I had been planning to do this event for over 12 months and had been training relentlessly up to about five days before the event from about February. Having completed IMUK back in July 2015, Tenby was always the next big Ironman event for me as I was brought up in Whitland, in fact Tenby was my first choice, but I had only started swimming in October 2013 and wasn’t confident enough to tackle the sea swim in 2015.

Everything had gone well up to the 18th and on that day the weather was perfect. On the procession to the beach, I got talking to a local lad, Ryan, who had done all 6 IM Tenby, he said this is by far the best weather they had ever had. I decided last minute to get in the 1:10 zone for the swim as my swim with the Swindon Triathlon Club had improved dramatically over the last three months from a 1:20 time and I had done regular 1:10 times. The swim went well with 1:06 and the run to T1 was a blur of people supporting what I knew was a special event. T2 was 11mins and then I hopped on the bike.

The roads were amass with cyclists and still the support was strong up the hills, down the hills, whatever road we took there was support. Soon we were hitting the second loop and I was looking good for under 6 hours when at 92 miles, heading down towards Cross Hands at close to 30mph, I took the right hand bend which pushed me wide - so wide in fact I hit the kerb and boom off I came. I managed to get up but knew I was badly hurt. I could not move my left arm at all and there was blood coming from my elbow. The ambulance was sited at the corner and with help I was taken inside it. I thought my race was over. I felt like I had cracked some ribs as my breathing was painful and had no movement in my left arm. The ambulance crew cleaned me up and bandaged my arm. Then someone said to me the bike was ok, so I said to the ambulance crew I want to give it a go. To their disbelief, 25 minutes later, I mounted the bike and managed to cycle it back one handed to T2, although I had to dismount the climb out of Wiseman’s Bridge as the pain was too excruciating.

As I was approaching the last 1k of the bike race, I began to think about the run and how I was - if I was going to do it. With the bike racked and shoes on I sought some medical help again and got a new race number, it was now 3.30 pm I had nine hours to do this. With just 50m into the run, I had to stop and then again after another 50m. I saw my mate, Gary Lewis, in the crowd. He was aware there was a problem, but didn’t know what until I said. He asked me if I wanted to stop, I replied I don’t know, I’ll try again I said so another 100m I stopped again; the shockwave to my ribs was just awful. He said this time you are wasting your time, give it up or you have got to go faster. So for the fourth time, I started going again, barely at walking pace, periodically just faster than walking and stopping often. Lots of athletes were encouraging me to keep moving forward, one or two walked with me for a while, but their walk was too fast for me and in the end I told them they had to finish this as they had trained just as hard and for them to DNF because of me would make me feel worse.

After the first lap, Gary (who was timing me) said ‘I was far too slow, I wouldn’t make it at this pace. Having done one lap, I thought I could do another so more paracetamol and further encouragement from supporters and athletes saw me go faster through the second lap. Now the mentality was I have done two, I can do three and lap three was a replica of lap two. Lots more supporters recognised me, more athletes tried to help me, I kept eating and drinking lots at all the stations. I was sweating profusely but my vision was good, it was all on the left hand side that was causing the pain. I had to hold my arm for long periods to stop it swinging So with lap three out of the way and some athletes with just one band I knew, providing I could just hold it for one more lap, I was through this and so it began. It was dark by now and spotting with rain. Reaching the turnaround at New Hedges was a nice marker knowing that there were just three miles left. I was dreading the run through town as athletes were being patted on the back and kids wanted to ‘tap for power’. Eventually I could hear the announcer ‘You are an Ironman’ and within five minutes of that I was on the red carpet hearing those same words and crossing the line at 14:34:30 (not my 11+hrs predicted time ) with my worst finisher’s photo ever.

The next two hours were spent having medical attention, the medical team were fantastic, patching me up and making me comfortable before I went back to the B&B.

The next day, back home in Swindon, I attended the Great Western Hospital where an X-Ray revealed a fractured ‘glenoid bone’ to the shoulder socket and damage to the shoulder rotator cuff. The damaged shoulder will require a CT scan and physiotherapy.

Sadly these events happen, it’s unfortunate but my immediate priority is to heal well and then slowly rebuild my fitness back….Tenby remains unfinished business!

WAYNE PERKINS