Ironman Dirtraction style
What a long week it has been! Last weekend ironman was truly a brand new experience especially when you’re not a tri-athlete. The question is what do mountain bikers do during an ironman event? Well they ride their mountain bikes of course. To be specific we were professional escorts for the running leg!
We promptly arrived at the floating pontoon at 3:00am to get briefed and take a recce around the running course. Most of us were walking sleepy and it took a real while before we were warned up, but warm up we did once we got on our bikes. HM got all our gear sorted, maps drawn out and a briefing from the race director. Our main roles as escorts (that doesn’t sound right I know) was to clear the way for the top 3 men and top 3 women during the running leg – as there would be a likelihood that they would experience a lot of “traffic”.
I have to say that those guys could really run as the lead ironman was averaging a pace of 17.4km/h with the second place doing 16.8km/h. The ladies were not too far off with lead lady keeping to 14.8km/h and the second lady doing 13km/h. I have to say that it was great fun and really a different experience seeing how determined and focused everyone was. Maybe I might even be tempted to get out the running shoes from the storeroom and get rid of the dust and head for a run…. Or maybe I’ll get the bike gear on and hit the trails. Hmmmm sounds better already. See you at the trails soon
Ride safe
Wayne