I finished the bike feeling great, and left transition knowing I had plenty of time to do the run, so I didn't bother putting my watch on as I didn't want to keep looking at it and putting pressure on myself.
The first lap went good, and running past everyone out there supporting the athletes was a neat feeling. Even though I felt good, things were starting to go a bit pear shaped without me knowing.
Going back to the bike, every second drink had been Replace which was fine from the nutrition/hydration side of things. I had used it in training sometimes, with no problems and made the decision a week out of Ironman to use it on the day.
By the time I hit the run I was over the sweet taste of Replace and made the mistake of drinking water only on the first lap with 2 pieces or orange. Big mistake - by the first aid station on the second lap the energy was zapped so I decided to walk for a while, by the time I got to the 3rd aid station I was pretty light headed and my thoughts were 'I'm not going to finish this, and my legs are fine' Was a bit 'pissed' really thinking I'd have to pull out and it wasn't my legs. However thanks to the great support of Jacky James and Steve & Katrina Gray on the Rainbow Drive aid station, they said start taking coke. Best advice ever. Coke it was, and it kicked in pretty fast. I decided I had the time so would walk the remainder of the 42km.
Around this time, most of supporters knew something had happened, but by the time I was finishing the 2nd lap I was feeling much better. Thanks to lots of my supporters, I had someone to walk with for the last lap. The walking pace picked up, and along with the talking pace - apparently mostly from me - as I think Danial Frost's comment was 'Nothing wrong with you - as I was talking so much, no one else could get a word in!
Hydration wasn't a problem, as I pretty much had a loo stop most aid stations. Heading along the water front for the final lap was pretty amazing, and someone asked if I was going to run the finishing shoot. Once I hit the last aid station, and as my supporters left to head to the finishing shoot, I decided to try running from there - and I nailed it, no problems at all, so an easy run to the end of the straight and once I turned into that finishing shoot the pace picked up. As luck would have it, I had the red carpet to myself, and finished my first Ironman with arms in the air and to Mike Rileys words "You are an Ironman". I received my medal and towel over my shoulders, so was now officially an Ironman - YES!!!!
On the other side of the finish was Zane with the video camera - typical of him to have got in with the media.
After a few hugs over the barrier with some friends, I was ushered into the marque to be weighed - haha I took my towel off as I was sure I didn't loose weight. (We were weighed at registration, and if we lost a certain amount, we would be into the medic tent and possibly put on a drip). I did loose a bit - all 500grams, so I was taken to the food and massage end. I ended up having a quick massage on my shoulders, grabbed a bit of food and headed out to see everyone.
Did I have any regrets about walking some of the 42km - NO - my goal was to finish Ironman around the 16 hours and I finished in 16:12 so was very happy. The swim and bike had gone really well, much better than I had expected, and I had run about 16kms off the bike.
We walked out to the road and watched a few more come in, heard the countdown to midnight and the cut off knowing a few hadn't made the cut off. As we were heading to the car, I found out one of out Roto-Neke friends was still on the course, so I walked out a bit to see if I could see her. Not far from the finish, there was Mel Rika determined to finish, so after cheering her on and knowing she had support I headed to the car. Mel Rika you are an Ironman!! Conveniently it was outside McDonalds. I wasn't hungry to I saw Sherryn heading out eating chips. So Zane lost his chips to me:)
Back home the bubbles were opened and I think I managed 2 sips and by 1.30am it was bed time.
The next day, I was a bit stiff, but surprisingly all good, and was first up. Guess those supporters had had a long hard day on Saturday.
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