Many Athenry AC members will know Gerry McIntyre. Gerry established the Shannon Injury Clinic a few short years ago, specialising in sports injuries, and is currently based in Peach House in the Shannon Town Centre complex. Gerry has also been one of the principal organisers behind the hugely successful Peach House 10k Road Race which has developed into one of the best events on the road racing calendar in the West. Gerry generously supported Athenry AC by providing physiotherapy services to our Twilight Track and Field Meeting in 2006. He has been a regular competitor at road races and triathlons around the country for the last few years. Recently Gerry took time out from his physiotherapy clinic to take on his biggest sporting challenge to date an 'Ironman' Triathlon in Austria. This is his report.

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The day had finally arrived, 11 months after pressing the ‘confirm’ button on the web page for IM Austria I was here at the start line and preparing to go. Was I ready? I’d know soon.

So a few minutes prior to the 7am swim start we were allowed to enter the water and as I was making my way to the start which was about 100m at which point it was announced “2 minutes to start”, which gave me plenty of time to put on my goggles and make my way to the start but about 20 seconds later the cannon sounded.

I initially thought it was a mistake and that everyone would be called back but everyone else was swimming so I said that I’d better go too. The first buoy (turn) was a mile out but I couldn’t see the blue ironman buoy so just followed the crowd (2200 people) until it came into view. The lake itself was crystal clear and warm and the swim felt very comfortable. At the first buoy we turned left for another 500m before another left turn took us back to the lake edge and into a narrow canal for the last 800m, this is where it got tight with 8800 limbs fighting for space and a lot of them limbs came into contact with my jaw, head etc… at this stage, but as we were always told when hurling “retaliate first” so I started kicking out the legs and fighting for my own bit of space. After another 100m or so it freed up a little and we were able to swim again. A few minutes later I was being helped up the steep canal bank and part 1 was over.

Into the tents to change to the bike gear before we grabbed the bikes before we headed out for the biggest part of the day. Out on the road and I was trying to follow the advice I was given by holding back early on to allow the Heart rate to settle, eventually it did and then I got to work on my eating plan as I would need lots of Calories/energy to get me through the day. Austria is known to be a fast bike course and while the surfaces are fantastic the course is never flat which plays havoc with Heart rate. The course consists of 2 laps of 56 miles on an undulating course with 2 ‘good’ hills thrown in for good measure. First lap went by quite quickly and I was feeling good but it was only 11.30am at this stage and just starting to hot up. Within 5/6 miles of lap 2 however I was beginning to feel the effects of the sun and started to struggle physically on the hills.

The support for the whole of bike route was amazing and at every hill the supporters would drive you on with their cries of ‘Hup Hup Hup”, but by the second time round I felt like telling them to “Shut the f**k up, I’m hupping as fast as I can”. Add into the that the fact that the crazy D.J at the top of the big hill played YMCA for me on both laps compounded the misery as I rode up the hill dressed as the Lycra clad extra member of ‘The Village People’.

Either I was really weakening very much on lap 2 or the local County Council are very efficient and added to each of the hills. Between miles 65 and 100 I was really struggling and had resigned myself to ‘walking’ the whole marathon which would make it a very long day indeed (as if it wasn’t long enough).

Little did I know that salvation for me was to be found at mile 100 in the form of an energy drink with “ADDED SODIUM”. ( when exercising you are not only losing water in the form of sweat but also salts which keep the body working efficiently, add into that mix temperatures of 30+ degrees and you can imagine the water/salts being lost). After taking this gel I felt a little better but more importantly I knew what my body needed to get it going again, so as soon as I got off the bike I downed a sachet of diaoralyte salts and now I was back on track and ready to hit the run route.

From that point on I just started running and like Forrest Gump I kept going till I had to turn. This ‘recovery’ allowed me to run the whole Marathon bar the aid stations which were intentional stops to get in nutrition in the form of water/energy drink/flat Coke/Bananas . Last 12km was a mental struggle aas you want to stop but I convinced myself to stay going by telling myself that the more I run the quicker it’s over……., and eventually it came, I passed the 42km marker and from there it was 200meteres of high fives and waving to the stands before I crossed the finish line to the nicest compliment imaginable…………………………

‘Gerry McIntyre, you are an Ironman’

Thoughts from the day:

Brilliant day, incredible organization and atmosphere and no matter your time you were made to feel like a winner.

The reception which greeted the final finisher at 11.58pm was amazing (midnight cut off) followed by the fireworks at midnight.

Lessons Learned:

Nutrition, Nutrition, Nutrition, I stupidly didn’t realise that my gels didn’t contain sodium, and cost me time on the bike but almost cost me a DNF (Did Not Finish).

If your going to be out there for longer than about 11.5 hours bring your own nutrition, by lap 2 the stations were out of Gels.

Go easy easy easy on the bike, as much as I attempted to do this I still got caught and went too hard.

But most of all, enjoy it, give it a go, it’s not easy but it’s also not as hard as you think.