I like Victor, he is a guy who came out of nowhere and won and won and won and won…

Nice to see some different faces on the Ironman circuit - Ironman is an international sport, I would also like to see more Japanese, Chinese, African etc Ironman athletes given opportunities to present themselves in the media.

Yes I know we all want Ironman to be right up there on the global scale of being one of “the major sports”, but man!! I think we have taken a wrong turn somewhere and Ironman triathlon has lost its virginity.

I have only been in the game for 20 odd yrs, so that makes me relatively speaking, a newbie , but I truly believe that triathlon and ironman in particular, has lost its pure innocence from the early days and I am not sure if I like it or not!

Let me briefly explain, and I will try and look at all sides of the coin. From a competitive and professional athlete view point (which I do have incidentally, and at a fairly good level) I think that the vast majority of pro’s today are suffering. I am not necessarily talking the guys at the very top, winning week in week out, for them the sport has never looked sweeter. I am talking from position no 5 through to no 10 and onwards. Its no open secret that the life of a pro triathlete is no real glitz and glamour, each one will tell you a different story of how “they had to do this and how they have to do that” in order to survive and put bread on the table. I am talking about pro’s these days having to pay large sums of money to enter events with the prize money potential on offer, not even allowing them to break-even. Gone are the days when race promoters called you up on the phone and asked you to come and race, all costs on the house. It still happens, but oh so frequently it would seem! There is a huge pie offering at the moment in terms of events being staged world-wide, prize money seems to be bigger at certain events and race promoters are pushing the limits in terms of trying to be bigger and better than the next.

Unfortunately, as the sport and Ironman events grow, so too does the number of individuals trying to earn a living from this sport we love so dearly. That means a few big slices for the top boys and girls whilst the rest fight for the crumbs. The least race directors could do (they make enough money from the age groupers entry fees and sponsors ) would be to offer the pro’s a bigger incentive to come down and race without squeezing the last out of them. I am not saying all race directors and events companies, but too a large extent, the vast majority. It’s a business they are in and that means making money, so who can blame them right? That’s what I mean by triathlon in general loosing the pure innocence (virginity) that once was. It’s all business these days, pay the entry fee or we don’t care if you line up or not!

Globally speaking, there are more Ironman events on the planet now to compete in and possibly make money from, than what there were a few years back. With the exception of a few key events that have splashed out hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money, the average event is either paying as much or less than it was 10 yrs ago. Take inflation and the cost of living and competing into account, and you get a negative growth trend at the top of the tree. Not so good for one of the “fastest growing sports” in the world is it? The days of home stay with the race director and his family members are either limited or completely over. Business is business but I preferred the more laid back approach of triathlon that first attracted me to the sport.

Now before I get everyone jumping on my back, age groupers included, let me defend their plight as well. Entry fees are in most cases excessive and this all adds up for the working class stiffs. Factor in all the costs when entering these events, and your suddenly looking at a semi elitist sport. Once again, it’s not all the events and in some cases, you get great value for money but the overall, you get stung pretty bad when shelling out your hard earned cash on entry fees.

Besides it being just too expensive these days, you have to enter sometimes 12 months + in advance, long before you even start thinking about and training for the event. If you don’t, you miss the boat and get put onto a waitlist. There are thousands of athletes wanting to sign up for some of the races and if you’re not prepared to cough the dough now, then you can forget about getting onto the start list. What is the solution? Put on more events, increase the numbers and lower entry fees? To be quite honest, I do not have any solutions to the points I have raised herein. I merely wanted to bring to attention how much the sport has changed over the last couple of years and whether or not, it has changed for the better or worse!

Am I just being cynical here? Or do I raise some valid points! Ironman distance events in general are definitely growing in numbers and that’s a good sign for most! No longer a backseat player, triathlon and IM are taking their place amongst the world’s elite sports. The only problem I see is too much commercialism and the drive to make it into a profit only type sport to the financial detriment of those competing in the sport.

Bryan Rhodes took Ironman Canada 2008 first place with 8:30:12 and Belinda Granger took first place with 9:17:58. Ironman Canada is a slow bike race and this obviously suits Bryan Rhodes who also does well at Ironman UK.

Milos Kostic, one of the authors at IronCrazy.com, has finished the race and made a PB on the run but, again, had rouble with his chip so his time is not officially recorded.

Andriy Yastrebov placed 4th again, just as last year. Check his results here.

Jason Shortis, Kai Hundertmark and Jan Sibbersen had a bad race.

For full Ironman Canada 2008 results check Ironman.com.

