IM Copenhagen 2019 Race Report

“The distance between dreaming and achieving is called The ACTION”

In 2016, I had a big dream of getting the Ironman Title. Worked a lot for that ….  And I heard those golden words “Joby Paul, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!” three times in finish line till date.

• 2017 – Florida
• 2018- South Africa
• 2019- Copenhagen 

Ironman Copenhagen 2019, my third full distance ironman.

Copenhagen is without a question , one among the favourite cities I have visited. It’s got a little bit of everything – cute little cafes to lose yourself in, creative art installations all around the city, more colour than you think a capital could have, canals everywhere, and even a few castles too. Copenhagen is called the  cyclist’s paradise, and there’s no better way to experience all the city has to offer than on two wheels. Cycle rentals are very popular among tourists.  The city is beautiful, clean, scenic, historic, and the locals  are always fun to hang out with.

Christianshavn 

The real colours and beauty of Copenhagen

When you race an Ironman for the first time, your goal is straightforward, just to finish the race. But when you are racing again and again, you have higher expectations. You want to prove yourself that you weren’t just lucky the first time,  instead it is something which you really deserve .

After my South Africa race, I started thinking about doing a race somewhere in Europe. The events in my mind were Kalmar (Sweden) and Copenhagen (Denmark).  But when I was ready to register for the event, Kalmar was sold out and only option was Copenhagen.  Registered for the event in January and started training. 

Training

Unlike last 2 events, this time the first half of the training was very slow as my training buddy, Shiva was injured with shin splints and was taking a break from workout. Long distance training, doing all alone is a big challenge especially in the summer time. Usually I never go for open water swim without him. He is an awesome swimmer and gives me confidence when he swims on my left side (I always take breath on my left side). Also no long cycling sessions happened as it was very challenging going alone. So most of my rides were only upto 60Kms. Felix gave me company during several days in long distance cycling as he was training for Paris Brest Paris 1200Kms ride (His PBP was also on the same day 18^th august and today 22^nd August, I got the happy news that he finished PBP in 88 hours). I compensated swim and ride training by running more and more distance. I had Ajith as my running partner during my run training. In Feb-April duration I reduced 10Kg weight to have a faster run splits and it worked well.

Shiva came back to training in the last 2 months of my IM Copenhagen training . During those days , we went for a couple of long rides and brick training sessions. But during that time, open water swimming was not possible due to the heavy weather conditions of monsoon in Kerala .  Most of our  swim sessions were in pool as going to sea and river during heavy monsoon were not safe.

4 weeks before the race, I got a very bad cycle crash and luckily no bone injuries. Had to take a week off from the training due to swelling in the shoulder and a few bruises here and there.

Travel

My travel date was 13^th August from Cochin airport. But a few days before that another stress started. Due to heavy rainfall, the airport got flooded and airport closed on 9^th August. It was a big stress as how the travel would be rescheduled or even how it would be possible. But luckily rain reduced and airport opened on 11^th itself and was a big relief.  As planned, I travelled on 13^th evening. As always, Shiva came with me to airport to see me off. 

Me with my Buddy Shiva at airport 

Reached Copenhagen on 14^th August 1:30pm. At the airport, I came to know that my bike has not yet reached Copenhagen as the connection flight from Doha was quick. No worries this time as the same thing happened during my South Africa ironman. So  now I know the procedure. The baggage handling team checked and confirmed that the bag is in Doha safe. I gave my apartment address in Copenhagen and they assured me that it will be delivered  to my apartment, the next day 15^th 

In Copenhagen 14^th August 2019

My AirBnB apartment was booked from 15^th and I am in Copenhagen a day before that. So I took a bed in a 10 bed dormitory room in a hostel for a night. It was easy for me as I was alone and no bike bag was with me. After placing my items in the hostel, I changed my dress and went for a 5K fun run happening there and it was very close to my stay.  The fun run was truly  fun. One guy in the front was in a cycle with a big music box and we were following him. This 5K course was a part of the IM run course and so I got a good idea about the terrain and climate. But the climate was all different in race day due to rain. Met a few fellow Indian athletes  in the fun run. We had a whatsapp  group of Indian triathletes participating in IM Copenhagen. Hence we could coordinate  our activities there like practice swim in the course.

Some moments from 5K fun run

Some moments from 5K fun run

Some moments from 5K fun run

The night in the hostel was horrible as there were lot of tourists in the room and they  were chatting and showing pictures of the day, eating, drinking . When they slept, I thought it is all done. Then heavy snoring started here and there.

15^th August

In the morning I took a shower at the hostel. After breakfast ,I checked out from there and went to the ironman village for registrations. You will get to the actual race mood once the registrations are done and the the wrist band is on.

