After finally figuring out how to get to the Island of Goto in Nagasaki prefecture I was off for the Ironman Japan.
In the information for the race it said “Goto, Nagasaki” and I thought that was a slogan for Nagasaki (i.e. I <3 NY), which would have been very easy to get to. It turned out, obviously, that Goto is an island of its own, west-southwest of Nagasaki and Fukuoka – which are the two cities that have connections with Goto either by air or ferry. It is not one of the Okinawa islands, it is one of the Nagasaki islands.
A couple of weeks before the race (or the event rather, since I am told that as long as you don’t go sub 9 hours in an Ironman it is not a race) we got an e-mail from the Mayor of Goto, informing us that due to the Pandemic with the new influenza, the H1N1, they had to make some adjustments regarding the race and during the days leading up to the race.
That meant that they cancelled the Carbo loading dinner as well as the mandatory race briefing. They offered a short race info though, that was good and sufficient. And with all that good Japanese food and loads of rice in every streetcorner, we did not really miss the Carbo loading dinner neither.
Japan is an island nation and Goto is a small island so you have to understand their cautionness. They checked our temperature manually as soon as we got off the plane and it all seemed to be fine.
On race morning we had to do the body marking ourselves and during the run, the aid stations were self serving, due to the risk of spreading the illness.
All of this worked out really well.
So what about the race?
Well, it was my first attempt at an Ironman, having done my homework with three 70.3 races before this and also putting in the hours in training – still I was a bit nervous the day before. As usual I did not know for what. Probably just not knowing what was going to happen.
Getting ready for the swim and a mass start with 1026 athletes at once was as exhilarating as you would think. The water was warm, 22.8 with an overcast. Perfect. Wetsuit swim, but obviously no strippers, again due to the H1N1.
It was a floating start, and when the gun went off the full combat race was full on right away. Now 3.8 kilometers of ocean swim is a long way, especially if you consider that a year ago I had trouble swimming across a 50 meter pool. The day before the race I realized I had not given much thought to how far 3.8 kilomter of open water swimming really was; it is far – I had to pee three times, that’s how far it is – As if almost 23° water in a wetsuit wasn’t hot enough, anyway.
I had a good first lap even though I was off course a little bit towards the end, but a friendly Japanese guy on a surfing board came and got me and showed me the way back to the buoys. I did not check the time after the first lap, since I did not want to be influenced by neither a good time or a bad time, and I actaully managed not to look.
I thought that I could push a little harder on the second lap which I did, still feeling good but the second lap took me 5 minutes longer for some reason. I got out of the water running across the beach heading for showers thinking that I probably had an alright swim, I checked my watch and it said 1.25, which was 5+ minutes better than I had expected.
The bike leg started off on small country roads, flat and fairly easy, after around 40 ks it got a bit tougher when we were leaving the town of Fukue and heading out to the “real” country side where we were going to do two laps of ~55km each, riding along the ocean and over the mountains. It was a great course, with stunning views (I drove the course by car a couple of days before, that is partly why I know about the views – also if you check my time you can understand that I probably checked the views once or twice while on the bike as well.) A stunning bike course with great views often means a tough-ish ride though.
We had an out-and-back section with a U-turn 13 km into the first lap which was where I met Andy, the other “Bangkokian”, realizing then that he was already about 8 ks ahead of me. First I could not decide whether it was thanks to his racing wheels or because of bigger muscles and larger lungs that we had that situation so early in the race… ehh sorry, Event – very soon I decided on the latter.
Coming back after the U-turn part, the course got a lot tougher I thought, having been fairly fast and only demanding because of the technical decents up until then. Short steep climbs, long-ish gradient climbs.
Still perfect conditions though, overcast and warm weather as opposed to hot and sunny which was what it was like during the week leading up to the race.
All of Goto was out cheering us on it seemed, old people sitting on little chairs in their driveways banging on their pots and pans and yelling “Fighto, Fighto!” Amazing support. You would think then that only the old and the mentally ill would be out to cheer on Ironmen in the making – but kids, young adults and middle aged Japanese were all out along the roadside. It was fantastic.