In Stellenbosch, South Africa, I showed up for a group run organized by Dan Hugo with some of his local friends. We have done the route usually done by half marathon world record holder Elana Meyer. One of the guys who showed up was Fraser Cartmell. Funny cool Scottish guy…

You should check out his interview at CompetitorRadio.com.

Obviously so far he has done all kinds of races but never an Ironman. So why is Fraser on IronCrazy.com than? - you might ask.

Fraser is making a debute on Ironman UK in September so I thought he should get some attention. Follow him in Ironman UK and I know I will definitely be chearing for him, I am already super excited about it. I always find it interesting when short or middle distance triathletes do Ironman debute but even more interesting when it is someone whom I know and who has such an amazing portfolio with two wins at Ironman 70.3 UK and 7th at Ironman 70.3 Clearwater.

Good luck to Fraser and check out his interview at CompetitorRadio.com or his website at FraserCartmell.com.

Picture says a thousand words!

This is the last meter of the Ironman Austria 2008 race (that is 225995 meters in total).

It has been a month almost after the race and I digested a lots of impressions and am finally ready to write a report. Ironman race reports can be as large as books so I have decided to summarize it in small sections to make it easy for me to write and for you to read.

Sleep during week before the Ironman

I went to bed at around 9pm and woke up at around 6am. I was pushing at 9 hours of sleep and sometimes even an hour in the afternoon. I would have been happier if I was alone during the last three days as the commotion of my family and girlfriend and friends was a distraction from focus and sleep. However, as always, it turned out great. I got more than nine hours of average sleep per day during the whole week.

Eating during the week before the race

I lost some 3kg during the 6 weeks before the race. I was at some 59kg three days before the race. I lost weight first during the Istria training camp (I ate enormous amounts of pasta and still lost a kilo due to hard training) and than switched to salads for dinner. One thing which is super which I did is drinking Coca Cola Zero - it did help me loose weight cause it is sweet and has no calories and is full of caffeine (helps fat burning a bit), however its main effect on my weight loss was that aspartame, being carcinogenic, makes me super sick and I loose appetite.

I feel guilty to write this as it might inspire some to do the same, but in the same time it is important to mention that it is super bad for health. I only drank few liters of this poison this year and it was an experiment - green tea on the other hand is more effect and healthy.

During three days before the race I upped my carbs quite a bit. It is questionable if I need to up the carbs at all as three days are more than enough to replenish the glycogen storage by eating normal but I felt insecure about experimenting with this and wanted to stick with what worked. I know some people who do not carboload at all and it makes sense but I will try this strategy on a smaller race first.

Race briefing and pasta party

Totally useless, horrible organization, no new information. Penalty was shortened to 4 minutes which was a clear sign to wannabe drafters that it is OK to draft. I could almost feel a wave of joy in the tent during the race briefing when a shorter penalty was announced. Clearly drafting offers much more gain over the penalty - some people get their results down by ore than 20 mins - so why would they care about a 4 min penalty draft. Penalty should be 30 mins, not only 4. Also the idea to make the regulations more soft is idiotic. Very disappointing management and organization from organizers.

I suggest avoiding the pasta party, it was loud, bad food and too much crowd for the tent (overselling of tickets). Bella Camerford and Stephen Bayliss were in the spotlight - why I do not know? Why are Brett Sutton clients or ex-clients regarded as super stars I have no idea. What magic do they poses that these organizers always love to put them in the show? There were another 20 athletes there who deserve more attention than these two for sure! Same happened in Ironman UK - Sutton’s athletes again are in the spotlight even with bad performances.

Horrible swim start

Since race briefing was crap no one really understood how the swim start works. I understood it only because I asked the referee at the start. We had to swim to the blue line in the water and wait for the start. We had a minute to get there and it was like 80-100m. I thought: I better sprint there if I am to take any decent position. Everybody else thought the same, but when I stopped to wait for the race start most people just went on - they thought the race started. Than I started my watch and that was it. I was told the gun went on when already a lot of people swam through the start.

The first basic element of the sport completion is the start - that we all start at the same point. This rule was already broken in the very first second of the race.

Swim

I had a very good swim. My results show 59 something but I did close to 58 mins. I swam 57 min in a pool few weeks earlier and that was not my max. I could have swam 56 maybe but I had a nice easy relaxing swim. My goal was to be a gentleman in the water and to get out warmed up and relaxed but still under an hour. I let people go buy, I did not rush at all, I made sure I did not bother anyone. It was an amazingly relaxed swim and I still was out at under 59. No huffing and no puffing. Great start!

Transition 1

Volunteers helped a lot! Great job with the T1! I saved at least a minute with their help. I got two girls to undress me and pack my stuff. I wish I had volunteers helping me like this every day of my life.

