Triple Challenge 2008
My Name is Kevin O'Rourke, I like to see how far I can push myself and how much I can actually achieve. This is my metaphor for life and this site is my way of detailing the journey.
My challenge for 2008 are to complete the London Marathon in April in less than 4 hours. I will run in aid of Children with Leukaemia. Update....completed but not in target time, see below for further details. Amount raised so far is £2150.00 thank you to everyone who has been part of Team Wineman to Ironman
To complete the Milton Keynes Half Ironman distance Triathlon in July (1900mtr swim, 92K bike and a 21K run) known as the Cowman. I am raising money for Willen Hospice.
Finally to complete the UK Ironman distance Triathlon in September (2.2 mile swim, 112 mile bike followed by a 26.2 mile run). The Charity chosen for this massive final challenge is Macmillan Cancer. I will attempt to complete this challenge in honor of Dee Heymerdinger. Dee was a major fundraisor for Macmillan and ironically died recently of cancer. I hope to continue her work by raising as much money as possible for the three selected charities.
Please check this website for updates on training and the torment I will be putting myself through this year, just scroll down to the bottom of this page for the latest updates. You can get regular updates from Monika Akabusi, my personal trainer, special offers from my supporters, you can donate to my charities or become one of my support team. So make sure to check out the favourite links page as there are 4 extra pages there as well as some links to important peoples websites such as mine!
There will be many updates to this website over the coming months so please check back regularly to see all the news on the events and the JOURNEY.
Recent updates on my progress.
Update March 15th
I am looking forward to running tomorrow in the Oakley 20 mile warm up race for the marathon. The Oakley 20 miler is set in lovely countryside in Bedfordshire but there are some massive hills, actually they are mountains. It is said that if you can conquor this race then the marathon is easy! I'm not so sure about easy but I am looking forward to it anyway, although it looks like rain all day tomorrow.
In the last 2 weeks I have completed the Nike Half Marathon in 2 hours 1 minute and then the Silverstone half marathon in 1 hour 58 minutes. I am pleased with these results because that is a 15 minute improvement over last years half marathon times. However finishing the marathon in under 4 hours is looking like a tough task. I know I can run hard for 13 miles but can I do the same over 26 miles?
The training for the Ironman has been hampered with me throwing in the marathon. However having the three goals one after the other gives me different things to focus on instead of just having the Ironman months away and the possibility of getting bored and stale.
Update April 19th
Ok so I finished the London marathon but no where near the time I wanted. I did it in 4.45 which was an improvement of 15 minutes over last year so I should be pleased but on reflection I am not so happy really. I could have blamed the rain, which was freezing at times, the chafing, the pain in my periformus muscle and the cramps I experienced after mile 18, but the truth is I had not prepared enough for this race. I was focusing on the Ironman and the three disciplines. So I was fit enough there was no doubting that but my legs were not hardened enough to take on the extra miles. I made a great mistake of tapering too much.
The taper is important, this is where you cut back on training so you go to the start line fresh and ready to rock. I have the habit of taking this too literally and really cutting back on the training. Last year I ran a poor race and this year was no different but with different mistakes. I learnt some hard lessons when the rain was teaming down and I was struggling not to sob and feel sorry for myself. I kept telling myself that this is what the Ironman is all about and my mental strength dragged me over the line in a not too pretty state. So its back to training from today. I have had 6 days off and that is enough to recover and so its on to the half ironman at Emberton Lake in July.
Update 1st July
Ok so it's less than a week until the second challenge, the Half Ironman at Emberton lake (6th July). I have prepared hard and feel ready to complete this challenge. I guess I should finish in around 6.30 hours but we will see. I all comes down to the day and the weather, how I feel on the bike etc etc. I did a personal best this weekend when I ran a 1hr 53m half marathon and although my legs are sore today still it shows my training is helping, especially as I had done a 4.45 bike the day before!
I have also enlisted the additional help of Mark Kleanthous www.ironmate.co.uk he has completed over 400 triathlons and 29 Ironman to date! So I think I am in safe hands there. Already he has taken my bike positioning apart and got me thinking about nutrition and the plan for the race so I guess I will be turning up ready to rock on Sunday. Please don't forget that this event is for Willen Hospice and you can sponsor me by clicking on the link in the charity page.
