We immediately hit the bike course, setting out with the map and directions from the Ironman Wales website eager to stretch our chair shaped legs, work out the route and to see what would be in store for us on race day. The bike is advertised at present as a two lap bike, which one large loop and a second shorter loop (which repeats the second half on the first loop). The bike course rolls out from Tenby along the coast road (A4139) before heading in towards Pembroke. From there a relatively steep climb out of Pembroke (12 miles), then the climbs and descents become a bit steeper. There’s a short, shaded and twisty decent – my least favourite type just after St Petrox then the road carries on towards Castlemartin. Here we found a road closed sign. We’d
had done a lot of map consulting so far, as although the description of the course was detailed with road names, none of these were signposted in reality, so weren’t 100% sure we were on the right road. The course passes through a military (artillery) training zone, which happened to be in use hence the road closed sign. We probably should have made the link sooner, as we had just passed the entrance to a military base, complete with two large tanks outside, just 100 meters down the road.A short diversion found us back on the bike course, headed for Freshwater West. The beach here is stunning; the climb up from there is not enjoyable however. Be prepared to use your small chain ring and watch out for sand on the road, especially if windy, as the road is narrow here and passes
through the sand dunes.
A short descent down and back up from Angle (24 miles) sees the course heading back to Pembroke. The road here is rolling and of good surface, so should be opportunity to make up for some of the slowness on the rest of the course. A short loop around Pembroke centre (there’s a very short but steep climb as you make the turn through town, which caught be a bit by surprise first time around, and saw me uncomfortably grinding my way up the 30m stretch). Heading back along the road you come into Pembroke on towards Lamphey, where there’s a left turn onto a road called the Ridgeway. It’ll come to no surprise that this is another uphill, and you seem to only just get to the ridge, with stunning coastal views, before turning off and descending to Sageston. The lane here is narrow and steep, but has just been resurfaced properly, so should be a fast descent. We were treated to the view of Carew Castle, before crossing the river and heading uphill towards Cresselly and Yerbeston. It’s basically uphill and downhill from there all the way to Narberth, where there’s a steep downhill, straight into a steep uphill, which flattens a bit, but seems to go on for what seems like forever. It was here I started contemplating using my road bike on race day, as I just wanted to keep shifting gears on the uphill and my legs were screaming at me for such low cadence climbing. The course then loops out east to Tavernspike, via Princes Gate (more rolling), a sharp right turn heading south west towards Ludchurch, then it’s mostly downhill to the coast. At this point I’d pretty much figured out that any downhill was going to be matched with an equally steep uphill, and I wasn’t disappointed. The climb out of Wiseman’s bridge has a 16% sign at the bottom. I was definitely heading towards the road bike option now. Then guess what the course heads downhill into Saundersfoot then straight up the other side, on another steep climb, back towards Tenby. Lap one done. The course then passes through and out of Tenby as on the first lap, then about 3 miles before Pembroke it turns right at Lamphey, onto the ridgeway and follows the route taken by lap one. It had taken us 5 hours to complete the long loop with a lot of stop, starting and a bit of getting lost along the way. Over the weekend we rode different sections of the bike course and I made up my mind to use my Cervelo S2 over my Quintana Roo Cd0.1. Not being able to shift so frequently on the up hills when on my base bar, meant I spent a lot of time riding in a lower cadence than I’d have like to be riding in and I don’t want my legs to be cream crackered for the run. Simon was fine, he has Di2 on his P4, with shifters on his base bar and tri bars. And since Santa will not be making an early visit and bringing me Di2 for my race bike, I’m going to be riding my Cervelo road bike, with USE tribars and my Hed wheel set.
My running is coming along, and over the weekend I managed a few runs on the course. From T2 in Tenby town centre, the 4 lap run course heads straight out of town along the coast road, which is mainly a rolling downhill, except for a short hill near the Haven Caravan Park and petrol station. The route turns into Penally village, along a road which runs almost parallel to the coast road, heading back to Tenby, so is a rolling uphill! Back in Tenby it’s up St John Hill, downhill to the castle, around the castle, past the life boat station, up Castle Hill - a 10meter stretch almost vertical, only a slight exaggeration. Then a loop through the town centre, which if the organisers can get the right atmosphere going should be great fun, before heading back out of town. The run should be a good course for spectators.
Can’t really say too much about the swim, we did don our wetsuits on Sunday night and head down to the sea. It was bloody cold (good luck to those doing the long swim on Friday, remember your neoprene hat and booties!) and choppy. Both of us managed about 100 meters before getting out, much to the amusement of the car park attendant, he pointed out to stay clear of ‘The Whiteback’, a sandbank mid-beach which messes with the tides and catches the unwary, but also took great relish is calling us soft southerners, but kindly pointed us in the direction of a really good fish and chip shop, for a treat on our last night.
