Celtman 2016 – Goodbye LD-Race #1
Nervous I was! I had – again – taken a hiatus from
sports after IM Wales last year and only gotten back to some decent bike
training this February. Swimming & running took the back seat with my knee
not wanting to take any mileage. So early in the year it became clear that the
hot ‘n cold combo of Kona and Celtman would be my good-bye to long distance
“racing” for the next few years.
It took time to accept this but once I did I got some 6000km
in over the 1st half of the year. In early June I felt my legs
coming together at least a little bit. We’ll not talk about swim & run
mileage. It’s not worth talking about that really. So the plan for Celtman was
to: survive the swim, have fun on the bike, survive the first 17k of trail
running and then (speed-) hike the 17k mountain section in order to easily
cruise to the finish after this.
In late May Celtman was fast approaching and I got more and
more nervous – almost developed a state of panic at a certain point where I was
unsure if I’d be able to make the blue T-shirt (high mountain route on the
run). Even with the limited training I intended to get this at least.
With a few days to go My one-person support Michelle and I headed
out with borrowed camper and after driving 1.000km and taking the ferry from
Amsterdam to Newcastle arrived in Torridon three days before the race.
Scotland was as expected: Water: shockingly cold (13C), bike
course: quite rough and long (202k) and looking at the mountain section of the
“run” course from below made me shiver.
Also as expected it was beautiful up there in Scotland.
Not
the daily rainfall, not the midges biting you every minute, not the rather
sketchy road conditions. No, the people were nice as could be: Competitors,
organizers, everyone in the villages of Torridon and Shieldaig was just awesome
and relaxed and hugely help- and mindful of everyone’s needs. Quite a
difference to the egocentric types you get these days when you go to one of the
big Ironman “events”. I am really thrilled how - come October - I’ll take the madness that is Kona in race
week or even this very week here in Frankfurt.
In plain denial of what was to come Michelle (support Sherpa
& runner for the mountain part) and I went through the usual pre-race
motions:
Practice swim:
With jelly fish, a dog and a rather fresh
water at around 12-13C the day before the race. Still, equipped with the
neoprene hat, gloves, shoes and the new Thermal Helix wetsuit Ryan from
Blueseventy so kindly provided me with, I was as comfortable in the water as
one can be.
The bike course
It proved to have its challenges on the first half.
That was if there was no westerly wind on race day which would have made for a
last 40k directly into the wind. Luckily we were spared this.
The check in procedure was a little different this time
around as there was no bike check-in the day before the race and no special
foods to drop off. Everything would happen on race day and so we set the alarm
clock to the unfair time of 2am. Even after two pints of Cider I still woke up
at 1am – night over! This never happens to me and was a testament to the fact
that I was really nervous.
Race day
We drove to T1 in Shieldaig at 2:25am and arrived in time to
easily set up transition before the buses took the athletes to the swim start.
When we arrived at the start area that normally serves as a sheep meadow with
all that sheep sh§t I was very lucky to have the neoprene socks. ;)
The inevitable group photo was taken and we headed off to
into the water. Cold it was indeed. No filling and emptying the wetsuit to have
it fit snuggly this time around!
The swim
We headed out at exactly 5am and it was a
struggle: a struggle to stay warm, a struggle to navigate, a struggle to avoid
the jelly fish. I tried to settle into a rhythm but could not really find one.
While the thermal gloved keep you warm they suck up some water you really
notice when lifting your arms for the next stroke. So I felt kind of miserable
– but not cold! – all the way through the current assisted swim. I emerged in
the middle of the pack after just over 53min. Barely feeling my feet it was
difficult to stay upright. I reached my noble Trek Speed Concept steed after
what felt like ages. In order to keep warm in the 12°C air I completely
changed. As just about everyone did this it must have been looking like a nude
beach there in Shiedlaig Saturday morning.
The bike
After what felt like my longest transition ever I mounted
the bike and went off. Only to be overtaken – me overtaken, this doesn’t
happen! – immediately by Matthew Page. So the inevitable happened and I tried
to stay with him. Damn the race genes when you’re not really in shape! Still, I
saw the madness after some 10k before we reached Torridon and let him go. To
myself – and him ;) - I quietly said: “We’ll meet again, friend. You won’t be
able to push 300 Watts all day long.” BTW: Matthew went on to place 2nd overall - congratulations! - read his race report here.
