Ironman China - Glenn Hatrick

Thursday – Arrive in Haikou for the very first Ironman China.  I’d never heard of Haikou, but it’s a modern city of close to 2 million people, and capital of Hainan island, known as China’s Hawaii.  Other than it’s an island, I‘m still not sure why.

Ironman HQ is 20km out of town at the Sheraon.  Swim course looks simple enough to navigate, roads are excellent and the run perfectly flat.  Chatting to fellow competitors, it seems that the tiny turnout of 500 has been swelled late on by a bunch of guys (mainly Aussies and Yanks) looking for Kona times, so there are some pretty serious athletes out here, for what’s expected to be a fast course. 

Friday – Haikou is battered by a typhoon, with winds of up to 160 kph.  Spend most of it in hotel room on 20^th floor, playing with my bike to keep from being terrified.  The organisers are talking about making the event a duathlon.

Saturday – Typhoon’s past, but it’s still overcast, rainy and pretty windy.  However, the wind is in your back on the longer outward section.  Cycling down to the venue, there’s a fair bit of damage – every 100 metres there’s an uprooted palm tree across the road.  The authorities will do an excellent job of clearing the roads completely by the following morning. 

Sunday – Race day
A little problem with the swim course – most of it’s been blown away by the typhoon.  Effectively, we’ve now got to swim out a kilometre, go round 2 buoys and back, twice.  The organisers have put a couple of fishing boats by each buoy, neglecting two important facts – the boats hide the buoys and there are loads of other fishing boats, what with this being a fishing port.  Also, the second buoy comes adrift just before race start and is never seen again. 

The swim is a farce – how do you aim for a buoy you can’t see a kilometre away?  Pods of swimmers are going all over the place.  Many people are just getting within sight of the first buoy and turning around – the first cheating I’ve ever seen in Ironman.  But maybe they knew about the second buoy.  I didn’t, and struck out to find it, ending up closer to the Vietnamese coast than China.  By the second lap, we knew to only head for the one buoy.  My second lap was 20 mins shorter than my first. 

Then the worst bit – into Transition 1, to find that the organisers have forgotten about sun-block.  The heat will soar over 40 degrees over the next few hours, and my creamy porcelain Irish skin was not made for this.  Start the cycle knowing I’m going to be in real trouble. 

There is a long straight, flat drag for the first 30km, then an undulating section.  The wind has swung around, with headwinds most of the way and no shade, so it’s tougher than expected.  Then the best bit of the whole race – we turn off towards ‘the real China’ – through paddyfields and buffalo and up towards a few mountain villages.  The support is excellent – all the villagers for miles around are congregated chanting their support.  I get out of the saddle and race past a few guys to give them something to cheer. 

I’m over 6 and a half hours, but that’s only halfway down my age group, so pretty good considering the conditions.  On the downside, it’s bad when you can feel your skin cooking – it’s even worse when you can actually smell yourself cooking.  Those long cycles out to Kent in the snow were no preparation for this.
 
Run
The run course is a run to the edge of the city, back to the Sheraton, then back again to the People’s Park in the city centre.  ‘Run’ is the wrong word for me – after 3km, there’s no more running to be done.  The heatstroke and sunstroke start kicking in, and from here on in it’s jog, walk, puke, pass out, medical tent, repeat.  It’s just about reaching the Finish line at this stage.  Also, the course has been measured wrongly, and they give us an extra 3km to run.  This is pure sadism. 

The finish line is a sight to behold after everything we’ve gone through – into the park, there’s a bridge over the lake, leading down to a long red carpet to the finishing chute, where the cheering crowds are still there.  Also, very heavy police presence, which was a concern as this was when I put on the Free Tibet t-shirt I’d been hiding and made a charge for the line (the only real running I’d done all day).  The crowds started cheering when they saw the shirt, as they thought I was celebrating the Olympics in Beijing.  The tone changed when they saw that the Olympic rings were made of handcuffs – the Western element of the crowd cheered louder, the Chinese were howling.  Grabbed my Finisher’s shirt and medal and scarpered to hide in the medical tent before I got arrested. 

Oddly, the police didn’t come for me, but I was disqualified – making me the first and only Ironman ever to be disqualified for political protest.  The photos of me finishing in the Free Tibet shirt disappeared from the photo website the day after they were uploaded and they won’t answer my requests to justify this. 

Overall, I’m a bit disappointed the organisation and the conditions but also with how I dealt with them, even if it was a first event.  Ironman’s hard enough as a challenge without having to deal with the problems we had.  About a third of the field dropped out, ambulances were screaming everywhere and the medical tents were more packed than the Pimm’s tent at Henley.  Some people did stormingly well for the conditions, but the last male pro finished in 12.44. 

China could actually be a fast course.  Had the race taken place the day before, conditions would’ve been great.  The day before that, however, it would’ve been cancelled.  The race chairman told people they won’t have it at this time of year again.  But all things considered, I wouldn’t go back, even if I wasn’t now a known Enemy of the People.

Glenn