New Blog!

Hi Guys
Check out my new blog www.lauracwhelan.blogspot.com - you can keep track of my progress as I start the transition from age group racing to pro racing!!
Thanks
Laura

Race Report

OK here it is my Kona 2009 race report!

My day started at 0400 with a hearty breakfast of porridge and pineapple! As I sat and ate my porridge I could hear the wind whistling through our condo complex and the crashing of the ocean waves - from my time out here I knew that if I could hear the ocean and the wind from my condo it meant that the swim was going to be full of swells and the bike was going to be windy - just another day in Kona then!

Hannah and Tania were brave enough to accompany me down to the race start so we made our way out to the side of Alii Drive just before 5am and caught one of the athlete shuttles down to the race start. Thankfully I had given myself plenty of time before the race to navigate the special needs bag drop, body marking and timing chip registration - as I exited the last tent 50 minutes later to walk towards my bike I realised I was walking alongside Chrissy Wellington! I attempted to think of something cool to say but ended up just blabbing out something that resembled a good luck wish!!

I didn't have much time to spend setting up my bike by the time I reached it - so just a little bit of fluffing pumping up tyres and setting up my drinks before lining up to enter the swim! I knew the swim wasn't going to be pretty - with 1800 people packed along the smallest of start lines so I focused on my race plan and lined up towards the ocean side of start line toward the back of the middle third of athletes. The pro athletes went off at 0645 to the sound of the first cannon - the force of which sent a massive shock wave through the water!! Then it was a case of treading water and waiting the 15 minutes for the start of the age group race! At the race briefing we were told that there would be no 3, 2 or 1 minute countdown to the start of the race - the canon would simply fire when the front line of swimmers were all in line which could be anytime from 0655 onwards. I'm not sure which is worse - a 3,2,1 minute countdown to the start or a cold start!

So without warning the canon fired, startled everyone for a split second and then it went crazy! The first half of the swim was absolute carnage - people kicking, punching, grabbing feet and swimming over you! I didn't lift my head out of the water to sight a single buoy until the turn around - you simply had to go with the flow and hope the flow was on the right track! Once past the turn around things settled down a bit and I found a pack of 4 swimmers who didn't feel the need to try and take me out every second stroke! The last 750m got a bit violent again as we converged towards the swim exit but I managed to keep my cool and exit in one piece - mission accomplished! I glanced down at my watch which flashed 12 minutes back at me - hmmmmmm - slight technical problem with my watch!!! I decided to reset it on exiting transition as there was a big timing clock that I could use to note my total swim and transition time which I could then add on to my watch time as I progressed - bit of basic mathematics was now going to be required throughout the race which I thought could get interesting as the day progressed and my mind got fuzzier!

The first 20 minutes of the bike is a dog leg around the side streets of Kona - it is difficult to really get up to a decent speed because of the sheer volume of athletes and also the numbers of spectators jumping out into the road to cheer you on makes it quite a tricky little section! Anticipating this I used the slightly slower paced start to spin my legs out and get some nutrition in. Finally we hit the Queen K highway and I fired my legs up into full race mode!

The winds were raging along the highway and seemed to be blowing from all directions - you would catch a tail wind and within a couple of minutes it would turn into a belting head wind. By mid morning the sun was really starting to burn and so I deliberately took my time through the aid stations to pick up as much water as I could to chuck over my helmet and down my back! My support crew had singled out the turn off to Hawi as the cheer point for the cycle - I had been cycling strongly so I wasn't surprised when I got to the Hawi turn off and my sea of pink was nowhere in sight! I had joked the night before that I would race them to the spot so I couldn't help but break a little smile! I knew that they would be waiting there to see me on my return and wondered at what point would they realise that they had missed me first time round!!!

The terrain up to the turn around in Hawi is hill after hill after hill so I focused my attention on my pick and pass strategy to get me up each hill - pick a cyclist ahead, close them down and then pass! It was about this time that I realised that my watch had stopped again - by now I had totally lost track of time and was more confused than ever about what my total time was - I restarted my watch again more so I could use it to time my nutrition intake rather than track my time - I figured it would be a case of resetting it again at the start of the run!

Once I had made my way to Hawi I braced myself for the crushing side winds on the return which are a little more fierce as you cycle right on the edge of the coast. I focused on the sea of pink that would be waiting at the entrance back onto the Queen K and pushed as hard as I could to get there as quickly as I could. As I climbed the hill towards the start of the Queen K I saw the familiar sight of crazy pink people waving signs and screaming my name! After a gruelling section it was what I needed to lift my spirits and push me forward!

