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Ironman Ray

The morning after the night before feeling without the drinking and bad head but feeling a bit stiff

Got up at 3.15 a.m. with my brother picking me up at 4.00 a.m. and then off to collect Dave and arrived at Pennington Flash for 4.45 a.m.

In the open water at 5.50 a.m. with 1500 other mad people. The beginning of the 2.4 mile swim was rough at the start with everyone trying to find their own open water. In the end I enjoyed the swim and felt I had done very well this year.

Got changed and on the bike for the 112 mile cycle. After twenty miles felt my right hamstring pulling and began to get worried after forty miles. Pleased I brought some painkillers with me and took a couple with another couple towards the end of the cycle. The hamstring didn’t seem to get any worse thankfully although I didn’t really enjoy the last thirty miles.

Glad to get my feet on the ground for the marathon and set off through Rivington for the first four mile. Felt very much at home and the first twelve miles went quite well until the painkillers stopped working and the hamstring began to play up. 

At eighteen miles Dave caught up to me and I began to pick up the pace a bit.

Running along the river at Lostock by the railway line with only four miles to go I took out my mobile to phone Tricia and dropped it. It bounced a couple of time until it spashed in the water. I followed it into the river and spent some time recovering it to discover the brickwall bank was to high to climb. I walked a while until I reached a pipe which I was able to climb up and onto the footpath. What I must have looked like I don’t know but it can’t have been a prety picture. 

Thankfully I had it covered the mobile in cling film and it is still working!

Got to the finish line of my third and last Iron Man in 15 hours.

The support I recieved from start to finish was fantastic and overwhelming. Friends where dotted all round the cycling and running routes.