Transition 2 - 5m43s

My calf muscles had not felt great on the bike but there had been no hint of cramping since the swim.  Nevertheless I was still a little concerned about taking my feet out of my shoes, an action that has caused cramps in the past.  They came out easily with no issues which was a relief.

Generally my legs were feeling quite spent which is understandable after nearly 6 hours of riding. As I rolled towards transition I tried to massage different parts of my legs and I was pleased to discover that nothing was feeling particularly tight.

Usually in a Triathlon you dismount from the bike and then run it back to your spot within transition. Not in Ironman, you dismount and immediately hand your bike over to a bike handler and then head straight for change tent.  However in my case I headed straight for the portaloos.  There were about 10 portaloos in transition and it took me a little while to find a vacant one. Competitors are a bit fatigued by this stage and most of them had forgot to lock the door - I think I opened 5 doors before I discovered one that was actually empty.

This made it 3 toilet stops so far when I was only expecting to need one.  In a Half Ironman race I have never felt the slightest need for a toilet break, so I was very surprised that the situation was so different in an Ironman.  I have several thoughts about this, first you tend to consume more in an Ironman because proper nutrition is so much more important, you are not going as fast so bodily functions are more active and the weather for the race was quite cool so my sweat rate would have been way down.  Speaking to others competitors after the race, most of them had more toilet breaks than expected.  One of my friends Chris who has 20 Ironmans under his belt set a new personal record of 9 stops on the bike.

I felt great jogging into the change tent.  There was obvious relief from going to the toilet, but the biggest pleasure was the fact that I was off the bike.  Everything in Ironman is too long and the last 20km of the bike was very uncomfortable.  Even in an Olympic Distance race which only has a 40km bike leg, I am always very relieved to be off the bike, so you can imagine how I felt after 180km on the bike.

I found my bag easily and this time there were heaps of seats available. Again the helpers were doing a magnificent job, running around getting things like vaseline for competitors, helping people repack their transition bags - it is definitely the 5 star treatment.  My needs were pretty simple, take off helmet, swap race bibs (different ones for bike & run) put on socks, runners and cap, shove helmet and bike bib number into the transition bag and I was off.  You drop your bag into a large container just outside the change tent and then start the run.

Even with the toilet stop my second transition was quicker than the first.  I was feeling great and not suffering any of the cramping issues I experienced after the swim.