In Chrissie Wellington, the world has come to know an Ironman prodigy, an athlete whose formidable physical and mental resources, together with a relentless work ethic, has brought authoritative dominance of her field. Wellington rules an elite roster filled with people who, broadly speaking, are just as fit and just as hungry, but who, in the glare of the sun and blast-furnace winds of the Ironman World Championship, simply cannot match her performances. Four-time Ironman World Champion, multiple world record holder, a force across the gender divide (as one headline trumpeted after Challenge Roth, The Fifth Man is a Woman), often doing it injured, and always doing it with a smile.
In A Life Without Limits (written with Michael Aylwin), we come to know the mindset that separates her from the pack. The book is a fascinating account of what’s in her head as she encounters, acclimates to, trains and summits a world that is, in its upper reaches, as daunting and hypnotic and grueling as Everest.
After a gripping foreword, where we ride along with Chrissie on the unforgiving lava fields of Kailua-Kona, we get a quick lesson about what it takes to win at this level. She explains: “Don’t underestimate the use of urine as a weapon . . . to get too close to the bike is not only dangerous but cheating . . . if anyone does it to me, I let off a warning shot and they usually back off. It is yet another reason to keep yourself hydrated.” It doesn’t get more elemental than that.
Again and again in these pages we se that ranks of elite Ironman are no place for anyone fussy about bodily fluids. At her second Kona championship, diarrhoea strikes before the swim even starts:
