Race Week has arrived and already one can sense tension and anxiety by just scrolling through friends’ social media feeds.
One would think that by now, after competing at eight half Ironman distance races and five full events, I would have this thing locked down – but far from it.
What I have learnt in the last four years is that you never take an Ironman for granted.
I have seen big men cry, strong men wilt – and I certainly got my fair share too.
Other than a mechanical failure, your body could simply shut down and you would find yourself walking to the finish. Last year I entered the Mi-Way Durban Ultra, held on a very similar course to the Durban 70.3.
The last event before the Ultra was a 70.3 race in the Middle East, in December 2016.
I took on the Ultra because there was no way I was going to do the East London event in January.
Having done Durban 70.3 in 2015 this all seemed like a walk in the park.
I arrived three days early, with enough time to get organised and ready to dance on the Sunday.
Sunday arrived. It was unusually warm with higher-than-normal humidity but this was Durban, after all.
The Ultra bike check-ins and race briefing take place on the morning of the event before the start.
To our surprise, Durban had interesting plans for us. The water temperature breached the wetsuit legal limit – this would be a nonwetsuit swim.
Mind you, I had never swum the ocean without my trusted Blu Smooth mark two.
In the end it was one long 1.9km ocean swim. I probably would never have entered this race if I had thought a non-wetsuit swim was a possibility.The fact that I managed to do it proves that what often seems impossible is possible.
And the Durban weather wasn’t done with us yet. Waiting for us during the run were unbearable upper-30°C temperatures.
Half the run section of the race felt like running into a furnace with humidity on full blast.
The only time I ever ran a plus-two hours half was my first 70.3 event in East London in 2014.
My final finish time at the Mi-Way Durban Ultra 2017 was just shy of 6hrs 20min, a far cry from my last outing at the inaugural Durban 70.3 where I posted a decent 5hr 31min.
Moral of the story, never take an Ironman race for granted – you will be humbled.
So for those heading up north there is the small incentive of 150 Ironman 70.3 World Championship slots to Nelson Mandela Bay.
So good luck to all and remember, there is life after Durban.
All Bay Ironmen have an amazing opportunity to see how strong they are by participating at an upcoming fundraising event for two of our city’s best extreme sports athletes, Dave Levey and Eva Thornton.
Both have again qualified to participate at the Reebok CrossFit Games in Madison, US, in August.
The pair had to fight the best agegroup athletes in the world for their spots to the global showpiece.
Bay Ironmen now have a chance to go head to head with these legendary athletes by participating in a WOD challenge at Algoa CrossFit on June 9.
With all that fitness from Durban and the gap to 70.3 Worlds, why not test your strength against the fittest athletes and in so doing help our fellow athletes put the Bay on the world stage?
The WOD is on at Algoa CrossFit.