunday ride on my mountain bike, Hartham swimming pool was closed for 5 weeks during December and January due to boiler problems so I decided to swim in a 50 metre Lido in Hackney twice a week, Saturday was my rest day and my day with the kids.

Before long I got into a routine, the weeks started to pass by and the distances started to increase. Other than a couple of niggles along the way (a dodgy hip and a bout of bronchitis) my training was fairly consistent. By the time the end of May came around I had completed 3 keys sessions, I had swum 4KM front crawl in a lake, I had cycled 115 miles on my Time Trial bike and I had run 20 miles. All I had to do now is put those three distances together on the day, find another 6.2 miles from somewhere on the run, get my nutrition strategy right and hope for a bit of luck with the weather.

In the week leading up to the race I felt surprisingly relaxed, it felt weird not doing any exercise, I knew I had to taper but I felt as though I should be doing something but I resisted and decided to rest. I packed all my gear and drove down to the New Forest on the Friday; I had booked a lodge at the race HQ in Sandy Balls holiday village in Fordingbridge. The race registration and briefing was on Saturday morning and all the competitors had to rack their bikes on Saturday afternoon. My family arrived on the Saturday afternoon, they had come down to support me and enjoy a few days in the New Forest. My mate Simon, the guy that had completed Ironman Lanzarote had also come down to cheer me on; he was going to take part in the race but had torn his hamstring a few weeks beforehand.

On the morning of the race the alarm went off at 3AM, I had been asleep for 4 hours but I felt wide awake as soon as I opened my eyes. I had breakfast, corn flakes and toast, then I grabbed my bag and wandered up to reception, it was pitch black. The race organisers had arranged for competitors to be transported to the swim lake on coaches. Sitting on that coach at 4am was surreal, everyone was deadly quiet, and you could feel the nerves and tension. Luckily a bloke sat next to me who had more rabbit than Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s put together, listening to him soon took my mind off the race.

Once we arrived at the lake everyone was buzzing, people were inflating their tyres, laying out their cycling kit, applying sun cream and queuing for the Portaloos. Then it was wetsuits on and time to gather at the lake for the swim briefing. This is where they normally explain the swim course by pointing out the buoys etc. Although it was forecast to be the hottest day of the year there was a thick layer of mist on the lake and you couldn’t see a thing. The race was supposed to start at 5:30am but they decided to delay it by 15 minutes to see if the mist would clear. This is when I suddenly started to panic, all of the nerves seemed to arrive in one go and I was absolutely bricking it. My mum, dad and mate Simon had come down to watch the start, Janette and the kids had sensibly stayed in bed. At 5:40 the mist still hadn’t cleared so they decided to move the buoys and make the laps smaller in the hope that we could see the buoys, we would then do 4 smaller laps instead of the planned 3 bigger laps. We jumped into the lake, all 150 of us, the water was warm. No sooner had we got in the gun went off, this was it, the moment I had been waiting for, my Ironman Adventure had begun.

The water was clear and very deep, you could see the bottom clearly but when you lifted your head above the water you couldn’t see anything, it was very strange. The entire swim was like the blind leading the blind, nobody could see the buoys so we all zig zagged around the course, canoeists popping up occasionally and pointing you in the direction that you were supposed to be going. I got punched and kicked a few times and was swam over once but I was able to follow someone’s feet for most of the swim and before I knew it we were approaching the exit ramp, it seemed to go so quickly but I felt strong and was enjoying it. As my feet touched the floor and I ran up the ramp I saw my mum, she was cheering and waving and I was smiling. I found out later that in a rush to move the buoys they had made the swim a slightly shorter course at 3.5KM, it was a bit annoying but couldn’t be helped, at the end of the day 300 metres wasn’t going to make any difference to whether or not I would finish the race.

As usual for me I had a very slow transition; I knew the bike leg was going to take a while so I wanted to be comfortable, therefore I wore socks, proper cycling shorts and a cycling top (rather than a tri suit). As I jumped on my bike and started to ride down the road the sun had come up and had burnt away any lingering mist. The swim was over and I was rolling along in the new forest, I felt great and was really enjoying myself.

The bike route was undulating and tremendous, through the tree covered ‘Ornamental Drive’ in ‘Bolderwood’, across the wide open plains of the aptly named ‘Nomansland’, crossing cattle grids and passing wild horses with their foals, donkeys and cattle, it was great cycling. I was averaging at an easy 17mph, I stopped at every feedstation and topped up my energy drink and took on a gel and before I knew it my bike computer clicked past the 100 mile mark, I was on my way to transition. The last 5 miles were on a long straight road towards Godshill and into Sandy Balls Holiday Park, the support there was tremendous, it was a nice feeling riding in to the dismount point, my mum, dad, Janette and the kids were all there waiting for me, it was nice to see them, I blew my daughters a kiss, handed my bike to a marshal and ran into the tent to get changed, knowing that 2 out of 3 disciplines were complete, just a hilly off-road marathon to go, the temperature was 86 degrees.