I have also been doing lots of training with the Team MK guys and girls who are a great group and they have some real stars of Triathlon, it's a real privilege to train with them. Go to www.teammk.com to read more about these great sportspeople. Keep your eyes peeled for next weeks update to see how I got on and some photo's of me in my trisuit!
Update July 7th
Challenge No.2 started yesterday at 3.50am. The weather was as predicted and horrible, the rain was lashing it down and did not look like it would stop. I made my way to Emberton lake to take on the Half Ironman distance race 1900mtr swim, 56 mile bike and then 13.1 mile run.
The swim started at 7am and it was the usual thrashing of arms and legs, a real water fight as each Triathlete tries to jockey for position in the water. I felt good as I had swopped my usual wetsuit for a hired top of the range one from 2XU. I had promised a friend that he could use my wetsuit for the Sprint Triathlon which was also being staged that day but he did not show as he felt a little poorly, aaahhh bless poor Mark. The wetsuit really helped and I stormed off to the front of the pack and finished in 35 minutes. This was a great time for me and it made the extra time I would spend in transition a little easier.
I raced to transition 1 to commence the fight with the wetsuit, the battle was surpisingly easy this time probably due to the superior suit. Then it was on with the cycling bib shorts, inside out at first and then back to front and finally correct I needed these to ease the pain in sensitive areas over the 56 mile ride. On came the cycle jersey to keep me a little warmer in the rain and off we went. Lap 1 stared well and the battle with Chicheley Hill was not as bad as I had anticipated. Lap 2 was simliar but this time the hill was even harder and a right slog to conquor it. Then I lost my final water bottle and watched it shatter all over Weston Underwood village roads. I was under pressure now as I would not get any hydration for another 40 minutes. You have to keep hydrated in an event of this size and things like this are not in any race plan. Suddenly Chicheley Hill was upon me for the last time, I halucinated that I had enough in the tank to take me over in style but that was not the case, I pushed and pushed and gradually wobbled my way to the top uttering a multitude of expletives that would make Gordon Ramsey proud and then it was a short ride to transition 2 to start the run section of the race.
Now running a half marathon is generally quite achieveable for me at this point in my training but doing it after you have swam and cycled for that distance is a very different matter. My legs were like jelly and thankfully I had kept a bottle of electrolyte in my transition pack so began to rehydrate. After a couple of miles I began to feel better and then started to enjoy the run. The run was a 4 lap course taking in the very pretty Emberton lake settings and some off road antics through the fields surrounding the village.
One of the odd things about racing that affects me is the way the gels and energy bars give me terrible flatulance, this is not pleasant for me with a constant rumbling in my stomach and even worse for those people behind me!
It is in this part of most triathlon races that the competitors generally chat and offer encouragement to each other, especially those who may be struggling. I ran alongside a guy who I will call Mr Black as that was his outfit and his manner. I'm not sure if he heard me coming up behind him with my wind assisted behind but he did not respond to me at all when I tried to chat to him, Ok, I thought, if you want to be horrible that's your problem and let him run ahead.
The run proceeded well with lots of encouragement from the crowds and my lovely wife who has had to put up with the endless triathlon tales, early morning alarms, long training days, me being tired and irritable and my smelly training gear and the journey is not over yet!
I started the last lap feeling strong and the reality that soon I would be a Half Ironman began to feel good, nothing was going to stop me now! With 300 mtrs to go I rounded the last corner to see Mr Black and it was then in decided that I would beat him no matter what, I started to run faster and faster and caught him. He saw me and tried to respond, I could hear his race number flapping as his legs pushed but I was not going to lose this little race. I sprinted for the line and finished in 6 hours 17 minutes and was elated and exhausted.
Dont forget you can donate to Willen Hospice for this race by following the link in the charities page.
So its on to Sherbourne for the final challenge the UK Ironman, bring it on!
Update 22nd August
So its only 16 days to go until the big one. The UK Ironman in Sherbourne, in the tradition of the Olympics I have been setting some fantastic personal bests recently. In the MK Olympic distance Triathlon (1500mtr swim, 40k bike and 10k run) I beat my best time by a massive 26 minutes and finished in 2 hrs 37 mins which is just short of Elite pace in the Triathlon world. Last Sunday I was on a 3 hour training run with some of the other guys from Team MK and finished up doing 20 miles in 3 hrs 1 Min which was a PB of 25 minutes! I have also lost nearly 2 stone in weight and am probably in the bst fitness shape of my life. To say I am seeing the benefits of all this training would be an understatement.
