In 1977 a group of swimmers and runners, based in Hawaii, were having an argument. Who’s the fittest, runners or swimmers? One of their number even suggested that cyclists might be the fittest. To resolve the issue it was agreed to hold a continuous race combining the longest swimming, biking and running events in Hawaii. This is why the original distances were respectively 2.4, 112 and 26 miles. The distances involved are enough to put off the faint hearted. Add in hot, humid and windy conditions and the mildly doubtful will also opt out.

The inaugural Ironman race, with fifteen competitors, took place on the 18th February 1978. This established Hawaii as both the spiritual home and the location of the Ironman world championships.

33 years later I found myself in Kona, Hawaii with 1800 others getting ready for what is always a daunting challenge. The seven days prior to the race I’d spent here acclimatizing. This involved early morning swims in a choppy Pacific, bike rides to on windy, hot road and runs on

The people of Kona could not have been more welcoming and had transformed their town into an Ironman village. The atmosphere was great with the shops supporting Sponsor and triathlon product banners

Swim training prior to the event generally took place between 06:30 and 07:00 am with the pier packed with people around this time trying to obtain the free kit/-t-shirts being handed out. I gained two swim hats, goggles and a number of t-shirts, some them technical.

Race day was an early start with a queue to be stamped on both your arms with your number, be weighed, hand in your special needs bag and then head off to check your bike. The pros start half an hour earlier at 06:30 than the age grouper. The swim start is about 40m out in a wide line with two breaks for the plinths in the water with Ford cars placed on top of them. Ford being the lead sponsor.

A firing cannon signalled the start and all hell broke loose. I was on the inside which was a big mistake. The first three buoys I got battered and came with to a halt or close to a halt as a result of the volume of people. The swim is 1.2 miles out to sea, around a boat and back. You can see the boat from far away but it never seems to get any closer. At the turn around point I got my goggles knocked, so had to stop to adjust them. They still kept leaking so I had to stop several times on the way back to adjust them. This was not good news as you are swimming against the tide on the return and hence I was going backwards each time I stopped. However, whilst swimming back a pair of dolphins swam under me which made up for my struggles. I just wish I could swim half as fast they can!

Onto the bike which consists of an eight mile rolling loop to the South followed by a rolling out and back loop to the North. I had several stops early on to rinse out my eyes which were stinging from the sea water. After the 4th attempt they finally stopped stinging.

The final eighteen miles to the Northern turn around point is mainly up hill with cross winds except for the last seven miles which are uphill into a head wind. The wind was quiet strong and I was shifted sideways on a number of occasions. Thankfully the wind was not strong in Hawaii terms otherwise I would have been off the road. It was a pleasure for the seven miles after the turn around point were you had the wind behind you and gong down hill. This was a chance to refuel and spin the legs before hitting the cross winds again and further head wind on the way back to transition.

Hydration was important as the sun reflected off the tarmac. It was very easy to overheat. By the end of the bike my head was rather hot despite being in an ordinary vented helmet. As opposed to an aero helmet which a number of people chose to use. Their heads must have been cooked from lack of cooling due to minimal vents.

Back into transition and the application of more suncream before heading out onto the run. I didn’t want to look like a lobster the next day. The run was an undulating eleven mile loop to the South prior to heading up out onto the highway and on to the energy lab for the turning around point and onto the finish. You can see a theme developing, not a lot of flat on this Ironman course, including the swim.

There were frequent aid stations offering cold sponges, water and ice. Cold sponges were stuffed down tops and ice placed in hats to keep try and keep cool. I also ran holding ice in my hands. One advantage with Kona is that the sun goes down rapidly at 6.00pm. Consequently the last hour of my race was in the dusk/dark which meant for a cooler run. This came too late for some who were collapsed by the side of the road with heat exhaustion. The last mile to the finish was mainly downhill and through the town. The level of support was great.

I crossed the finishing line in 11:59, that is hours and minutes, exhausted, but elated. The beautiful location, great atmosphere and the huge medal huge made it all worthwhile and generated big sense of satisfaction.

As the Ironman trademark says “Swim 2.4 miles! Bike 112 miles! Run 26.2 miles! Brag for the rest of your life”

We are all so pleased for him and the exciting thing is … i think he’s just getting warmed up!!!!

The hotel staff were great, very friendly, they didn’t seem to mind much that for 5 days there was bike gear strewn around the hotel and rooms, or that we completely overtook the lobby entrance for 45 minutes doing planning our maxifuel photo shoot. In fact the more Ironman related havoc we created the more they seemed to like us.

The best thing about the hotel Rokohof was the fact they served lion size food portions at the restaurant which meant we could go out and smash it, knowing that an all day/night feast when we got back. 1^st rule of eating out in Klagenfurt – Ask before you order .The first night I made the mistake of ordering a family size triple pasta platter, the second night I ordered the biggest salad I have ever seen. Maybe these were normal food portion sizes in Klagenfurt, I am still not sure.

On the first day I had some almost show stopping problems with my bike; the guys at mountainbiker.at located in town were more than capable in solving a very complicated issue with it.

Once my bike was sorted I hit the roads in anger. I remember it to be the best surface I’d ever ridden on. It pulls you forward with very little effort. Crystal blue lake on the right, dark green alpine forest on the left, it is an incredible place that I will go back to again and again.

One of my main decisions for joining the camp was to ride the bike route a few times. It was important to me not to have any surprises on the big day coming up. Having done the camp I now realise I learned a lot more than I expected. Experiencing how my body would react to the heat and race conditions at certain points on the bike and run route made it possible for me to make better decisions on the day.

I was happy to learn that there were only two hills of concern in Austria, and that although the ride threatened over 2200m elevation gain, the gradients were gradual.