The last 80km segment of the cycle which had been the easiest section in training from a wind point of view ended up being the most challenging. It felt like cycling into a brick wall of wind and was unrelenting. As I hit transition I glanced at the timing clock and realised I had managed to pull a 5:44 bike - just 5 minutes slower than my split in Taupo over a much tougher and gruelling course - I was ecstatic!

My bike to run transition went pretty smoothly and I loaded up on panadol extra in the hope that would get my foot through the marathon course. I could feel the sharp pain at the base of my foot and as I hit the first hill and my first team of supporters it took me all my strength to keep running. I began to wonder if I could finish what I started, if I could make it in the unrelenting heat to the finish line on a foot that was clearly not very happy with what I was asking it to do! I knew that I needed to snap out of this destructive chain of thought and just then my prayers were answered by a man shouting on a loud speaker 'you are the best Ironman athletes in the world and you are all doing great' nothing like a goose bump evoking pick me up! I thought back to the day I got my Kona slot, the agony of waiting to see if I got a roll down, about the people who would give anything to be out on this run course and the last 6 months of training that I've put in to get here - why wouldn't I finish! So I left the thoughts of self doubt on the road, slowed my pace a little to take some of the pressure off my foot and then blocked the pain in my foot from my mind. By the time I passed my condo complex on Alii Drive I was beginning to feel that my running stride was about to kick in - I got another massive cheer from Team Whelan which spurred me on - and by the time I hit them on the return I managed a clap and shout a 'lets go'!

Once out on the Queen K and amongst the lava fields the intensity of the sun was sauna like proportions! I was drinking what felt like my body weight in electrolyte, water and coke and pouring ice into any spot on my body I could get it to stay!! The highway was shimmering with the sun and a haze settled on the long stretches of road ahead. The kilometres ticked by and eventually I reached the Natural Energy Lab of Hawaii - an area covered in solar panels that you run through - they say the energy lab sucks the energy out of you - I decided it was going to give me energy!! So I set off through the solar panelled lined road and knew once I was out of the energy lab I was on the home stretch! I emerged like most feeling victorious but had begun to become aware that my race clothes were beginning to slip off me and I knew I needed to get as much fluid in as possible on the run home however I wasn't able to tolerate more than a mouthful of fluid at each aid station.

In the last couple of kilometres I ended up keeping pace with an Ozzie chick who was an experienced Kona athlete and mother of 2! She was carrying a cup of ice and kept passing me ice cubes to suck on! As we hit the downward hill of Palani we could hear the finish line and the roar of the crowd! I got lost in the emotion of it all and as I came down the finishers chute I made my way towards the fuzzy pink team, grabbed the flag and brought it home kiwi style!

After the adrenaline buzz of the finish I began to feel a little ropey and couldn't believe my eyes when I weighed in 6kgs lighter! Despite being really conscious of taking in fluids throughout the day I had still managed to finish with a massive fluid deficit. I therefore spent the next 3 hours checking out the Kona medical tent hooked up to what ended up being a total of 5 litres of intravenous fluid! I did manage to pass as well enough to discharge after 3 litres, made it 10 minutes out of the medical tent before promptly collapsing in a heap and being readmitted to receive another 2 litres! Thankfully I was one of many in the IV line so I didn't feel too much of a dork - well that was until the medical staff found out I was a nurse!

I'm so pleased with how my race went and my overall time! I managed to complete a much tougher course than Ironman New Zealand and come home adding just 13 minutes to my finish time! I think qualifying by roll down really focused my training over the last 6 months - I think it made me more determined to line up on that start line and prove I had the right to be there. I finished as the 2nd female age grouper across all divisions on the New Zealand team and placed 24th in my age group out of 66 athletes - I think on cloud nine would probably sum it up! I'm now looking forward to a couple of days or R&R in Honolulu before heading back to the cold of NZ!

I can't thank everyone enough for all the support over the last 6 months - I feel so lucky to have you all around me! I will post some piccies from race day when I get back to NZ!

Mahola from the Big Island :-)

Result

Hi Guys - quick post to let you know my result -
11:02 Finish = 1:17 Swim, 5:44 Bike, 3:52 Run - 24th Age Group
2nd female kiwi age grouper over the line across all age groups!
Will post a race report tomorrow!

