Hawaii IRONMAN 2008

Well the race here in KONA has come and gone. I wasn't very good about writing prior to the race (actually I wrote nothing at all) so I will make sure I keep this short (yeah right). I don't have any pics to put up right now either. Man! What a slacker I have been! I guess it was really just one of those times where ya had to be there.....

Going into this race I had to be very careful not to mistake what I really wanted to do (my ideal) and what I was going to be capable of doing for where I was with things (my reality). Last year I had a pretty good race and a successful season that included many other races. This year was very much the opposite. Less "success" with almost no racing. Ultimately this has all been an effort to get rid of a long standing injury in my foot. In the end, I think my choices this season have been wise and my race in KONA was a step in the right direction.

The one thing I really noticed this year was that I was much more relaxed going into KONA. I never really got that nervous about it so when race day rolled around it just felt like another training day. In fact, I was actually excited to race because I felt like I had just been sitting on my ass for weeks. And that wasn't even true as my taper was only 5 days. The decision to make the taper short was due to my lack of a season and how horrible I felt in the 1/2 I did a month before where I tapered a bit more. Anyway, I was very eager at this point to get it going.

My bike spot in T1 this year was in the coolest place. I was the first bike you saw when in transition. I had number 97 as that was my place last year. 97 racked first in the isle that was closest to the T1 exit. I was the last male number before you started the pro women (how ironic lol). There was no 98-100 so those spots were left empty and then you had 101 which was the number of the new Queen of Kona, Miss Chrissie. I have the strangest feeling that she won't be handing over that crown any time soon (flat or no flat). Since I was in the age group wave that started 15 min later, my bike was going to be standing there all by itself. I would have all the room in the world and not far to run with my bike.

Before the race I was in the same area that I was last year, right near that giant blow up Power Bar Gel. This year every person in my group had a Power Gel in their pocket due to the fact that I didn't have mine last year. It was kinda funny but nothing really comical happened so I might as well fast forward to getting in the water.

I had decided that my swimming was strong enough where I could hit it pretty hard and try and get in with a slightly faster pack. I swam an hour flat last year and wanted to be in that 57-58 group this time round. My plan was to go line up with Scott Davis and use his feet to get me out in the first 400 meters and then I could settle in knowing that he is ultimately too fast in the water for me.

We swam out and got right on the front line dead center. They had us roped in a tighter line this year so it seemed a bit more crowded than last year. As we all floated around nervously awaiting the cannon I started asking people nearby what their projected swim times were. I heard times that made me feel confident that starting where I was would be a good idea (note to self- it was a DUMB idea).

We kept waiting and waiting and finally I looked at Scott and said "When do you think this race is gonna sta...BAAAM!" That always happens to me LOL! I started swimming as fast as I could. And when I say as fast as I could I am not exaggerating. I felt like my life was in DANGER! Never in my whole experience of triathlon has anything like this happened to me in the swim. It was a disaster. I was being engulfed by people, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't take a real stroke I was fucked. That's the king of bad language- but that's what I was. I tried to stay calm even though I have a huge issue with claustrophobia, HUGE! I began to tell myself "this will only last for another min and then it will clear up. I was in shape so just put your head down and swim". Well that was too late. I started to panic. And when I say panic I mean I started to PANIC. I was gonna be that guy that dies in the swim.

Once that feeling kicked in I stuck my head up, stopped swimming and looked both ways to see which was the shortest way out of this mess. I just wanted out of the swim and to be in clear water. This didn't go so well with the rest of the people in the race as I was now in their way and getting pounded by fists. At least my head was out of the water and I could breathe. I did what I had to do and climbed over a lot of people to get to the side. Once there I had to pull myself together fast or I might pull the plug entirely.

Luckily when I came to watch this race a few years ago I was one of the guys on a surf board and had pulled a pro out of the water because he began to panic. That guy decided not to finish the race and I was now in that exact situation. I tried to get that guy to keep going but he decided against it.

I took my own advice that I gave a few years ago and started swimming at a very relaxed pace and tried to find my breathe again. I was so far away from anyone that it was easy for me to do this. The next two buoys I came to, I passed with them on my left. Technically they are supposed to be on your right but we were going in a straight line so it didn't shorten the course at all. There was no way in hell I was going to go near anyone yet. Plus I saw plenty of people ahead of me do that and the officials seemed fine with it.

Slowly I got my confidence back and found some feet. I thought for sure my swim was now blown but it didn't phase me that much. I was just happy to be calm again and before I knew it I saw the turn around boat. This was a bit of relief but I also knew it was going to get crowded again. Sure enough it did and things got physical. I was fine now and did my best to just let my hands glide off anyone I made contact with. Unfortunately some dick head in front of me thinks it is okay to violently kick his feet if he gets touched. His violent kicking came so close to really knocking me out. I understand that some people swim on you to draft and you can get annoyed but in a situation like this, purposely kicking that way could have really hurt someone (me). There is no excuse for violent kicking. I'm having rubber wrist bands made immediately LOL!