Bike clothes

I cycled in an Assos top with sleeves and a full zipper in front (easy on/off) as I decided to put all my food in the back pockets. I carried about 10 gels and 3 PowerBars. I also wore Specialized Road cycling shoes, not triathlon shoes, and this was not a problem for the transition. I did not have an aero helmet although I am thinking about one, I am not a fan but I will try it before I make a final decision. If nothing, they are good for sponsors and photos (that cool look).

Bike bike

I rode Specialized Transition aluminium with Dura Ace groupset and with Xentis mark 1 wheels. Good combination. I do not like carbon as I travel a lot and it can get damaged easily and I think it is super overpriced. I will ride carbon if I get it for free but I doubt I will buy it myself. It might be better than aluminium but Specialized Transition is a great bike and I do not think carbon can offer much more than this.

Wrong side helmet

In the first few meters people yelled at me as if my hair was on fire - I’ve had the helmet on backwards. I stopped to fix it. That was my first stop of several. Later on I lost all my spare tyres (I taped them to the seat and due to rain they fell off) so I stopped to see what happened and later stopped again to see if my tires were fine (paranoid).

Fucking drafters

I started the bike well but immediately I was passed by large groups of drafting triathletes. Imagine Tour de France style groups - 20-30 even more people. All in a huge bunch going 50+ kmh on flat and chasing each other on hills. I was super frustrated yet I had to keep breaking so I do not ge a penalty. Referees were often next to me but they never reacted to big groups - WTF! I was totally out of my mind. I wanted to quit the race and move to Xterra or ultra marathon or something. What kind of a sport competition allows this kind of behaviour? This is not a sport if rules are broken yet nothing is done. If this is corporate team building - OK - we can bend the rules a bit, but Ironman is a sport. You do not watch Olympic Games and see some guys swim 90m while some swim 110m. The rules are the same for everyone. This is the basics of sport yet Ironman Astria is not about that. It was clearly more about “lets not make waves for guys with 10k euro carbon bikes who want to go sub 9 hours”.

I had a horrible bike. Rain was annoying. I kept breaking not to be in groups. I think I am the only one sub 10 hours who actually followed the 15 second rule (15 secs to get out of the 10 m drafting box). I kept stopping for bullshit. Very bad bike. In training I did easy 5:15 and faster, now I finished at 5:23. I was emotionally drained.

Run clothes

I ran in a sleeveless running top and Asics DS Trainer shoes. Throughout the whole race I wear a De Soto cycling shorts with four pockets which are very good for the gels the final run. I put four PowerGels with caffeine in the T2 and I keep them for the later stages of the run.

Serbian Ironman Record

When I saw that I started the run at exactly 6:30 I realized I needed to run 3:07 or faster to break the Serbian Ironman Record. It is a funny record but it gave me motivation. For some reason I felt enormous confidence I would have no problems running this and much faster, I just needed to make sure nothing extreme happens.

I did get carried away a bit - I ran the first 10km in about 41-42mins and it felt super easy. I ate too many gels in the start - maybe 3-4 in the first 12km. I passed the half marathon point a minute or more under 1:30 but I started to feel the fatigue. It was too early so I got scared. I was thinking that if i avoid any accidents that I will be ok.

Run accidents

Accidents are something only us Ironman athletes know: I have hit about 2 or 3 people really hard, spectators that were running across or cheering their friends, I had to tie my shoelaces once, I had to stop at least 3-4 times to eat and drink cause volunteers on the run were a nightmare (think demoralized and tired with no clue what to do) and I even had to pass some idiot who rode a MTB in the transition.

The whole run is super slow and annoying: when you run close to the finish (this area is passed some four times) you have to go through a super narrow maze of extreme curves, sometimes a 180 degree angles. All packed with hundreds of other competitors! Most of the run is very crowded and it is obvious the run course needs to be changed, there is absolutely no space to run here.

I passed one person per every 100m! In most cases I had to go in the oposite direction and hope not to hit the people coming at me. It is just a huge mess. If any marathon runner would ever do this kind of a marathon they would run at least 5-10 mins slower cause these are ultimate extreme conditions.

Last 10km

After a while I could not eat from about 10 gels I ate so far on the run and some 10 gels I ate on the bike, plus 3 Powerbars. This was dangerous, I needed to eat more more more. That is how I work - I need a lot of sugar and caffeine. I decided to try and not eat for the last 10km but in one tunnel I got a bit dizzy and than at one curve I almost lost it. I was running on super empty and very very close to the edge. At this point I will either have a great result or I will fall somewhere and wake up three hours later in an ambulance. I needed to force myself to eat.