It's Kona Time!

Well guys it's finally here - it's Kona time! I have just got back from racking my bike, handing in my transition bags and navigating the transition area! The transition area is HUGE! Every athlete is allocated a peg to hang their cycle gear bag and another peg at the opposite end of transition to hang their run bag - all peg racks are mirror images but I can't help but think that isn't going to help me much tomorrow :-) Thankfully my transition escort today assured me there would be people making sure that you got to your gear and your bike as quickly as possible! Phew!

The race week preparations have been a little hive of activity! I went down to register on Tuesday morning which was a very long process and involved a total of 7 check points to navigate through!! The most time consuming check point was the 'paperwork' area where I had to pretty much had to agree to sign my life away and take full responsibility for anything potentially bad that might happen to me on race day! I was surprised they didn't photograph and fingerprint me!!! I weighed in on the scales in the medical checkpoint a little high but have since spoken to lots of other athletes who said the scales had put them between 1-3kgs heavier - nothing like a pair of dodgy scales to send your mind into a tail spin!

After registration there was a team NZ meeting! We got a little 'pep' talk from Cameron Brown - although the first part of the talk left all of us with our jaws falling to the floor.......he opened the pep talk with statements such as 'this is the hardest thing you will ever do' 'Ironman New Zealand is a breeze in comparison' 'you will hit many walls of wind and feel like you are going nowhere' 'the heat will get up above 40 degrees' 'the hardest part of the marathon is the energy lab which is the final 13km of the course' and so it went on!!!! Once he had all those statements off his chest he did however give us all some really good course tips about positioning for the swim start, wind reading on the bike course and mental strategy for the run! He also gave some good pointers for support crews in terms of good places to be out on the course! Gina Ferguson also gave a little talk too and pre-warned us all that our special needs run bags are not handed out at the midway point of the marathon but two thirds into it - extra energy gels in my fuel belt have now been added!!

The race briefing was 8pm last night - quite late in the day but it only took half an hour - ironman NZ could take note of that one as it usually drags on for over an hour!

My tonsillitis has gone - yay - however my right foot has decided to pack a bit of a sad for some unknown reason! It decided to swell to double the size of the other and seemed to take offence to any weight being put through it!! Frantic email sent to super sports physio Deno who sent a big email back full of useful advice to try and get it right before race day! So here's hoping I can conquer the swelling foot demons with the buckets of ice I'm plonking onto it!

Otherwise feeling good and ready to give it what I've got! Swollen foot or not I'm determined to finish the journey I started 7 months ago!

You can follow the race live on the Internet - http://www.ironman.com/ and my race number is 1666 for the athlete tracker! I'm hoping to be in a coherent enough state at the end of the day to post a blog results!

Thanks for all your good luck texts, emails and support! Rock On Kona - go hard or go home!

L xxx

Hang Loose

Well it's been a funny old week in Konaville! My week got off to a bit of a slow start training wise which I put down to my epic cycle up to the top of the course! I was able to complete all the sessions at the correct pace and intensity but I was finding it hard to get out of bed despite lots of early nights! Thursday rocked around and I had my hard interval bike session which I have been doing on my windtrainer in the exercise room of the condo complex. Half way into the session I was really struggling to hit the power targets that I have previously managed to hit and 10 minutes from the end I decided to give it up as a bad job and retreat to the condo - I had tortured myself enough for one day! A frantic meltdown email was sent to Tony who then adjusted the volume of my training for the end of week and who thought that perhaps the heat load on my body was starting to take it's toll a little - now comes the best part - I was instructed to crank the air con up in the condo on my day off from training on Sunday and chill out - in the literal sense! Whoop Whoop!

With a day in the air con in sight Friday and Saturday felt a little more do-able! We had a hire car on Friday so I was dropped at Waikola Beach Road so that I could do the top part of the course! So whilst Hannah and Tania managed to blag there way into the Hilton complex at Waikola and enjoy the super sized pool complete with waterfall I took on the Island headwinds once again! By chance I happened to take on the winds on their worst recorded day in the last 4 months! Gusts across the course were recorded at 60mph - those were the ones that quite literally blew my bike across a traffic lane and then blew me back to the edge of the coast line. Three miles out of Hawi as I was hanging on with all my might to keep both myself and my bike on the ground I passed a group of cyclists on the opposite side of the road - 2 minutes later I had a guy who introduced himself as Rob was at my side - he instructed me to 'turn around' and join the group! He told me it wasn't safe cycling and I needed to be in a group in case anything bad 'happened' - I wondered if it could really get any worse but so scared by his last statement I made an about turn and joined the back of the group! There I got stuck alongside Martha - an American girl who was quite literally sobbing into her handle bars and proclaiming that she was going to be blown off the cliff to which Rob replied 'Martha shut up - Laura weighs 20 pounds less than you do so if anyone is going over it's her!'.........gulp! Needless to say I made it back to my pick up point in one piece and waved goodbye to Martha, Rob and Co! Very relieved to see Tania, Hannah and Colin the hire car making their way towards me.....chilled diet coke at the ready :-)

