GB pro Ironman athlete Nick Saunders has had an incredibly tough year. A car crash in South Africa in March left him lucky to be alive, and after recovering from that, he then broke his collar bone at the Windsor Triathlon in June. Despite all of that, Nick managed to keep his incredibly consistent record of top-10 Ironman finishes at Ironman Florida 10 days ago, where he recorded a best ever finish (fourth), and personal best time (8:31:44).

With a fair run at things in 2010, surely the next step for Nick will be to make it onto an Ironman podium which his efforts over several years now would fully deserve.

I have just returned from the States where I competed in the Florida Ironman. I have had a roller coaster of a year, I have had to pull out of two Ironman races where I was hoping to qualify for Kona. I was entered into IM South Africa but I had a car accident on the way to a race in Cape Town. I recovered from that and then set my sights on Ironman France but I fell off my bike at the Windsor triathlon and broke my collar bone 2 weeks before the race. So after a year full of incidents, I was terrified something was going to happen before Ironman Florida. I was training in San Diego for five weeks leading up to the race and there are some big cars that drive around there and they like talking on their mobile phones when they drive! So during the race I really took it all in, it was so good to be racing an Ironman after over a year of not doing one. I think I will stay away from Olympic distance racing, especially Windsor! Not my favourite race after that experience plus I am not keen on the race organisation!

The Florida race

The swim was a two lap swim with lots of jellyfish, it was windy so there was swell to deal with. It was going great until half way through the second lap, I was in the main pack swimming with Raynard Tissink and then we hit the slower age group athletes. It was carnage, and as a result I lost the pack as I swam in to a couple of them, a lapse of concentration, a shame as I have been working hard on my swimming. I had lost about 90sec to Raynard's group and headed out on the bike on my own. I got passed in the early stages by the eventual winner and he was flying. It is not the easiest course if it is windy, it is a rolling course and one section was into a head wind for about 40km and it was not a flat section, it was rolling and tough! It is the type of course where you pedal the whole way and you have to concentrate so this takes it out of you, most races have a few hills in them and this breaks it up a bit - not in Florida! I got caught by Massimo Cigana and a couple of others after 120km of riding on my own and rode with them into town. I got dropped towards the end as I needed a comfort break but only lost about a minute and I felt that most guys had pushed it a bit too hard, and I was off the bike in 12th place.

The plan had been to get off in the top-10. It was a two lap run. I started the marathon at a steady pace and built into it trying to hold 6.20-30 pace, again a few guys had gone out hard. By the end of the first lap I had caught four guys and I was in eighth place. I had gone out in 1.20 half marathon pace which was the plan and for me the race started on the second lap, this is where so many guys lose it and I wanted to hold my pace, and try and pick it up if I could. I managed to run into fourth and left myself with too much work to do to get a podium which is what I really wanted.

I got my Hawaii slot which I am super chuffed about and ran a 2.54 marathon - I can run quicker - next time! To sum the race up: it went to plan and was incident free apart from the swim. I got my slot to Kona and finished in 8hrs 31. A 4th place is my best place in an Ironman, I'll work harder to get a podium which I am so close to.

What a year! A car prang, broken collar bone, late for a race start (I missed the Jersey race!) and getting married (I was on time for that!). A bit of a roller coaster. Thanks to all my sponsors for supporting me during a turbulent year (Pedal Power(Jersey), Profeet and Kiwami) and Riksta for doing my website.

I am not paid to do this sport, I try to make ends meet somehow plus I have a fantastic wife who works so hard. The sponsors I have helped me keep my costs down to a minimum. I'll be relaxing a bit and then prepping for my next race which is South Africa 70.3 in January. Then I will probably look around for another Ironman, maybe not an M dot (WTC) race as pros now have to pay 750 US$ for a pro license which is supposed to go towards drug testing and then we get free entry into all the WTC events except world champs. My thoughts are if you don't do many WTC races it is just not worth it. Most pros get their entries into 70.3's and IM races free. There are so few pro's that make a good living out of racing Ironman events.