As a bit of a back story, some of you may know that I competed at Ironman Nice last year, but failed to convert the long hours of training due to suffering from heat exhaustion and being pulled from the race, and rapidly attached to a saline bag (which actually made me feel very good afterwards!).

So, 2017 meant I had a score to settle.  However, with a new baby arriving in the Shakir household in October, training for Nice in June was going to be a touch tricky.  So Ironman Wales was selected, as it was far enough in the future to have time to train, close enough to home that we can drive with said baby in tow, and cool enough that I didn’t suffer at the hands of the heat gods again.  What I didn’t take in to account, was that this is in fact (not necessarily factually correct), one of the hardest Ironman races on the European tour.  Tidy.

Training started just after Christmas, dragging myself out of a warm, dry house into the wet and cold, where I imagined hearing the phrase ‘Jamal Shakir, you are an Ironman’ as motivation to get out the door.  The first few months weren’t too taxiing, but when things stepped up a bit, the lack of sleep and losing a training partner due to injury meant I was really struggling to find motivation with riding on my own.  This is when the good people of Viceroys took me under their wing!

Anyway, to race day. Continue reading →