Within a year of turning pro, ironman Kyle Buckingham is already a world contender.
For those of us not in the habit of running into telephone booths for a quick change into tights and a red cape, the relationship with anything as extreme as an ironman triathlon will probably always remain one of awe. Typically, athletes competing in these seemingly super-human tests of endurance trade the better part of an entire day in exchange for aching limbs and ravenous appetites. Waking before the crack of dawn, your “average” ironman will shake themselves straight, suit up for a 3.86 km swim, then sprint to a patiently waiting bike for a 180 km cycle, before swapping cleats for running shoes and embarking on a full-blown marathon. It’s utter madness, and most of us would happily admit that the sheer thought alone is enough to induce exhaustion. Yet for athletes with the perseverance, drive and time to train, ironman exists not near the edge of insanity, but at the pinnacle of human endurance.
It’s been a mere year since Port Elizabeth-born ironman triathlete Kyle Buckingham went professional. After massive success as an amateur, he kicked off his dream career at East London’s Ironman 70.3, essentially a warm-up for the full-distance Ironman South Africa held in his hometown a few months later. By April, Kyle was firing on all cylinders – he fought hard to become the first South African home and take second place overall.What makes Kyle’s sudden push to the top so extraordinary is that he only got involved in ironman when he was 24, entering his first race as an amateur at 25. “Before ironman, I’d never done a triathlon,” he says, “and I’ve never done individual races – no swims, runs, or cycle races.”
At school he hadn’t been a swimmer or cyclist, although he admits to being “very competitive”. “Playing tennis or hockey or roller-hockey, I always wanted to be the one who scored,” he says, “but there was nothing too crazy about my sporting life.” Throughout his teenage years, though, he dreamed of being a professional surfer.
“I’d fantasised about being a professional sportsman,” he says, “but moving to London killed my pro-surfing ambitions.” It was only after taking a year off to travel the world with his surfboard, that he was finally introduced to the sport that would become his real obsession.
Back in London, a friend in his houseshare had gotten into triathlon, and somehow his furious training routine caught Kyle’s imagination. “He was doing these eight-hour training stints, cycling 200 km on a Saturday, and then coming home and running 10 km. It looked pretty cool,” says Kyle, “and he was eating the house down.”
So Kyle bought a bike and running shoes, and started following a training programme he discovered online. He gave up partying and focused on becoming a professional athlete. “I was working long hours, doing hard manual labour on construction sites,” he says. “But I’d get home at 16h00, train until 22h00, and by the time I was done with dinner it was 23h00 and I’d collapse into bed. I trained every day, no matter how exhausted I was.”
Saturdays, he’d brave the cold and rain to cycle from London to Brighton and back, covering 180 km and often wearing a balaclava. “Even my water bottles would freeze,” he says.
“I got addicted to it,” he says. “When I started training, I wanted more and more. I wanted the hard graft. It was a proper challenge, and I enjoyed that. I liked the long training hours. And I liked the hard physicality of the training. You really get to test your body.”
Kyle travelled home to compete in his first ironman competition in 2009. He finished 66th, in a time of 10h29m – not at all bad for a novice. A year later, he took over an hour off his previous time, finishing second in his age group. In 2011, he finished seventh overall in Ironman Germany, and later that year finished eighth in his age group in the world championships in Hawaii.
Through it all, though, what he really wanted was to quit his nine-to-five job and turn pro. Until 2012, he’d been missing the kind of sponsorship that would make that possible, and then he won his age category in Ironman South Africa (9h27m) and found his dream sponsor, Velocity Sports Lab in Hout Bay.
It meant 2013 was the big breakout year he’d been anticipating, and he ended a formidable racing schedule by earning the World Amateur Champion title in Hawaii, and at the same time setting a new amateur course record.
It was a high note on which to launch his professional career. Last year, he was able to spend six months based in Boulder, Colorado, not only dedicating himself to training, but also participating in some of the US’s major ironman events, including October’s Kona World Championships, where Kyle placed 24thand was the first South African home.
While Kyle’s rise through the ranks owes significantly to his relentless training regime, there’s more to ironman triumph than long hours in stretchy fabrics. He says staying positive and focussing on his main goal – winning – is something he uses to pull through, even when the going gets very tough. It was this mental perseverance that got him through Iron Man South Africa last year. “With 14 km to go, things weren’t going well at all,” he says. “I had stomach cramps and was walking, and dropped into third place. But it was my home town, so there were a lot of people shouting for me. So for the final 2 km I fought back, and caught up over a long stretch, finishing second. It felt like a great personal triumph – getting back on my feet, and discovering how deep I’m capable of digging to achieve what I want.”
Kyle says that part of his training is about going harder even when he’s really sore. “There’s something about fighting through that pain that enables me to dig even deeper,” he says, explaining that he’s learnt to go beyond the point where most people would say: "That’s it, I’m done!" It’s at that point that Kyle makes his mind up to carry on going.
Still, even the most hardcore athletes feel the consequences of pushing themselves to the limits. “After a race, I’m pretty broken and pretty sore,” he says. “I can’t really walk the following day.”
He says the secret is to look after his body properly, stretching and taking time off to recover fully after competitions. “I eat really well, and maintain a good balance without following any diets. I listen to my body, and I don’t take nutrition so seriously that it’s all I think about. The thing is getting sufficient glycogen into the muscles so that they can repair and recover.”
But there’s one secret ingredient he’s not sharing with anyone. “My wife is a massage therapist,” he says, hinting that even the toughest ironman has a soft spot.
Sidebar - Eastern Cape Ironman Events
South Africa’s most prestigious ironman events both happen in the Eastern Cape this summer. The Standard Bank Ironman 70.3 takes place in Buffalo City, East London, on 25th January. This half-ironman event involves a 1.9 km swim, 90 km cycle and 21.1 km run. The Standard Bank Ironman African Championship happens in Nelson Mandela Bay on 29th March. “This will probably be the biggest event we’ve ever seen in South Africa,” says Kyle, “because it is now Africa’s regional championship, and there are only five of them in the world. It’s a double points event, so if you win you automatically qualify for Kona – the world champs.” For more information, visit: http://eu.ironman.com.
0 comments :
Post a Comment