It’s hard to explain the importance of this race to friends
who don’t do triathlons. The best analogy I can come up with is that it’s like
the anticipation of Christmas as a kid; however it doesn’t come every year and
you have to be really good in order to earn it. It took me 3 years to earn this
Christmas and I was excited!
There is a quote from Dean Karnazes that I love and I
brought it with me on this trip as a little inspiration…
“Most people never get there. They’re afraid or unwilling to
demand enough of themselves and take the easy road, the path of least
resistance. But struggling and suffering, as I now saw it, were the essence of
a life worth living. If you’re not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if
you’re not constantly demanding more from yourself-expanding and learning as
you go-you’re choosing a numb existence. You’re denying yourself an
extraordinary trip.”
Ok now on to the race
stuff…
I arrived Monday and spent the next few days busier than I
had planned with lots of things to do and people to see. Thankfully my dad
arrived on Thursday and was able to help me with the last few pre-race
preparations.
Race morning I woke up ready to go after a solid 7 hours of
uninterrupted sleep!! I kept waiting for my nerves to kick in but this was the
first race in awhile I didn’t have to try to podium or qualify for something so
I felt relaxed yet excited! I know I am a year or 2 away from being able to go
sub 10 and the top girls here always go sub 10 so there was no chance of a
podium spot. This meant I could just enjoy the day and race to the best of my
ability.
Swim:
One of the things I was most looking forward to was the
cannon going off to signal the start of the race. Apparently it misfired and
all we got was Mike Reilly saying, “Go, go, go”. That was a bummer.
My plan for the swim was to start far to the left to avoid
all the chaos and try to get some clean water. I had heard that this swim was
the worst when it came to getting beat up since the majority of people are of
the same swimming ability.
The start was great and for the first 20 minutes I kept
thinking to myself, “wow this is the easiest Ironman swim I have ever done.” I
should have known better. As everyone started to converge and approach the turn
buoy all hell broke loose. It was absolutely awful but I kept telling myself
after about 200 meters we would turn again and everyone would spread out. Wrong
again! The last mile was the roughest thing I have ever been a part of (I
literally have bruises and scratches on my upper body to prove it)! In
hindsight it was my fault because I had managed to get myself right in the
middle of the pack heading straight for the pier. I realized this but couldn’t
make my way out. I just kept praying for it to be over. When I finally exited
my watch read 1:10, which I was ok with, but by the time I made it to the
timing mat it was 1:11:02 (grrr). Not my best time but not bad for my first
non-wetsuit swim and the boxing match I had just endured.
T1 or better known as
LOOK IN YOUR SHOES DUMMY!!!
Usually I don’t write about the transitions but this was
seriously a calamity of errors and cost me some precious time. First, the
volunteers couldn’t find my bike bag, when I finally got it I ran into the
men’s changing tent (oops) then couldn’t figure out where the women’s tent was
(obviously needed to calm down and think). When I finally sat down and dumped
out my bag the only things that fell out were my shoes! I realized my helmet
was on my bike and we didn’t need our bibs for the bike but something was still
missing… SUNGLASSES! Crapola, where were they? I panicked and thought they must
be in my run bag. So I ran back out of the tent and against traffic (not easy)
to the run transition area. When I finally found my bag and emptied it out there
were no glasses. WTH?? I wanted to throw up. I couldn’t ride in the wind with
contacts and no glasses. This was going to suck! Because my bike was on the
last bike rack at the end of the pier I had decided to run with my shoes in
hand and put them on at the mount line (amateurish, I know, but I still can’t
mount with my shoes on my bike). As I got to the mount line and stepped into my
shoes I found my stupid sunglasses. I had been running all around transition
with my glasses in my shoes the whole time. Great way to waste 5 whole minutes
in T1!!!! AGGHHHH!!!
Bike:
Starting out on the bike I couldn’t let go of the disaster
in T1. I know the cardinal rule is to let it go and focus on the rest of the
day but it was hard. As I was heading up to the Queen K I was pissed and only
thinking about my sunglasses when suddenly I hit a reflector and my aero water
bottle went flying! Really? What else was going to go wrong? I knew bad things came
in 3s so I was just waiting for the next one. That wouldn’t happen till mile 20
on the run L
The first 50 miles on the bike were great despite the wind.
