Crew legend Britt Litton is no stranger to Ironman; completing 4 of them in 2017, 2019, 2020 & her most recent in 2022. Each one came with it’s own learnings and a massive dose of achievement; but 2022 would prove her most physically and mentally challenging finish line to get across. As Britt explains below; just getting to a start line – let alone finishing – can require every ounce of determination and resilience to keep the promises we make to ourselves. To just give it our best no matter what comes and embrace the journey.
It’s been a long year since 2020 began and COVID became the joy that keeps on giving in our lives. My story begins in February of 2020 when Ironman was planned to go ahead, until it suddenly wasn’t 7 days out from the event. The organisers were awesome and delayed the race until the end of March. Still pumped it was even going to happen; I went into a bit of reverse taper to maintain my fitness until the new date. I had high hopes to achieve more than in previous years Ironman’s; but my race just didn’t go to plan. I left knowing I could do better and wanting more. So I decided – just one more try. Fast forward to 2022, the year of the tiger and what looked to be the farewell of COVID finally. Give it another crack, reow, ok then, it’s on. I made my race plans for the year, Ironman in March and 5 Passes cycling with the LUPA girls in November.
But 2020 wasn’t done yet and Ironman was rescheduled to December… 3 weeks after the 5 Passes Tour. I was unsure if I would enter, it wasn’t probably the most ideal scheduling but July came around and I thought f**k it, YOLOOO. I signed up because this was going to be my last one.
I had a good 5 months ahead of training under my new coach, Dragon. In a short time he had me in peak physical condition for endurance events, I’d even won my first ultra 50k running event and vibes were high. But I had also developed some sort of persistent knee injury. I went to 3 different physios, all with differing opinions until it pretty much gave out on me. It hurt to push off the wall swimming, it hurt to pedal, and it mostly hurt to run. It was 3 months out from Ironman and I was thinking about pulling the pin due to my knee; but with my run block behind, less swimming, finally finding a good physio and just focusing on a bike block for 5 Passes – everything started to feel good again. Success! I was going to roll on and stick to the plan and hope the rehab could just get me to the line with limited running and swimming.
5 Passes rolled around and well, what an event! Highly recommend (see Marcel’s 5 Passes post for why). The whole event was awesome, I felt good on the bike and was having loads of fun. By the last day I was a bit out of it, I was so exhausted. I am not usually one to need a midday sleep but on the last day of the Tour I found myself huddled in my jacket at the lunch stop, unsure what was wrong. It was time to go so off we went into our final TTT (which we smoked). Said our goodbyes at the end of the day with dinner and the next day I was travelling to South Otago to see my parents. The next day my phone was blowing up with messages reporting all the positive tests of COVID from the Tour. Oh fucking hell, just my luck. I went to the nearest chemist and took a test. In the car with Ari, Max and Tilly (my family), the test showed that I too had the Rona.
I made it home to my parents and went straight into isolation (spreading COVID to my Mum while I was at it). I spent the next few days working out when I may have caught it based on my Heart Rate stats from the pedaling and realising that this was most likely the nail in the coffin for Ironman 2022. I don’t think I shed one tear for the fact I might miss Ironman. Pre-COVID times I felt event results were the deciding factor if I was any ‘good’ or if I had any gains that year.; and it was a lot of unnecessary pressure on oneself to do well. But now I’ve come to value the training process and seeing progression in my work throughout the year rather than seeing an event as a ‘decider’. So while I was a bit frustrated that I might not get to race because I love racing, I was also very content – I would wait and see if I could recover.
I have asthma and worried about my chances of developing long COVID. I took it easy and followed the return to play guidelines for athletes; easing back into training by walking, which was difficult enough to get 1km done in the first recovery week. I emailed Ironman NZ to ask about deferral; it wasn’t looking promising; and I also booked in a health check with my Doctor for the Monday before Ironman. The best part about this situation was being able to rest my knee.
2 weeks out from Ironman and it was time to test some more intense training. I went down to the pool and managed to get in 1.6k of easy freestyle and felt great! Maybe it was going to be ok… So we added a little bit more intensity and volume into my last few sessions but my knee started to hurt again. Generally, you don’t achieve much in the last little build to the race, some call it tapering, I call it having more time to snack and it would probably be fine for the knee to focus on snacking more anyway.
Race week came around and I went to see my Doctor, she told me I was fine to race! Yay! Let’s get it over and done with. I was kind of dreading having to defer and train for another 3 months and waiting until the March race (really solidified for me that my Ironman days are over – for now anyway). Not the Thursday I drove to Taupō to get ready to race, collecting my race pack and checked all my gear. I met up with my old mates Fi and Mike Reilly and we had a hug.
I did a quick swim/bike/run session with the Crew legends and felt amazing. I had no pre-race nerves, I was just calm.
On Friday I racked my bike, let some air out of my tyres and left transition. Spent the rest of the day with my feet up and food in my mouth ready for what would come tomorrow morning.