So on we went and headed to Kinlochewe, then left towards
Gairloch where, after some 60k of cycling we had scheduled the first feed
station. The race has the athlete’S own support crew cater for their every need
so you have your car following you over the bike course. With only 5k to Gairloch
Michelle had not overtaken me yet and I was worried she had gotten stuck in the
infamous traffic jam out of T2. Then with some 4k to go she passed me and was
just able to jump out of the car to hand over the two water bottles when I rod
up.
The next 55k are the most undulating of the whole course as
you ride what feels like from cove to cove with a steep hill of 2-3k after each
one. I caught a few more riders and then
it got lonely except for a French and Belgian guy following me at a distance.
When they moved past I let them go ahead a little but never left them out of
sight. My time would come once we reached the plateau on 835 I thought.
But even before that on the last of the 3k climbs I caught
the Belgian guy and we chatted a little. He told me that he hadn’t seen his
support crew for the last 50k and was out of fuel. As I consumed way less than
calculated before the race I gave him one of my bottles. Michelle was going to
give me two more bottles in 15k anyway and I still had 2 bottles left. So why not?
We even agreed that if his team would not appear, my support car would have
enough to eat & drink to keep him going to T2. Lucky for him only 1k up the
mountain his guys overtook us and handed over his much needed nutrition at the
top of the hill.
My 2nd fuel stop came at 113k where I took three
bottles and some food and cancelled the last stop planned at 160k and sent
Michelle on her way to T2 in order for her to have some time to recover and
prepare her mountain run from T2A.
When we hit the larger 835 road I was able to push some
steady watts and slowly gained time on a few riders I could spot down the road.
Funny thing: Matthew was among them and I gave him and his French companion a
wave as I went by. Big guys like me do have their advantage on flat roads with
a bit of a headwind after all. ;) But still, I was very, very sure we’d meet
again one last time on the run.
On a side note: You kind of bond with the athletes around you in such a race as well as with
their support crew that overtakes/waits and
overtakes/waits all through the 202k of the bike. Kind of cool, that!
When I turned back on 832 at 160k one of the supporters of
the athletes around me shouted: “You’re 3min down on 3rd”. Well, and
it was rather flat from now on in and I felt rather decent. Weather was fine,
15°C and a slight head wind. Ideal for the big guy! So I ate a lot and pushed
on. With about 15k to go I spotted the guy in front of me. He was on a road
bike with clip on aero bars. OK, got him fast!
Into T2 I headed and noticed that the ideal conditions had
me only about 3min off course record pace at this time. Not too bad a bike
shape I was in after all I guess. But little do you know in a year where you
need every minute to train and do not do any practice races. To be fair:
conditions on Saturday were ideal and a new course record was set by one Andrew
Duggan at 5:44h for 202k with some 2.400h of climbing. Pretty crazy that!
I myself reached T2 after 5:56h in 3rd place (Strave file here: https://www.strava.com/activities/624421062 ).
And
just like everyone else doing this race I was really worried: how would the
legs feel on this first section and even worse what would happen on the
mountain. So I took my time in T2, refuelled, ate and chatted with the crew.
They looked so funny with their midge protection nets but they needed them I am
sure! They also tried to make me hurry but I said something like “Well, this
was only half the race.” Little did I know how right I would be proven.
The run
With the light version of the backpack I headed out towards
the climb to Coulin pass and felt… OKish. No cramps, no exhaustion (yet) and
best of all: my knee held up alright! Right at the top of the climb the first
guy passed me. Massimo, an Italian. Only two minutes later Matthew came by and
to both of them I gave some encouraging words. We were in this together, right?.
The next 12k went by rather uneventful at around 5:30min/k speed on a good fire
road. Just before I hit the road to T2A the Belgian guy came by again. Some
encouraging words were exchanged again and off he and his support runner went.
If you counted then you know I entered T2A in 6th place overall and
now came the great unknown. Climbing a mountain in a triathlon… stupid stuff!
Our equipment was checked for completeness and off we went.