For the next 2 weeks I am tapering down to the big event. Taper is when you give your body a little rest from all the hard training to ensure you arrive at the start line in peak shape and feeling fresh and not exhausted like I have been recently. For the last 6 weeks or so I have averaged a 15 hour workout week, generally with a 5 hour bike on the Saturday and a 2 hour run on the Sunday. But this week I get to only do 13 hours, yipeee....And next week I go down to only 10 hours.......then on the Ironman week I will just laze around for a gentle 5 hour work week, but with the race at the end of that week.
Donations are slow at the moment for the charity Macmillan so I hope you lovely people will dig deep and donate any amount you can. At the beginning of this crazy idea I wanted to raise £10,000 in total for the 3 charities, currently I am at about £4500 so quite a long way to go yet! This is the way you can help me to reach my final goal and be a part of Team Wineman. keep an eye on the site to catch updates over the next few weeks. Thanks for reading.
Update 5th September
This is the last update before the event on Sunday. I now have a cold, not the man flu but a stinking cold, apparently this is normal as athletes taper down for a race their bodies begin to change and things like colds comeput which have been kept at bay for a while. I am a little bored too....all the training has taken over my life so much and I am now doing what seems like a tiny portion of what I used to do. However I am off work now and can concentrate on packing today and we go to Dorset tomorrow when the nerves will start to kick in.
The weather looks appalling, lots of rain and cold. I had to go and buy a Gillet yesterday and now am thinking I will need a neoprene hat for the swim and arm warmers for the bike section. I really did not want to spend any more money but needs must and all that. As far as nutrition goes I have been carb loading for 10 days now and pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner is getting boring, so today I am going to have risotto, yee har. On the day of the race I will be getting up at 3am in order to have eaten sufficient food to take me throught the swim and have it digested in time, the race starts at 6am, nice and early.
So what's next....well you will have to wait until I have finished but there is plans for another mad race or two and I am also going to do a business goal as opposed to a fitness goal after the Ironman. more details to come.
I just want to say a quick thanks to everyone who has supported me and sent me e-mails texts etc. It makes it all worth while when you know people are behind you. More thanks after the race.
Update 15th September 2008
Well I finished the race in 14.10 and here is the race report. In total I have raised just under £5900.00 for the 3 charities so my gratitude is massive to all those fantastic supporters who have helped to get to this amazing amount.
The weather in the days prior to the UK Ironman Distance Triathlon was poor at best, torrential rain, wind and lots of cars getting stuckin the Sherbourne Castle mud. This did not stop the 1400 registered Triathletes from attending the pre race talk. Athletes from 36 countries were going to take on the 2nd hardest Ironman in the world. There were 13 of us in attendance from Team MK with a variety of experience and 1st timers like myself.
I awoke at 4am on Sunday tired and not really up for anything, had some food and made my way to the start. I was alotted a dream position for the bike transition, No.1 spot on the rack, how good did that make me feel, look for the cheapest red bike at the front and off I go, normally this is really hard to find your bike buried somewhere within 1400 others.
I was confident in the swim and should have gone much faster but was apprehensive about the whole day. The start was really strange as when I got to the starting point and stopped swimming everyone was chatting and it was like we were loads of blue headed ducks quacking away. Then we were off, at the turn there was a melee and loads of bunching of bodies. I kept calm when all around were loosing their minds and there was lots of swearing and arms flying. I got into a quick rhythm and then after about 100mtrs suddenly got a terrible stitch in my side. I had never had this in swimming and put it down to nerves and lack of a proper warm up. A bit of breastroke later and some deep breathing and I was back on track. I could have gone faster but I was pleased with my time of 1 hour 7 mins.
So off to a very slow transition, worries about weather, comfort first time nerves about the bike etc slowed me down. The bike was great on the first lap I made it up the hills that I had been dreading and was flying in 16.7 mph. There was some great support from Team MK supporters which really helped.