I’d made it to Race day! I still had no nerves but did have a little slice of excitement. Walking down to transition in the drizzle was refreshing. I went to see my bike to pump up my tyres. Something was wrong though; the front tyre wasn’t pumping. Old me would have freaked out. New unphased 2022 me just asked a man for help. He fixed it up, pumped it up and off I went to the swim start.
Walking down to the swim I ripped my cap. Luckily it was my second cap, the one I was using to insulate my head from the 14 degree Lake Taupō ice box. The entire swim I was thinking about my tyre, unsure if this is a good or a bad thing but I am leaning to the side of good as it took my mind of the most horrible swim I have experienced in my life.
I hadn’t cried much in the lead up to the race. Most of my tears had been due to my knee. Coming around the last buoy in the swim, I started to cry. I think with relief but it is hard to say. I had a quick word with myself about not crying cause my goggles would fog and then I would need to stop to unfog them making an already slow AF swim, slower. I made it out of the water in 1:17, over 12 minutes slower than my first Ironman swim time in 2017.
The bike leg was relatively uneventful. Because I was so far behind out of the swim, I ended up catching and passing a lot of people on the bike. I ended up passing over 110 and moved from 11th in my age group, to 5th. But, in saying that, my legs felt horrible for the entire 5 hours and 41minutes. Initially I thought it was because of the cold lake but looking back it was probably just lack of recovery after 5 Passes and a bit of muscle fatigue from Covid.
Historically I have never been able to execute a run I am happy with. No matter how short the distance of the triathlon, there is always something I am unsatisfied with. But this day felt different. Up until this point I had had no knee pain which made me feel amazing. I really wanted to enjoy the run after what had felt like such a shit few months.
Lap 1 was wonderful. I was running to the goal pace, walking at the aid stations and seeing my whanau and friends on course made me happy.
Lap 2 was much the same, felt good (considering I was balls deep in an Ironman), still running to pace and nothing was hurting.
Lap 3 was where it fell apart, of a 4-lap course, this isn’t bad really. I was about halfway through. Every hill I went up I would get cramp in my left leg. This meant I would have to walk every slight incline. Downhill and flats started to become a shuffle as well. I was overdosing on Redbull, Coke and Maurten gels and while these helped to keep the cramp at bay on the downs and flats, nothing was working on the ups.
Lap 4, last lap, here is where the water works started to creep in again. I don’t know what it is about the Ironman red carpet but every year it gets me, even thinking about it now (2 months on) makes me a bit emosh. I don’t know if it is the hard work that gets put in to get to that point, the relief that the pain can stop, thinking of the sacrifices you have to make to make it there, thinking about my kids seeing me be a bad ass motherfucker or just the overwhelming joy of completing something that only 0.01% of the world’s population will achieve, maybe it is all of the above. But I was prematurely thinking about the red carpet on my last lap. I knew I would make it now, but it was just a matter of how slowly I was going to crawl home. Tears started to fill my eyes. ‘Stop if you bitch’, I kept telling myself. Then whispering ‘come on bitch’ as I was shuffling along to the cheering of the crowds.
I made it to the red carpet and this year, no tears, nothing except pure happiness. I had just done my last Ironman ever; I had made it and was even pain free in my knee. Success alright.
My finishing time was 10:58 and I ended up being 4th in my age group, 9th female and 86th overall. It was never about my finishing place – I am really just happy about my training and the progress physically and mentally I’ve seen throughout the whole year. And having an event like this to have some fun and test my limits – well it’s certainly a great way to end an eventful journey!
The job was done – Ironman 2022 was over. I went home and tried to sleep. Impossible. I went through the McDonalds drive through instead. Large choc milkshake, a Cheeseburger and a McChicken Combo. Slept like a baby. A baby with restless legs, a fully caffeinated mind and an aching body.
On the day post Ironman they have an awards ceremony and a roll down to World Champs. I had talked to Ari (my financial advisor, accountant and fun police) in the past about going to World Champs in Kona, and at the time he encouraged me saying ‘you might never get another chance’. So I accepted the slot at roll down and messaged him saying he would need to transfer $2,500 into the spending account; and I swear he almost filed for divorce instead. BUT I AM GOING TO KONA!!
While I recently moved from Taupō (but still have my Taupō home); I was registered in the Taupō Local category where the fasted female and male locals receive a separate award. I was the fastest female Taupō local time and was awarded a massive log for a photo opportunity; then was gifted a smaller trophy to take home. Pretty cool as I will never be able to enter that category again, if I ever do another Ironman, which right now feels unlikely (outside of Kona).
So that’s my wrap on getting to Ironman 2022. I think there are a few key messages in there, but my best advice is to not take yourself too seriously, take literally every opportunity you get to do amazing things and have fun in whatever you choose to do. Please pray for me as I get into the end of our NZ winter and must start doing heat adaptations for Kona in October. This is likely to make me cry for reals.
