Ironman World Championships, Kona Hawaii 2010. Race report by Martin Muldoon.
I arrived Monday 27th September, almost 2 weeks before the race on Saturday 9th October. The idea was to acclimatise to the heat and 11hr time zone change. The flights out from London and LA had quite a few triathletes on them, obvious from the bike boxes and skinny physiques. The atmosphere had started already and I wasn't even on Hawaiian soil yet. The hotel was recommended by Jenny Gowans and couldn't have been more convenient, a 1min walk to the swim/race start! Jenny ended up having a tough time on race day with a stomach infection, she was wise to withdraw during the run and they kept her in hospital for 2 days. She's well on the mend now. The build up to race day was fun meeting athletes from all over the world. I did a normal taper, careful not to tire myself for the big event.
Race day arrived and I’d slept very well, almost 7hrs straight which is the most I had in the previous two weeks. Being so convenient to race start I didn’t have to stress too much, I woke at 4.30 for a 7am start, I had a quick breakfast and headed for number marking and swim check in around 5. This was pretty straight forward and I then checked bike tyres and placed drinks bottles for the ride. I was keen to get to swim start on time for a change so I then went back to hotel and got swim gear together. I was nervous but not overly so, I worried slightly that I was a bit too relaxed!I got down to the beach start area just before the pros set off, they had the starting ceremony with traditional drums and dance. It created a really nice atmosphere, but nothing could take our minds from the huge task ahead. The very powerful cannon from the pro start was the first time when I really felt a touch of nerves, it was the realisation that this was it, show time…
Just after the pros left shore I swam out to the floating car, warming up a bit and hanging on to the buoy and trying to negotiate with the marshalls that we should be allowed to go left of the floating promo car as it would otherwise be too tight. Through sheer numbers of swimmers they gave in and we were able to go well left of the car and spread the mass start a bit thinner. I was using a Polar 625x with time of day display along with lap time and HR, the HR monitor blanked 5mins before start and in fact never came back until I reset it on the bike. I knew they wouldn't count us down so I was ready from about 2 minutes to go, the loud cannon boomed and we were off.
I started fairly aggressive to find a bit of space but I didn't waste energy by fighting anyone, trying to avoid too much kicking and seeking a pair of feet to draft. I once got a huge shunt from my left as I turned to see NED in large letters, couldn't see the face to check if it one of my Dutch friends :-) I did get caught a few times at the start thinking, wow can't believe I’m here - in the crazy start of Kona, shouldn’t have been thinking about this but it just seemed a bit surreal. I never really suffered too much in the water, I enjoyed the swim and felt as if I was moving along nicely. I was surprised and disappointed with the time of 1:15 but thought I had a long day ahead to make up some time. I excited and had a fairly uneventful T1, although my neck was cut up from the swim suit. I was out on the bike in around 3mins.
The start of the bike was a bit awkward with people all over the road and lots of corners and the non-overtaking Palani Road before the turn around and back in to town. I took it fairly easy at the start of the bike and was keen to find a good rhythm, but the headwinds started out pretty soon and I was working at 140-145 early on the Queen K. I had hoped to get on a pace line but there was no one similar pace and I ended up going it alone. I noticed quite a bit of drafting and people grabbing my wheel while I passed, but I didn't waste any energy getting annoyed about it. The road to Hawi was long and the head winds never ceased, what lifted my mind from the effort was when the pros passed in the opposite direction. The helicopters in the distance meant they weren't far way and I was wondering who would be behind Lieto. I probably shouldn’t have been paying so much attention to the other side of the road but I’m such a huge fan of the sport that I couldn't help get excited to see all the big names fly past in the opposite direction. Lieto was smiling, Stadler, Macca and Voenecker were all up there. I was surprised how far Crowie and Lanos were back but they obviously made up ground in the closing stages. Later as the pro women came past I noticed Julie Dibens had a big lead as expected with Chrissie Wellington out of the race.
The last 10k or so towards Hawi was all up hill and the wind although sometimes from the side was strong and I had to work a high HR to get any decent speed at all. I recognised a few guys coming the other way and I realised then how far I was behind from the swim, I tried to ignore this and keep pushing. By the turn around in Hawi I was feeling the work and my stomach started to play up. I started thinking that my recent efforts to reach race weight had resulted in me losing a bit of power on the bike so I was working harder than race plan. Regardless of the dodgy stomach the road down from Hawi was good fun, I love downhill and the extra challenge of the powerful back to side wind was quite a rush. At one stage I was doing over 45mph but the bike was at a huge angle as I fought the side winds. Each time I passed a gap in the hedge a gust of wind would throw me 2-3m across the road, it took a lot of lateral work to prevent me coming off on the decent – all that core work was paying off now!I overtook a lot of people on the way down from Hawi but as soon as it evened out again I was disappointed to feel the notorious headwinds in the other direction again. As I continued to work against this my stomach was stirred up and I was sick a few times, the high 5 extreme didn't appeal anymore so I stuck with water and coke from the aid stations. My average speed came and went and my HR was always a little higher than I wanted, but I got back in to Kailua with an average of around 21.5mph for a split of 5:11.