I was tired a couple of times on the bike, on and off really. Usually a bit tired after going uphill for a while… 180 kilometers means you have enough time to have all sorts of feelings really. I was never that tired that I thought that I was not going to make it though, but I remember at one point thinking that I had to run a Marathon afterwards, was a bit intimidating. So I started thinking that I was just going for a run – any run. And it felt a lot better.
At the 96 kilometer mark, Luke McKenzie (Winner 2008 and again this year) and Cameron Watt, another Australian, passed be – or flew by me rather. With these guys I defintately decided it had to do with the racing wheels they were using, plus they started 2 minutes ahead of us on the swim so of course they had a couple of hours on me already (they were obviously on their second lap of the bike). I sat on Lukes wheel for a little while just so that I would make the Race DVD – but 12 seconds was probably not enough and those Japanese probably have som fancy editing software to make sure I don’t appear on the DVD anyway.
Oh well.
One lap later, I had a tiny bit of a bike break down, a spoke broke on my rear wheel and something happened to my front wheel so that both of them were rubbing against the break pads. I stopped to “fix” the spoke, and since I most likely was not a bike mechanic in a previous life this took me a little while – also realizing that with some of the bike mechanics that are on offer in Bangkok I might very well become a bike mechanic in my life to come.
I was thinking that if “The Antonator” had been standing there with his used racing wheels and having them on sale, I would gladly have paid $1200 right then and there. But he did not, and in retrospect I think that was good. Yes I slowed down a bit but I was also tired at 140k, also it may sound a bit contradictory to be slowing down due to not having any breaks, but the technical turns in combination with me being a very cautios rider made that happen. It also gave me a bit of a “rest”, so I think the wheel incident – which really was not an incident at all – was a blessing after all. I now had two wobbly wheels instead of two wobbly legs.
I finished the bike in good spirits even though it took me a little longer than I had expected, 6:42 is not flash, but I was in the changing tent putting my running shoes on and drinking a Japanese Red Bull so all was good.
The run was a bit of out and back deal a couple of times in the beginning, which was fine, and after that we started on a two loop route around Fukue, this means that T1 and T2 were in two different places far from each other. During the run I was amazed how good I felt, as if I had not been cycling at all before that. I know that besides having been very consistent with my run training I also have Coach Vinnie to thank for that, for teaching me the right techniques for the different sports.
I wanted to run the run, which I did. The first lap took me 2.06 apparently, again I did not check my watch. The second lap I expected to be a lot tougher and I thought I was going to feel pain in my legs and so forth, but it did not really happen. Did not even feel the need for the Special Needs stop at 25k. I did the second lap in 1.58.
Running up “Samurai street” and entering the Palace Grounds where the finish line was located was of course a great feeling. It was the end of a long day, an epic day and also it was the end of a few months of many hours of training, which was a lot harder at times than the actual race.
I finished the run in 4.04 and was very pleased with that, my total time was 12h13. At 13 minutes past the hour you always ask yourself “could I have gone any faster anywhere in order to break the magic Hour mark?”. That is a hypothetical question, so I actually avoid asking myself that.
As I said, two of us from Bangkok did the race, Andy finished in an amazing 10h20! What a fantastic effort on his side, also his first Ironman and I am sure he is very soon calling these things a “race” and not an “event”. Of course Andy has Vinnie as his coach as well. 
So all in all, Ironman Japan was a great experience for me, Japan and the Japanese were great. I stayed in a homestay which added to the experience. For the “Carbo Loading dinner” we went to ‘Grandma’ who had a living room equipped with multiple TV screens, several speakers and microphones – she served food and performed Karaoke for us. Priceless. With a direct flight from Bangkok to Fukuoka and then a 40 minute flight from there, it is easy to get to Goto. Good climate, crystal clear waters and great crowds, all this makes Japan a good option for anyone in SEA considering doing an Ironman, again, or for the first time.
IF you are considering doing an Ironman though, perhaps you should see a therapist first, I am not cheap but most people think it is worth it, my phone number is below.
To me, an Ironman Event is a family affair, which you can see in some of the pictures that I have enclosed links for. There is also a link for pictures from the Carbo-Loading Karaoke evening that I shared with a Philipino Triathlete that had scraped off the paint of his bike in order to make it lighter, truly inspirational.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frohrn/sets/72157620492098725/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frohrn/sets/72157620797062834/