Ironman Jeff McGrath Triumphs in Hawaii
Jeff McGrath, winner of last years Police Association Sportsperson of the year award is the first NZ amateur home in the Hawaiian Ironman. Despite challenging conditions Jeff chalks up a personal best in this gruelling race. He tells his story below:
I had a great start to the swim,with clean water away from the start line and a good clean swim until about 700metres down the course when we all merged into a washing machine of smackfest!!
I still felt really good, and that I was having a strong swim, so I wasdisappointed to record a time of 1.02. I have been swimming much better times, and initially I wondered if thecourse was long. But no excuses!
It took about 30 minutes to warm up into the bike leg, but after that Ifelt great and had a strong ride most of the way to Hawi. However the usual manic headwind and uphillto Hawi took some sting out of the legs for sure.
I was riding just on/under 5 hour pace right through to 130km, but the way backfrom Kawaihai to the airport (about 45km) was straight into the teeth of thewind and it was draining. This is usually a cross side wind, but this time itwas brutal!! I think that is where things got tough, and my ride time was about 5.09, 9 mins outside the 5 hourmark I was chasing. However I passed about 200 on the bike, which was abonus I guess.
I hit the run course with total time of 6.18 and knew I needed sub 3 hours toget that 9.15 I was chasing. It startedpretty well, but I think I pushed a bit too hard on the first 15km of run becauseat about 17km I started to lose power big time, and it took quite a time to getmy legs back again. Coke is so good! I was on it for the whole run, but eventhat took some time to kick back in.
I knew at the halfway on the run that I would miss my target 3 hours, (I was1.30 exact and legs feeling 1000 times worse than when I started the run)but I still wanted to get a personal best on this course. To top it off the temperature peaked at 40 degrees during this leg. I made sure I had plenty to drink and fuelled up on gels and Red Bull, andticked off the kms until I was on the way back towards the finish. Then I ran as hard as I could for the last6kms and was completely out on my feet. Although I ran 3.05, and got a personal best of 9.24 I didn’t feel thatI had the strength today!!
My heart rate monitor wasn't working before the race, so I flagged it andsimply used a stopwatch for the entire race. I think this may have caused me to push the start of the run toohard. I make no excuses really, as Iwas chasing the dream run and needed to push for it. Although it didn't quite come off, I'm really happy with myperformance.
Overall the times weren’t fast,except for the women’s winner Chrissie Wellington (freak!!!). All the top pro men had times that wereslower than previous years, and many reported a tough day.
I finished 81st overall, out of approx 1770 and beating 110 professional atheletes. I was the first New Zealandamateur in, 27th amateur overall, and in my age group (of about 250)I placed 11th – only 7 minutes off a top 5 podium position.
Cheers for all the messages, sorry I don’t reply individually, but I doappreciate them very much.
So that is it. I tried as hard as I could and I have no regrets. It was a toughday, probably the hardest I have experienced.
Thanks to everyone who helped me along the way... I look forward to catching upwith you when I get home.
Cheers and beers,
Jeff