The best part of that swim was when I got to the pier I thought, "Boy, this was a piece of cake minus the panic. You aren't even tired!" In all my Ironman swims I always get out of the water being very thankful that it is over. This one felt like a 1/2 Iron swim.

Transition was SOOO crowded. Last year it was pretty empty but this year it was standing room only. I felt like I got out pretty fast and decided to put all my stuff on near my bike. And sure enough it was just me. I looked like I was a pro that really sucked!

Heading out on the bike was business as usual. I passed a few people that I knew straight away and though "that's odd?" thinking they would be miles ahead by now. Then I passed Mark Pietrofessa in the exact spot I did last year. We both commented on it. The bike was turning into dejavu. Lots of people all riding a very uneven pace.

Out on the Queen K there were draft busters all over the place and they were handing out yellow and red cards like a fat geeky hall monitor on a serious power trip. I get that they were trying to fix the drafting issue but doing it in the first 10 miles of the race is a bad place to do it. There are too many people and I don't think anyone was drafting to "get ahead". This race does need some time to thin out a bit and if we can't achieve that after an hour or so then something needs to happen.

Knowing that the motor bikes were hovering around us I tried my best to stay back from other riders but again, people would jump into my legal zone. It was frustrating and equally frustrating if you made a pass and then 5 seconds later they passed you back. There was a gap between myself and another pack up the road. I wish I had the strength to put the hammer down and dump these guys that were around me but I wasn't willing to do it. We came through the 40K mark in 1:04 and that felt pretty easy. I felt good that I was riding well and then WHAM "Number 97! YELLOW CARD!" I looked over and the draft buster was telling me that I got a yellow card. Me and my big mouth had to say something and turned that yellow card into a red card. It was so unfair. Now I had to stop at the next penalty tent and stand down for 4 min. When I got to the tent I couldn't believe how many people would go by in four min. It was killing me! Not to mention that as they went by it looked like giant pelotons. I was so pissed.

Once I was released all I could see were hundreds of bikes up the road. The wind was howling and I was having a hard time shaking the penalty. Staying in the game mentally was my biggest challenge of the ride. Not only was I now much further back than I wanted, the wind had picked up and I wasn't making any ground. I kept getting passed by people and couldn't understand what the hell was going on. Where was my power?

I climbed up to Hawi at a snails pace due to the wind and was again a bit discouraged when I saw where the riders that I wanted to be riding with were. They were miles ahead of me. The only thing that kept me going was to say that they will all implode on the run.

The decent from Hawi sucked donkey balls! I am so glad that I only had 404's on because the wind was not taking prisoners that day. I had gotten out of my aero bars because I felt like I couldn't control my bike. A guy rode up to me and said to get aero and put my weight on the front of the bike. Good advice but it was Kevin Moats giving it and I couldn't keep up. Kevin is in his 50's and I am being dropped. Fun. Well wait, it gets better! I saw a 70 on another guys calf. Funner!

Clearly I wasn't having the ride I wanted but it didn't "feel bad" I just wasn't going anywhere. When I finally got off the decent and made it back to the Queen K I thought I felt fine so maybe now I can try and put out a little more power. The wind was bad the whole ride and any extra power I put out didn't show. Ultimately I decided to just keep riding and hope it wasn't as bad as it seemed.

The last 20K of the ride felt great minus the issue I started having with hot feet. I haven't had hot feet in ages and for some reason they were both burning up. Possibly the scorching KONA sun?? It was just one of those things that I had to block out. For some reason pain like that works well for me. It helps me focus. I have run some of my fastest runs with blisters that felt like cattle prods.

As I got off the bike I wasn't able to get my shoe open so I just clicked out and ran towards the tent. As soon as I made the turn and hit the AstroTurf I went a sailing! My cleat slipped and I went right down on my side and into a a guard rail. That must have been comedy to anyone that saw it. I wasn't too happy but luckily I wasn't hurt. I took the shoes off and ran the rest of the way in my socks.

The next 5 min were chaos in the transition tent. People everywhere and my brain just couldn't really think. I was happy to get out of T2 but as I started running I had this feeling like "this isn't going to go well." I had to think back to a training run I did off the bike where I felt like passing out and then had some sugar and was fine. I knew not to judge things until I had gone about 15 min. Maybe I just had left over issues from the bike. Lord knows I didn't ride very fast so I shouldn't be that affected on the run.