The climb
Then pretty soon the only thing on this trip went wrong: our
approach for a speedy mountain hike was spoiled when Michelle’s asthma kicked
in. For whatever reason her respiratory system didn’t take the mountain
scramble lightly and we were reduced to a shuffle quickly. On we headed but
progress was slow. At one point on that climb we seriously considered turning
around and would surely have done so if the day would not have been that
beautiful. The sun was shining, everyone coming by asked if they could help,
offered encouragement and smiled! We were in this together after all. Our
progress slowed and we stopped quite a few times and when we hit the last steep
section before the first checkpoint we cursed once or twice. For whatever
reason though with some cooling water for both of us, things got gradually
better. We did reach the first checkpoint after 2:02h, a little over the 1:45h
limit. But as we were looking good the guys from the Mountain Rescue Team let
us continue.
So we continued and made the best out of it. We took our time and some
pictures. Great views rewarded us for the pain of the ascent and there’s proof.
Proof even of the fact that, once Michelle got better we were able to have fun
up there:
While the first climb is rather on a loose trail, the ridge
you have to follow from there to the second peak is rather rocky and demands
your full attention. Here the hiking sticks come in quite handy, too and so we
were slowly making progress towards Ben Eighe.
Out and back we went to collect
our second Munro and then it was… time for “The gully”! We had seen pictures
and filmed footage of this part and took our time to have the proper way
explained through it by the volunteers at the top. Still it took some guts to
go down there even in these ideal conditions. Once Michelle loosened a rock
that then made its way down towards me. Luck as I was I was able to notice and
avoid it.
Once down the gully we had been told to “keep left” in order
not to face some impassable cliffs. There seem to be a number of ways through
this rock field and we must have taken the slowest one. We went back and forth
to look/scout and in the end made it to what looked like a path. Funny thing
was that athletes were coming to this path from a number of directions and so
had obviously taken quite different routes through the rock field.
A very nice gentleman waited where the trail left the valley
of the Triple Buttress and he told us that from now on it would be a “proper
path”. As this was a Scot, his definition of a proper path is a little
different from ours and we continued on what looks like 9k of larger rocks
placed in one line. Not really what you’d expect to be called a path here. So
on we went walking at a decent pace and it seemed like forever. The walk was
eased by the fact that the athletes who hadn’t made the cut off for the mountain
section were coming the opposite direction as they headed out to the low run
route. So there was a lot of shouting and cheering on these guys.
On we went until we rounded a bend and finally saw the
parking lot from where you follow the road for the next 9k to the finish line.
When I looked at my watch I noticed we had spent about six hours in the
mountain section. Now that was a looooong hike. But we had made it. I emptied
the shoes of a few stones, threw the backpack in the car and headed on.
Michelle followed on the bicycle and on it went for some nine rather relaxing
kilometres on tarmac. A little loop around Torridon “town” and then there was
the finish line.
Another great thing is that at the finish line you’re not
presented with any fancy medal or T-shirt. Nope, they brew a Celtman beer for
the finishers that – guess what – is non-alcoholic – NOT!
Post-race had a few midges, great atmosphere, the T-shirt
ceremony and a party on Sunday in Torridon community hall. Great stuff all of
it! Only the weather on Sunday showed just how lucky we were on race day. Winds
of 50kph, rain and fog would have made the mountain section of the run plain
dangerous and possibly closed.
The final thing was the post-race party!
And the
Scots know how to party I can tell you. Only that my knee failed during the 1st
line dance so I was limited to spectating the spectacle. Still huge fun though!
What’s next?
Kona is next! We’ll see if the knee tolerates some more than
the total of 110k of running in 2016 over the next three months. If it does,
then the trip is going to be a nice good bye to an awesome place and sport. If
it does not I’ll just approach it Celtman-style: laid back and doing it just
for the fun. ;)
The mandatory thank you-s: First to Michelle for the great support!
Then to the Celtman team for organizing this crazy thing they call a triathlon.
Then to the Timex team that now has me on for the 4th year and all
its sponsors. In 2016 apparently one should now conclude with a seemingly never
ending list of hashtags and @-posts. To be honest, I find this repulsive,
simply unreadable and all these #'s and @'s really get on my nerves
because any serious message gets lost. And as there is a wealth of info on our
team’s website, I’ll simply end with a link to the sponsor info on the team’s
website. Here you go:
For the statisticians among you here are the numbers:
3.4k Swim: 53:30min - 202k Bike: 5:56h - 42k „Run“: 8:31h - Total:
15:32h - Place: 57
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