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.

Alarm was set for 3.30pm.  It seemed I ignored this, and woke up at 4.56pm, which is also coincidentally when I went into complete panic mode! Within 5 mins I was up and eating overcooked porridge.  I did manage to compose myself, and with a later start time of 7.15am for the race, I didn’t actually need to panic that much, just accelerate what I wanted to get done.  We were staying only a short walk from transition so made life relatively simple.

I chose the 1hr25min wave for the swim, as I am not particularly confident as a swimmer so thought I would be better back here for the time being and creep forward once I see some open water.  Thankfully the water was extremely calm and apart from seeing some of the largest jellyfish I have ever come across, the swim went without hitch and in fact managed to score an Ironman distance swim PB of 1hr 17mins! The next part was different, the 1km run to transition.  Once I got my trainers on, I was off up the towpath and into town to run through the monster crowds to transition, which was epic.

After wrestling off my wetsuit, donned my cycling gear, I collected my bike and I was off.  I had to keep telling myself to remain calm, not get over excited and try to smash all the climbs.  To an extent, I followed my own advice, but once I got to ‘heart break hill’, I lost all control, was out of the saddle and smashing it through the TdF style crowds who were going absolutely bonkers that I had got out the saddle….! The route through the Pembrokeshire villages and hills was stunning.  It was extremely challenging with approx. 2500m of climbing (although need to check my Garmin, and upload data to Strava to double check), but the support along the way was so much better than I was expecting.  Pretty much the entire way there were people lining the route, including a farmer who had hung a sofa off the end of his tractor where he sat drinking beer, shouting encouragement to everyone as they past, awesome!  The second loop of the ‘hilly’ part sucked the life out of my legs, so the last 30kms were particularly painful, but got to the end where I finally got to see some friends who were in Tenby for the weekend to support, and my wife and son, who were perched waiting by transition to make sure they didn’t miss me!

Bike to Run transition, is where I had to have a proper chat with myself.  I had just finished probably the hardest bike ride I had ever done, and now had to go and run for 26 miles.  Trainers on, hat on, swig of some water, its go time.  I didn’t immediately run as I stopped to have a chat with friends and family, but I eventually broke into a tentative jog as I moved through town.  Now, I was aware that the run on this course was hilly, but I didn’t expect a 4.5km uphill drag (where I am pretty sure the gradient got to 7%+ at stages), which blew my original plan out of the water when I turned the corner and peered up the hill that disappeared into the distance! What is worth mentioning too, is that I was born with a club foot, so I have a limited range of movement in my right foot/ankle and my right leg isn’t as strong as my left when it comes to running.  The range of movement comes due to fused ankle bones, but this in turn causes me some impingement issues on hilly climbing when running. Perfect, right?! My plan changed, get through the first two laps, however I can, then reassess. So I did exactly that, with a combination of run/walk, I battled through the first two laps.  At which point I decided whatever happens next, I am getting myself to that finish line, however long it takes.  My ankle got particularly sore, so running uphill became a no go, so from that point, I would walk uphill, run flats and downhill.  The run was supported so well, from feed station availability and spectators who lined the route, literally the entire way.  By the time I started the 4th loop, I really wanted that red band (the lap bands were handed out about half way round each lap) which meant I could turn left and run down to the finishing shoot.  After collecting the red band, I saved my dwindling energy for when I was back down in Tenby town.  Even at 10pm at night, the streets where lined with people shouting out my name, encouragement and when they spotted the red band the words ‘you’ve done it, keeping going’!

As I turned the final corner, with my friends and family all chasing me along the pavement (!), I could see the finish line, lit up like a Christmas Tree and as I approached it, I finally got to hear the MC announce, ‘Jamal Shakir, you are an Ironman’!!! Immense.

I don’t think I have done true justice about how epic this event is (despite the fact that at several points during the day I massively regretted entering!), but for anyone who is considering doing one, do it, because the feeling of crossing that finish line, in whatever time, is incredible.

I probably haven’t provided much useful information here, but more of story, which may not be the case with these race reports, so if you want any IM Wales information etc let me know – I know a good AirBnB for anyone considering it next year ;)!

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention, the Viceroys kit (pictures below), got an insane amount of attention.  People were shouting at me on the ride saying how much they liked the pink shorts, and loads of people were saying during the run how much they liked it! There is a big Tri Club in Tenby called Cr@p Tri, who wear all pink, and I think it was mainly those guys who were enjoying the Viceroy pink!

One final special Viceroy mention, to Johannes, who expedited a bike service at East Street Cycles for me, after I had been having some last minute issues, legend! The bike purred the entire ride, thank you so much for sorting that for me 🙂