Big Kahuna Race Report

The Boulder Crew plus Lori (Palm Springs) went to Santa Cruz this last weekend for the Big Kahuna 1/2 Ironman. It was an awesome venue and we all managed to take home some hardware.

Before the race I was a wreck! I basically slept for three days up to the race as I felt totally blah and had kinks in my back. No doubt it was in part stress but I also think that when I got to Santa Cruz my body just wanted to absorb all the big training we have been doing. Teressa mentioned that even though we took a few days to "freshen" up for the race, that none of us were actually fresh.

Two days before the race we were over at Denny's hotel getting ready to go for a ride. We all must have been a bit tense as there was a clear opportunity to pick a fight with the hotel manager and it seemed each of us wanted a piece of him. He was yelling at us for having bikes in the room and made absolutely no sense with his argument. Denny was in a wheel chair room so clearly things roll on the carpet. I was letting him have it (which I don't normally do anymore) and then Denny took over. I got a kick out of seeing Denny tell him off. The guy was a whack job. We all laughed the next day when the hotel was flooded with bikes....I'm sure his head was exploding.

The day of the race the pressure was on. I had sent an e-mail to the race director requesting that Denny, Marky V and Albert Boyce be put in the first wave as we are most likely 4 of the top seeds. We sure would look like idiots if didn't perform well. Then of course you have Miss Jones showing up. It never feels good when you get chicked even if she is a world champion. But honestly, the way we train, we shouldn't be getting chicked anymore....EVER.

The first Transition was a gazzilion miles from the swim so it would be a long run from the beach. There was no carpet and the I HATE running barefoot on hard surface with pebbles etc. Especially after the foot injury, I am very hesitant to do that.

The run to transition was going to be made a whole lot worse. None of us had actually gotten in the water before race day. Denny and I get down to the start and I am in my sleeveless because I swim like crap with a full on. I figure it can't be that cold. WRONG! I have never come so close to not starting a race. Denny had to slap me around a bit as I was having brain freeze and felt like my arms were going to fall off....and if they did I wouldn't know it!

I got out and just went to start line. Denny starts in the back AS USUAL. I am right behind MJ thinking I might be able to hang on her feet. This big hawaiian looking guy that only had a speedo on steps in front of her. The look she gave him was comedy! He was actually a decent swimmer but how he got in that water naked is beyond me. Well he was as big as the sealions that had sowed up to watch the race so I'm sure he would be fine. Poor Terssa though. She has zero body fat and was most likely the sealions target for an early AM snack. I wasn't real excited about how many of them were in the water. We had seen them at the pier the day before and they are NOT NICE AT ALL! I was ready to box if they came near me! I don't like any sea creatures unless they are in a tank or I am on a boat.

So the gun goes off and I run in and keep walking as long as possible. When it is shallow you can walk just as fast as people can swim and then you can take some time to pick the feet you want to get on. When I did get in, the water felt better than it had. I was flooring it! I wanted out of the water as fast as possible and because it was so cold I could get my body temp up pretty high and not feel it.

The swim went out and around the pier. Denny can swim circles around me in the pool. Why does little Meeker show up next to me 1/2 way in the swim? I look over and see him next to me. Our breathing was in sync on opposite sides so I kept seeing his face. I was giving him a lecture in my head. "SEE YOU NEED TO START IN THE FRONT! You could be almost done and out of the lame ass cold water by now!" I even stuck my tongue out at him LOL.

He did pull away from me on the way back. I came out with a PR swim of 26:50. That was a good feeling but the run to T1 was NOT. If you look at my T1 time compared to anyone in the front of the race you see that I took twice as long. Nothing on my body worked. I was a Popsicle!

Once out on the bike everything felt like major crap. I was flat and had no ability to push hard. It never changed the whole ride. I was pretty much on my own for the ride. There was nobody in my scope so I had some issue with staying positive. MJ, Denny, and Marky V were so far off the front. When I saw Marky V on the way back I checked my watch to see how far back I was. He was leading the race and when I hit that same point I was 10 min down. Not too bad but with the way I felt he would probably put another 5 into that and then the only thing that would let me catch him would be a major blow up on the run. He was riding REALLY well and it was good to see him leading!

When I got off the bike I hadn't had much in terms of calories. I took one gel and had about 1/2 a bottle of Gatorade during my ride. It was so gloomy out that I just never felt like I needed anything. And I pissed twice on the bike so I must have been hydrated. So I get off hoping that my legs will feel good. Not really the case.

I started out a bit slow as my right quad was really sore. I think it was due to the cold. Nothing ever felt warmed up and I am notorious for not performing well in the cold. I felt like I was so far back and had crappy legs that I wanted to stop. But again I couldn't entertain that idea. All those thoughts went away when I saw my first victim. For me, the hardest part is being out there alone. If I don't have anyone to race or I am not leading then I tend to push less. But since I saw someone I just focused on taking him down. Once that happened I realized their might be hope to salvage this race. AND NOT GET CHICKED!

Once I got a bit further into the race I got to see a quick blip of Marky V. He had completed an entire section of the run that I had not. Catching him was out of the question. But up in the distance I would soon see the skinny pink dot that is Michilie. Denny came past me in the other direction and looked strong. I still had a way to go until I got to the turn around and wasn't sure if he would be catchable. MJ flew by and looked strong. I still felt like crap but was pushing pretty hard.

I hit the turn around and found that I could still see MJ in the distance so I made it my life mission to not get beat by a girl today. It took me about 2 miles to catch her but when I did I felt alive again. Now I had to run really hard to gap her so that she knew it was game over with me. My surge was fast enough for me to get one last person in my scope. That was training buddy Denny Meeker.

I wasn't sure there was going to be enough road to get him. I could tell that I was making ground but it was going to be REALLY close. I was now pushing very hard and was concerned that if I did catch him I would shut down and have nothing left to overtake. But you always feel like that and must remember that they are working hard too.

We have less than a mile to go and Denny turns around to look. No doubt he could hear me moaning. I thought "oh great, he is going to go with me and we are going to hit the sand portion and I won't be able to hold him off." I am a horrible sand runner. It is my cryptonite in running. But I did hold him off and we finished 4th and 5th overall. Again, another close finish between us. Back at Buffalo Springs we started in separate waves and had finish times only 10 seconds apart! It's funny because everyone that had GPS watches on said the run was 13.5 miles rather than 13.1. If that was the case Denny got screwed because he would have nailed me at 13.1 Denny and I have only raced each other 3 times. I have manged to pull all three of them but I think Hawaii is going to be double or nothing! Of course our competition is of the healthiest nature and I am always rooting for him to have the best race ever!

I have never been so happy to have a race done with. We all did great and it was a great close to my 1/2 Ironman season. We celebrated on the beach in front of the boardwalk with some nice red wine (wait, I spent 5 dollars on my bottles LOL). From here it is all about the big dance in Kona.

Great job to everyone that raced!

Marky V : 2nd overeall, 2nd age
BDC: 4th overall, 1st age
Denny: 5th Overall, 2nd age
Albert: 10th Overall, 1st age
Teressa: 7th Overall for the ladies, 1st age
Kristin: 9th overall for the ladies, 1st age
Lori: 14th Overall for the ladies, 2nd age

Here is a link to Mitch Gold's CpC website that has some pics on it....I will post some when I get them loaded...I'm too lazy right now and really need to build my bike.

http://www.counterpartcoaching.com/minibb17/index.php?action=vthread&forum=1&topic=1594