Every morning at breakfast before heading out Pat answered our never ending questions: When to eat? What if? How much to drink? What wheels to ride on? Where to push? Where to slow? What heart rate? How much to carry? How to fix it? He helped us one by one to strategise the best individual paths for our race. A few weeks later on race day I would recall feeling quietly settled and confident knowing I had a tried and tested plan that worked and even a plan B if that didn’t go as planned.

A good way to experience the run route was to go through drills and strides. Pat looked at each of our run strides in detail, giving important tips throughout the half marathon session that spanned the great distance between Klagenfurt town center and Lake Worthesee.

There were major benefits of training in Klagenfurt, it’s a great place, with helpful people. Everything is very accessible. For triathlon training it just works. The physio team Dagmar and Melanie took great care of us after some heavy sessions.

We had a great group with us; I can say for everyone that was there, it was a blast.

The race.

Three weeks after the camp I returned to compete in Ironman Austria for my first Ironman. The conditions had not changed, Lufthansa still burned me £140 for my bike bag, and the taxi to the hotel was still around 16 Euros.

Before I knew it the race was over. Turned the corner to the finish and saw the time on the clock. I had done way better than planned.

The swim was done; my bike was racked back in T2, I was standing looking back at the finish thinking about what I had just done. The standard Ironman digital format finish line clock we all know so well was flicking through the seconds; competitors were crossing the line all equally deservingly and ecstatic within their achievements. I just couldn’t get my head around how something so colossal could pass so quickly. The race had taken me a vast amount of time to complete. I thought on it some more and soon realised that it wasn’t even about the race, I realised the race was just a miniscule part of the hundreds of hours spent training, on long rides with mates, coaching, camps, planning and learning.

I cannot wait for the next one.

Ryan Mclaughlin

What events are you entering as the winner of the Maxifuel Beat Your Best competition?
I’ve done the Blenheim Triathlon and it’s the London Triathlon at the end of July.

How did the Blenheim Triathlon go for you?
Really well. That was my second ever triathlon and time-wise it wasn’t comparable to the last one I entered in Nottingham, because that was flat compared with Blenheim’s undulating course, but it went really well. It was much better than Nottingham in terms of how I felt, although time-wise it was slightly longer.

What’s your top tip for each discipline for someone planning to take on a triathlon for the first time?
Try not to worry about the swim because you get a lot of buoyancy from the wetsuit, and go at your own pace. In the first tri I did I tried to go off hell for leather, against guys who had been doing it for years or were from a swimming background, and after about 50m I was puffed out and thought ‘I’m not even going to complete this’. But in the Blenheim one I went at my own pace and found I had much more energy for the rest of the race. For the cycling my main tip would be to save some energy! Towards the end of the cycle remember you’ve got that run afterwards and don’t exhaust yourself. If you have made up a few places on the cycle, you can let some people slip by at the end and try to get them back in the run. My tip for running would be to just go for it because you’re nearly at the end of the race. The adrenaline will help you make it.

What time are you hoping for in the London Triathlon?
Well, it’s twice the distance of Blenheim [which is a sprint tri] and my time for that was 1hr 20min, so realistically double that and a little bit. 2hrs 45min would be amazing. Under three hours, definitely.

How is your training going?
It’s going pretty well. Unfortunately, I’ve had a couple of weddings over the last few weekends which is when I normally manage to get in the longer hours of training. That’s been put to one side because of the weddings and the aftermaths the following mornings. Overall, though, I have massively picked up my training from what I was doing on my own originally. I’ve had some great tips and training plans from Pat Leahy, head coach at multi-sport fitness training company PRO-VO2 and the Maxifuel products have helped massively as well.

What Maxifuel products have you been using during racing and training and how effective have you found them?
During training it’s been the gels and the sports drink which have been a big help. I’ve used these types of products before and Maxifuel’s are definitely up there with the best. But it’s the Recovermax that’s amazing. Previously after my training I have just had a normal sports drink and then cracked on, but if you have hard a hard day’s training the following day you can be really struggling to get going again. The Recovermax drink has got all your carbs and your protein and is absolutely fantastic.

So there’s a noticeable difference in how you feel the next day when you have Recovermax after training?
Oh yeah, massively.

What would you say your strongest and weakest disciplines are?
I was quite surprised actually. I haven’t swum properly for years, other than swimming in the pool on holiday, and it’s only this year I have started properly training for it. So I thought going into Nottingham and Blenheim that the swimming would be my weakest without a doubt – it’s the one I worried about most. But actually at Blenheim I came in about 600th out of 4,000 entrants in the swim, and it was the same for the cycle but for my run I was around the 900th mark, so I was quite surprised because I thought my running was stronger than my swimming. Technically I’m not a very good swimmer, but it’s the start of the race, the adrenaline is pumping and maybe that helped me go a bit faster than I what I’m used to in training, plus the extra buoyancy from the wetsuit contributes too. And even though I’m very comfortable running ten miles [16km], stick all the disciplines together and it’s a different story. So I’d say swimming and cycling are my strongest disciplines and running my weakest – but it’s mainly because of the order they come in.

How has winning the competition affected your view of triathlon?
It’s been fantastic. I’m not a member of any triathlon clubs so everything I was doing was just from magazines and stuff. Now, apart from the products and kit that I’ve got, I’ve been to Loughborough and trained with a couple of the GB athletes and coaches and some of the tips we were given that day were fantastic, really valuable. Since then I have got a few more training trips from Pat Leahy. It’s been hard trying to fit the training schedule around work, but it’s given me a great base to work from and the drive to keep going.

Neil Whitney is taking part in the Beat Your Best ultimate triathlon experience brought to you by industry experts, Maxifuel and Speedo. For more information go to maxifuel.com/beatyourbest

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