It takes incredible determination and fitness to do the Ironman competition, which involves a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile cycle and then running a marathon, writes MICHAEL KELLY
LIKE A lot of men my age I harbour a latent ambition to run a marathon at some point in my life, though every year I seem to concoct some reason to put it on the long finger. The very first marathon was run by an unfortunate soldier called Pheidippides in 490 BC. He was sent from the town of Marathon (what a coincidence) to Athens to deliver the good news of a Greek victory over the Persians. On arrival in Athens he exclaimed “Niki!” (“victory”) and then promptly collapsed and died.
One wonders then what exactly poor old Pheidippides would have made of the Ironman triathlon. Imagine if you will, standing on the starting line of a marathon having just completed a 2.4-mile (3.9km) swim and a 112-mile (180km) cycle.
The first Ironman was contested in 1978 to settle a debate among a group of friends in Hawaii over who was the fittest athlete – a runner, cyclist or swimmer. They came up with the idea of an endurance event which involved a combination of three existing events – the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, the Around-Oahu Bike Race and the Honolulu Marathon – one after the other.
Some 15 men participated in the first race and 12 of them finished, led home by the world’s first Ironman, Gordon Haller, in a time of 11 hours and 46 minutes.
It should be noted of course that the vast majority of triathletes are sane individuals of all ages and from all walks of life who keep fit and have fun doing far shorter distances in the three disciplines. A sprint triathlon for example constitutes a very manageable 750m swim, 20km cycle and a 5km run.
But the Ironman is a different beast altogether with competitors typically spending 10-17 hours completing the event. It is generally believed to be the most difficult one-day sporting event in the world. The big question of course is what is the motivation for getting involved in such a physically gruelling sport? The majority of Ironman and ultra-distance endurance competitors are males aged 35-45. Could it be that we men are trying to scoff at our advancing years?
According to Enniscorthy resident Alan Ryan, competing in an Ironman is “enjoyable” despite the hardship involved.
He says the feeling of achievement is immense. “To be running down the stretch in an Ironman being cheered on by thousands of people, that’s just incredible for a regular guy like me,” he says.
Ryan is a shining example of the incredible capacity of the human body for transformation, even in middle age. The 42-year-old has competed in seven Ironman events thus far and his personal best is an astonishing nine hours and 17 minutes.
He was the first Irish man to qualify for this year’s Ironman World Championship which takes place in Kona, Hawaii in October. This is all the more remarkable when you consider that during his 20s and 30s he was unfit, overweight and a smoker.
“I wasn’t sporty at all,” he says. “I was at that age where I knew it was a case of get fit now or you never will. I used to always feel guilty whenever I passed a sports shop because I knew I was doing nothing for my own health.”
Ryan started with a couple of short triathlons in Ireland but it was while working in Australia that he first came across the idea of the Ironman.
“It was talked about almost in hushed tones. People would whisper the word with great reverence,” he says with a laugh. He competed in his first Ironman in Klagenfurt in Austria at the age of 38. “The toughest thing for me was the marathon. It is an insidious type of pain that grinds away at the joints and hips. Mentally it is also very tough to keep focused and free of distraction for that amount of time. You have been on the go for seven hours before you even start running.”
The training regime for an Ironman starts about six months before the event. “You have to put in the hours,” he says. “You are training about 20 hours a week including a long cycle and a long run at the weekend. I might do a six-hour cycle on a Saturday and a three-hour run on a Sunday. Every day I am doing an hour each of swimming, cycling and running. It gets me off the couch,” he says with admirable understatement.
The impact of all this training on his physical health and appearance has been immense.
“Your whole body changes, including your face. I was 14 and a half stone when I started and I am about 10 and a half now. My wife and mother think that I am too thin, they are always trying to fatten me up.”
Ryan was knocked over by a van while out running this year – he wasn’t badly injured and he plays down the incident as well as the health implications of such a punishing training schedule. “I think the human body is designed for this kind of thing. Our natural state is to be mobile and lean, running and hunting and the like. Severe injuries are very rare in this sport. The worst you get is a gammy knee.”
Unlike Alan Ryan, fellow Ironman Paul O’Connor has considerable sporting pedigree having played rugby for Lansdowne, Leinster and Munster during the 1990s.
This weekend O’Connor travels to the Canary Islands for the Lanzarote Ironman which will be his second endurance triathlon. He retired from rugby in 1998 and found that he missed the training regime when he did so.
“I was playing in a Lansdowne golf outing and one of the lads there was telling me he was doing a triathlon for charity,” he says. “I was thinking, well if he can do it, so can I. That’s how it all started for me. I really enjoyed the social aspect of it and the train-hard, play-hard mentality. That’s an aspect of rugby that I missed.”
The transition from triathlon to Ironman, perhaps predictably, happened over a few pints. “I was at the Wicklow Triathlon club Christmas party in 2006 and myself and a friend made a deal that we would do the Ironman in Lanzarote in 2008. There’s no such thing as an easy Ironman, but Lanzarote is considered the hardest of all because you are climbing 9,000 feet on the bike before you do the marathon.
“Our thinking was, if you are going to do one, why not make it the hardest one. The general consensus was that we were mad.”
He completed his first Ironman in 13 hours and 46 minutes and is hoping to break the 13- hour mark this time around. “I’m a plodder. I’m not built for speed. When I am running I do what’s called the Ironman shuffle. It’s not pretty.”
For this year’s event O’Connor is doing a training programme designed by online training guru and six times world champion Mark Allen – the programme is a template for health, balance and wellbeing that can be used in all areas of life.
“His programmes are all about your heart rate and keeping it at a low level so that it is in the aerobic level.” The type of fitness involved, he says, is different to that associated with a high-impact sport like rugby. “Rugby is very stop and start, whereas this is about endurance. You’re doing a lot, but it’s not flat out.”
O’Connor weighed up to 18 and a half stone during his rugby days but now weighs about 16 stone. “If I got hit with a tackle nowadays I probably wouldn’t get up from it but I’m at the age now where I think I have to be better off being that little bit lighter. I feel good at this weight. It’s cost me a fortune because all my suits and jeans were hanging off me.”
Nutrition and diet are also a hugely important part of his regime. “To be honest when I was playing rugby I had a reputation for being able to sink lots of pints. I’m careful about my diet now, but I love my food and I eat a lot. In some ways doing the Ironman is a licence to eat as much as you want because you are burning off such a huge quantity of calories.”
Asked about his motivation he says it is about the camaraderie, feeling healthy and a sense of achievement.
“The buzz I get out of competing in this is on a par with anything I achieved in my playing days,” he says. “Whenever I get out there, I remind myself how lucky I am to be able to do it. There are lots of people who would love to do this but can’t.”
“I wasn’t sporty at all. I was at that age where I knew it was a case of get fit now or you never will. I used to always feel guilty whenever I passed a sports shop because I knew I was doing nothing for my own health