I rubbed Vaseline into every nook and cranny and all over my nipples, I had heard horror stories of nipples bleeding during marathons due to shirt rubbing, I wasn’t taking any chances. I put on a white cap and my running trainers, popped into the portaloo then ran out of transition. My legs felt ok, I hadn’t hammered the bike so the first mile (which was on road but slightly uphill) wasn’t too bad, then I approached a sign that said “Runners this way” with a big arrow pointing out into the forest, as I turned I was faced with a beautiful but daunting sight of gravel paths going up and down big long hills. I had heard about the brutal run course and I had a clear plan, in order to get to the finish in one piece and inside the cut-off time of 16 hours I would run the flat sections and the gentler hills and walk the really steep hills and through the feed stations. In total there were approx 10 major hills that were too steep to run (for me anyway).

The first section of the run from transition to the ridge was approx 3.5 miles, then you did 3 laps of a 6.5 mile loop, then back to the finish. After each lap you collected a coloured wrist band (a red band on lap1, a white band on lap 2 and a blue band on lap 3). The first lap was tough but exciting as I was seeing it all for the first time but I was very keen to collect that first red band, when it came I was over the moon, it’s funny how you can get so excited about something so simple as a wristband. On lap 2 I could really feel the heat pounding down on me and I yearned for a bit of shade and that second wrist band. I took on water and a gel at every other feed station, there were 3 on the 6.5 mile loop, one at each end and one in the middle. I started to pass the same people coming back the other way, the atmosphere was tremendous with people highfiving each other and shouting encouragement. One of the spectators had a radio and was listening to the England Germany game and relaying the score to the runners. Occasionally a white van would drive along the gravel path kicking up loads of dust, the van contained the medical team, it was going along the path picking people up, I think 4 or 5 competitors were taken away for one reason or another whilst I was out on the run course. Once I had received the second wristband I knew I only had one more lap to go, when I reached the 18 mile point I started to feel jaded, I then saw my mum, she told me she had left me a cold bottle of coke at the last feedstation, you were not allowed any outside assistance but people could leave drinks for you at the designated feedstations. As I collected the blue wrist band on the final lap I felt a bit emotional, I said goodbye to the marshals and spectators, collected my coke and headed up the hill, at the top there was a sign, it said ‘Red and White bands straight on, Blue bands turn left, you are heading home, you are going to be an Ironman’, this was the 23 mile mark, I was finally leaving the run loop. This was the toughest part for me, mile 23 to mile 25 were extremely hilly and my legs were very heavy, I hadn’t taken any caffeine all day and the combination of the caffeine and the sugar in the coke gave me a slight boost, enough to get me to the road and the 25 mile marker, my run was now a very slow shuffle, as I ran down the road I could make out my dad in the distance waving his arms, it seemed to take forever to reach him, I ran past him and into Sandy Balls, there were loads of people clapping and up ahead I could see Janette with the 2 kids, my eldest daughter Ruby was holding a banner saying “Well Done Daddy”, I took her hand and we ran across the finish line together, I had made it, I was an Ironman.

The next few minutes were a bit of a blur, I heard the organiser announcing my name over the loud speaker and someone took a photo, someone else put a finisher’s medal around my neck then Ruby gave me a big cuddle and said “well done dad”, I almost cried but I managed to hold myself together.

I felt amazing, I was smiling and buzzing. The race organisers had put on a free buffet/barbeque so I sat down with my friends and family and we had a meal and a drink and celebrated.

I was elated for the next few days, my legs stiffened up a bit but other than that I felt fine. I had no side effects and no problems on the day of the race and I had enjoyed every minute of it, in fact the photos that my family took show me smiling all day, I had come through it unscathed.

Everyone who knows me knows that I am by no means a natural athlete, I am not strong or fast in any of the 3 disciplines but I had been consistent with my training and my goal was always simply to finish in one piece. I had stuck to my race plan and paced myself. Maybe in hindsight I could have tried to do a slightly faster bike split or a faster run but it wasn’t important. I had the perfect Ironman experience and I was able to enjoy it with my friends and family. I will always look back at it with very fond memories and I can now call myself an Ironman.

I would encourage everyone to try one once, especially The Forestman race, the day was right up there as one of the best days I have ever had and it was by far the best race I have ever done. Everything from the organisation, to the support, marshalling and the course were amazing.

There were 149 starters in the race,

16 did not finish.

I finished in 71^st position in a time of 13 hours and 25 minutes.

My splits were as follows

Swim – 1:09 
Bike - 6:47
Run – 5:29 

Full results can be found here – http://www.racenewforest.co.uk/results_FMAN10.htm

I have to say a big thank you to these people who helped me along the way, Janette and the kids, my Mum and Dad, my mates Simon, Adrian and Christian all for their amazing support. Sue the masseur, Kate the physio who got me through my hip problem, Swim for Tri for helping me with my swim stroke and of course everyone at Race New Forest for making it a truly memorable day.