I stopped and had coke and one more gel and water. It helped. I had some 8-9km to go.

Brad Storm

I saw Brad Storm was a bit ahead. I passed him in Ironman UK only few km before the finish - he had a horrible race. I guess again he had a bad race and it motivated me to catch him. It was only something to do, something to focus.

This is second time I have chased Brad Storm and both times it helped me a lot. I know he is super strong but when he has a bad race he helps me a lot: as a carrot for a donkey.

I passed him quickly. Maybe another 6-7km to go. If I kept a decent pace I will for sure do a new Serbian Ironman Record. Again with this record, its a silly slow record, but believe me, any number, no matter how silly it is, was very welcome as a form of motivation.

The Final Chase

At some 3-4 km to go I passed some guy and suddenly - a surprise! - he started to follow me. I have not see who this is, I only heard his steps. In one millisecond I thought: GREAT, someone to race with till the end; and FUCK, we have more than 3 km to go, we will torture each other next 15 mins!

I sped up and guy followed, than he attacked and I added a bit more. We went like this on and on. I just listened to his steps. It was actually super fun. Than we entered the last 1500m and it was not possible to pass here as it was full of stupid curves and too narrow and full of slower runners. Again what a disaster that the finish of a race is so impotent!

In the last 500m I let the guy pass me, I wanted to make him feel confident a bit and relax. He did pass me by maybe 15-20m and relaxed. I waited. In the final stretch I attacked. He looked left I passed right. He was too weak to respond. I kept going. I was going super strong. I saw some guy just about to cross the finish like and I was only a bit away. I though: Hey maybe this guy is in my age group, I better catch him. I added more and he saw me. He made a face as if a devil chased him for his soul. We fought for the finish line. We actually pushed each other. I used the last atoms of energy to get that one second ahead of him. I won.

No heart rate on the run

I ran without a heart rate monitor strap. I ran completely on how I feel and it worked great. I did not care about my pace, I only looked at it to check if all is ok. This was an experiment I made and it worked out well. However I would only suggest it to Ironman athletes with some experience in racing as for many this does not work well. Especially beginners and slower runners need heart rate to pace them.

Next time I would like to race only with a stopwatch - heart rate is useless to me for most of the race as I usually go over what my coach tells me to do. He is not wrong in his estimates but estimates are one thing and race is something else, I am excited, it is hot or cold, I ate super sweet or a lot of caffeine or not etc… I need to improvise and many times heart rate is not correct.

Drafting

Ironman Austria drained me emotionally. It is the only race after which I did not want to talk to any competitors, I saw them all as drafters and cheaters. I saw some Italian guys in the restaurant that night and I did not want to say hi because I saw a bunch of Italians drafting. I just sat like 2 meters from them, angry.

Ironman Austria is not sport. It is obviously some form of entrainment for yuppies, for German/Austrian/Swiss upper middle class. There are guys there who come with 10 000 euro bikes and they draft. They actually practice drafting and team riding days before! This puts in question the quality of Kona qualification - if this is the kind of people who get to the World Championships than what the hell is this about.

I like Ironman as a sport but I think WTC should check out what these guys in Austria are doing, seems their licence is used in a bit of a bad manner. When Mark Allen was helping with organization I know everything was perfect, now, in 2008, it is a mess of a race. It sells out due to the brand, guys are cashing on the legacy created by Peter Reid, Mark Allen etc… but the quality of the race is a disaster. Every aspect of it was not about sports but about making guys with money happy.

Ironman Austria is a euro yuppie team building project - it is hardly a sport. If you ever meet anyone who qualified for Kona in Ironman Austria 2008 than be sceptical. It does not mean that they did draft but there is a chance they are cheaters.

I had my best time and my worst placement ever, my 160 something position is not real, even with a bad bike I should have been in top 100 and top 15-20 in my age group.

However I do not care any more about this, at least not so much as during the days after the race. I will give it a try as a PRO which I think will distance me from this age group yuppiness a bit.

Friends

Ironman Austria was after all a great experience for me, I met with some very cool people and met some old friends. For this the whole trip was worth it. I am focusing on the sport aspect because this blog is about sports mostly, but Ironman is in my life not because of the sports and results, but because of the life experience, about meeting people, good food, nice locations, happiness.

Klagenfurt is a great place, our hosts were awesome, Milos Kostic was so inspiring, my family and my girlfriend and my coach were there to support me. I enjoyed all this so much. Drafting is only one bad drop in a pool of really good experiences.