I was holding my goal wattage and feeling like I could keep it up all day. Wow
I was actually enjoying the bike at Kona! The winds picked up around mile 30
and grew increasingly bad as I made my way to Hawi. As people around me were
complaining about the wind I managed to stay aero and felt like I was fighting
the wind better than I ever have.
(I still have A LOT of work to do regarding my cycling but
it’s slowly improving). The new aero position was definitely working and I felt
stronger than I did in Honu 3 months prior. The turn around in Hawi looked like
a hurricane was brewing. The sky was dark and ominous and trees were bending in
the strong crosswinds. I was happy to get out of there. The next few miles were
fun and fast (I think I actually averaged over 30 mph for that split). Of
course the fun soon ended as our tailwind turned back into a nasty head wind
and I was going 17 mph and then 14 and then 10. UGH!! There goes that bike PR I
was hoping for. Around mile 90 I started getting nauseas, probably due to
working so hard in the wind and being in the aero position for so long. I
popped a few Tums and sat up a bit but nothing was really working. I finally caved
in and grabbed a coke from an aid station. It’s amazing how something that’s so
bad for you can make you feel so much better! The last 20 miles were really
just a slow push to get to T2. I was feeling better but I missed a bike PR by a
few minutes.
T2:
Thankfully this went much better and I was on my way!
Run:
The start of the run is always fun for me as I am so happy
to be off the bike onto my favorite part of the day! I had heard that the first
10 miles were fast and easier than the rest of the course and to make sure I
didn’t go too hard. I did a good job of staying between 7:40-7:55 for these
miles. I was actually really enjoying myself and it was great seeing so many
familiar faces (my dad, Jim, Tyler, Jason, Gricelda, Oscar). I kept thinking
“wow I could hold this pace all day. This is going to be a great finish to the
race.” Um not so much.
The steep hill up Palani was fine but then the next 6 miles
on the Queen K were just slow! I had looked at splits from previous years and
knew these miles were the slowest but it was a little frustrating. I kept
plugging along knowing that I could still PR the run as long as my last 10k was
solid. Going into the energy lab my
stomach started going south. UGH!! I haven’t had this problem in years since
going gluten- free. I kept hoping it would settle down but by mile 20 I knew I
was going to have to make a pit stop. This was so frustrating with only 6 miles
to go. I still would have managed a PR if it weren’t for this unforeseen stop.
The last 6 miles I also suffered from a horrible side stich (my coach blames
too much Coke for all of these stomach issues). I ran holding my right side,
half -way hunched over. It was definitely not how I planned on finishing the
day. As I turned onto Alli’i Drive I managed to run upright and let go of my
side so that I could hi -five folks and take in the last few moments of the
day. There were 3 other women around me running through the finisher’s chute
and I was running slowly and taking in the moment when suddenly my friend and
team mate Christine snuck by me at the finish. Doh! It was like Wildflower
again but this wasn’t for the win so it really didn’t matter!
All in all I was really happy with the day. I was only a few
minutes off a PR in each discipline so I figure that’s not too bad for my first
Kona experience with tougher than normal conditions. I am also happy to have finally achieved the
holy grail of triathlons so now when non-triathletes ask me, “Have you done
that race in Hawaii?” I can finally say YES!
I owe a huge thank you to my coach, Joanna Zeiger, who has
helped me so much in the last 3 years. Not only is she a great coach and
friend, but also she is an amazing problem-solver and always willing to listen
to my latest complaint, ailment, etc. Thanks JZ!
I also want to give a shout out to my amazing sponsors who
have made this a great season. Tribike Transport shuttled my bike all over the
globe this year and took the stress out of the race logistics! Cynergy Cycles
got my bike race ready and FinalFit helped me finally achieve the aero position
that made me so comfortable for this race. Powerbar and Athlete Octane kept me
fueled, hydrated and healthy all year.
Lastly, I want to thank my Dad who traveled from South
Carolina for a very short trip to Hawaii that didn’t involve any typical
vacation fun. Thanks for being my sherpa and running around in 95-degree
weather to see me zip by for a split second.
I am looking forward to a little off- season fun (wine, surfing, and probably more wine) and then
focusing on next year, which will NOT include an Ironman! I’m going to mix
things up a little bit and try to gain some speed at the 70.3 distance. Until then I will probably blog about wine :)