After registration I went to the AirB&B in Christianshavn  and checked in for the next 5 days. It was a beautiful apartment. 

The brilliant aspect of AirB&B was that it was just   about a 5-minute walk from registration, the Expo and the finish line. This was super convenient especially after the race. The apartment was  super, nice, clean modern space with just about everything  needed. Something which attracted the me the most , about the apartment was that  it had everything to cook on your own. Almost all  spices and consumables were available in the shelf  which could be used. After I checked in, I went to a nearby store and bought some groceries for the day’s cooking. Bought some rice, beef, chicken, pasta, veggies and some fruits… With my cooking skills I had a  great place  to explore more.  Never went for restaurant food during the stay there.

Some of my cooking and food presentation at Copenhagen

Evening I got my bike bag delivered in my apartment and I assembled it.

Bike bag delivered at my apartment 

Assembled and ready to fly

 I tested my bike to make sure everything was shifting and working properly. I decided to ride during the regular bike commute times which wasn’t the smartest timing. In Copenhagen there is a huge bike culture and bike lanes are built into the infrastructure. Many people commute to work by bike and I hit it when everyone was riding home after work. It was a bit stressful since I wasn’t used to this, but a bit entertaining as well. I was worried about taking someone out or causing an accident on my twitchy tri-bike. It was the worst bike for that kind of riding. I was very cautious and rode slowly when I was surrounded by commuters. It was funny to be passed by people in suits and dresses riding bikes! But it was an experience I’ll never forget!. However, everything was fine with my bike after the long travel.

Bike culture of Denmark

16^th August           

After breakfast headed to the swim start area to do a short practice swim. Amager Strandpark is the swim start which is around 5km away from where I stay. It was easily accessible by metro from Christianshavn. Reached the swim start by 9:00 am and the Ironman organizers were setting up the transition area at that time. Another fellow Indian athlete Saurabh was there and we did a short practice swim. 

The swim start

the course 

The swim course was held in an artificial lagoon at Amager Strandpark. It’s a really nice beach area with sand dunes separating the lagoon and ocean with nice wide walkways. The lagoon was ideal for a swim race since there was no rough water and it was rather shallow. We did around 1.4km practice swim.

Our practice swim session

I am very slow in swimming so my strategy for the race day is to do a swim within cut off and do a medium speed cycle and a good run. Because the difference between a good swim and a normal swim for me is only a 10-15mins. Difference between a fast and medium speed bike is 20-30mins. But it will be hours of difference between a run and a walk.

After the practice swim, I went back to my apartment and then went to ironman village for the race briefing. There was briefing happening in every 30mins (alternatively in Danish and English). Unlike my previous races, here the briefing was just a presentation with recorded voice. But in Florida, South Africa and Bahrain 70.3, all were live presentations by race officials.

Race Briefing 

After briefing, I was back in my apartment and started preparing items for my transition bags. I arranged everything ready to be packed.

By late evening, my friend Pius came from Germany to support me for the race. He is also a part of our running club Soles Of Cochin and working with TCS Kochi. He is now in Hamburg with an on-site assignment. His support was a great help for me especially for bike check in, race day morning and post race. 

Pius is here

17^th August, Saturday (Pre-race day)

Saturday morning after breakfast we went to the ironman village once again as Pius could  visit the race expo. I bought a couple of CO2 cartridges for storing in my bike for the race. 

 Our main goal on Saturday was getting my bike and transition bags down to the transition area near the swim start. By afternoon we packed Red and Blue transition bags and got ready to check in the  bags and bike ,then headed to the swim start at Amager Strandpark .This involved a long walk through crowds of tourists, a ride on the Metro and then another long walk to the transition area. But it did go relatively smoothly.

Ready to go for bike check in

At Metro- The boy was curious about the Tri Bike

Racked the bike 

Blue bike bag also placed

Racked my bike, kept the transition bags in places and collected my timing chip….. Yes!! All set now only the race in my head.

After reaching the apartment, I prepared my energy drink for cycling by mixing Carbo, Amino and salt. Also before getting to bed, made sure that the garmin watch and garmin bike computer are fully charged.

18th August , Sunday- Race day

After a very rough night, I woke up surprisingly fresh and ready by 4:00am. We quickly got ready as we setup everything ready last night. Ate a couple of bananas, breads with some spread and a pre-race carb drink.  We gave ourselves extra time in case anything happened. Reached metro station by 4:45am and took metro to the race start.  

After reaching transition, I went to my bike position to see the bike is fine after the night. It was windy and rainy last night . Bike was all wet but was fine otherwise. I put all hydration bottles in the bike and attached the garmin computer andchecked the air pressure.