The second lap was tougher, especially on the hills and the average overall had dropped to 16.3mph. I had guessed my time overall at 15mph so I was still very pleased. I had no idea about heart rate as I had not synched my friends Garmin so all I got was speed data, for a while this bugged me but I was not going to stop and fool around with it. I had lots of time to think on the bike and as more and more people passed me I began to day dream about what a perfect day it had been so far, dream transition area, good swim, slow and steady transition so far. Lou Read’s song kept on playing over and over in my mind. The supporters were manic as ever and again this really helped when you see a friendly face.
Lap 3 was really tough, the bloody hills were now mountains, I had made a pledge that I would not stop no matter how hard it got and there was many times when I had to battle with this resolve. It got to one stage when I was saying to myself "just another 20 seconds and then we'll stop" I stopped looking up as the summit was too high and my neck was straining! 20 seconds more I said, just another 20, then another, you get the idea. Then the downhill section, never was this more delightful. I had Mark Kleanthous (my Ironman coach) in my mind saying keep spinning in the downhill but at this stage I had very little spinning left. The speed I was sailing down at was quite worrying (40mph) but I kept my twitching fingers off the breaks and crossed them in hope. Then all of a sudden it was over, I handed the cursed jalopy to a volunteer thanked her and gave her strict instructions to throw the bloody machine in the lake. I had finished the bike section in 7 hours 15 mins. Another slow transition followed as I was going for full change of clothes each time.
So onto the run I went. I saw my wife for the first time since that morning and it was great to see her, she was shouting loads of encouragement and this made me feel much better. The first lap was ok I suppose but my target of 10min miles was slowly but surely getting worse, not by much but enough to bug me. I managed to see most of the Team MK guys and we had various words of encouragement and banter, this was great too as I could relate to their suffering although they all looked much fresher than me…..gits. I saw my wife again at the start of lap 2 and she said I looked great (what a croc), she was proud of me and loved me (ahh).
The 2nd lap was much harder, the flaming gels were wreaking havok with my stomach and I had to race to the toilets in town at one stage. What a big relief that was though. The run became a shuffle and I gave up on the 10 min mile idea and just wanted to finish. I began to just concentrate on counting off the miles, giving myself little bits of encouragement " half way there now" and "only 10 miles to go" etc. My wife was there again at the castle with some more great encouragement and crazy talk. She wanted me to take her out for dinner after and even to marry her! (again)
At lap 3 Mr Kleanthous again came into play when I reminded myself that with an hour to go I should move onto coke. I was sick of gels and they were making me feel terribly sick, Gatorade was like orange poison and water was making me feel bloated. I waited until mile 20 to do this and all I can say is WOW what a difference. The Ironman shuffle became a little jog and then at time a run again. I began to crave the next aid station where I could get some more of this wonder drug. Then the coke started to wear off a little as the distance grew, I began to shuffle again and got really fed up when I could not catch a guy who was walking 10 yds ahead of me and in my mind I was shuffle/jogging but not bloody walking. In fact I only walked the aid stations and was pretty happy with that. With a mile to go I rounded the corner and asked a volunteer what the time was, I worked it out that I had 25 mins to run that last mile or so and that I would finish in under 15 hours. My plan was to do this and my dream was to finish in under 14 so I was happy I had of course completely messed up my times and had no real idea what time I was. The last few hundred yards were a blur as I high fived people I did not know and was running like a dream. The run had taken me 5 hours 25 mins and I crossed the line in 14 hours 10 minutes and collected my medal, I saw my wife who was so happy for me and she hugged my poor aching body. I was an Ironman and in a great time too.
I was not overjoyed though, I was too tired, I was just so glad it was all over. The Ironman blues had already set in, it was a bit of an anticlimax. I should have been ecstatic but all I wanted was my bed.
I must thank everyone at Team MK for all the help, advice, fun and encouragement. Mark Kleanthous is by and far the best Ironman coach in the world and has been there for me when I needed him and even when I didn't think I did. Thanks Mark, you are the best. Monika Akabusi has been my fitness coach since I began this journey and has been there with great words of encouragement and anger at the right times. Without her sorting out my back and neck issues and getting me in shape I would never have been able to complete this challenge. Thanks to Andrew and everyone at Business MK for allowing me to detail this journey, I hope in a small way it inspires someone to take on their own Ironman whatever that may be.
Finally extra special thanks to my wife who despite everything has stood by me, put up with the endless Ironman talk and was there for me all the way. To me she is the Ironman, putting up with me and my madness.
You can still donate to Macmillan by going to www.justgiving.com/wineman2ironman
