John Evans | QOL Quality of Life
So, what’s it really like to do a Half Ironman Triathlon?
Ever been tempted to have a go at a triathlon? What about a Half Ironman?
A Half Ironman Triathlon is a 1.9 km swim followed by a 90km bike ride and 21.1km run or half marathon to finish. Jessie Hamilton tells us about her experience.
“I’d signed up for a few fun runs in the past and worked my way up to a half marathon so when some friends suggested we had a go at our first tri, I thought why not? I’d been cycling to work for 5 years and was an ok swimmer so thought it would be interesting to mix up my training a bit”.
Jessie chose the Blenheim Palace event which was a sprint distant and provided a good first taste of the world of triathlons. After completing the Blenheim race, Jessie entered more races including some at Olympic distance. These went well, and she began to think about bigger challenges.
“Skip forward a couple of years and a few more triathlons later, I took the plunge and entered the 70.3 iron man in Mallorca with my husband, Jon.”
The Mallorca half ironman takes place in the town of Alcúdia, which features beautiful sandy beaches and steep cliffs with views over the Mediterranean. Mallorca is something of a hub for triathletes from all over the world both as a training base and for races on the competitive Ironman circuit. While the stunning setting helps to attract people, the Mallorca 70.3 (113km or & 70.3 miles total) is a serious business with up to 50 qualifying places available for the World Half Ironman Championships.
After 6 months of hard training the race began for Jessie with a 1.9km sea swim. How did she find it and what was the hardest bit?
“I was most nervous about the bike section as the monster of a hill which took up most of the course was renowned for testing even the strongest of cyclists. After making it to the top puncture free, the views on the downhill section were breath-taking and worth the long slog to get to the top.”
Unfortunately, Jessie’s good performance on the bike was to be followed by frustration, “The lowest point has to be the penalty I got during the race for forgetting to leave my bike helmet on until I’d racked my bike. The penalty box delay threw my concentration and made the transition and start of the run hard psychologically.”
Despite this setback Jessie was able to regain her mental strength and finish the run strongly with her annoyance replaced by the feeling of pride on crossing the finish line and charging into the sea to cool off. Jessie’s time was a creditable 6 hours 6 minutes including 10 minutes or more for time penalties.
So how did she feel about the race afterwards?
“It was as tough as I expected but I was surprised at how fast it felt. Even though it took 6 hrs to get to the finish line, my adrenaline must have been flowing and it felt much quicker! It sank in the following day when I tried to get out of bed and was pretty sore and knackered, that the race has been a massive physical challenge and I was proud of myself having completed it.”
Jessie has these final words of advice for anyone contemplating the half ironman, “I’d tell anyone that is thinking to enter to go for it! It was one of the best (but hardest) experiences of my life. Advice wise, I’d say preparation is definitely key. The 70.3 distance isn’t one that you can have a go at without some careful planning to cover each discipline.”
“If anyone had said to me a few years before, that I should do a half iron man, I would have laughed at the ridiculous suggestion but as it turns out I could and did do it!”
