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Juergen surfaces for breakfast looking like he’s about 5 seconds from bed and 2 seconds from sleep. Phil Jenkins arrives; he’s been our coach, mentor and great friend over the past months of training. Today he’s here to see us over both lines - now nothing more can be done. There are too many people in the restaurant for this extraordinary hour but then today is no ordinary day.

As Juergen manoeuvres the 9 seater boogie bus into the packed car park –we are all quiet. Its time to look inside, time to gather and reflect. I grab my wet suit, my T1 bag and my after-race bag…that seems like an irrelevance to me now AFTER RACE – that’s a different life: today I am not Donncha or Donny, today I am 2465.

Even though it’s 6:00 am we struggle to get across the bridge that straddles the broad shipping canal in Roth. The crowds throng every vantage spot and despite this noise and excitement we’ll be in that water in 90 minutes. All going well, we’ll be swimming under this bridge to turn at the huge red buoy and leave the water. Arriving at the start and T1 zone we finally say our goodbyes leaving Phil and enter the zone, finally alone.

2465 and my Transition Pro, racked since yesterday. I remove the yellow bike bag, recheck my bike, mounting my Garmin 705, helmet and shades - ready. Pulling my wetsuit over my bib shorts and tri top, I drop off my T1 bag and after-race bag. Countdown now as the excitements mounts, the fireworks go off as the Pros and elites set off. I see Juergen and Gunnar as we assemble in our waves, with minutes to go manly hugs, nervous milky smiles - see you at the finish line. Finally saying that felt odd, knowing that it could be 15 hours from now; not knowing what lay ahead and how much pain might be involved.

Wow I’m nervous as I put on my goggles and enter the cool early morning water – one of 3500 others on this day of days. I swim to the start line hanging back and to the right in the 500 of my wave who are threading water and waiting. I try to keep calm, pace my breathing, remember to get my glide on, find my mojo through the 3.8K swim that lies ahead, Then the blast of the horn, the start line rope lifts. It starts!

Wow I’m actually doing this.

This is real..

It’s July 2008, Sat the 5th to be precise and my head hurts. Too much wine and cheese last night in the Clubhouse, the start of the Tour celebrated with too much exuberance AND why, why, why , why , why did I say yes to that belligerent German, Herr Stetter. Every Club run for the last couple of months he’s been banging on at me about doing an Ironman.. “ Come on Donny, you know we have a year to get ready” … “ Sure Juergen and its just an Ironman, just a 3.8K swim, 180K bike oh yeah, and then a marathon to finish it off – do I look like a complete eejit?” After last night, apparently yes.. Though I suppose in vino veritas, I was compelled by the magnitude of the task, inexorably drawn by the sheer scale of it.. so while the wine helped, deep down this was something I wanted to do. but still something that terrified me. That week I bought a wetsuit and the following week I entered the Roth Challenge 2009 an Ironman distance race in southern Germany. This was going to change my life for the next year.

Open water swimming was tricky - my first expedition in the local Box End lake was a fairly arduous task. I think it took me about 28 minutes to do 750m . Phil argued I covered a lot more distance though on account of my zig zagging as holding any kind of line in the water evaded me . Swimming was by far my worst discipline. Over the summer of 2008 I spent more time in the lake and slowly began to improve. Over the winter Phil coached Juergen, Isobel, Janice and I in Robinson Pool – speed and volume increased though swimming remained something that needed work.

While I was swimming, running and cycling in the Autumn and early winter, I really didn’t start training in earnest until December 2008. With 30 weeks to go, I set out a very structured training program which would see my training volume going from an initial 8 hours a week to 17 hours a week at its maximum. I threw in running the London marathon as a training run …not breaking my training program to rest and carrying a calf injury – I did 4:04 and narrowly missed a sub 4 which would have been nice.
I spent a weekend relearning how to swim coached by Robin Brew an Olympic medalist and former British Champ. I consumed Joe Friel’s Triathlete Training Bible; became a disciple of Don Fink and Being Iron-Fit (though often I felt Iron-Heavy or another rhyming adjective to Fit) became fanatical about training in Zones 1, 2 and 4 and avoiding Zone 3 and junk miles. Phil set up weekend-away training , regular brick work sessions and long rides. From late April 2009 onwards, my weekends became 8am swims then bike and run – Sunday a swim then 100+ miles on the bike. Doing an Ironman is not just about an event or a single day or a race; it’s a disciplined and structured approach to preparing your body and your mind for an enormous challenge, it’s a change in lifestyle.

I emerged from the Roth canal water in 1:28, my target was to do better than 1:40 so I was well chuffed. I grabbed my T1 bag and entered the transition tent: my strategy from the off was to spend time in the transitions, make sure I was set up for the next discipline. So almost 10 minutes later, I left the T1 zone on my bike: new aero helmet perched on my head. There is an adage, never, ever do anything different on race day – I bought a red and white Challenge Roth aero helmet the previous day; had a quick ride wearing it and then set out on the 112 mile bike leg with the new hat: not a good idea, it chafed like hell (so the adage is still good ). The bike course was tougher than I expected – the hills steeper and the descents gnarlier. But the crowds in all those small villages were amazing, the support was truly moving at time; on one of the tougher hills, the Solar Berg (see photo) the crowds close in around you as you climb, shouting and remonstrating – this felt great and really lifted my spirits especially on the second loop... closest I'll ever get to knowing how the pros feel on the grand tour climbs.

My only bad patch was between 80 and 90 miles on the bike where I had terrible stomach cramps from all the gels and my legs felt like lead. I pushed on, focused on the end in mind and rode the bad patch as best I could . In the end I did a 6:28 bike and had wanted 6:00. My average HR was 134 with a max of 168. Again T2 was 9:54 ..almost enough time to make a cuppa and a sandwich.

I enjoyed the marathon much more than I expected and ran the last few kilometers at the fastest pace as was I was then chasing a sub 13 hour time. This was never a goal but became an opportunity. I did the run in 4:43 and average HR of 138, it was great fun passing so many folks at the end; each one in their own private world battling the Challenge.

For me doing an Ironman was as much about the journey as it was the destination. For me, success was to finish and enjoy it; and if I did a good time then that was a bonus. Support from friends and family helps enormously - Janice and family helped so much in the months running up to Roth and then spent 13 hours worrying on the day. I had a huge advantage in having Phil Jenkins who coached me and Juergen over the winter and was with us in Germany though the IM helping us with the final prep and celebrating with us at the finish line. We owe Phil a huge debt of gratitude for giving so freely of his time and huge experience. Having Juergen and a few others as training buddies was great and really helped motivation at the inevitable low points in training.

Juergen finished in 11:54, a monster time but he enjoyed all of it too.

My overall time was 13:01:18; not great on the scale of things but I am well pleased.

I can’t pretend to be in a position to give advice except to say that if you are thinking of doing an Ironman then do it for the right reasons: train hard, race easy and never underestimate all the things that can go wrong but hopefully don’t... its all in the preparation: both physical and mental.

So….will I do it again??

A resounding YES…. Definitely.

My next IM will probably be 2011, I'll take a similar approach but now know what to expect and how I'll improve during 2010 ..I’ll do a few more "short" triathlons first though.