Race Report: Haugesund 70.3 Ironman

By Ivan Eustace

Lying in bed, 8pm the night before race reading, gear beside me on floor, race belt, gels, wetsuit, timing chip TIMING CHIP!!!…No timing chip, I somehow didn’t pick one up when I left registration, C**P! I decided to hop in car and head to transition and hope the timing chip guys were still there. We were staying in the main city centre about 500 metre from the finish line, transition was by the lake about 1km from town. I was happy to see some familar faces at the transition, the same timing chip guys had done the Iron kid event the day before and there was no issue!

It was at the Ironkids race the day before I got most of my inspiration for race day. I knew Yazmine would be keen to enter and be competitive but what surprised myself and Madree was Jonah showed a interest. Jonah would normally be on the side line practising WWE moves like tombstone, 619, backbreaker or the dreaded choke hold! But no, he wanted to race! Madree in shock rushed down to the expo to buy him a wetsuit while Yazmine the PRO she is was trying to convince him not to wear one, he would lose too much time in transition.

The warm Thailand blood in Jonah won through and he pulled on the wetsuit and towed the line. While most other kids opted for the start in the water Jonah went for the dive start. It was a 50metre lake swim in a dark black lake followed by a 600metre run.

He seemed so calm on the outside even though I knew his heart was probably beating hard on the inside, I was also hoping he wouldn’t spot the many fish swimming around in the water through his dark goggles.

The gun went off and hejumped in like a total pro, from there on he was my hero of the Haugesund 70.3 Ironman. Head down he swam like his life depended on it and opened up a sizeable lead. I dashed to the other end and his light frame was a definite advantage. With one hand I could reach in and haul him out. Mum and dad were both on hand to peel the wetsuit off and he took off like a Brownlee out of transition.

He never lost a stride on the run and even up the pace over the last 100metre running to a very credible 2nd in the under 8 age bracket.

Yazmine then towed the line and ran to a gutsy 3rd in a competitive under 12 age bracket. It was all the inspiration I needed and it was all I thought about during the race.

Back to the hotel and some nice rest before the early morning start the day before, or so I thought, being located so near the city centre has its disadvantages, the Norwegians can party right into the night and they are load!.. About 4 hrs of broken sleep had and about 4 hours more than my wife Madree had and she wasn’t racing! She couldn’t go down the noise was too much. I recall one pritty loud domestic!

Alarm went off at 6am but I decided to sleep on for about another 10min, then I grabbed some breakfast, my gear and headed up in the car. I decided to stay away from the bus transfer, I knew I would only get caught up in the worry and stress that was onboard the bus and waist energy. The day before I had picked out a car park beside the transition and that’s where I went. It WAS OVER CAST AND WET but due to clear up half way through the cycle and it look like the wind would be on my back for the first half of the bike leg.

Left my wet suit in car and into transition I went at about 7am …my wave start was 8.20 and the first of two waves went at 8.00am. I had left myself a few jobs to do to keep me busy and not thinking of things. I filled my water bottles, and strapped on my 4 gels and pumped my tyres, I brought my own pump for the simple reason…IT WORKS and generally the ones in transition don’t. Ask Juan from Uruguay, he couldn’t get any to work and not even mine worked on his bike, we were busy for what seemed 10mins trying to inflate his tyres, even I was worried for him, we eventually got a bike mechanic and he managed to inflate them .! I had one more look at my blue bag location and red bag location and off I went to the car to get changed into wetsuit.

I decided to leave the last toilet stop until wave 1 had moved out to lake as there would be less of a queue. I think while seated on the toilet I heard the Norwegian horn sound for the start of race and Wave 1…WHAT A BRILLIANT LACIDIVE !… A kilo light I march with the rest of wave 2 out to the lake start. There was approximately 700 in each wave. I knew this was going to be one almighty mess but I had a plan for it from my visit to the course on the Friday. I would start to the far left away from the mess to the right. Everyone hugging the shortest possible line. I figured I would get a clean enough swim to the top buoys and try get ahead of the mess behind. IT WORKED! I had further to swim but I got a nice clean swim, sighting was difficult due to the rain and the over cast day but I had picked out houses and land marks from my visit the two days before. I could see a pod of swimmers from my wave racing off but I knew only half of that pod would stay away and half would come back to me.

Around the top markers and I was prepared for mayhem and there was a little, kicked a few times, once in the face but the goggles stayed on and around we went. I was picking off swimmers who were falling off the back of the lead pod but I wasn’t catching it, I wasn’t worried as I was happy with my pace and I was getting a nice clean swimming on the downward leg. Around the 3 bottom markers we went and back up the lake again, it was a zig zaggy type course. On the way back up the lake I started to see WHITE CAPS, WAVE 1. Ok Not great, I decided to up the sighting as to not run into any but it didn’t work, managed to run into one or two and for the first time I started to worry I wasn’t on pace. Around the top markers for the last time and back down to the swim exit. As I looked up I could see the swim exit about 500 metres at bottom of lake but I could also see tonnes of wave one. Again rather than go the direct line I veered to the left and opted for the clear swim. About half way down it opened up and I up the cadence to the swim exit. Off with the wetsuit and I quickly look down at the watch ….28min…..I’ll take that…first job done!

