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1st July 2011 - Ian becomes Quintuple Ironman

Ian Walsh took on one of the toughest challenges imaginable recently when he competed in and finished a Quintuple Ironman in the New Forest region of England.  We have many club members who have completed an Ironman over the last number of years but this race involved doing an Ironman every day in a row for 5 days! For those who are unsure what an Ironman is, it entails doing a 3.8k swim, 180k cycle followed by a 42k marathon run afterwards. 

Ian started this challenge last October when he started his training.  He had to slow things right down as the only way to get through this would be with endurance and not speed.  He admits he got fed up with the training by Feb. this year and took about 3 weeks off where he did nothing.  He started back again revitalised, and trained up until 4 weeks before the race where he then tapered back and did very little running and swimming, just doing a bit of cycling.  His toughest week of training involved doing 100mile cycle followed by a 17mile run every day for 5 days.  He was careful though and rested appropriately between these tough training weeks.  His longest training swim was only 3k though so he was a bit nervous here as each day he would be required to swim almost 4k.

Each day, the competitors had to be in the water for 6am (with a 22 hour cut off at 4am each morning before they started the next day).  The faster you completed each day, the more time you had to sleep and recover before the next day. The swim took place in a lake and they had to swim 13 laps to make up the distance.  The road surface for the bike was good but they soon got fed up with the scenery after doing 10 laps each day.  The run was very technical with tree roots under foot and steep ascents and descents for the 1mile loop which had to be done 26 times.  The surface also got very muddy after a short while.  They also had to bring head torches for the run as a lot of is would be ran in the dark.  If Ian had known just how hilly the course was beforehand, he said he would have done more hillwalking as training rather than running. 

Ian enjoyed the first 2 days which he completed in over 15hrs and 16hrs respectively.  It was the 3^rd day which he found the toughest.  The water temperature was very cold and he (as well as most of the other lean competitors!) found it hard to warm up afterwards so he spent 2 hours in his tent wrapped up in a sleeping bag to get warm before heading out on the bike. At this stage, his body also started to show the signs of the demands it was being put under as his knees and achilles started to give trouble.   

Even though this only took place a few weeks ago, the weather was cold enough that he wore most of his winter clothing for the bike and run and still found it hard to stay warm at times.  The run got so muddy that he wore his light army boots some days.

One of the most important things to do for the 5 days was to keep hydrated and fed.  The organisers provided some of the main meals like breakfast and dinner but the competitors could then eat and drink whatever else they wanted for rest of the day. For the swims on days 3, 4 & 5, he actually stopped during it and had some tea and jaffa cakes.

His Support Crew consisted of his girlfriend Leanne who basically ran around looking after him for the 5 days.  She was the one who prepared all his meals & snacks and brought them to him on the course, got his wetsuit dry for the start of each morning, got her face eaten by midges while waiting around, got him out of bed each morning and basically got him to the start line each day. She had no real training in this area, just learning as she went along.  He broke out in a heavy sweat one night, saturating the bed clothes and she actually swapped places with him so he could have the dry side and get some sleep!

The final day was the toughest.  His times for days 3 and 4 were 18hrs and 19hrs respectively so he was functioning on very little sleep.  He knew he was almost there but the weather conditions on the day just made it so tough.  There was torrential rain and strong winds which tired bodies found hard to battle against.  Ian had to stop after 4 laps on the bike and warm up in his tent for 2 hours before heading back out again. With about 2 miles to go on the bike he got a puncture but rather than waste time mending it, as well as being too tired to do so, he just cycled on the flat wheel to the finish. He got through the run with about 10mins to spare before the cut off time to finish in just under 22hours.  His total time over the 5 days was 91hours.  Out of the 6 competitors that started his race, only 3 finished.  (There were other competitors doing different races at the same time so there was always others around him).  A fantastic achievement that was as much a mental challenge as a physical challenge.

He would like to thank Leanne for all her patience and understanding and help during the race as he would not have gotten through it without her.

Even though it took him a few weeks to recover and stop limping around he has forgotten all the pain he went through and is now looking towards his next big challenge!!!.

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