Ironman Italy - Paul Sellars & Danny Bluff

What would an 8 week European vacation be without a triathlon in it somewhere!

4 weeks in France and a week at the side of Lake Garda, and it was time to collect the lad (Danny Bluff) from Bergamot Airport and head to Cervia, on the Adriatic Coast. Rather than haul the caravan another 200 miles there and back, we had booked an air bnb, which turned out to be in a prime location - 200m from the beach for pre and post race R&R, 200m from the bike mount / dismount line and about 1km from the swim start.

All of the pre-race Facebook chat focused around 2 subjects - the weather (typical, but with good cause - last year, a huge storm forced the cancellation of the 140.6 on the Saturday, and both the 70.3 and 140.6 happened on the Sunday - not something that needed repeating!!), and the sea - it’s temperature and the jellyfish!

Now the weather I couldn’t think of much to do about, but the consensus of 3 weather apps indicated potential for a light shower on the Friday, then a bit of cloud on race day - crap for locals, but bang on for us Brits! So, the sea - well I had been swimming skins for 4 weeks in French and Italian lakes at 23-25 degrees which was fine, and we found some “jellyfish repellent” in a local chemist - bit like insect spray but as a lotion😀

So, we arrived on Thursday lunchtime, and duly left Ann to unpack the car, go food shopping and make lunch, whilst me and Danny went for a spin out in the bike course. It’s a very straightforward course - 20km out to a dual carriageway, 2 loops of 70km (65km flat, 5km up and down a hill), 20km back into town. We biked 15 of the 20km to the dual carriageway and got the picture - flat, bit of breeze, crap roads, psycho drivers (the last 2 pretty much sum up my experience of riding in Italy!!). Safely back in time for lunch…..registration, including getting Ann a VIP package (100 Euro for great start and finish access, breakfast, lunch, and a very nice lady to talk to all day, we stopped short of the extra 150 Euro for her to be allowed to give me my medal!!), race brief and tea😀

Friday featured a leisurely start, and then I went down to the sea to splash about in my Tri suit with anti-jellyfish lotion on exposed parts. The conclusion - the temperature was bang on for a non-wetsuit swim, the salt held my stinky legs up, there were some lumps of grey jelly around, but nothing stung - a very pleasant experience! Ann sat patiently on the beach in case of any drama, then a quick change and a few short run intervals to prime the legs. We met back up with Dan, wondered back to the apartment though the merch tent and expo, exited a few quid lighter, and cracked on prepping transition bags.

It’s amazing how little stuff you need when you race in a hot climate - T1 bag - helmet and race belt (shoes on bike), T2 - trainers, socks and a cap with sunglasses, gels and salt tablets in - job done! Lunch and off to the beach for a sleep before rackng at 6pm and the standard pre-race pasta carbonara for tea.

We prepped the nutrition we needed for the bike, and then discussed the wetsuit / non wetsuit situation, both secretly hoping they would call it non-wetsuit, but if they didn’t we weren’t sure we could be the ones to go non-wetsuit……so we took both options (well Dan took his wetsuit and swimskin, I took my wetsuit.)

The sun only came up around 07:00 and with it being a fast bike course, we had a late start at 7:40 depending where you put yourself. As we got into transition in the morning, the wetsuit legal announcement came - 24.2 degrees - someone must have been up all night finding that cold spot😂😂. We followed the crowds and pulled the wetsuit on!

We made our way to the beach and found Ann in her VIP enclosure, looking proper chuffed, and after a couple of arty sun rise photos (it’s all about the ‘gram🤪) we headed to the start pens.

Dan went for middle of the sub 60 mins, I went for the start of the 1-1:10 pen. It seemed to take an age to get to the front but eventually we funnelled into the start line gates and 6 at a time we got released into the sea. My plan is always to be in the left hand start gate - I like to be able to see other swimmers and I breathe to my right, and if it gets too fighty, I can escape!

The Italy swim goes out about 800m, turn right and swim for 1600m, turn right and swim for 200m, turn right and swim for 1000m, to left and swim 200m back to the beach. Id worked out rough timings to each buoy to get me close to an hour and had my watch set to alert every 10 mins to give me an idea how I was doing. I’ve got to say, from the start, the swim was amazing - I felt great, there was space to swim, but chance to draft, the sea was calm, the sighting buoys were huge and regular- all in all a great experience, drama free, I just kept plugging away and popped out in 1:02 - nice👌👌

T1 is long - 300m from the beach to transition and 500m through transition. We had both fallen lucky as numbers are allocated at registration - our bags were on the end of a set of racking and our bikes about 75% of the way down transition - meaning a relatively short run with the bike. T1 was quick and uneventful as it should be (a quick check that Dan's bike had left) and off I went towards the dual carriageway.