I went to the swim start and changed to wet suit. As I am slow in swimming my start wave was at 7:45-7:50, a positively luxurious time by many triathlon standards.  The gun for the pros went off at 7 o’clock. There was an opportunity to warm up in one part of the lagoon and I took a dip, the water was really cold for me. But many Europeans were commenting that water was much warm for them.

Swim warm up

The Swim 3.8Km                                                                  

Ironman events are giving a lot of emphasis on swim safety .Hence rather than a mass start or a group wave start, it is the Swim Smart Initiative . That means , your time does not begin until you cross the timing mat. Compared to the mass start, the rolling start, with 6 people starting every 3 seconds, made swim easier and less daunting.

The narrow course and the sharp tight turns made it tough anyway.

I managed to stay calm and relaxed for most of the swim. Only couple of times I had to swim over, under or around the people, who fought back with the high elbows and deadly breastroke kicks.

After 2km, my right calf muscle cramped, badly. It always happens when I do long swim in the cold water. From that point the kicking was not an option, and it was only a “survival swimming.”

I was targeting a 1:40 swim but ended up with a 1:50. My garmin watch distance tracking got stuck at 2.9km point. Don’t know what happened.

Swim finish

The bike 180km

Transition from the swim to the bike was not very smooth. Took 9 mins for me to change to my cycling gear and started cycling. The bike course was super. Mostly flat except a few short but steep climbs. The first 10km was through the city which included a lot of twist and turns. There were no  troubles with wind  but the sharp turns made it too technical and slow. Still I was maintaining 30km/h avg for that city area by keeping power under 150w and HR 135bpm. After a few wiggles to get through the built up areas around the edge of the city, we were out onto the long, straight coast road running almost due north. A steady, fairly strong, tailwind gave me a huge boost, both in speed and confidence, and I was averaging around 33km/hour without wearing my legs out and my heart rate was just ticking over around 135 BPM. 

Coastal Road

The Danish countryside is beautiful and after 45kms of coastal breeze behind me the route turned inland and the country roads wiggled through picturesque farmland and villages. Even out in the deepest countryside plenty of people had turned out to line the route and there were very few points where someone was not cheering the triathletes.

Beautiful country side road in North Zealand

 A strict no littering policy was in place, but the feed stations were well laid out, and when one hove into view I would take a gel from my top bar and throw the wrapper away as the feed station started, take half a banana, eat it, have time to snatch a second one and dispose of the skin before the litter zone ended. Drink was taken care of with my quick refill front bottle, which I topped up from my rear mounts twice. Most of the climbing occurred on one hill on the stretch back into Copenhagen, at Geels Bakke, and the crowd lined the ascent up to the feed station at the top, in true Tour de France style, close to my tri bars, ringing cowbells and pumping out music to encourage the riders up the climb.

Geels Bakke Climb

At 60km I got a trouble with my front wheel. The break was touching the wheel, now and then and made a small drag. I stopped the bike to fix it . One guy was there waiting for someone to give him a CO2 cartridge as he got 2 flats in the first 60k  and used his  only 2 CO2s. And now he was there with third flat and no CO2 left. I was wondering what a shitty tyre he was using for the race!!!! I gave one of my CO2 to him and he helped me in fixing my break. The trouble with the break popped up at  100^th km again .I didn’t fix it.

By the second lap the tailwind on the way out had gone, but I still made good time and was able to prepare for the feed stations, as I knew where they were.  At this time I was almost sure that I will make a sub 6 bike leg.

But the twist happened after 130km at country side, the rain started. The rain was predicted a couple of days ago and most of the Indian athletes bought warmer jackets for riding. I had a very bad over confidence about the rain.I thought since I battled with monsoons and floods here in kerala, I would love it.  So I opted not to buy expensive warmer and decided to ride with my sleeveless Tri-suit. Later that day , it proved  that mine was completely a bad decision. At 16 degree temperature, ice cold rain water and wind made it hell. My body started shivering and my teeth were chattering . After some time my fingers became numb and was really hard to apply breaks and shift gears. I looked at my palm and it was blue in colour.

Ice cold rain!!!

I knew that in this temperature, there can be cramps in my leg muscles and exactly the same happened at 140km, my right quads muscles got cramped and before it got worst, I disengaged my pedals and sat down on the ground. Did some stretches and felt better and started riding again.  After this point I stopped at every 5km to do a short stretch. I did it very intentionally because I badly wanted a pair of good legs after my ride for my marathon. Was really not happy to see the Geels Bakke climb in the second lap. But I crested the Geels Bakke climb to the second time and put a little bit power down for the final few miles back to the city centre. 

