Limelight Utd News Article

4:15am - very rude awakening by the alarm clock - the day outside looks clear – temperature already in the early 20's and set to climb. I'm feeling slightly under cooked at the start of this race - so the plan as I stand looking at the start line is to keep an easy, but steady pace.

As the last mental checks are done - wetsuit, goggles, swim cap, hoping I have remembered to put everything into the transition bags - too late to worry now though. I have left the nerves for Lisa. Start gun goes and obstacle number 1 - PEBBLES - ouch, so it was minimal steps and a dive into the water as soon as possible to join the bun fight.

Obstacle number 2 - the bun fight for open water and avoiding being dunked as much as possible. Finally a bit of space for myself and a chance to settle into a bit of a rhythm until the next buoy. 2.4km down and a quick challenge of the pebbles for transitions onto the 2nd lap and then another 1400m to go - no probs.

And we're out the water, ouch over the pebbles, through the showers, hi Lis and off to transition. Not the quickest change over, but managed to find the bike between 2300 others (quite a sight) and then off and out to tackle the bike challenge as I was soon to find out - the never ending hills. You can never truly appreciate the profile of the course looking at the route map. The first 30km was a pleasant flat warm up, only to turn the corner to be faced with the steepest hill of many to come. Next up was 18km solid of ascent - hello quads. What goes up must come down and I was preparing myself for a bit of a rest on the downhill, but not a chance! Full concentration was the order with the sharp turns and hairpin bends - time to keep my wits about me. Counting the km's and hours down in gels and after 150km back onto the original 30km stretch in transition.

After 6 hours on the bike, the legs are very ready for a change of pace and happy to get onto the run, but needing a lot of convincing that a marathon is now possible. Breaking it down into the 5km loops makes it easier at the beginning, but the end it was a case of water station to water station.

The Ironman shuffle was kept at bay, but we did need to do a bit of walk-running to get the breathing in check as the temperature soared. In possession of my 3 wrist bands for my 3 loops I had my ticket to the finish line and what a feeling crossing that line, cramp and all. Ok not in the time that I have originally hoped for, but sub 12 hours with 11:51.

Great race Great scenery!