Pre-Race Pier |
We arrived in Kona a week early to acclimate and hang out.
My prep workouts went well. The heat seemed tolerable, as my at home long
underwear wearing had paid off. Plus I had mentally prepared for the heat all
summer. I knew how to handle it this time around. As usual it seemed my taper
workouts were shorter and easier than many other athletes were doing.
Apparently they were trying to get some Strava segments on the Queen K or something.
Unfortunately some kind of head cold bug crept through our family and it found
me Thursday morning. Not an ideal time, but not debilitating.
I was fortunate to have a highly skilled entourage with me
to attend to my every want and need. This included my wife, immediate family,
plus my Aunt and long time friends Jason and Ironman Dave. Our cat doesn’t like
flying. I lounged around drinking fine Kona coffee and eating macadamia nuts
all week.
The entourage was volunteering for body marking race day morning.
We were staying out of town so I could either come in early with them or walk
the six miles as a warm-up. I chose the ride. We were out the door around 3:40.
Transition opened at 4:45 and my race started at 6:55. I attempted to sleep in
the back of the van for an hour. Instead I snacked on a pop tart, perused
facebook and Slowtwitch and used my deer camp skills to fill up a quart
Gatorade bottle. Cross-disciplinary skill transfer.
Finally around 5am I opened the van door…and set off the car
alarm. In my opinion car alarms are the most annoying invention next to those
“not really self venting” mandated gas cans. As I swore and got my stuff
together a guy came over and asked, “Are you going to turn that off?” I
responded, “No. I don’t have the keys.” (Dad took them) Then I walked off toward
transition. I had tried to call Dad on the walk, he didn’t answer and I stuck
my phone in my morning clothes bag (important note for later).
The line for body marking tattoos was ridiculous! I waited
for about a half an hour in the line. Sharpie would have worked just fine.
Luckily I had one of the experienced professional body markers (Sister
Reebnut). I had missed the special needs bag drop so doubled back took care of
that. After that I had to get weighed and was finally free to do the real pre
race prep. It is mind boggling how at the biggest triathlon stage in the world they
can’t manage to have porta potties.
I finally got myself together and made my way through the
herds to the swim start. I did a warm up and then swam up to the line about 20
yds off the pier. Previously I had raced from the far left and I figured with a
split gender start there would be a few less bodies fighting. Plus I was hoping
to tag a solid draft for a great swim. Mike Reilly was blabbing and the
Hawaiian drums were beating in the background, then the cannon went off.
Swim Start |
Leaving T1 |
For the bike the plan was to ride around 200W with 230W on the climbs. In 2013 I really fell off the last 15ish miles so I was determined to pace appropriately. People were “Gittin’ it like Dale Jr.” up Kuakini and especially for the first 30 miles. In 2013 we lucked out and had a tail wind on the way up. This year we had a brutal headwind. I knew this meant that we would be cursed for a headwind on the return trip. Thus I vowed to ride easy and save it for the ride back. I made extra effort to spray myself with cold water at every aid station and stay on top my cooling, fluids and calories.
I will note the usual presence of 20-30 people draft packs
here and not one person in the first penalty tent. Noting new. Nothing worth
dwelling on. Unfortunately the athlete tracker doesn’t show placing at the intermediate
splits but it felt like 3-400 people passed me from the beginning of the bike
to Kawaihae. At this point I had averaged 195W and it was time to begin
working. I upped my effort and reeled people back in all the way up to Hawi.
The crosswind was notable but not as gusty as 2013, nor on my training rides
earlier this week.
The bike special needs bags were in Hawi. I pulled over to
get my bag, which I had put another 1000cal bottle. As I grabbed my bag I saw
the bottle and also saw my cell phone. Wow. So I had put my phone in the wrong
bag before body marking. Go me. If I left my phone in the special needs bag it
would most likely disappear forever. So I had to take it with me for the rest
of the bike ride. My hip pockets on my suit were not conducive for such an
object so I tucked it in the chest of my suit. Luckily it is a water resistant
phone as it was doused for the rest of the ride and survived.
The descent was not as windy as it could have been and I
continued to focus on staying ahead of cooling and fluids. Things warmed up
once I was back on the Queen K and a headwind built the closer I got back to
Kona. I upped my effort just a bit and continued to pick off a majority of
those that had passed me earlier. I finished the bike feeling positive. My
split was 5:15 on 203W AP. 20 minutes slower than 2013, but feeling much
fresher for the marathon.
Brittany
performed her bike catching duties perfectly as I dismounted. I headed to the
changing tent and took my sweet time getting my gear on, lubing and lathering
up the SPF 50 for the run. On the run course I made an extra conscious effort
to run very easy for all of Ali’i drive. I told myself to get to mile 16
without feeling terrible. I walked/slow jogged every aid station, taking extra
time for ice and cooling, a great bit of advice from seasoned Ironman Master
Russ Brandt. I picked off a fair number of people and also had some pass me,
but I knew from experience the real challenge was to come. Besides a few lower
7 miles early on I maintained around 7:45/50 effort. I paced it nice and easy
up Palani and out onto the Queen K. At mile 12 my hip gave me a twinge and I
got a bit worried. I worked it out and continued, feeling the lack of run miles
in my legs. It was hot, but not that hot. My legs were tired, but not that
tired.
#1 Cheering Section |
I grabbed my special needs bag at mile 18 and walked for a
bit while I chugged down the warm cherry juice. It was a nice change of
flavors. Originally I intended to consume both the juice and the beer, but
decided to stash the beer in my suit and wait a bit. The beer was warm and
there was ice at the aid station just up the hill. Maybe I could cool it down.
(delusional thinking?) With the beer tucked in the love handle area of my suit
I could dump ice in, cooling both my body and (maybe) the beer. I told myself I
could drink it at mile 20.
mmm...warm beer never tasted so good. |
Near the bottom of Palani I saw my family. My sisters made
some great motivational signs that made me smile. I high fived some kids
spectating and cruised toward Ali’i. I turned the corner and took some time to
look around and take in the scene. I trotted up the chute with my now empty
beer can in the air and smiled big. 9:55 and change.
finish chute |
I have never gone back out for the late night finisher gathering and I wanted to go. At 10pm, everyone was asleep except Brittany, Jason and I. We drove back down and cheered in some finishers. Plus we got second dinner. We made it about an hour before the exhaustion took over and we decided to call it a night.
All said and done I can say that my performance was what I
had on that day. Was it the performance I wanted to have if you’d asked me six
or eight months ago? No. But such is life and I’m okay with that. This was the
most disciplined race I’ve executed and I’m very proud of that. I never felt
like I was “blowing up” or needed to walk. I could have risked more and pushed
harder, but I didn’t see a point in that this time. I think now we’ll focus on
enjoying the rest of the vacation.
Data
9:55:53
94th 30-35 AG, 414 OA, 388 Male
Swim: 1:01:53
T1-3:20
Bike:5:15:10 203W AP
T2-4:39
Run: 3:30:51
Run Splits: 7:03, 7:40, 7:14, 7:26, 7:13, 7:54, 7:45, 7:55, 7:49, 16:17(2 miles), 8:10, 7:45, 8:08, 8:34, 8:17, 7:43, 8:07, 9:27, 9:14, 8:31, 8:17, 8:13, 8:18