Jakob Cameron finished the ironman in just over 10 hours. Photo: supplied.
When Jakob Cameron crossed the finish line at the Calella to Barcelona Ironman earlier this month, he passed out.
The Esperance athlete had just completed a 3.8-kilometre swim, 180-kilometre bike ride and a 42-kilometre run in 10:01:55.
“Out of 2,500 people, from 102 different countries, I managed to finish the swim in the top three per cent, and I was in the top 15 per cent overall,” Cameron said.
“I was kicking myself that I didn’t check my watch knowing how close I was to a sub-10-hour iron man otherwise I would have picked up the pace towards the end.
“Although I didn’t hit my targets to qualify, I’m just stoked with how my body pulled through.”
It was not Cameron’s first Ironman and he said it certainly would not be his last.
“I’m hungry for another one — I want to qualify for the world championships, and I will make that happen,” he said.
Cameron said his main motivation was to push himself outside his comfort zone, to give life “a real go” and not let failure stop him from achieving his dreams.
He had a rigorous training schedule in Esperance which he said was “basically a part-time job”.
“I trained twice a day usually — I racked up about 25 hours of training in a week,” he said.
“For some of my longer rides which were 5+ hours, I’d wake up at two in the morning to start cycling at 2.30 so I was done before work.
“For swimming I was using our great local facility down at the pool and running was done at the hockey fields and the foreshore.
“I trained on my own the majority of the time because in the race it’s just you and your thoughts, but I did enjoy mixing it up every now and again and adding in some group rides or runs or hopping in on the park run.”
Cameron said he felt good mentally during the race and finished the swim in the top 20 but his body started feeling the pain a few hours in.
“I remember citing at the top of a wave and not seeing many people in front of me so I knew I wasn’t far off the front pack,” he said.
“It’s easy to get carried away on the bike and leave nothing left for the marathon.
“My legs began cramping at the 160-kilometre mark and I didn’t think I’d be able to pull out a marathon afterwards.
“My choice of thoughts was just keep turning these legs over and see how we go.
“You don’t look at the marathon as the full 42 kilometres – you break it down in your mind like I’ll just do the first 10 kilometres and go from there.
“It’s a strange feeling of being in between ‘this is great, I don’t want this to end’ to ‘I just want this marathon to be over’.”
Cameron said nutrition and dehydration were his downfall but he was proud of his performance and grateful he had a body that could complete it.
“I’m just really thankful of the support I received leading up to and post-race,” he said.
“My main message to people is to just find something that aligns close to your heart and just go all in on it and as soon as the thoughts of fear creep up in your mind, just acknowledge them and use them as fuel and that you get one go at life.”
