Mick Rossney

Yes. Yes. Yes. I finally did it! I feel so happy that luck went my way and so grateful that I was able to make it happen this year.
I'm writing this report for a couple of reasons:
(a) to inspire others to do an ironman
(b) to relive some of the highlighs myself
(c) to identify what went great and what I learned on the day.... I also expect it to be pants-wettingly funny!

The three main clinchers for me in deciding to do an Ironman were the distances-how is this possible? The tattoo- how cool is it to get a tattoo after a race instead of just another T-Shirt! and finally a guy once said to me that nobody can explain in words the feeling of crossing the line and nobody can justify the amount of hard work it takes until you cross the line and then you just know it was all worth it.

Well you can see the tattoo yourselves and make a decision on that one. The distances are of course possible. you are just as likely to finish it as you are an olympic distance once you respect the amount of training it takes and just show up on the day. When the gun goes off the myth around it is gone and it's just another triathlon. Once I stopped asking 'is this possible for me?' and started asking 'how will I go about doing it?' I mentally relaxed and started enjoying the training rather than stressing about it.

I will attempt to describe the feeling at the end of this report.....so here we go!


First of all congrats to Derek who did an amazing time of 13 hours and something. He did it right by going to the experts, taking their advice and putting in the long hours. I know he will do his own race report so I'll let him explain it from his point of view rather than give his stories away.

I arrived at airport 3 mins late for check in and missed my flight to london and connection to Klagenfurt. Nightmare. I had also had a very intense week with business. I knew I was tapering so I took on more work instead of trainng and got a bloody cold out of it. ***where you see these stars this is where I did something that you don't have to do. I learned from it and so can you instead of screwing it up again.Got to Klagenfurt 5 hours behind schedule, feeling ill physically but still determined to cross the line on the Sunday.

Briefly met Derek and some of the other lads that night. They were in flying form and I badly needed sleep and recovery.

Got up early on Saturday and realised what a massive event it is in Austria. They estimate 100,000 spectators come along to see it. Ironman city is a series of Marquees which was like the expo at Chicago last year (with every conceivable piece of triathlon merchandise available at a good price) food, massage, registration ete etc. I got my first look at the finish line which they had allready set up.

I ate reasonably lightly for the morning and just prayed that I would wake up feeling better on the Sunday. At about 5pm I had everything done and went shopping for loadsa carbs. Sat in bed till about 8 when I turned my phone off. Staring at me from the corner of the room were 3 bags with 'ironman swim' 'ironman bike' ironman run' written on them with all my equipment in them. I almost laughed out loud at how badly prepared I was for the event physically.

I knew I was ok on the swim as I had put the work in. Swim is my back out plan if I don't feel like cycling or running. Here is the good news and I swear this is true. In the 6 months I trained for ironman I never forced myself to do a session more than about 4 or 5 sessions. I made myself a promise that I would finish it but that I would not turn into a completely obsessive prick doing it. The cycle I knew was my weakest point and I had done 3 brick sessions in preparation one of which was only a 5 k run after medium cycle, 1 was a 15 k run after a 60k cycle and I can't remember the other so I had no idea what to expect after getting off the bike to do a marathon. I just decided to look at the funny side to it and I literally gave up worrying there and then. I just said 'F**k it'. I'm going to enjoy the race and if I make it 1/3 of the way then at least I showed up and maybe I'll try it again next year. It worked. I slept like a baby.

Wake up call was at 4.15am for breakfast and a 5am transfer to transtion. Left transiton set up with only my swim gear in a bag and as I walked up to the lakeshore I could hear the music and the announcer. I felt the old panic creap in again but just had to write it off as I knew I couldn't afford to lose the energy stressing.

As the gun went off I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. IIt became just a swim rather than an Ironman and it might sound mad bbut that made a big difference. I also saw after a few hundered metres that many of the lifeguards were stunning blonde Austrian women on Jetskis. As my jaw fell open I swallowed about a litre of water and imagined the girlfriend having a good laugh at my predicament!

Swim was a bit of a melee. I thought the field would have lengthened out because of the big distance but that didn't happen as there were 2200 of us in the one start and not a massive amount of space.. we also bottlenecked into the canal at the end which was interesting. Had a bit of a disagreement with some fecking German in the water as he tried to literally use my back as a leverage to push himself onwards. One swift kick in the balls left him in no doubt that he was a complete wan**r. I was delighted with myself as I had never really opened up a can of whuppass in the water before!!!!!!