The 20km passed fine my HR was elevated - 155 at the start and only really settling to 145-150 which is 10-15 bpm higher than I would expect but I felt good so just cracked on to power. It soon became evident that avoiding a drafting penalty would be one of the bike course challenges, as packs and pace lines formed. I hurled a bit of abuse at 20 riders all riding wheel to wheel as I pushed 350W for a couple of minutes to get passed them, but it didn’t change anything and as soon as I backed off a bit, they just trained passed - that was pretty much the shape of the full 5:11 mins on the bike to be honest - sadly watching race refs ride passed and do nothing!! The only incident of note came after about 30km….I had overtaken 3 riders, the last being a lady in a very bright trisuit- about 5 mins afterwards I felt my back wheel shift and heard an almighty noise and then some screams…..turning round I caught a glimpse of a very bright trisuit rolling along the floor…..clearly she had been that close to me after I passed her that she had clipped my rear wheel at 40+kph….I expect her race ended there. I did have the good grace to tell the next marshall I saw and after a U turn on the course, travelling back, I saw an ambulance about where she was, but the central reservation obscured my view - I wouldn’t wish injury on anyone, but you make your own choices! It’s a good job I’m a big bloke, or my day may have ended in the same place!!.

2 *70km loops completed - not the most inspiring course, the climb and descent was a nice change, and back onto the 20km section leading to T2. An unnecessary headwind revealed itself, but nothing like Lanza (or Outlaw) wind so I cracked on, head down, until the last turn with 5km to go, looked round and realised I had just towed 8 other guys back into town - absolutely bloody livid, so sat up and let them do a bit!

Into T2 in 5:11 after 2:33 at 90km, not bad, and the same long run through, but didn’t hang around - shoes left on bike, helmet off running to the bags, socks and trainers on, cap full of stuff picked up and off we went - sorting gels, salt tablets and glasses on the move. It occurred to me that I had consumed my regulation 5*750ml bottles with 15 scoops of tailwind, plus a bottle of Gatorade and so far not felt the need for a pee.

Out of transition at what felt like a steady pace until Garmin pinged 5:10 for the first km which included a walk through the first water station - driven by my previous thoughts I chucked down 6 cups of water and a couple of salt tablets…..time to slow down! After about 2km, I saw a French guy on the side of the road stretching out this cramped hamstrings.....he was one that had sat 6 inches off anyone's wheel for the entirety of the bike course - I had yelled at him 5 or 6 times - Karma!! The run course was very pleasant - the usual 4 loop IM course through nice parts of town, a lot of shade and a lot of support. I saw Ann half way round the second loop, and she told me I was 8th, a minute behind 7th. This was a huge shock, I am not usually that competitive in IM branded races and fully expected to be 20-30th at this point, and it made me focus a bit, and vowed to do an even better job of looking after myself, but also knew that there would be plenty of better runners than me over the next 25kms! The run was going to plan - walking each aid station, 4 salt tablets an hour, 3 gels an hour, 4 cups of water in me and as many over me as I needed (or a drowning with a hosepipe)

My next ambition was to complete 2 laps before Danny overtook me. I had seen him 2 or 3 times on the run course, looking calm and composed and on for an 8:30-40 finish. I am always 2:00 - 2:10 slower than him, and I knew not getting overtaken would mean we were both about on time. I circled the end of lap roundabout and exited onto lap 3 to see him about 30m before the same roundabout zipping his suit up ready to head home - mission accomplished- this could be a very good day!

I allowed myself the thought that as lap 3 started, my aim was to continue running between aid stations, but at more like 5:40 pace than the 5:20 pace. I figured everyone would be slowing down and keeping moving at a consistent pace was paramount, then lap 4 I would allow myself “mid-aid station walks” if needed. Sadly this was where the good stuff ended in a flash…..at about 25km, with very little warning I went from feeling 80% good to 40% good in one 2.5km section. My HR started to hold higher than I wanted, my stomach wanted to eject it’s contents and I just felt grim! At that point, I knew any ambitions of grandeur were over, and it was now me against me to get back in a respectable time to collect my medal. I saw Ann briefly again at the end of lap 3 to hear I’d dropped from 9th to 18th in that lap, which still wasn’t hideous- I clocked exactly 3 hours at the end of that lap and was still higher up the field than I expected to be!

The last lap started as walk 100m, run 900m, and ended as run walk 100m, run 400m. I tried some nutrition, promptly gagged but retained my stomach’s contents, and stuck to coke for the rest of that lap.

I finally hit the red carpet and crossed the line in 10:38 with a 4:15 marathon and 22nd in my AG - pretty much as expected! Ann and Dan were both stood by the official photographer behind the finish line ( VIP access all areas) which was fabulous, as I often find the IM finish line experience a bit lonely - they are very keen to get you away so you don’t block the photographers and then you’re in the food tent by yourself. This time I had the chance for extra photos with Ann and Dan and the 3 of us went to the recovery area together - way more satisfying!

In summary, my day was 18 mins longer than a perfect execution would have been - 2 mins on the swim, 6 mins on the bike, and 10 mins on the run…..but I was very happy to have my 3rd 140.6 of the year tamed - all sub 10:50. Dan on the other hand was bang in plan 8:34 with a 2:53 marathon, 4th age grouper and looking very happy with himself 😀😀 Would I race it again....probably not, would I recommend it - probably, so long as you dont want to be competitive and honest. I could have gained 20 mins on the bike I reckon and been fresher for the run, but I have to live with myself. The swim and run are amongst the best set-ups I have raced, and Cervia is an excellent location