So where did this all start?
I remember sitting on a friends balcony overlooking Newcastle Harbour (Australia) and talking with friends about what we wanted to accomplish in the next few years. Being a fairly active bunch, someone said they wanted to run a marathon. I said I'd love to do that, but having been a middle distance runner as a teenager I thought I'd push too hard and hurt myself - I'd had to stop running competitvely at age 16 due to a knee condition. At the time I was volunteering as a surf lifesaver at my local beach and was doing some ocean swims. The only running I did then was beach sprints. Bike? My mountain biking had pretty much dried up since leaving the UK and I had a rusty old thing I used to ride to work sometimes, but mostly to the beach.
A couple of good friends from the surf club were trying their hand at triathlon and suggested that I should do the sprint triathlon. I politely declined, saying that I could be persuaded to be part of a relay. My swimming was strong enough, but I wasn't a competitive speed. My bike skills were good, but just riding fast on the road? Where was the fun? And running, well, I was good over the shorter distances, but I hadn't done any competitive running for nearly 15 years! I carried on with my beach sprints and my ocean swims, but racing 18 year-olds when you're 29 is tough on a 60m sprint. So I moved to the 2km beach run. Then I did my first 10km road race since the 1980s!
Then, sadly, my time in Australia was over. I said goodbye to my friends and moved to the southwest of the USA. It didn't take long for a colleague to sell me a road bike (a beautiful 1994 Eddy Merckx) and I found out that not only did I still love cycling, but that road biking was awesome! In the first year road biking I rode my first century and won my age group in my first road race. Several centuries later, I entered a local duathlon (10km run, 40km bike, 5km run), just for the challenge. With too little run training and a snowy race day (the bike course was cut to 30km for safety reasons) I pushed myself to a time that I didn't expect. Sure, it wasn't a brilliant time. I didn't win. That wasn't why I was there. But it was fun! And it gave me something to focus on, to concentrate on getting to know myself and my limits.
While all that was happening I had noticed a blurry spot appear in my left eye. When it didn't go away after a couple of weeks (stupid, I know) I saw an optometrist who referred me to a macular specialist. Cystoid macular edema, they said, with some other guesses at the cause. After a short while I flew to Dallas to see a uveitis specialist, who confirmed idiopathic uveitis. Idiopathic = unknown cause. Great. Steroid treatments for the swelling in my retina had given me cataracts and secondary glaucoma. So my doctors changed to a less effective, but safer treatment. The glaucoma went away, but the swelling remained. And now I have implants of a different kind of steroid in my eyes, to slowly release the medicine. And since my edema is recurrent, I've been put on immuno-suppressants as uveitis is typically an auto-immune disease.
August 2011: Nearly three years after that evening on the balcony at Newcastle Harbour, I did my first triathlon. Sprint distance (B:20km/S:400m/R:5km) and finished in 1hr10min. 20th overall and 2nd in my age group. The only person to finish in less than one hour was Viktor Zyemtsev, a professional triathlete and 9-time Ironman champion!
October 2011: Ironman Austin 70.3. My second ever triathlon, and with a target time of 6 hours I was happy to get 6hr7min. The swim was fantastic, and probably one of my fastest open water swims. The bike leg was on some terrible roads and I stopped twice to fix a leaky rear tyre. First time I checked for obvious holes and just re-inflated the tube. Second time I had to change the tube. I counted about 12 minutes lost, in total, for the flat. The run was three laps, and I really hurt on lap 2 - the heat was intense and I was putting all my energy into a positive attitude. The feeling of finishing was amazing, and I really have to thank my girl for being there, supporting me and cheering me on. In fact, I have to thank all the random strangers, both off and on the course, for being so amazing and supportive. The atmosphere at Austin was unbelievable and really made the day!
After Austin I started planning my assault on the full Ironman distance. Since running appeared to be my current weakness, I entered a half-marathon. At high altitude (7500ft), with significant hills. Training between Austin and early December was mostly running. I wanted 1hr45. No-one was more surprised than me when I managed a 1hr36! So now I'm paid up for Ironman Wales, and I know I can do it. It's supposed to be a hard course (yes, it's Ironman, they're all hard), but having family there will make it the easiest course possible.
Why Ironman? Because it's there, and I want to prove I can do it. Finishing is a must, but finishing in daylight would be awesome. That gives me about 12 hours to do it. To hit the top 10 in my age group I'd need about 10hr20, based on last year's results. Is it possible? I'm not looking to win, or qualify for Kona, but I will go as hard as I can while ensuring that I finish. And I will not waste the opportunity - I may be fighting to keep my vision, and training while taking immuno-suppressants - I will tell anyone who will listen that uveitis is a leading cause of preventable blindness, but that too few doctors are trained in ocular immunology. That makes diagnosis difficult and makes it hard to get proper treatment in time. It also means that resources for research into this (currently) incurable disease are limited.
My hopes for this year are long-term remission of my uveitis and macular edema, a sub-12 hour time at Ironman Wales and increased awareness and support for uveitis sufferers. I will be starting some fundraising in the new year, for charities in my home country, and in my current home. Watch this space.
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