- September 6, 2021
One of our Project Managers, Ed Durkin, recently completed the Ironman Triathlon in Vichy after months of hard working and training. Roughly 1,200 athletes gathered from countries across the world to conquer the 2.4 mile swim (3.9K), 112 mile bike (180.2K), and 26.2 mile run (42.2K).
Here’s what Ed had to say about his journey towards becoming an Ironman!
Why?
My triathlon journey began back in 2019 when I visited a few friends in Barcelona to watch them take part in an Ironman 70.3 event. I had two key takeaways from that weekend; one, Ironman events are awesome, and two, I will never ever do that… 2 weeks later I was in Runners Need buying my first pair of running trainers, digging out my least garish pair of swimming shorts, and asking my uncle if I could re-borrow my bike back. I had signed up to doing Ironman 70.3 Dublin. I loved it, and as soon as I crossed the finish line, I knew I had to try the full Ironman distance.
The Build Up
Training for an Ironman is known to be difficult at the best of times, throw in a global pandemic that caused race dates to move, pools to close, a shortage of training equipment to buy and up until 3 weeks before, uncertainty about whether I would even get to the start line, let alone the finish line! It was challenging, but also helped put it in perspective. I also had to fit in training around my work commitments and travelling between client sites, which also added its challenges. Managementors were awesome – my senior supported me whole heartedly, my colleagues trained with me, challenged me and held me to account to make sure I got that run session done after a long day in the office. When I got a text from my Practice Director saying ‘I hope you don’t see this because you’ve left your phone at home but I’m right behind you today’ with a screenshot of the tracking app, it really hit home that the team and Managementors were genuinely with me on this! Big thanks to them.
The Event
The event was as epic as I expected and hoped for! Thousands of athletes and supporters buzzing around a small town with all manner of crazy and expensive looking triathlon gear. I certainly felt quite inadequate with my sunglasses from Amazon and my helmet from Halfords that I bought 8 years ago.
The race itself was great. I was very lucky with the conditions and my body held up as well as I could have hoped. 8 bananas, countless energy gels, as much Gatorade as I could drink and a full 12 hours and 40 minutes after I jumped off the starting pontoon, I crossed the finish line with the words “You are an Ironman!” shouted though the PA system in the best French accent you can imagine! I’d done it, and everyone I know can now breathe a sigh of relief that they will no longer have to hear me say, “sorry, I can’t, I am training tomorrow”… Until the next event, of course.
We’re extremely proud of Ed and his dedication to the challenge and we look forward to seeing what mission he sets himself next!