Ironman Triathlon
On Sunday 5th April 2009, Mark Brentnall, Lynne's son in law, competed in the Port Macquarie Ironman Triathlon. Mark is a member of the Balance Tri Club, who over the last few years have been great supporters of the foundation www.balancetriclub.org.au . Between Mark and Dallas Locke (another Balance Tri Club member), they were able to raise around $3500 for the foundation, which is an overwhelming amount of support and the foundation would like to thank them and all their supporters very much.
Mark would like to give a special thank you to Sam Locascio of Locabuild who, within an hour of him sending out the request for sponsorship, had made a $1,000 donation to the charity. Not only is Sam a particularly fine builder but also a fine gentleman and the foundation is particularly grateful.
As for the day and how it went, well it was interesting to say the least. Here is Mark's account of the events of the day.
The swim
"In the week before the race there was flooding through the mid-north coast and the Hastings River at Port Macquarie, whilst not flooding, was definitely swollen and no where near as pristine as it usually is. There was a chance through the week that they might cancel the swim leg of the race and replace it with a 7km run. In the end we did the swim without incident in particularly murky and fast flowing water.
I felt great during the swim, growing up in Albury I was always a long way from salt water and a lot of my swimming was done in the Murray River. Whilst most people were quite put off when the water didn’t taste salty and they couldn’t see the bottom I felt right at home, the water even tasted just like the Murray.
After a bit of a bash around in the first 500m I settled down and cruised around to finish the 3.8km swim in 1 hour and 10 minutes, right on schedule and feeling pretty good.
The Bike Leg
The transition from swim to bike was frantic, because I came in in the middle of the pack the change tent was chockers and because of all the rain and the water brought in by the swimmers it was a mud bath, it was nice to get out of there and on to the bike.
The bike leg was pretty cruisy for the most part, I had some back trouble at the end of the first lap (60km) which meant that I couldn’t get down on my aero bars much for the remainder of the ride but it also meant that I took it a little easier than I otherwise might have, I had always planned to take it pretty easy on the bike in order to save my legs for the run, this just made sure that I actually did it. Aside from the back troubles and about an hour of rain the ride went pretty smoothly, but 180km is a very long way. After nearly 6 and a half hours in the saddle I finished my ride and the sense of relief was enormous, I had a grin from ear to ear as I changed into my running gear. I felt good, everything was going to plan and all I had to do to finish was run a marathon…
Only the marathon to go...
There is a wisdom in running and triathlon circles that says that the race doesn’t really start until the 30km mark of the marathon up until then you just keep ticking over but around that stage the body just stops and it can all turn pretty ugly. I have done a straight marathon before this triathlon which was pretty painful, so whilst I felt pretty good at the start of the run I was fully prepared to go to some pretty dark places along the way. The plan was just to go out and run as comfortably as I could for as long as I could until my body gave out and then just to make my way home as best I could.
The run was 3 laps of a course that took us out to the north of town, then back past the transition and finishing area then south through town green and into the hills around Flynn’s Beach. Each lap was basically flat for the first 9km, then there was around 3km worth of hills before the last couple of kms of flat running before the end of the lap.
At the start of the run I was surprised at how good I felt, I felt light, my pace was good and I was starting to blow away all those people that had passed me on the bike. I figured that this wouldn’t last forever so I just tried to enjoy it whilst I could. Along the way there was some awesome support from the Balance Tri Club guys who, it has to be said seemed to have an ulterior motive in locating themselves not far from one of the bars on Town Green. It worked a treat however and they were always full of good cheer whenever I ran past. My mum was lined up on another part of the course and my wife Lisa was popping up, small child in hand around the traps as well, it made for a pretty special run.
As the run went on and the km markers were ticked off I started entertaining the prospect of getting to the end without blowing up, I was still merrily passing people and loving every minute of it, even as I went into the final lap with more than 10hours of effort built up in my legs. The last lap was long, particularly the last 7 km, I was starting to ‘run ugly’, I wasn’t able to eat or drink without getting urge to donate it back to the course and my pace slowed markedly, but there were no pains to speak of, I still felt OK physically and the end was only a few short kms away. After knuckling down through the last of the hills I headed back to town with an eye on the sunset and an enormous smile on my face, I had all but made it through without the pain that everyone speaks of, I’d had a great day. In the end, my run time was 3 hours 47minutes, some 25 minutes faster than my previous marathon.
Coming up to the finishers chute there was more of a sense of relief than the euphoria that I had expected. It was great to have a good cheer from the crowd and the satisfaction of finishing pretty strongly, the endless hours of training had been worthwhile. I had a quick hi five with my tri club mates and finished by launching myself at the finish banner.
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Leg
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Time
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Swim
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1:10:41
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Bike
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6:23:51
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Run
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3:50:55
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Total
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11:25:27
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Then a few unexpected things happened …
After a quick rub down my body decided enough was enough, my inability to drink enough in the last lap had left me seriously dehydrated and I wound up in the medical tent on a drip for an hour or so until I got a bit of strength back, but that was to pale into insignificance as the night wore on.
When I left the medical tent, I met up with my wife Lisa and my mum, who had been sitting at the exit to the finisher’s tent for some time after seeing me get across the line. After a quick chat about the day and a few pats on the back from some of the other supporters I decided to call it a day and we headed back to the hotel room.
At that point Lisa & I had a bit of a chat about how the day had gone. Lisa had been wrangling our 19mth old daughter Samantha around the course all day whilst she was 8 months pregnant with our second child. With a little bit of resignation she mentioned that for quite some time she thought that she might have been having some contractions, which were now quite regular. When I asked how regular the contractions were she sheepishly mentioned that they were around 2 minutes apart at that stage.
After a bit of tooing and froing through which she assured me that it probably wasn’t labour because the baby wasn’t due for another 5 weeks, Lisa took herself off to the hospital just to get checked out. I stayed home with Samantha, who was fast asleep by this stage.
After an hour or so the phone call came through, it was indeed labour and I’d better get myself off to the hospital quick smart. So, at 1am we made some hasty arrangements and I got myself off to hospital to support Lisa through labour.
Charlotte Emma Brentnall was born the next day, 5 weeks early but otherwise well. And Lisa, after a full day on her feet, followed by 24hours of labour and childbirth, still had a grin from ear to ear.
Again, thank you all very much for your support, both for the Lynne King Cancer Care Foundation as well as for me personally and for Lisa & our girls. It really is very much appreciated."