Spectating

I am currently in the middle of that frustrating exercise that is spectating an Ironman from afar. Ironman has done a lot to improve their coverage over the years, but there isn't a lot they can to remove the frustration of staring at a small screen for hours waiting for the next split to appear. Pain we have all felt I am sure.

Why am I spectating an Ironman? Well, as I have written about a few times, over the past 6 months I have been getting a couple of my athletes ready for the first Ironman. That first Ironman is Ironman Austria and it is happening right now, so obviously I am busy watching.

So far so good I have to say. They are both on the run, Owen has just passed the 23km mark of the run and Hayley is on her way to the 17km mark, both are about bang on schedule, but they are also about to enter the real tough bit of an Ironman, if the wheels are going to fall off, they are going to fall off now. They have done the training and they have raced smart so there is no reason to expect a collapse, however, this is Ironman, so anything can happen. Fingers crossed the next couple of hours continues to pass smoothly for them.

If things continue as expected Owen is on track for 11 hours and Hayley for about 12 hours 20. If you use the old rule of thumb of double your 70.3 time and add 30 to 60 minutes then both those times are about bang on. Which is pretty good going for their first one. If they do more of these I have no doubt they will improve significantly on those times, but as is often the way with new endeavours, the first time is all about learning. And so far it would seem they are learning their lessons very well indeed.

Time for bed for me unfortunately, which means I won't be able to see them cross the line, but I am looking forward to hearing all about their first Ironman adventure in the morning. No matter what happens in the next 20km they should be really proud of what they have achieved so far. I really do hope the next 20km goes as well as the first though, I would love to hear that crossed the line feeling positive and strong with smiles on their faces.

Now on a completely different topic, I am about to go on a holiday with my family for about 2 weeks. We are going camping so internet and electricity may be a bit hard to come by so I am not making any extreme promises about keeping up the blog, good chance there won't be much for the next 12 days. Once we are back in civilization though the blog will return to its regularly scheduled programming.

Hayley just passed 17km right on schedule. Phew. Now to wait for the next update.