Friday 31 October 2014

Ironman Hawaii 2014 Race Report




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.
I ran 2:58 and passed about 450 people on the marathon, but it was too late, at 9:37 it’s my slowest Ironman for some years, and the worst bike split in all my 10 Ironmans, but I was glad to have gained some running confidence back. This sport is cruel but no one ever asks us to do it, it owes us nothing, we do it for the challenge and Hawaii is always the biggest challenge of them all.

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.


After chatting with Alan we think I was not fully acclimatised, this is the closest I had ever arrived on the island before the race (just one week out). The other theory I have is that Madam Pele found out I am an atheist, and punished me for it. I’ll say a few prayers to her next year ;-)

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!