IRONMAN 70.3 Duisburg: done!

I still can't quite believe it happened! Participating in a triathlon, especially a big one like this, isn't my usual cup of tea. During training, I'd convinced myself that it wasn't really a big deal though. I figured the 70.3 is only half an IRONMAN and therefore must be doable. Not to be super great at after only six months of training, but possible to casually complete. 

This notion shifted when I arrived in Duisburg and suddenly saw myself surrounded by, well, iron people. These were not the kinds of people I typically see in the pool, or on a bike. They weren't even the kinds of people I see at marathon events (runners tend to look quirky for some reason and often there’s a lot of diversity). The superhumans I saw in Duisburg were pretty much all tall, and lean but very muscular. And possibly about twice my size.

The possibility that perhaps I was in over my head, even if just a little, had started to dawn on me about a week before the race. All of a sudden, I wasn't so keen on going anymore. Reading the athlete guide, it seemed so serious. I'd also developed a horrendous cough, lost my voice, and recovered only just in time not to hack my way through the race. From then on, I got a mild headache whenever I had some spare time and my mind wandered off to the race. 

I could tell a much longer story about all the things it took to get to the starting line of this event, and the nagging inside voice questioning my every move in that direction, but maybe another time. Basically, I made it with all my equipment to Duisburg on an early Saturday morning train, attended the race briefing, walked around the expo in a bit of a daze, bought some merch, ate gnocchi for dinner, and got a decent night sleep feeling low-grade terrified. Before I got out of bed in the morning, around 6 AM, I thought about twentyfive other things I'd rather be doing than put on a wetsuit and complete a 70.3 IRONMAN.

Now, I'm going to share all the raw data and feelings I have from my first attempt at this grueling, I mean endurance-testing, event. 

The swim:

Likely the most hated and feared leg of the triathlon, the swim went as expected. Mediocre. Because it's one thing to swim laps in a pool, preferably in a beautiful Olympic sized one coasting in someone else's draft (I couldn't believe my speed those two times I did that), but it's quite another to swim in a giant, murky canal. 

Open water swimming is as much about having good technique—of which I have very little—as about sighting constantly. The need for looking up every four strokes messed up my flow so badly that I gave up trying to have good swimming form altogether. This is not the kind of situation I pictured myself in when I started to work on my swimming technique nine months ago, but here we are. 

I was one of the last ones to get into the water and I was one of the last ones to get out, after completing the 1.9 KM distance at a pace that’s decent for me: 2:37/100m. I was never going to have a fast swim time and frankly, the ten minutes I could have gained from being a much better swimmer would pale in comparison to doing a decent job on the bike and/or run.

Races teach valuable lessons, and for swimming I guess I learned is that it is indeed a sport. Like, if you start swimming from scratch, meaning you have the ability to swim but you've never done it for more than a few minutes, you'll probably be mediocre at best even if you swim twice a week for a few months. With swimming, like running, it's not immediately evident what about the technique is lacking, or whether you are actually fit enough to go for long distances. Only that it's just really uncomfortable to go fast. I guess you just have to stay humble, maybe incorporate various drills and speed sessions, and hope you improve over time.

The best part about the swim were the conditions—the water was calm and the temperature made it wetsuit legal (no idea if that actually helped me but I’m inclined to think so, because of the added buoyancy). Plus the last minute advice I got from a fellow contestant (who happened to work for the organization) about following the underwater rope for orientation. Saved me a lot of useless zigzagging, I’m sure!

Time: 49 minutes. 

The bike:

So, did you think I saved all my energy for the bike, which is the biggest portion of the race, by training hard and going for a good time? Think again! To be honest, I barely practiced biking during my triathlon training at all. I had too many excuses. My first excuse was that I live in West Africa, where the roads are shit and my only bicycle is a mountain bike. My second excuse was that I didn't have a bike trainer for most of the training period, so it wasn't convenient. My third excuse was that I'm Dutch, so why would I need bike training?

How did that work out for me? Not great!! Though it could have been worse. Absent proper training, a few things went well. Mostly accidentally I bought a secondhand race bike I really like because it worked perfectly, was very affordable, and didn’t hurt my bum. When your sit bones aren’t on fire it's a lot easier to focus on the task at hand: tackling 90 km hunched over some aero bars. Also, I was terrified I'd get a flat tire and the sole fact that this didn't happen made my race a success.

I knew I’d feel like a snail compared to the others, but I'd promised myself not to worry about it. I realized I just didn't have the experience, the power, or the right equipment to go fast. I'm used to riding long distances, on occasion, but always at a leisurely pace. I wasn't about to get out of that comfort zone if for no other reason than that I might fall off my bike because of the aero bars I barely practiced with.

I will also say this: being slow at biking felt like it defeated the point of “racing” a triathlon because everyone was so, so fast. The majority of athletes had expensive triathlon bikes and clearly a lot of experience. I, on the other hand, didn’t even bother to have clip-in shoes. Yup.  I was probably the only one person among 2,000 participants wearing running shoes on the bike. 

And here’s another thing: I was so slow on the bike that I got bored! I’ll get there when I get there, was pretty much all I was thinking the entire time besides “gear up” and “gear down” until I basically stopped shifting altogether towards the end because my mind simply went blank (not great advertisement for the Duisburg countryside, but even the locals tend to agree there’s not much to see). What a grind!

Time: 3:24

The run:

Ha, so this is the part where everything was going to be great! Running is my thing!! The plan was to make up for any unnecessary time loss by just pushing that effort right into the half marathon run. I figured I can run a half marathon in my sleep so any energy left in my body would be bonus. Of course, my overall finishing time wasn't going to improve drastically by running fast, but at least I was going to enjoy this last part, whether I was completely exhausted or relatively at ease.

Was I right? Pretty much! Once my legs stopped wobbling from all that boring biking, I hit my “easy pace,” which is about 5:30min/km. That pace felt terrific. I passed every single person on my path (the fast ones had finished two hours ago). I couldn’t think of a reason to run any faster, so I stuck with my easy pace.

When I finished the race I still felt pretty fresh! No chills, no instantly stiffening legs, no screaming thirst. I just wandered off to the athlete garden, where I was served a Radler beer with 2.4% alcohol, because well I guess that’s normal in Germany. I debriefed with two of my newfound friends who I hadn’t seen all day but had finished with nearly identical times. And then I’d really seen enough so I took a quick shower and left. 

Time: 1:58

OVERALL TIME (including 2 transitions): 6:26 hours. 

Finisher's Thoughts:

I always say: try everything once. Even when things seem really extreme, like an all-day endurance event, it's worth the experience. Because if I don't come within an inch of failing something sometimes, I get bored. Doing hard things builds a rock-solid belief that I can tackle just about anything. I never thought for a second I couldn't do this race. Now that I'm on the other side, I can only look back and smile at the interesting and occasionally fun ride that was and start thinking about the next challenge. Not a full IRONMAN, mind you. While that would certainly be a challenge, I think it would be a very boring one. Adding 10 hours a week of swimming laps and sitting on a bike trainer to my already packed marathon training schedule? No thanks!!

I had to do this race to make up my mind about that. And now I don’t know if I don’t want to do it because it’s boring, or because I don’t think I can become fast enough to satisfy my ego, or because I already think I can do it and it seems a bit ridiculous to prove something to myself that doesn’t need proving. I also think my family will breathe a big sigh of relief when I tell them I’m done with triathlon for now. Of course, I can always change my mind later!