Strong Woman competes in Ironman
Monday, October 31, 2011
For those members who are not aware (because she always keeps a very low profile) one of our coach’s, Melissa Dowell, recently competed in the Ironman Ford World Championships in Hawaii where the distance for the three disciplines of Swim/Bike/Run is just over 140 miles. She qualified earlier this year to compete in the championships by achieving Gold in her age group in Ironman Lanzarote.
In speaking to her upon her return she briefly described the three disciplines of the race:
Swim – “Brutal, Rough and Busy and came out of the water in 3rd spot in my age group” (although I noticed by her time she was only a few metres behind the eventual overall winner of the Elite Professionals, GB’s own Chrissie Wellington).
Bike – “Tough in high temperatures and winds, really cooking from 80 miles onwards”.
Run – “Hot, Hot, Hot,- nausea, as I could not cool down”. At the end she completed the course in 11hours and 18 min. to come over the finish line in 15th place in her age group out of the 52 competitors selected from across the world. The physical reward was Heat Stroke which resulted in 3hours of medical treatment/IV Infusion.
Her final comments (junior members please take note and learn from her experience/preparation) – was that she would love the opportunity to go again and give herself the chance of being a bit more competitive by better preparation in ‘heat acclimatisation’. Explaining that this years training also included, from April to Sept ‘cold water swimming’ in preparation for the September Cross Channel Relay, which was not the ideal preparation for the heat and humidity of Kona.
Despite her own self criticism of “Need to do better”, the club congratulates her qualifying for the World Championships in the first place and then finally achieving a ranking of 15th in the world.
I am sure, for those junior members who are lucky enough to be trained by Melissa; she will give you a more in depth description of her experience and provide advice on your own preparations for 2012 triathlons.
