It’s been just over a week since I raced Ironman Australia. During that time, I’ve had an abundance of moments to feel sorry for myself. You see, things went pear shaped, just like I described in The Curse of the Ironman PB!

I should have seen it coming. It was whilst riding one of the steepish rollers past Flynn’s Beach just before the 60km mark that a guy stepped out from the side of the road and yelled “you’re sweatin’ like a pig mate!” that hinted things weren’t quite right. Upon reaching the crest of the climb, I looked down and noticed I was absolutely drenched. At the time there was no need to panic and I focused on maintaining my fluid intake. In hindsight, the damage was already done.

To complicate things further, my dehydrated state was making it difficult to digest anything sweet. Gels had to be forced down with the effort akin to a child eating their most hated vegetable at the dinner table. It’s a painful, drawn out affair!

Through 120km I could feel my muscles tightening slightly. The jaggedness of the roads made climbing hills a refreshing retreat, thanks to the easing of pressure it provides to tired arms and hands. The descents became agonizingly tiring.

Approaching 180km I was struggling to maintain focus on the road ahead, my eyeballs were aching. To be completely honest, I felt simple satisfaction in just reaching T2.

Sitting down in the tent to put my running shoes on, I had the feeling I was about to exit the tent and enter a whole new world of pain. To my delight, the first 2km felt fantastic! I was chatting away with a kiwi athlete and looked forward to feeling good again. How wrong could I be!?!

Things were getting worse in the energy department. Gels came straight back up. Gatorade and cola became intolerable. By the end of the marathon, I was walking wide around the aid stations sipping water, the mere smell of Gatorade and cola sending a chill up my spine. By the way, plain old water doesn’t get you far, quickly.

I made it to the finish line in just under 11 hours. Very proud. Very tired. Very hungry for something savoury.

Thank you to my family and friends for their support. Thanks also to Trigger Point Therapy for helping me overcome a calf injury that threatened my whole season. Also, thanks to Shimano Australia for the loan of Dura-Ace C50 wheels to race on at IMOZ – smooth and fast!

I know I wasn’t the only one out there walking/shuffling/wobbling through much of the marathon, so if you’re dealing with a result that didn’t match your expectations, do what I did…

Accept what happened. You can’t change the past, so get on with your next race/goal/project.

Learn from it. Whether you DNF’d, went slower than expected, or just had a bad day, make sure you learn as much as you can from the experience.

Put a system in place. High performance organisations have systems in place to ensure quality output. Why can’t you? Make a checklist, set reminders, train yourself more specifically, whatever it takes to prevent failure and ensure success.

Be thankful for it all. Be thankful that you managed to get out and train for, compete in and look back on your season. Even more so, be thankful that today and tomorrow, you can head out the door and do it all over again. Enjoy every moment.