Ironman Philip shows his strength in Austria (From Stroud News and Journal)

Ironman Philip shows his strength in Austria

IT takes a lot of hard work for one person to train and compete in a gruelling event such as a marathon but to do what Bisley athlete Philip Underwood has done needs the toughest of mental and physical strength.

Philip travelled to Austria to take part in a double Ironman event - an ultimate test of strength and character - and finished in a superb seventh place out of 25.

This competition involved a 4.8 mile swim (152 lengths of a pool) followed by a 220 mile cycle ride and then a double marathon.

The double marathon was raced over 84 laps of a park and some of the competitors ended up having to walk the course in order to finish the event.

But Philip was worthy of his seventh place finish because he ran the second marathon and did not stop running.

He also would have had a better time than his recorded finish of 22 hours 39 minutes had he not have fell off his bike during the cycling leg of the competition.

In the fall Philip sustained bruising and also a punctured tyre and had to race for the final five miles with a flat.

But he later explained how the fall sort of worked in his favour, he said: "The fall actually spurred me on and gave me more and more adrenaline to finish the race.

"Before I went to Austria my main aim was to just finish. I am really pleased with how I did and was happy that I ran the whole of the marathon."

The Austrian winner who finished the double ironman in a phenomenal time of less than 19 hours broke the world record.

To win an event like this is super-human alone but to it in the style that the Austrian did was amazing.

During the 224 mile cycling race he averaged a speed of 23-24 mph and he also ran two marathon's below a time of four hours.

Underwood said: "One of the best aspects about this event was the comradeship between the fellow competitors.

"When I fell off the bike the first person to help me was one of the other riders. "Also during the last lap of the double marathon the course was changed so the runners about to finish were running facing the others runners.

"And everybody you ran past shook your hand before you finished the event."

In all there was 25 competitors for this event and Philip showed superb determination to secure a seventh place finish.

Philip was one of three people competing from Great Britain; the other two were Gloucester's Duncan Nottingham, a member of the tri-team Glos, who finished third and Dave Clamp from Bolton.