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Full Iron offers full test of endurance Daniel MacIssac Northern News Services Published Friday, August 5, 2011
"It definitely takes its toll on the body and shows where you are not trained up to the point you want to be," said winner Michael Owen, working and living in Fort Providence, who completed the all-day swimming-biking-running race in a time of 11 hours, 38 minutes and 28 seconds.
That time is pretty good for a non-professional. But it's also an indicator of just how grueling an Ironman triathlon is, consisting of a 3.86-km swim, a 180.25-km bike and a full 42.2-km marathon, raced in that order and without a break. By comparison, the triathlon held during the Olympics is only half the distance of an Ironman and, arguably, only half as hard on the athletes.
"There are lots of issues with the body, here and there," said Owen, 26.
"My stomach wasn't really happy on the run ... interesting things happen when you get off the bike after six hours and try to run."
Like all events organized by the Yellowknife Multisport Club, the Full Iron Tri was open to all levels of athletes. And besides the 11 solo racers, there were also five relay teams.
Event co-organizer Andy Wong said he deliberately tried to keep this first Full Iron low key in order to see how it went logistically and how NWT athletes responded.
For Wong, 51, it also meant doing his first Ironman. And even though he's an all-round athlete, he wasn't exactly sure how his body would react to the demands of the race - including diving in Long Lake at 7 a.m. to start the race and having to finish within 17 hours, at midnight.
"I was pretty confident I could finish within the cut-off time - that my body could take the beating," he said.
"I guess I (had trained enough) for that day - certainly in any race, you wish you could go faster, but I was certainly comfortable and pretty surprised when I came in around 9:40 p.m."
Wong's time, 14:39:40, was good enough to give him seventh place in the solo category, and he said the reason for feeling so good was simple: training.
"For proper training, you need ... at least six months to do an Ironman comfortably and be sure of finishing," he said. "And the key is not to do just any one event well, but to do them together to make sure your body is attuned."
When you're not a professional athlete, simply finding the time to train for an Ironman can be challenging.
"What works well," Wong said, "is one endurance event per weekend - a 150-km ride or a 30-km swim - combined with a shorter version of another event to get the body used to a long workout."
It was this quest for endurance that inspired 29-year-old Moses Hernandez to enter his first Ironman, deciding relatively late to go for it as a way to test himself and train for his main passion: cross-country skiing.
"At the age I am now, I still have my peak before me and want to be in good shape for it," he added. "In terms of endurance sports, you usually peak in your 30s or a little later, like skiers who are old but whose fitness is still great."
While Owen said he relied on gels for nutrition during the race and Wong relied on carb-loading by eating salted potatoes, Hernandez said he struggled to stay fueled during the Full Iron, only switching to salty pretzels late in the day.
"In terms of strength, I thought I could do it - but it was a weird feeling and I was tired," he said. "My calves started twitching and then cramping up, and that slowed me down."
Hernandez eventually settled into alternating between running and walking as the sun sank lower in the sky, finishing the race around 10:20 p.m., almost 15 ½ hours after he started.
But will he do it again, do another Ironman?
"Totally, I would next year, for sure."
Owen and Wong said they will, too, as did many of the other Full Iron participants. Indeed, race-winner Owen admitted he approached the Full Iron as a kind of "warm-up" for the Penticton, B.C., Ironman he plans to do for the third time later this month.
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