IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. KAILUA-KONA, HAWAII.
8TH October 2011 – race report - part 1
Pre – race
I was racing with fellow Melbourne athlete Kristy Hallett and our coach Sean Foster. We had spent 10 days in Airlie Beach to acclimatise from the Melbourne winter to somewhere closer to the hot and humid conditions we might expect in Hawaii. This period had gone really well, I started my taper while I was there, a week earlier than the other two, and despite a few niggly doubts about this, looking back, I still feel that this was the right decision.
The plan was to arrive in Kona on Thursday 28th, 9 days before the race. A massive storm at Melbourne airport and a cancelled flight meant a 2 night unscheduled stop in Auckland, and a late arrival in Kona on Saturday. This added a lot of stress to the journey, but we still had plenty of time to recover and settle in before the race.
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| Amazing swimming the course |
Race week was even more amazing than I always imagined it would be! Looking back I think I overdid it a bit, but don’t regret that at all. I had to keep telling myself that I deserved to be there, but honestly, I qualified with a dream result in a race that suited me down to the ground, and I don’t know how likely it will be that I will get back to Hawaii in the near future. So I wanted to relish every single second of the whole experience. Swimming the course every day was amazing, including the coffee stop on the way in at the Coffees of Hawaii raft!!
Riding on the Queen K highway the Saturday before the race seriously gave me massive goosebumps, and I just couldn’t wipe the grin off my face as I checked out the famous Lava fields while I cruised along on the fabulous FAST road surface!! I just kept thinking ”you are going to be racing Hawaii” and laughing out loud with disbelief!! My first run in the heat was a struggle, but with 6 days still to go I was pretty confident it would be manageable, and a lot of the fears about how the heat would affect me were disappearing. My fears about the legendary wind however were only exacerbated on Tuesday when Sean drove us out to the turnaround at Hawi (….km into the bike). We got out of the car about 2/3 of the way up the “17 mile climb” which goes from Kawaihae to Hawi. The wind on Tuesday was measured at 42 mph (that’s a mere 67 kph) and there were gusts of up to 60 mph (96 kph!!). It was hard to stand upright. I had no idea how you were supposed to stay on your bike in that!! BUT I knew that the forecast was for Tuesday to be the windiest day, and that Saturday was meant to be far calmer. Regardless of that, I resolved that whatever Madame Pele (the name for the volcano – the main reason for the changeable conditions) threw at me, I would embrace it. After all, that is an integral part of what racing in Kona is all about. Another really important point about the wind that Sean raised was how it swirls so much, that you really can’t expect tailwind on the parts where there was headwind only a few hours earlier!! It is true, as I would discover on race day.
There is so much to say about race week, but I have to get on to the race itself, so I will briefly summarise the highlights
“Dig Me Beach” – The sight of zero body fat triathletes in skimpy swimwear may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is pretty amazing to see some of the fittest people in the world on the beach. Training every day over a coral reef takes some beating too!!
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| With the great Natascha Badmann - my favourite Ironman Champ |
Lava Java café and star spotting – I was on a mission to have a “star a day” photo taken!! How many Olympic and World Champions can you spot in one tiny café?? Plus the breakfasts and coffees are AWESOME!! Star of the week though, had to be meeting Dave Scott at the K Swiss after party, which we schmoozed our way into – legend.
Free stuff! – EVERYONE wants you sporting their goods! So we just had free stuff THROWN at us!! We have so many free powerbars and gels, we won’t need to buy any for a few months, and our wardrobe will now have to be cleared for all the free t shirts we picked up!!
The “Undie Run” – a charity 2km fun run, again, consists of several hundred scantily clad triathletes!! Great fun.
Race Day
I think that the overriding emotion I had been feeling all week (hell who am I kidding? – for the past 12 weeks since I qualified!) was being completely overwhelmed. This is not an entirely good thing, as it means that you are completely burning all your adrenaline WAY too early. AND it meant that the feeling of quiet confidence and readiness I had at Ironman France was replaced by nerves and doubts that were very similar to my first Ironman in 2008. But it also means that I was under no illusions of grandeur about how my race might go. I was completely sure that I would finish, even if it meant crawling like the famous Julie Moss. I just reminded myself that I was here on merit, and to “relish every moment” – this became my mantra for the race.