T2 was again pretty clean, not very fast but without mistakes and I was on the run in around 3mins feeling relaxed and immediately trying to get to my target HR of 140. I had planned to keep it here for most of the run until the latter stages where if possible I would step it up for a strong finish. In the first section out to the turnaround point I had to stop at an aid station cubicle, felt like the longest pee of my life but then I was in a rather big race! About ½ way out to the first turn I noticed a tri colour on a fence that had the names of all the Irish squad on it, a cool gesture that give me a nice lift – no doubt the work of Owen Martin’s wife Ashling!
I kept my policy of water, ice, cola, sponge through all aid stations and felt comfortable at 140, never allowing myself to sneak above that. I had put on a fuel belt in T2 that had 3 small bottles of high5 extreme and one water. Idea was to have something to wash down the salt tabs with and the H5 extreme for an extra kick. Even early in the run the high5 bottles tasted terrible, so when I seen Ashling on the way back from the first turn around I dropped my fuel belt with her and kept just one of the small bottles. I was now packing light with the salt tab bottle and one h5 extreme bottle each in a side pocket which seemed much less burden than the clumsy fuel belt. Not only did the extreme taste bad, but I was getting enough energy from the coke so I think in future I’ll just take a small bottle of water for emergency between aid stations and mainly for washing down the salt tabs. You don’t want a salt tab on your tongue without water, I’ve tried and don't recommend it!
As I turned on to Palani my HR started to rise as we climbed but I immediately slowed to hold it below 145. I remembered the short steps and high knees an old coach Paddy Downey taught me when I was 15 – that’s a while ago but the method works. A lot of people were walking up Palani but I never felt the need to lower cadence. As I reached the QueenK I spoke with a few guys about the mens race as the pros were passing the other way to the finish line. Timo Bract, Faris Al Satan and Eneko Lanos had just went past for their top ten finishes. I wasn't aware yet that Macca had dropped Raelert in the last 2 miles for the win. Very inspiring to see him come back after an average year for such a big win.
Meanwhile back on the Queen K things were heating up a bit with reports of ground temperatures of 120F, and as a precaution I was putting 2 lots of ice down my front and back at each station. This was becoming 2nd nature now and I didn't really slow down at the aid stations at all. I was still focused on keeping my HR at 140 in case the heat or humidity started to play with me but it never really felt that difficult, I had lost weight before the race to help handle the heat and this seemed to be working. I decided that when I reached the energy lab I would step it up to a more aggressive pace if I hadn’t started suffering too much at that point.
It seemed like a long old way out there but I reached it feeling fine and ready to step things up. I seen fellow Serpie Rachel Joyce pass the other way, I shouted that she was in the top 5 but she was well aware of it anyway as she had been battling it out with Yvonne van Vlerken for 5th place for some time. She eventually dropped Van Vlerken and went on for a 5th place pro finish!
As I reached the energy lab I felt good so I put the hammer down and moved my HR up to 145, this felt like a considerable step up in pace as I started passing a lot of people but I was comfortable and knew I could hold it there without trouble. I found out afterwards that my pace from entering the energy lab with 9miles to go changed to 6:36 per mile, I held this pace til the end but wished then I had stepped up the pace earlier because I never really suffered on the run.
On the way back in on the QueenK I passed a lot of people and some that I knew, some of them had blown but I encouraged them to hold it as they were so close to the finish. Most of these guys held on for a sub 10. As I had lost full race timing from earlier in the swim, the only way I could work out overall time was from time of day setting on the polar, this turned out to be fairly accurate as I knew I was fighting to get under 9:50. My calves were so tight as I turned off the Queen K on to Palani but I was thinking this is my last race for a while I would keep sprinting for the line, my knee was fine throughout. Running down Palani was fun, I let go and ran like a child with no control arms wailing all over the place, the crowd was amazing.
As I turned on to Ali'i drive the atmosphere was incredible and for the sake of 30 seconds I wish I had slowed down to soak it up a bit. Coming over the line in Kona is a fantastic thrill and one that I hope to do again many times. The clock read 9:48 and for the tough course of Kona things could have been worse for me. As a triathlete I’m very self-critical and I was disappointed that I didn’t hurt myself more in the first ½ of the run, a 3:15 run is not fast and it’s frustrating to have finished so fresh and reflect on how I could have done it differently. It’s wise to respect Kona as many big people have fallen apart in the heat, but I gave it too much respect and left my surge too late. I think the heat plays with HR and next time I will use a GPS system to monitor pace and avoid following HR so closely. My HR for Switzerland was similar but the pace was completely different. I know I can go a lot faster, I’ll have to wait a year but I’m positive and look forward to getting out there and doing some damage.
My usual post-race nausea soon set in and it was an hour or so before I could eat or drink properly. A nice mellow atmosphere surrounded the finish area with pros and age groupers mixing and chatting about the race as the sun went down. As a competitive triathlete I soon was analysing the race and finding things that I could have done better and realised areas I need to work hard on this winter, namely swimming and bike power. I’ll take a month off now to recuperate and try get my leg strength imbalance issues sorted out. I’m signed up for Austria next year where I hope to get another World Champs slot. Kona is an amazing experience and I look forward to trying again next year. Mahalo Hawaii, Aloha!!
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