Ironman Ottawa Race Report

As this was going to be my last Ironman, I thought it would be nice to write a brief race report of my latest adventure. Given all the problems getting out to Ottawa with a cancelled flight and them a flat tire with the hire car, it was a relief to actually line up on the start line of Ironman Ottawa.

This was the first time the race was held here having been in Penticton for many years. The swim was in the Ottawa river which is fast flowing, and we were going to be swimming against the current for quite a lot of the way. The swim was very choppy to say the least and took a lot longer than I expected finally coming out of the water in 1.21. What was even more bizarre is that about halfway through the swim I noticed that some people in front of my had started walking. This was because part of the swim went across a very shallow sand bank, so it was easier to walk than swim. Once out of the water, I was quickly through T1 which also included having one of the volunteers strip my wetsuit off for me. 

I picked up my bike and jumped on, however a few seconds later in began to dawn on me that none of my gears were working. They were all fully charged when I left home and when I rode the bike the day before, so I was struggling to understand what the problem was. I stopped and swapped the batteries over but that didn’t seem to make any difference so all I could do was manually change the gears one at time by clicking a switch on the rear derailleur. I did consider calling it a day at this point but thought I should at least ride the first lap (approximately 60 km) to see how I got on with just the one gear. Fortunately, most of the course was relatively flat but I did struggle on the climbs, the descents and the tail wind sections but to be honest it wasn’t too bad as the gear I selected was fine for large parts of the ride so I just decided to crack on with the ride. The ride took me 5.49 and once I arrived in T2 it was great to have one of the volunteers take my bike for me and before I knew it, I was out on the run.

The start and finish of the run was right in the heart of the Canadian Capital and the crowds were just awesome. After feeling terrible at the start, I quickly began to feel more energised and felt pretty good for most of the first half of the marathon just walking the aid stations to try and take on some nutrition and to keep cool as the temperature hit the low 30's as was forecast. However, I was really struggling to take on any nutrition and nausea finally hit me just after halfway. After that it was a real struggle as I constantly felt sick and finally threw up at around mile 20. After this I did start to feel a lot better and managed to run the last part all the way to the finish. After getting a huge shout from my wife just before the finish line, it was a feeling of joy and relief to finally make it over the line and have that medal put round my neck. My marathon time was 4.53 and the finish time 12.15.

So that was Ironman number ten and definitely my last. Having done my first Ironman back in Zurich in 2006 it has been an incredible adventure racing in some amazing places with some fantastic Club mates. It is difficult to say what my favourite race was but the first in Zurich was special and so was Nice in 2010 with so many Club mates there racing. My fastest Ironman and best age group finish was 8th (99th overall) in Maryland in 2019 in a time of 10.33 at the ripe old age of 49.

I never did quite make it to Kona but it has been a lot of fun trying.

Posted: Thu 7th Aug 2025