Ok folks – we all think that all this “Ironman” malarkey is just another Triathlon, an excuse for a weekend away in the south of France, a nice dip in the water, a cycle through the countryside and a jog around the city. And the weather will be pretty good in late June too, wont it?

Its not just the distances that are unimaginable to those that don’t relish a sprint for that proverbial bus. Its the number of other bodies thrashing through the water, elbows, feet, blow back, I mean no breast stroke and keeping your new bouffant dry for the evening celebrations!!  then in the cycle, yes granted one is now seated! but its no best of DFS, with integrated recliner function, what is not always obvious to the untrained observer is the inclines, from sea level to nearly 1200 ft and pretty sharply too!    Then the run… not much to say about that, we are all pretty impressed at the thought of Paula Radcliff running a marathon, but not after swimming and cycling.

So lets recap:

3.8km swim

180km cycle (Note the course profile graph!!)

42.2km run (reminding you yes this is a full marathon)