After much deliberation the last few weeks I’ve decided to make a difficult decision not to compete at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in October 2009. Everyone has been asking me why I have decided not to compete and it’s hard to sum it up as there there is no one main reason, however I’ve tried to explain myself here goes!

Performance – probably the main reason I have decided not to compete is because cost/time wise I wouldn’t be able to compete both in 2009 and 2010 at least without some sort of sponsorship. I feel that I can be much better prepared if I set out to compete the best I can in 2010. I would target an earlier event in the year (possibly Ironman South Africa or Lanzarote) after this year’s performances being pretty certain that I can qualify even while not peaking for the event and then be able to move on and peak in October for Hawaii. This year I peaked for Ironman Switzerland in July and have not been able to step on properly to compete again 3 months later (partly due to workload setting up G.S. Henley, Athlete Service taking off and a lot of web design work while not fitting in the required training for it and partly I think the body not recovering as quickly as I’d expected; basically trying to do too much having not particularly planned to compete again in October this year!).

Cost – at the moment I just can’t afford the £4000 or so to get to Hawaii and stay a decent amount of time to do the race properly (to get over jetlag, acclimatise). I could of course dig into the savings however it would set me back months in terms of covering it with work while I am investing a lot in the Athlete Service setup. I am unhappy to beg from family and friends so looking for a decent corporate sponsor to sponsor me for these events in the long term if possible.

Niggling injury – I still have an Achilles problem which in itself wouldn’t stop me competing since I did Ironman Switzerland with the niggle however it affected my performance there (marathon was 3:14, should have been closer to 3 hours) even though I qualified fairly comfortably I could have definitely run faster. Not something I’d be 100% happy with though going to the other side of the world!

Goals – My long term goal is to compete the best I possibly can at Hawaii. I knew qualifying for Hawaii was a possibility this year as my cycling has been very strong and running has improved a little. This has put me around the 9 hour mark which was always going to put me in a qualifying place even in the tough 30-35 age group I have just moved up to. The long term plan was not really to compete at Hawaii this year, although it is very difficult to pass up the place in the excitement of qualifying (I have paid up the entry fee) I am continually improving so aim was really 2-3 years to try to get the best out of myself.

Filipe (guru coach) and I believe 8:40 is definitely achievable next year, but certainly not this year at Hawaii. This would put me among the pros, and pretty much top British athlete (age grouper) in most events. I need a good winter base particularly running in order to get to around the 2:35/2:40 marathon mark (which would be around 2:50-3:00 end of an Ironman. I also need to improve my swimming efficiency which will only come from actually doing some swimming training..! I am gradually tweaking the cycling to get a few extra minutes but the big gains will be in the running over the winter and maintaining the cycling speed while getting even more efficient.

Given my long term goals although it would be great experience (particularly checking the course and dealing with the weather conditions), given the cost and time commitment at quite a short notice and having not found sponsorship (granted, I haven’t tried as hard as I should have done!) I wouldn’t be happy travelling all the way to Hawaii knowing I have better performances in me; but next year if all goes to plan. I have no doubt I could do a solid performance for Team Athlete Service but I don’t think I’d be happy just with a solid performance.

So to that end it’s probably time for a few weeks fairly easy, a few domestic races and events, develop Athlete Service and helping out and organising G.S. Henley and various projects and then to get some solid running and swimming in over the winter.

Thanks for everyone’s continued support and messages!

Rob G