Things did start to open up for me. My legs felt as if I was out for an easy run. I had my Garmen on so I could tell what my pace was. I wanted to know that so I didn't run too fast. Last year I had a 5 mile section that was really bad. I wanted this run to flow the whole way and not have any evident "dips". My goal was to run 3:05 or faster and not have another IM run in the teens.

I had been thirsty all day on the bike. My nutrition plan went out the window because all I wanted to do was drink Gatorade. I only had 1/2 of my gels but went through I don't know how many bottles of drink. On the run it was a similar situation. I just wanted coke. From the first to last aid station all I took was coke. No gels. Just as much coke as I could get in. I did have some water but not very much. It was a gamble but it tasted so good and seemed to give me a nice lift every time I took some.

As I ran down Ali'i Dr. I was passing people with every step. I'm not sure why all these guys rode so hard? They exited transition on pace to run a 4 hour marathon. But I guess that is what happens when you start the run so far back.

I noticed up the road a pro female that seemed to be clipping along at my pace. I figured that if I caught up to her I would have someone to run with, so I picked it up a tad and settled back in when I caught her.

We were moving along at a nice steady pace. I said hi and we had a quick chat about the race. I asked her if she could keep this pace up and she replied with an enthusiastic "oh yeah". I didn't know who she was and when I looked at my watch I became a bit skeptical of the pace. So I waited a bit and then slipped in "soooo what is your fastest IM run?" She responded with 3:00 and I was sold! This was my girl. She knew what she was doing so I thought I would just run with her.

It was really fun to have a buddy on the run. She would drop me in the aid stations as I was having issues with running fast through them and getting in all that tasty coke. But I would catch back up. One aid station I was able to keep it rolling and we made note that it was my best one yet! lol

It was really hot on Ali'i and my shoes were soaked from all the sponges I was grabbing but I felt totally fine and comfortable. I told my new found run buddy that last year when I got to the top of Palani, things feel apart a bit for me. It came out of the blue so I was a bit tense that it might happen again. She reminded me that we were just out for a run and this pace wasn't super fast.

Once we made it up the hill and started our trek out to the Energy Lab, I realized that it wasn't going to be that far. Last year I felt like it took forever to get there and that it was a never ending road. While in Kona this time, I studied that section of the course thoroughly and found it to be mentally short. That made all the difference in the world.

I still managed to drop the ball a bit. About 1/2 way up I was pounding coke and when I looked up my run buddy was now a bit further up on me. This was my worst aid station and I got dropped. That was a crucial mistake. Once the link was lost it was harder to keep moving. I should have made it so that my life was dependant on staying with her. I still kept it going and didn't loose too much time but she ended up running 3:01 and I did a 3:06. Had I stayed with her I would have been around 2:59-3:00 (I caught her about two miles in). But that wasn't the case and I now had to do the rest of the run on my own. We exchanged words when we passed at the turn around in the Energy Lab. She wasn't that far ahead but I didn't have the ability to bridge the gap.

The biggest issue I faced on the run was the weakness in my hips and issues in my foot. My core has been very week from an old injury that prevented me from working on it and at the end of all my runs (last 4 miles or so) I would feel the hip area break down. Since my longest run this year was only 16 miles I could feel the breakdown happening at about mile 18. I knew all I had to do now was just suck it up for less than 10 miles and I could stop.

Running back on the Queen K went by a lot faster than I thought it would and the only slow down I was experiencing was still from muscle breakdown. I wasn't really "tired" and I knew the pace wasn't fast. Once I saw Palani I knew I had made it. Not only had I made it, I looked down at my watch and realized I just might hit my 3:05 run goal. And if I don't, I will still be really close to it. I was so over running outside of the :00's. No more :10's and above for me!!! It put a smile on my face and made dealing with the hip/foot pain easier. Honestly my feet at that point were so bad I actually thought "screw it. Just run em to the nubs and you never have to do this again." I was in the "negotiating" phase of the race LOL...

When I crossed the line my body was done. I saw my dear friend Linda Bless from Bike Works waiting with a towel. I just grabbed the two closest people as my legs went on strike as soon as they crossed. For some reason, even if I feel great after an IM, my legs just stop. I guess they have that right.

Anyway, the race was not really where I wanted to be in regards to placing and the time was slower than I wanted. But I have to walk away from it knowing I had a good swim and solid improvement on the run. I learned alot form the race and dealt with some of the days adversity well. Now it is time for a rest and a plan to fix some things in the gym! I am actually pretty geeked up to race IM again. The biggest thing I take away from this race is confidence. Something about the distance and pressure of racing it clicked in my head. I think the best is still yet to come!

Thanks to everyone that supported me and congrats to all that raced! It was an awesome time and I look forward to next year!

Cheers,
bdc