Storms, stress, saviours and stench 💩 - Rebecca Smith, Ironman Portugal-Cascais.

This race report begins a few days ahead of race day, it’s definitely worth setting the scene here…

Wednesday - Arrival

I travelled with my parents early morning and thankfully my bike box arrived with us at Lisbon airport. After being abandoned at the airport by our transfer we finally made it to our hotel in Cascais, only to be made aware of the storm due the following day and advised not to leave the hotel. With this in mind I made registering and training a priority day 1, knowing this would be unlikely during the storm.

Thursday - 2 days until race day

I had a lovely morning in the hotel spa - chilling and making the most of a ‘rest day’. In hindsight I should have unboxed and checked my bike ahead of this, as upon doing so I soon realised something was wrong as my chain was dropping. A quick stop by a local bike shop later and soon learnt my rear derailleur hanger had cracked and I was advised “do not ride it, but you could try the race”….whatever that means!!! There wasn’t much confidence that the bike would last 180km unless the part could be replaced.

Friday - 1 day until race day

The majority of this day was spent frantically trying to get our hands on a derailleur hanger. It seemed no bike shops in Portugal had the part I needed, my parents were pleading with anyone who walked by with a giant bike, Paul got a post out to the IM Facebook group… and I was just stressing.

Luckily the Facebook post got some attention and after a long day someone had come forward with the right part but were 80km away. This was a 2 hour round trip by car and wouldn’t leave me with enough time to get it fixed and check my bike into transition. Uber would also not accept a €130 delivery job. A good job really as soon after, someone else had come forward who had the part and were racing the 70.3! The part was very generously gifted and fitted to my bike, leaving me with just enough time to check in at Transition. Absolutely exhausted, I was glad to go bed that night feeling extremely grateful and lucky to be racing worry free. No time for pre-race nerves!

Saturday - Race day

With the full race not due to start until 9am and with transition not closing until 8:25am, I didn’t need to be up at stupid o’clock…definitely a first when it comes to race day! Despite this, I woke up before my alarm, early enough to start the swim at 6:30am…Fabulous. Initially I’d forgotten it was race day and tried just rolling over, then BOOM, it hit me - race day.

I made my way to transition to put my bottles, and Garmin on my bike and tried to find my bearings - where did I need to run in, run out and where abouts was my bike hiding amongst the sea of others. I’d not had time to suss this the night before! It didn’t take me long to get sorted so I made my way down to the swim start to watch the 70.3 just in time to hear Paul Kay’s pre-race speech. Wow! 😭 I wasn’t feeling half as nervous as usual, I just felt lucky to be starting the race worry free, knowing my bike actually had the potential to survive 180km.

The 3.8km swim was a one lap course starting in the bay of Cascais. Going off previous races I was expecting to complete the swim in around 1hr 20 so I placed myself at the back of the 1:10 pen hoping for a tow! I started off well and for a little while I actually thought I was going to do my best ever swim. My pace felt good and I was overtaking plenty. Unfortunately, it didn’t last and I was soon back to my old self (pretty much swimming backwards).

The bay had provided protection from the current and chop but this definitely didn’t last long with the sea got angrier the further out I swam. Thanks Storm Babet! 👍🏼. And it got worse.. after the second turn bouy, I found myself lost in the waves, with no sign of any sighting bouys. I was pretty disoriented! Eventually the group I was in were redirected back on track. At this point I was just happy to see the course again and glad I’d not ended up clinched to a kayak.

Finally, I reached the swim exit (this to me feels like Christmas Day) and I started making my way to Transition with a swim time of 1hr 29mins (15th in my age group). Ahead of the race I was pretty nervous about T1 given it was a looong way to run in bare foot. When it came to it, I ran very well through the crowds of Cascais, ticked people off ahead of me and had a great time in the process. This showed as I managed to make up 4 places in T1 alone. T1: 7mins 10s - on par with the overall age group podium finishers.

After battling through the queue of competitors walking out of T1 with their bikes, I started the bike, feeling lucky to be riding worry free! The 140.6 bike course is 2 laps and boasts plenty of variety. The first section includes a drag of a climb. Anyone who knows me knows i am the first to moan about hills but on this, I hit my power targets and I’d go as far as to say that i actually enjoyed it (huge shock!). I did notice a number of riders on the side of the road who had been injured on the descent down from the climb. There was a nasty bend which caught some riders out - at least I knew to take this cautiously!!

To my delight, I reached the Estoril Formula 1 Circuit. With the stress in the lead up to the race, I had completely forgotten this was part of the course and had a huge grin on my face when I entered the track! I flew round and could have given Max Verstappen a run for his money😜

There seemed to be bikes scattered all over the road throughout the course - some on the left, some on the right, some in the middle. This made overtaking difficult and often dangerous. I’d never seen anything quite like it!

I managed to drop 2 bottles from aid stations consecutively, meaning I went without tailwind for a short time. To compensate, I over concentrated my next mix of tailwind with my next bottle of water - something which I think caught up with me later in the race… All in all I took on 6 40g carb gels, 5 Cliff shot blocks, 4 bottles of tailwind, and a couple of chomps of banana.

I finished the bike in 6 hours 23 mins and managed to work my way up to 7th in my age group.

T2 was a respectable 4 mins 14s - not bad having battled more walkers and having ran past my bike rack. I started the 3 lap run course and felt really good, despite the hills. Ahead of the race Paul had recommended stopping at every aid station (approx every 2km). I was sceptical of this at first but 100% this made all of the difference. I felt like I was flying after a short walk and refuel and was easily overtaking those who skipped aid stations.

I was picking people off ahead of me to distract myself as I went along and soon found out I had reach 5th in my age group. The support in Cascais was fantastic, especially after completing thelong stretch of run course that was fairly isolated.

Nutrition-wise I made no changes, taking on precision hydration gels, washed down with water and coke but come the half way mark I started to suffer with GI issues. I was stubborn enough not to use a portaloo, until I had around 5.5km remaining where I feared I would end up walking the remainder if I didn’t stop. At this point the run course was poorly lit; this, coupled with the struggle to get my trisuit off resulted in me wobbling and falling into the portaloo. I looked like 💩, felt like 💩 and now stunk of 💩. But it didn’t stop me making one last push to the finish line and finally getting to enjoy my moment. An emotional one to say the least!

Run time: 3 hours 58 (including a messy portaloo stop 🤢). Overall time 11hours 58 mins, qualifying for the World Championships in Nice 2024 💸💸

A final (massive) thank you to:

· Those who helped me ahead this race (you know who you are!!)

· My Parents for putting up with the stress that came with me and a busted bike and for relentless efforts to fix it.

· Paul for taking what most have been the majority of his weekend to sort my bike and provide me with performance updates through the race. Life saver!

· Craig and Danielle who kindly gifted the exact derailleur hanger I needed to get my bike into riding condition. I’m convinced I wouldn’t have completed the race without this so I am hugely grateful! Amazing to meet you both and enjoy some time together after the race. See you at the next one 👋🏼

Over and out! 😮‍💨