The hour or so pre-race is a bit of a blur. I sat waiting for Kristy and Sean and read and re-read my race plan and nutrition plan. I will add these to the end of this report. Once they arrived, we quite quickly made our way through numbering, transition, and came back to say goodbye to Pete, Dan and Lyndsey, our partners and wonderful support crew. We walked across to the swim start, all hugged each other and walked down to the water. Kristy and I discussed how early it still was (there was still 20 minutes to the start) so we stood for about another 5-6 minutes in the water, before swimming to the start line. We all ended up starting very close to each other and before I knew it BOOM! The cannon fired and we were off.
The swim – (3.8km)
Time : 1.16.22
1219/1855 who finished swim
280/476 females who finished
47/78 in 35-39 Age Group
I always expect the first 300-400m of an Ironman swim to be rough. My strategy used to be to try to “feel my way” through this first period, but now I am a stronger swimmer than I used to be, and with my history of playing rugby, I actually relish the physicality of the swim start. But Hawaii was a WHOLE level again!! Everyone in Hawaii has fought for their place, and they are going to fight for every second in the race too !! I was punched, kicked, dunked under, punched again…..etc etc etc!! Wow! I haven’t even had that much contact in a sprint race.
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| Bottlenecks at the buoys |
At every buoy (they were about 300m apart) for the first 3 buoys, there was a big bottle – neck and any rhythm I had developed was out of the window as the punching and kicking started again!! I was swallowing a lot of water, and actually spluttered a little as I inhaled some. But I remembered my plan, to embrace all aspects of the race, and I thought “Ok if this is how my Hawaii swim is going to be, so be it”. I knew how critical getting on a pair of feet had been in France, and I focused on trying to find a nice big pair. As a guy came past me, I jumped on to his feet, and just kept thinking “Don’t let them go !!” Sure enough, we started to consistently pass people, and I possessively guarded those feet against anyone else getting them!! Even though there was still extra traffic at each buoy, he forged a way through, and I just clung onto him until the boat at the far end of the “out” section of the swim. I glanced at my watch as we made the right hand turn, and it said 32 min. I think the “across” section at this far end is only 100m, so 32 min for the first 1.8 km or so was really good. With retrospect, this was probably due to the fast start, getting on those feet, but mainly that there was a current with us on the way out. I managed to stay on “my feet” as I regarded them across the 100m, but almost as soon as we made the second turn, towards the finish, I lost them. DAMN!! I quickly scanned ahead of me, and thought I saw them again, but when I put on a brief spurt of effort, I easily caught the guy ahead, and realised it wasn’t him. Unfortunately for the rest of the swim, any time I swam on someone’s feet, it felt too easy, and I was actually overtaking more people than were passing me (a good thing, but I know that swimming on my own was less efficient than following the guy in the first half). The current was against us all the way back – I could see the minute particles in the water flowing towards me. I just focused on a nice smooth stroke, regulating my breathing as much as possible, but there must have been some chop as well, as I remember swallowing a lot of water in the final 300-400m of the swim. But before I knew it, I could see the spire of the church on Alii Drive to my right, then the finish chute, and the crowds at the exit of the swim.
Transition 1
I walked up the steps and through the showers, and tried to start running, as usually I aim to save time in my transitions, but I felt really disorientated and a bit dizzy.
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| making my way into T1 |
So I walked another 50m or so then tried to slowly jog around to the change tent with my bag. I sat down, and looked around for a volunteer to help me with my stuff (there are usually loads around). I emptied my bag out, and started to look through my gear. Finally someone came over and started helping me. But by then I had already put my bike shoes on and realised that I hadn’t put my calf compression sleeves on!! Off came the shoes again, and I finally got myself dressed. All this seemed to take forever, but I was very wobbly, so it at least gave me a chance to settle down a little. My usual lightening T1 time was out of the window though (6.47).