Today I woke up with a sore throat and banging headache - so despite being in the warmer climate of Hawaii I have still managed to pick up my usual race week bout of tonsillitis!! I'm still baffled as to why without fail before a big event I score a bout of tonsillitis on my taper but on the up side it explains the nuclear meltdown on Thursday! Usually it only lasts a couple of days so I am confident I will be in tip top shape again by Saturday - I know that I can relax with the knowledge that the work is done now - so it's time to 'Hang Loose' as they say here!

Next week will be busy with the race week preparations! Registration is on Tuesday followed by the Team New Zealand meeting and then the parade of nations in the afternoon. Thursday is race briefing and Friday bike and transition gear check in which will mean a couple of days preparation getting everything sorted for Friday - you don't want to forget to put anything in those!! I kicked off the race week preps with a bike wash/shower - videos attached :-)

The support crew preparations are currently in full swing! Hannah and Tania are currently making posters on the living room floor with the usual catchy slogans - 'Harden Up Iron Princess' and 'My Nana Can Run Faster Than That' to name just a couple!

Right time for some more chilling in the air con............

Well today I have been in Kona 2 weeks! Hard to believe that the time has passed so quickly! Hannah arrived a week ago and Tania 5 days ago so we are now 3 and it feels good to have my friends around me!

Unfortunately our plans to hire a car here for 2 weeks fell flat on there face within an hour of Hannah stepping off the plane! We went to pick up the car from the rental place and discovered that the price we had 'paid' was subject to some additional local charges..... which totalled over $1000 US dollars!! Needless to say we decided that was a little over our budget and cancelled the car hire! Instead we found a local car hire company in town and rented a car for a weekend so that we could use it as a support vehicle for my epic cycle to the top of the Ironman course on Saturday and then use it to explore the Volcano National Park on Sunday. We have booked in another rental period for 24 hours at the end of the week so I can be dropped at the top of the cycle course for my final 'long ride' before race day. Not having a car during race week will make it a little harder to get to all the places I need to be like the bike shop for a pre-race service, event registration, the parade of nations, the athlete briefing and the all important race start but hopefully we will all figure out the best plan of attack to get me to each of those!

So Saturday was the big training event of the week for me - getting to the top of the cycle course and the big crew event of the week for Tania and Hannah who were manning the support vehicle (attached pic of Tania at a check point!). Friday evening was spent planning the various check points along the route, working out what I needed to be handed at each and also featured a quick lesson in making up my electrolyte drinks! I set off just after 7am and the first check point was scheduled for 0830! I picked a great day to cycle - the heat intensity was high and the Island winds were the strongest I had seen so I got a real taste of the legendary Ho'omumuku headwinds which blast at you from just north of the airport (10 miles out of Kona) all the way to the turn around at Hawi (mile 55) - I have to say that there were a few moments of despair as at times I felt like I was making little if any progress in a forwards direction (I have attached a video Hannah made on the side of the Queen K highway so you can hear the winds)! Just 10 miles out from Hawi I cycled into a belt of lashing rain - Hawi is situated at the very Northern tip of the Big Island and I have since learnt has a more tropical rainy climate - so I arrived at the turn around soaking wet and was greeted by an equally wet support crew! I didn't stay wet for long - 10 miles out of Hawi I hit the familiar intense heat and was blown dry in no more than 2 minutes! The top of the cycle course brings you right to the edge of the coastline and features much steeper sharper ascents so it felt good to finally see what I would be up against on race day! I certainly couldn't have made it up there without my support crew keeping me in a constant supply of electrolyte drinks and water! I managed to drink my way through just over 9 litres of water and arrived back at the condo only one kg lighter which I was really impressed with! I ran 40 minutes off the bike and felt good so all in all the day was a big confidence booster..... I had made it to the top and survived the heat and the winds! Below is a map and course profile for the cycle course.

