That race! Disaster or a great experience?

Well here I am after 26 hours of travelling back home and updating the blog. So how was it? A hard day would be an understatement. The night before the race was OK, got everything done in the afternoon, racked the bike and transition bags and went to the compulsory race brief. We had an early dinner at about 1800 hrs some nice pasta and garlic bread. That night I tried to go to bed early but couldn't sleep, I was still awake at 1 am and managed to sleep until 2 am. Unfortunately Anthea thought we were 2 hours ahead and phoned to wish me luck at what she thought was 4 am as that's what time I told her we were getting up. It was only 3 am !!! and I couldn't get back to sleep so I reckon I had an hours sleep. At 4 it was up for breakfast, a tin of rice pudding followed by toast and jam, coffee and a cup of tea. We walked the 1km to transition from the hotel sipping on the energy drink and mentally preparing for the day ahead. It looked like it was going to be a good one with no wind and warm weather. After checking the bike over I changed into the wetsuit which had been repaired after tearing the sleeve on the Friday training swim. We lined up on the beach as the sun started to come up on the horizon. At 7 am the canon sounded and we were off. The first 450 meters would be rough to the first 90 degree turn and I was right, I've not been that badly beaten up in a race for years! At turn 1 there was then a 600 meter stretch and it was only half way across that stretch before I got settled into bilateral breathing. After 29 Min's I was on the beach run before starting lap 2. This was a better lap for being in control as the 1500+ field had spread out nicely. I enjoyed the second lap and had time to think about the fact we were in the Indian ocean with no shark nets, just 2k from the harbour where the great white was photographed 2 weeks before the race. At the end of lap 2 I ran up the beach and crossed the timing mat in 1 hr 2 Min's 35 secs. Happy with that as I had been regularly hitting 1 hr 4 min in the pool in training. A good transition of 3 min 38 saw me on the bike and down the road to start the 3 60km bike laps. The first lap was uneventful and I felt good to go and confident. On lap 2 I felt as though I was overheating and started to struggle to take on any nutrition (food/gel/drinks). By the end of lap 2 I had been sick and couldn't get anything down. As lap 3 began I knew it was not going to be a good day, I continued to cycle and at one point I was yawning a lot and actually cycled off the course onto the grass and gravel at the roadside. It certainly woke me up a bit! I was feeling the full effects of heat stroke, dizziness, tiredness and nausea. As I got back to T2 I passed the bike to the bike staff and ended up with a 5 hr 36 bike time, I grabbed my stuff to prepare for the run. In the changing tent the helpers were trying to assist but I told them to leave me while I cooled off, I asked for headache tablets and they went and got me some. I felt like I was in there for an age but in fact was only in T2 for 6 Min's 25. I didn't want to start the run as I knew it would be hell with no nutrition and already badly dehydrated, however I hadn't come all this way not to finish either. I set off for a very long afternoon of run/walking. I ran for the first 6k I think and then started the first of many walks. The sun was baking me alive, I looked for shaded areas so I could get out the sun for a while but couldn't find any. On lap 2 of the run I was being sick again, after a couple of times I finally found a shaded area at the road side and had to lie down before I fell down as I was so dizzy. A race referee stopped and offered to take me to the medical staff but I was having none of it and got up and started walking again. I managed to run a few kilometers at a time and did eventually get to the last couple of k as the bay was starting to light up with the thunder storm heading for us. Crossing the line in 12 hours and 6 Min's in the dark was believe it or not a good feeling. I was pleased that I didn't give in and made it round. The next part of the adventure was still to come, as I lay in the recovery tent which was about 60 meters long, from out of nowhere the wind picked up severely and after a couple of minutes blew the recovery tent down. I was sat on the side that lifted up and received a thump on the elbow by one of the pegging down eyes. I have a quality bruise on my arm now. There was fortunately just a few with minor injury's but no one seriously hurt. It then turned into a big storm, wind, lightning, thunder and rain. I got back to the hotel, had a shower and slept for an hour and a half. I woke at 2230 and Mat and I went for a coffee and then up to the finish to see the clock hit 17 hours. One guy was on the red carpet at 16 hours 59 minutes and 50 seconds. He was in a bad way and missed the cut off by 12 seconds! No medal or t-shirt for him the poor sod. So that was Ironman South Africa in a nutshell. A bad race? possibly, but its still an Ironman finish! An experience not to be forgotten.