K1 Man Half Ironman Triathlon in Cyprus - Podium Finish

I think it's important to manage expectations early here.

In this triathlon there were only 5 people competing, and of those one of them lined up for the race brief at the shoreline for the start of the swim vaping.

So safe to say, not a particularly deep field of competition, which suited me just fine.

This was a half Ironman distance triathlon, which is a 1900m swim, 90km bike followed by a 21.1km run. It was held in RAF Episkopi out in Cyprus, so thankfully the weather was decent!

The prep for this went as well as I could hope. You always want to do more but life gets in the way, but I did manage some 3 hour rides along with a 16km run in the build up. With only 1 swim under my belt in the last 5 months though, its safe to say I didn't have my sea arms.

In the changing rooms before the race I got chatting with one of the other competitors. He told me he had done a backyard ultra the weekend before so was unsure how his legs for feel as he aimed for a sub 5 hour finish. For those who don't know a backyard ultra is a 4 mile route, completed every hour, on the hour, until you can't do any more. He did 127km over 19 hours - what a maniac. I wished him luck and said I probably wouldn't see much of him for the rest of the day.

This is about as "aero" as I can get

Race Review

The Swim

For the swim I didn't have a watch on as it ultimately wouldn't have made any difference to my pace. I set off with the intention to sit to the side of the lead swimmers and let them pull me along for a bit. However I quickly realised I had put a bit of gap on the other 4. After about the first third of swimming this gap was now probably 200-300m, so I decided then to see if I can keep it going and finish the swim leg first. I had never finished first out the swim so didn't want to miss my chance. All was going swimmingly until the final third, when my arms were dead and even managed to get some cramp in my foot. But I held on to exit the water first, the second guy was still around 100-200m behind me - success!

When I exited the water I asked how long we had been swimming as I expected 1900m to take me about 38 mins, so I was floored to hear only 29 mins had passed. This was incredible, but made zero sense.

The transistion was slow going as it always is, my heart rate was super high and the guy who was in second, Mr. Backyard Ultra, had made up the ground.

The Bike

I left the transition and in the first 300m managed to drop my pump out of my back pocket, serves me right for putting it in there. It was a hill straight away with a 100m climb, a nice down hill and then a 40km out and back, before repeating the climbs in reverse. We do this loop twice. Over the 90km route there was 752m of climbing, so enough to make it feel like a grind at times.

In that first climb, Mr Backyard Ultra caught me about 5km in. I stayed close to him for the next 10-15km but he then just slowly crept away. My aim was to keep my HR in zone 2 on the flats, and zone 3 on the climbs, and hopefully be close to 30kmph average for the entire cycle leg.

On the final 20km I was told I was "only" 5 minutes from the lead cyclist (Mr. Backyard Ultra), and I had about 5 minutes on the person in third. There was minimal wind and the temperature was at a lovely 16-18 degrees, so near perfect riding conditions.

The ride felt good and pretty much went to plan. I finished in 3 hours and 3 minutes with an average speed of 29km. My HR average 150bpm which was 33% in Z2 and 66% in Z3 - so overall happy with it all.

The Run

Starting the run I knew I needed to begin slow and not burn all matches. I hadn't done many brick sessions so todays run was going to be a bit of surprise. The run was 5 loops, on the first loop I realised I was about 6 minutes behind the lead guy, Mr Backyard Ultra, and similar distance to the person in third. I had a plan of trying to get 1hr 45mins on the run, and to average between 4.50-5.00min/km on the run. This plan was going well for the first 3 loops with a steady pace. My legs were cramping and felt locked in position but it was OK. Any thoughts of catching first place was slipping as each time we passed he was increasing the distance, but thankfully so was I on third place. Then all of a sudden this new guy came out of nowhere and glided past me at the start of lap 4. I guessed I was about 10-15 minute up on him from the cycle and thought that no way had he made up all that ground.

From 13km things got slower, and by 17km I was down to 5.22min/km and even hitting over 6min/km for the last 3 kms. The route was flat but with the temps up to 25 degrees it was a real slog at the end.

I crossed the line in 1hr 50mins for the run, and thankfully held onto second place.

The End

My quads were so sore by the end and I was absolutely shattered. Completely forgot to even get my finishers photo with all the K1 signage!

I spoke with Mr Backyard Ultra after the race who was a lovely chap. I checked what his watch showed, and my rapid swim time was only thanks to 400m being shaved off the expected length, as we only did 1500m.

Final stats:

1500 swim = 29 mins 46 secs

89km bike = 3 hours 3 mins

21.2km run = 1 hour 50 minutes

Total race time = 5 hours 29 minutes

Huge thank you to everyone at K1 Triathlon for organising a great day out, and of course to my amazing support team. My first Cyprus triathlon was a success, so couldn't be happier about it all.

Now to start planning the next event.....

Rich