Garmin Data Distance 1.95km
Ironman course data
Split Time 28.09 Pace 1.28 per 100
Avg Swim Cadence: 35 strokes/min
Max Swim Cadence: 59 strokes/min

There was a fantastic tunnel of noise as we exited the swim and headed onto the astro turf football pitch that was transition. And the blue bag was right where I left it. On with the helmet, and off with the wetsuit and off I went to get bike and exit transition. My plan was to break the bike leg down into 4 stages or 4 x 22.5km. Try to do each 22.5km in about 40min or there or there about’s. I knew on training rides on slightly hilly courses I could bring in the bike at about 2hrs 40min. I had driven and biked some of the Norway course on the Friday and I was thinking 2hr 45min would have been good as it was a hilly course. Breaking down the course into 4 segments was also a way of holding my focus on the bike as I don’t work of power yet.

The bike course was one big 50km loop north of Haugesund before you re entered Haugesund and did a 20km loop south of Haugesund. 10km into the I had navigated nicely 3 hills leaving haugesund and the legs left good, the road surface was also fantastic and I could see on the flats that my speed was plus 40km without much effort. First 22.5km done in about 38min…nice and at that point I decided to e asy up a tad. I was conscious not to push it too much. At that point 3 riders came by me shifting a little faster and more to keep me focused and working (not to hard)

I decided to keep them in my sights… It worked nicely and I didn’t the next sector in a similar time but I lost the guys at about 45km….the roads were getting narrower and more packed as we caught allot of the first wave. Put I still had a focus, my next sector and getting back to Haugesund, also wondering would I see my family…I was running a good bit ahead of schedule ….

Coming into Haugesund and I can remember the crowds were out in force and the raining started to stop and it was brightening up ….as I went around one of the roundabouts I heard a call from Madree and Yazmine…a quick fist pump and I kept going..it gave me a great lift….they tunnelled the bike course right through the centre of Haugesund and the noise and music was fantastic coming through. We were soon out the other side and onto our second loop a smaller 20km…It was not long into this second loop I had a real scare, riding up alongside a slower rider he had a wobble right in front of me and hit the deck hard, parts of the bike going everywhere. Amazingly I missed everything but it rocked me. I remember a strong rider coming by me and to re focus I decided to try hang with him to the finish. There was a tough finish to the course with a nice killer hill at the end. Into transition and there was a guy there to take my bike…how cool…and there was someone to give me my red bag..race like a PRO!

Garmin Data Distance 89.0KM
Ironman course Data Distance 90km
Split time 2hr 32min 18sec
Pace 35.46 km/h
Average Speed 34.9km
Elevation Gain 906metres

I took my time in T2, took a seat, popped on the runners, fuelled up with a bit of banana and water and off I went. First real problem occurred within the first KM of the run. I need to pee and the pressure and pain was bad enough to worry me. PLEASE GO AWAY ! I focussed on everything else, pace, runners ahead and just hoped it wouldn’t get any worse. It was a hilly course but at the same time in my mind I felt it was fast, it reminded me of the Athlone run course, one or two kicker hills, some long flats and a uphill drag that you had to come back down. 2 x 10km loops and it was a 1km drop down onto the course from T2.Again

I broke the course down into 3 x 7km and aimed to do them in 30min each, this kept the focus and with the hills it’s easier to monitor than a constantly jumping pace on watch. I felt really good in the early stages of the run course, comfortable at my pace and I got a nice cadence going in the legs. I brought the first segment in at about 32min, a little slow but I felt the next segment should be quicker with a long downhill drag in there that I had just climbed. It was 31min. This gave me great confidence. The legs felt good, and now it was a matter of ramping it up for the last segment slowly and leaving it all out there. My Pee pain had now gone totally and I could smell the finish. There was a guy tracking the whole run just ahead of me, maybe 300 metres, I focused on realing him in, more to focus the mind and not thinking about the pain. I caught him with about 2km to go and he hung on for a bit. The last 1km was all out, I crossed the line in a sprint with another guy from the wave ahead.

Garmin Data Distance 20.93KM
Ironman Course Data Distance 21.1km
Split time 1hr33min 01sec Pace 4.24 km 
Average Pace 4.26km
Elevation Gain 206metres

Overall Ironman Splits 
Swim: 28:09
T1: 2.09
Bike: 2:32:18
T2: 1:47
Run: 1:33:01
Overall: 4:37:24

We had a great weekend in Norway and it really is a special place. Logistically it’s not super easy to get to as you have to route through Oslo Airport which is under construction and is a challenge. Swim is a little tight but nothing to worry about, it’s a top class race and one I would recommend.