I took ages in the first transition. I actually took out a things to do list in transition to remind me to do everything. You don't wanna forget your shades for 180k! But I guess I deserve biggest nerd prize for the list... anyway onto the bike.

First lap was great. Tried to pace myself. Got a text from jackie- thanks. Felt like I was going slow but I knew it was a bit too fast. By 70 k and we're 10k into lap two. By the way there were marshalls everywhere for such a big course. Not a hint of Drafting. You could barely say hello to someone passing by. anyway, 70k in and I'm dying for a leak. I didn't know what the protocol was so I stopped, behind a car, assumed the postion and turned to have a quick look at oncoming cyclists as I'm a bit embarrassd and self conscious... what happens only Kate Allen (Olympic Gold winner) passes me out on her 2nd lap (she did the course in just over 9 hours) with Tv crews around her. So I've exposed myself on Austrian national TV. Keep an eye on Eurosport or even one of those feckin funny video clip shows...

By then end of lap two I was tired. Pumping in power gels and power bars but **** i learned a lot as I didn't take enough electrolytes (diaroalyte etc) DON'T USE THIS UNTIL YOU CONSULT WITH A PROFESSIONAL ABOUT IT IN TRAINING OR EVENTS. could feel the energy draining out of me but I was actually looking forward to the variety of the run and my last brick session which I just remembered was after the wicklow 200 was a pleasure so I thought I'd do well... Lap 3 was a nightmare. Luckily my little bro had loaded up my ipod just before I left with some dance music so I took out the ipod and went for it. I haven't looked at my splits but it must have been slow...

I took my time in transition 2 again. Getting the feet perfect as a bad blister could have fecked it up. I'm out of time to explain the ]run but god it was hard. Felt great up to 10k and then jogged walked, texted and phoned people to help get me through the marathon. I could feel emotions welling up as I knew I was going to make it but then I realised I still had a half marathon to go.....aaaahhhhhh...anyway *** please don't do ironman without talking to me first as i learned a lot from the things I did not do during the run.. ie fuel up enough, take electrolytes and have a plan b strategy for when the **** really, really hit the fan.... final 10k was exhausting but I knew a herd of elephants wouldn't stop me at that stage. as it got dark I started to stumble on kerbs etc. to be honest I was irate that it was so badly organised for the later finishers. we should have been given torches or those miners helmets with lights on top. It was lethal and people had to run to come in befoe the 17 hour cut off time. this anger kept me going for the last 5 k. I had visions of beating the head off the organiser ( some really primal **** comes out when you're in the sun for that long) anyway I finally turned the corner, saw the lake by night (this was was 10:38pm) and turned into the final runway... Guys and girls I'm actually getting emotional just remembering this. It was awesome. I though everyone was gone feckin home at this stage like a race run by 3dtri but there was a massive croud. The sounds were booming. can't remember the song. as I ran up they shot up flames on either side of the runway about 40 foot into the air and a load of hot cheerleaders come out dancing at the finish line. I will never forget the finish as long as I live. I actually felt like I had really earned the Ironman title and the training was nothing in comparision to this payoff. It was worth it any day of the week.

This has taken much longer than I thought so I'm off to bed. I want to let you all know that some of the other guys might give Derek a bit of a slagging about his tattoo. It's not true that he cried like a schoolgirl and let me be the fist to say that he didn't just get the tattoo on his calf because he was too scared of the pain of getting it on his ankle. I'd appreciate it if nobody mentions to Derek how much of a girl he was because those kinds of rumours aren't in good taste (even if every word of them are true!!!!!!!!!!!!!))

Let me just say finally in all seriousnes that Ironman is not such a big deal. Anyone can do it. A guy who was 73 beat my ass by hours. It's just that there is so much myth built up around it. If you're tempted then what have you got to lose. It's great training even if you have to pull out. If you're tempted come and ask me. Derek will give you the best ways to get a great time as he did. I'll give you the bare minimum of training to get your ass across the line as I did. It just depends on your goals...

Thanks for all your support. It really meant a lot to me on the day talking to some of you and getting those texts. That's what the club is all about and I'm proud to be a part of it.

I've finally earned this title...

Ironmike!

Mick Rossney-world's greatest guy!