IronMan UK, Sherborne, 21st August 2005
Better late than never - a race report written four weeks after the event with the pain mellowed by a waning memory.

My personal IronMan history is relatively short - I did Austria IM in 2002 and Hawaii in 2004, as well as Ibiza long-course (which is shorter than IM) in 2003. So I came to Sherborne with some expectations - not just about the race itself but about the whole weekend experience.

This year's event at Sherborne was the first ever full, official "IronMan" event held in the UK. The venue had been used the previous two years for half IM events, both of which had Hawaii qualifying slots, and both run by TriUK this year's organiser.

My family and I had camped in the castle grounds for the half IM last year and we were all keen to do so again this year. The resident farmer opens up a couple of fields brings in portable washroom facilities, puts up a marquee and provides hot meals, and this year must have attracted close to a thousand campers for the weekend. It works brilliantly and as long as the weather's OK I'd highly recommend it. The best fun was watching Robert and Sarah (my kids) make water rockets out of plastic drinks bottles which were fired into the air using a track pump…..just the job in a crowded campsite!

As usual for a big event like this, registration and bike racking was on Saturday before the race on Sunday. Many of us arrived on the Friday and the race pasta party was that night. Competitors got in free, but guests had to have pre-paid tickets - not worth doing in my experience as you get much better value and certainly better service going out for a meal. In the end I went along with some friends and the family went to get a Chinese take-away.

I can't begin to describe what a total disaster the pasta party was. I've learned not to expect us Brits to cater for crowds as well as the Americans or Continental Europeans, but even by the standards of my low expectations this "party" sunk to new depths. I'm sure that many of the problems were caused because the organisers had sent out an e-mail to competitors asking whether we'd be attending and how many guests we'd bring. Of course not everyone replied. I expect very few replied. The organisers should have known that. And even accounting for the fact that they got more people than they expected, the logistics of the event were shambolic and the food…well, it was honestly unbelievably bad. What was worse for most people was that all the food stalls outside of the pasta party tent had shut down so there was no food to be had anywhere. Luckily the Chinese had just arrived when I got back to the tent!

Saturday sadly lacked atmosphere. The expo area had few exhibitors - the only tri-related vendors being TriUK and Power Bar - the latter were promoting their new, cereal bar but weren't giving any samples (at least when I was around) and weren't giving them out during the race. I won't be trying them then. There didn't even seem to be as much going on as there had been for the half IM the previous year. It was especially disappointing compared to the buzz and excitement of the big European races.

What did add excitement was that our BTS supporters arrived bearing embarrassing t-shirts and glitzy hats. Many thanks to Glynys and Karen who not only made the long journey down to Dorset but had organised cheerleaders for race day.

Race day dawned. The start time had originally been posted as 7.00, but at some stage was brought forward to 6.00, with transition opening at 4.30am. Yawn! This was probably to do with policing and road closures, but the weather should have been taken into consideration when making this decision. Two years ago the half IM start was delayed by a couple of hours because of mist on the lake. Surprise, surprise - the same thing happened again.

The public address system was inaudible in transition, so we only got to know what was going on via 'Chinese whispers' - first hearing that there'd be a 20 minute delay, then getting held in transition for an hour or more, then moving down to the gantry at the lake only to be held for another hour. The PA system could be heard down there, and the MC was doing a great job of keeping the mood upbeat, but we got virtually no information about what was happening to the race. Eventually we got into the water just before 8.00am.

There was a 200m swim to the start, where we all gathered - most of trying hard NOT to get to the front. Because I was reasonably well back I missed the false start, and don't know exactly what happened. Some people thought it had started and had to be dragged back, thus delaying things even more. Anyway, once the race started we forgot all about the waiting and concentrated on not drowning. 1,400 people in a relatively narrow channel meant that pushing and shoving was to be expected; what I hadn't anticipated was that it would continue pretty well all the way round, especially at the turn points. Still, I think I gave as good as I got and my bilateral breathing came in useful for keeping an eye on people getting too close.

After two laps it was out of the swim, through the transition tents and onto the bike. The advantage of the delayed start was that the sun was up and the air was warm so no one was bothering with long sleeves or arm-warmers. The bike course was in two sections: the first went south out of Sherborne towards Dorchester, two loops at the end of the road, and then back along the same road into Sherborne. (A bit like a lollipop, but going twice round the end part.) The second section was exactly the same format, but going north out of Sherborne. There was nothing particularly tough about the course - no
huge hills, no cobbles, no U-bends - but it certainly wasn't an easy route. It was undulating all the way, with lots of twists and turns making it hard to keep up speed. It was a very pretty, scenic route though, the traffic management was brilliant and there were a surprising number of supporters out in the towns and villages.

The major problem with the bike course as I saw it was that there was no process for checking whether riders had really done 2 loops at each end. We were wearing chips but there were no mats out to read them. At least we could have been handed bands at the end of each loop to show that we'd completed the course. I'm sure that some people (not necessarily deliberately) didn't do the full course. Particularly on the second section I bet a number of people on their first loop followed riders who were on their second loop - the sign posting wasn't especially bold or clear. I've been told about one guy who got back to transition, realised that he hadn't cycled the complete distance, got back on his bike and did the complete second half again! And he finished the race within the time limit. That's real sportsmanship.

My own bike leg went very well - in retrospect, too well. I overtook about 20 girls and was overtaken by very few men. I didn't count how many men I overtook! At 100 miles I was still feeling good. At 105 miles I was losing it. By the time I entered transition I was used up. I could not imagine running 100yds, never mind going out to run a marathon.

Fortunately I had friends in transition who were there to help. Howard says he saw me come in on my bike looking awful. I don't even remember him catching me, getting a drink for me and passing me over to another friend, Glynne, who sat me down and gave me a good talking to! After 12 minutes of "Can I / Can't I" I decided I'd give it a go. After all, I reckoned I could walk most of it and still get round in the cut off time.

The run was a long out-and-back which I expected to be devoid of support but in fact was amazingly lively. Great supporters in Sherborne, with the cheerleaders and other BTS friends; lots of people out in Yeovil; hugely encouraging drinks station crew and a the odd word from the runners on their way back as we were running out. Unfortunately the organisers had made no provision for the fact that many people would be running back in the dark - most races provide light-sticks or small torches. Much of the route wasn't lit and coming back through a school a number of us got completely lost and had to re-trace our steps to find our way out.

The finish was a relief, as you'd expect. But even there the organisers seemed to have cut corners to save money. No blankets or warm coverings for the runners coming in, no hot drinks (there had been some but I queued up for 10 minutes only to be told that there was no hot water and wouldn't be any for some time) and the only food was an occasional pizza which was immediately snapped up by the ravenous hoards. Again, a huge contrast with the other races I've done where there have been wonderful facilities for the finishers.

So, I got the medal and discovered that you had to queue to get a T-shirt, and that they'd run out of my size and that anyway it wasn't really a "finisher" T-shirt. I'd stopped caring by then.

In retrospect I'm glad I did it - the first ever UK IronMan race. Would I do it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it to others? Definitely not. If you're thinking of doing your first IronMan race then go overseas - Austria, Zurich, Frankfurt or, if the budget stretches that far, go to the US. You'll get more action, more razamataz, and generally more for your money. If you want low budget then do the Longest Day or one of the half-distance races that you can find around the country. Maybe TriUK will learn from this one and make improvements for future races. Maybe - but I'd wait a few years before expecting it to be up to scratch.

Julia Hodkinson


[ Back to Race Reports ]