By Leesha Furse
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WGCDR
Brock McKinlay in training.
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Photo
by CPL Simone Liebelt
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RIGHT
now, if things are going to plan, Wing Commander Brock McKinlay
will have completed a 38km swim, most of an 1800km bike ride and
will be contemplating the 422km run ahead of him.
That’s 10 times every distance of a normal Ironman competition.
WGCDR McKinlay, of the Directorate of Personnel- Air Force, is
contesting the DECA Ironman on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. The
event began on November 13 and finishes once competitors have
covered the distance or no later than midday on November 27.
He hopes to complete the swim in 12 hours, cover 400-450km a day
on the bike over four-five days, then run two marathons a day
to complete the course in 9½-10 days. “The problem
is that endurance events are never that simple and I am just as
likely to still be on the go on the very last day,” he said.
He faces a swim of 760 laps of a 50m pool, then about 1120 laps
of a 1.6km circuit on a bike, and about 260 laps running the same
loop but in the opposite direction.
“What will happen is a bit of an unknown but there’s
a lot of things that are likely to go wrong. I expect to cramp
in the swim, I’ve always cramped a lot so that will be problem.
On the bike, any contact point will chafe – hands, elbows
and so on,” WGCDR McKinlay said.
“I also expect that my feet will swell on the bike and run
as fluid accumulates in my feet. While I hope to minimise this
effect through icing, hydrating and maintaining my electrolyte
levels, I have done a six-day running race where my feet blew
up five shoe sizes [from size 10½].
I spent the last three days in sandals and I eventually ran out
of Velcro [on the straps] as my feet continued to swell. The unknown
with this race is I don’t know what condition my feet will
be in at the start of the run. I know what they will be like at
the end!”
The eight-year veteran of Ironman events has been jogging around
the block barefoot late at night and soaking his feet in Condy’s
crystals to toughen them up.
Initially, cost put the race out of his reach, but then WGCDR
McKinlay received an email from his best mate, a Navy officer
posted to Hawaii. He said, “Hey, that race you wanted to
do is on the same island I am and I can get time off to be your
support crew, so you’d better get training.”
“I was instantly excited and my heart rate went up about
20 beats per minute,” he said.
He is often asked why he wants to do such a gruelling race. “I
don’t know where the motivation comes from – my parents
think it’s a mutant gene. I used to run around a 5km block
when I was a kid, and I remember thinking one day, ‘I wonder
how long it would take to do 20 of these’. I can’t explain
where that line of thinking came from.”
WGCDR McKinlay admits he probably hasn’t done enough training
“to race this race”.
“I don’t think you can with kids and a full-time job
... It’s more a matter of getting out there, eating, drinking,
putting one foot in front of the other over and over and managing
problems as they arise.”