Next

My next race is Ironman Florida as a PRO…

I have started to organize all Ironman distance races into one page. Hopefully this page will slowly grow and became a valuable resource about Ironman racing and Hawaii qualifications.

IronCrazy.com/Ironman-Calendar

If you are interested in submitting your race reports let me know, if they are published on IronCrazy.com and they are valuable as a general resource they will linked from the calendar as well.

If you have any other races to suggest let me know.

Also check TriMapper.com for exact locations of Ironman races - very useful website.

Dejan Patrcevic had an amazing race at Ironman Austria and finished at 5th. He had to overcome a bunch of problems including a serious technical problem with the front chainring (he rode the last big hill on the big ring).

Read his Ironman Austria 2008 race report on his website at Patrcevic.com.

Top 10 men results

1 ) Francisco Pontano 8:43:42
2 ) Petr Vabrousek 8:55:20
3 ) Mathias Hecht 8:56:33
4 ) Christian Brader 8:58:10
5 ) Will Ronco 9:02:32
6 ) Paul Fritzsche 9:06:17
7 ) Dave Harju 9:11:58
8 ) Alex Mcdonald 9:13:04
9 ) Patrick Evoe 9:14:18
10 ) Tim Snow 9:18:38

IronCrazy.com authors results

12 ) Aleksandar Sørensen-Marković 9:27:07
33 ) Jovica Ivetić 9:54:21

Every winner of Ironman is amazing, so Francisco Pontano has had a great victory in the style of the greats. I was impressed by his all-in-front dominance just as Raynard Tissink and Marino Vanhoenacker impress me. One has to be trully powerful to lead the race such a long time and never look back. Jus go forward, alone. Bravo!

Second place is again a superb success - Petr Vabrousek finally pulled out an amazing podium place with only a week “rest” from his last race - Ironman Zurich. I wonder what would Petr be capable of if he would rest or even train a bit more. So many races do not allow him any training. I think his next race is ITU Long Distance Champs in Almere, Holland, just few weeks from today. Good luck!

Björn Andersson again pulled a great bike and disapeared on the run. I hope one day he can race more seriously. If only he would ride 5-10mins slower and maybe get a bit leaner he would be such a force. This way he is no better than guys who swim fastest and than we never hear of them again. This style obviously works for his marketing as the audience loves a fast biker and Björn is the king of the “fast bike-bad run” bunch, but if even I can beat him than he is not much of an Ironman until he can consistently place well. I think his talent is wasted with these tactics, he could be so much greater.

Aleksandar Sørensen-Marković had a great swim, a good bike and than he had what I know is for him a very bad run. We spoke a lot coming to this race, chearing each other: he was hoping I do as close to nine hours as possible and I hope he would finally place close to top five. Unfortunatelly it did not work for both of us. But it is silly to be disapointed over being in 12th position in such a hard and competitive race and for me to do my PB. So I think, after all, Aleksandar did well even though it is not perfect. He gave it all his got as he crashed at the finish line and that is what matters. I wonder if he will get a Hawaii slot as 12th PRO.

I met Jovica Ivetić last year in Belgrade. He used to be a top level rower, now is a banker and does Ironman for fun, to stay active. He did 9:54:21 and placed 33rd! Amazing! And with a horrible swim and so and so run. I think he works without a coach - I hope for next season he uses a good coach and that swim and run should match the bike and hopefully he turns PRO. I hope he gets a Hawaii slot with his 6th position in his age group.

I am sorry that Massimo Cigana pulled out. He also pulled out of Ironman Austria race last weekend. Note to Ironman comentators: Cigana is pronounced Tchigana with a soft Tch like Ciao. Not Tsigana.

I will publish women’s results later, when at least ten women finish. I noticed a lot of women, and some men, rode with their stomachs uncovered. I think this was a big mistake in the rain and could cause problems in the second part of the run if not sooner. This is especially a problem for the leaner athletes, like sub 7% body fat. Frank Shorter, famous marathon runner, always had issues with colder races due to his leaness. But I think it goes for anyone that for 5+ hours on a rainy bike one should cover the stomach, back and the shoulders or much energy is wasted on heating, and this energy is needed for the later portions of the race. Sooner or later this mistake will cost you. Keep warm on the bike.

Second problem with rainy races is related to compression socks. I have seen so many of them in Ironman Austria and it was also raining heavily (Lake Placid, Zurich and Austria have been very wet this year). I think that these socks can end up absorbing water and therefore creating aditional weight. I have never tried them but make sure you test against this option and be prepared to take them of if it rains. Let me know if anyone had this experience.

All in all a very hard race, lots of new faces in top 10, and many people improved. The sport is getting more and more serious and competitive which is great.