This being my 5th time on the big island, I
should know what I’m doing by now. For many elements of the race I do, the less
variable logistical elements that is. For the race itself the conditions are
never the same. The only thing guaranteed is wind, heat and humidity. When and
where those things will present themselves is an unknown, and it can change
within minutes on race day. This year the swim was choppy and swells caught out
anyone coming in beyond the 1hr mark. I swam very conservatively; I was going
by feel based on output from the Hola swim a week earlier. I had swum then in
speedos with jetlag and come out in 1:01. So thought I could do same on race
day, like last year, catch a good draft and stay in contention. I got to the
turn around in 28, so was really happy and thought I was going to cruise back
in under the hour. As the hour approached and I still couldn’t see the shore, I
became frustrated and knew the swells had pushed us out. I was getting sea sick
in the last 10mins so I was trying hard to stay positive. When I seen the time
at swim exit I knew I was on an upward struggle.
Out on the bike I seen a lot of athletes coming down Palani
and knew I had my work cut out. When I started out to the first turn around,
the legs were not responding, low power, high hr and a general feeling of
lacklustre. That didn’t improve much out on the Queen K, and instead of getting
away strong with some decent watts, I was already low on the average power that
I had discussed with Alan. These numbers I had held in race sims in the
previous weeks and months before travelling, but the legs were just not playing
ball. I got to the turn around in Hawi and still felt very ordinary, the watts
were still a bit low on planned average and hr a little high.
Just after the turn around I slowed down on the right side
by special needs to fix a problem with my shoe, someone from behind must have
been riding with their head down and hit me full speed, it knocked my bottles
and nutrition off and the back wheel took a large shunt, but I somehow managed
to stay on the bike. The poor sod (eejit) behind came off in a clatter but the
special needs guys all ran to their help. I was left with a scobing back wheel
and eventually had to stop to fix it, I realigned the wheels and moved the
brakes, which helped but the wheel started again rubbing and I knew something
was not right. Just after the main decent of Hawi, the scrobing got worse and
the tyre blew, it seemed the impact had pushed the tyre off the rim and the
tube came out and blew. At home and in training I am usually fast at changing
tyres, but the situation stressed me and I panicked a bit. I spent ages just
getting the accessories out of the bag, they were taped up so hard I think I
had not realistically planned to be using them! It was the first time I had punctured
in an Ironman. When I started back I had lost some ambition to be fast on
the day. I was low on race plan but thought I’d hold some respectable pace to
town as I had some friends and family shouting me on. I went through the
motions but thought I could still run well if I had no more mishaps on the
bike.
When I started out on the run I felt fresh, but I always do out
on Ali’i. It is the way back to town and up Palani that tells you how you’re
really feeling. I was badly traumatised from Palani last year where I stopped
and almost didn’t start again. This year was very different, I was holding 4:15/k
pace and it felt easy. I had been running well in training and did many long
run sims at a higher pace than this, so my confidence grew as the run went on.
I may have had a bad swim and bike on the day, but my numbers (mainly CTL and
Vo2) were higher than they’d ever been so logic would have had it that I should
be able to hold this pace even in the heat. Still, this is an Ironman and often
the performance of your brain and body separate on race day.As I passed more and more people struggling on the Queen K,
my confidence grew and I started to up the pace from the energy lab for the
last 8mile home. With about 5k to go I was still on 4:16/k pace and knew I had
to maintain that to get under 3. I upped a little more and bashed my feet on
the front of the shoes down Palani as I headed for the line.
Now 2 weeks on, I am supposed to be racing Coz Mexico in 5
weeks, but I’ve picked up a bad cold on return to work, so we’ll test the
numbers and form before deciding on that trip. It is a lot of time and money,
and with just 3 slots, we need to be realistic about my chances before committing.
Alan and Kinga got me in the best shape of my life for this
race, and Sarah really stabilises me when the work and training schedules get
crazy. The 3month build to Kona was one of the busiest periods of my life. But
once that horn goes, you are on your own. Support on the course gives you a
lift, but your legs must do the work. During the race I hated the sport for a
while, but as soon as I got over the line and was chatting with Ivan, I loved
the sport again, and I can’t wait to get out there training and racing again.
Owen Martin was also in great shape for the race, and had similar issues to me,
but I hope we’ll be toeing the line again next year in top shape. kona #5 done and the fight
goes on.
And now we move on to liars:
https://twitter.com/QuoteFrTed/status/413720553732972544
just kidding, that’s it! hopefully I'll be reporting from Mexico
next month.
Thanks as always to my great sponsors, Champion System, VitaCoco, and Kinga at Soft Tissue Therapy. Thanks to Una and Denny for putting us up, and putting up with us for another year in beautiful Hawaii.
Final splits were:
S - 1:08
B – 5:22
R – 2:58
T – 9:37
(Position 27th)
Until next time, Mahalo!
Aloha!
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