My hydration strategy also got messed up due to the cold and rain. I was over hydrated and had to take 2 pee breaks during the ride.

Initially I had a 6Hr bike plan but ended up with a 6:41

The Run 42.2kms

It was like pouring cold water on me for the last couple of hours and by finishing the ride, my full body was almost numb. So T2 was too tough. I sat down to remove my shoes but was very difficult as my fingers were numb. Teeth chattering and full body was shivering. One of the volunteers came and helped me change my shoes. By seeing my situation he cracked a joke, why do you Indians come to Europe for this, and why don’t you go to Malaysia, Philippians or Taiwan for a warm race?? T2 took  me over 8mins including a pee break .

Beauty of Copenhagen run course 

The Ironman marathon in Copenhagen is spectacular! The course goes through the heart of the city and passes by many historic sites and attractions. And the crowd support is one of the best I’ve seen so far in an Ironman. I think crowd support was less this time due to rain.  Thousands of people come out and cheer on the athletes. I really enjoyed the spectators! While the total elevation gain is quite small, it’s not an easy marathon course. There are tight turns, hopping up and down curves, pavement changes including cobblestones and tiny but steep hills at the north end of the course which I felt harder after each lap.  You run the course 4 and a half times so that alone is very challenging mentally, especially in cold rain.

My plan for the marathon was to start with 5:30 pace for the couple of kms and then to a 5:10-5:15 pace to get a 3:45 marathon leg.

The first 3-4kms I pushed a bit to get my body warmed up. I was running with 4:30 pace and HR 155-160 intentionally to make my body warm and it worked well… after 4km, I became very warm and I was back in my rhythm of running. My shivering gone, felt very fresh and I was running happily. After 5K, I was running in my 5:15 pace plan with HR 140-145. Was feeling great with that rhythm. I was happy that I did some stretches during cycling to have a pair of fresh legs for my marathon. 10K I did in 50 mins and 21k in 1:47. I was in a feeling that I was going to do a sub 3:40 marathon which would be  my marathon PB ( with marathon PB of 3:40 in 2017 in Chennai Marathon). But from 21-30K, it became difficult again. Because of the continuous rain,  I could’nt maintain the body temperature  and it was going down. Also my HR started going down to 120s. A pace less than 5:00min/km was not easy that time and my pace was going like 5:45-6:30. Also 30% of the course is cobblestones and some areas are with sharp stone pavement. I run with Vibram five finger barefoot minimal, means I can feel the road. The stone pavement areas were really hurting me and I had to reduce the pace there. 

Technical running to avoid cobblestone pavement 

After 30kms, the rain stopped and was a big relief. I started increasing my pace. But 30km marathon point of an ironman means your tank is almost empty and you won’t have any fire left in you. But still I pushed to my 5:10-5:20 pace. At 34km, I saw Pius yelling at me “C’mon Joby C’mon…..!!” I asked him whether he has taken my jacket to use after finish. Because I knew I won’t be able to survive the cold after finish. He had my jacket in his bag. He ran beside me with his gopro camera for a few meters. I told him to back out as there was a strict rule that no pacers or support runners in the run course. I was running the last lap and I knew that I was going to make a sub 4 marathon in an ironman.

Finally I reached the finish line and heard “Joby Paul, You are an IRONMAN” and my marathon was  3:46.

The Strong Finish!!

Total finish time of the ironman is 12:37 which is my personal best till date.

I have to thank so many people for my achievement. First of all my family, my wife Sweety, my parents and my kids for supporting my Tri life. I know they suffer a lot due to my tight training schedules, diet plan and long weekend workouts. No words to thank my family.

I thank Vin Technology Systems WLL for sponsoring my race. Thank you very much. 

My training buddy Ironman Shiva, although he couldn’t join me for the initial part of the training this time, he has a very solid role in my training for the last 3 years starting from my first 70.3 in Bahrain.

My friend Pius, he came all the way from Germany to support me for the race. I really enjoyed the days with him in Copenhagen. Thank you dear Pius!!

My buddies in Soles Of Cochin…. it is a great pleasure always meeting soles  each morning, no matter how cold, warm, rainy, or dark. For accompanying miles with laughter, joy, and post-run photos. I thank each and every one for your encouragement and  motivation for my each events. Ajith my running partner, Naushadji, Vijayan, Rameshji, our one and only Kumarji and all soles buddies , Thank you very much for pushing me to show up when I feel like sleeping in. For celebrating big runs, and encouraging me to work harder.

I thank all my FB friends, relatives and all my well wishers for all wishes and prayers.

Thank you all !!!!!!