Yesterday I got really excited because I spotted that the second part of the swim course had been marked with a couple of orange buoys! Today I had planned to swim the entire course however all the beaches and local water access points have been closed because the swells and currents are dangerously high following the Tsunami in Samoa and the Big Island is now on full scale alert for a Tsunami hit - some of the locals say the water should be open again by tomorrow so hopefully the buoys won't have been swept away!

This week sees a dip in the volume and intensity of my training so I feel that the taper has finally begun towards race day. I still have between 2 and 3 sessions a day but they are mostly shorter in length and at a much lower intensity. I am maximising my rest periods and taking advantage of a few more sleep ins! I finished my race plan this morning so have sent that to Tony this morning for feedback and comments!

Generally I am feeling good and looking forward to the excitement of race week Hawaii style! The rest of my crew arrive next week so it will be great to see Kathryn, Noo, Elaine, Mags and Kati! We have recruited a couple of locals to the kiwi support crew and hope to get as many Americans holding kiwi flags out on the course as possible :-)

That's it for now! xx

Kona Learning Curve

Well today I have successfully completed the first 5 days of training here in Kona and I have certainly learned heaps! The biggest challenge has been getting my fluids right for the longer sessions and picking the best times of the day to train depending on the nature of the session - I definitely won't be running intervals in the heat of the day anytime soon again!


Today I managed to get it right on my longest session yet which was a 6 hour cycle out on the course. As Hannah (and my support vehicle!!!) doesn't arrive until Tuesday I had to break the cycle into 3 hour loops that started and finished at my condo so that I could replace my drink bottles and replenish my food stash! It was really windy today so I got a taste of the Island winds in full force which I would safely say were some of the strongest I have encountered! I fully enjoyed every second of it though and finished feeling well hydrated and in good condition! I am now itching to get to the top of the course - I saw plenty of cyclists with their support vehicles making there way up to the top and I have to admit to a few pangs of jealousy as I had to turn around at mile 25 to get back to the condo to stock up my fluids! I know that Tuesday isn't long to wait for Hannah to arrive and I have a big cycling week ahead which will provide lots of oppertunity to get up there......hopefully that is if Hannah is willing :-)

My heart rate is starting to come down to the upper end of normal during my training sessions so that is a sign that I am adapting to heat. The black lava fields on both the run and cycle course make the heat quite intense (I have attached a piccie of said lava fields!) and the wind hot! It's a bit like when you open the oven and get that blast of warm air in your face - someone likened it to cycling in a furnace although I'm not sure that must be a hypothetical comparison!!

It has been really nice to do some open water swimming - on my first swim out on the course I came across a large pod of dolphins and I really couldn't resist the urge to suspend my training session (like everyone else out there) for 20 minutes and have a play! Amazing experience and so far I haven't come across another pod so I think I really struck gold that day! Also on the swim front I received my blue seventy swim skin in the post (yay yay yay) which as many of you know has been a bit of a mission for me to find in New Zealand because they had all been sent overseas for the Northern Hemispheres summer season! Blue seventy in New Zealand arranged to have one couriered from a store in the US to my conodo in Kona and timed it to arrive the day after I arrived - now that's what I call amazing service! So I now have my swim skin of choice (blue seventy pointzero3) which came in a box that said on the front 'you are now holding the fastest swim skin ever made' - I feel there may be some key words for the swim on race day in there somewhere!

Still not yet able to communicate with the outside world by cell phone yet! I need a tri band phone to pick up a signal so the lovely Hannah is bringing out a spare tri band phone for me this week which will mean I will be back up and running on the cell phone super highway...I hope!

I am making good progress at eating my way through the stack of nutrition I brought out with me! I have had to limit my porridge consumption to just two bowls a day as my Uncle Toby's oats are running a bit low as are my low carb protein bars. I will try to resist the urge to go crazy on the bars and porridge when the rest of the supply arrive on Tuesday!

OK - I thought that I would finish up with 10 "interesting" things I have learned thus far in Kona.......

1. You will never need to bring something warm to wear in the evenings - it really doesn't cool down.

2. There are 73 TV channels here and I still can't find anything to watch

3. Boys on flashy bikes with deep dish wheels have a lot to say for themselves when powering past you on the downhills but are strangely quiet when you pass them on the uphills

4. All downhills are an optical illusion - you still need to pedal like crazy to move forward

5. Never wear anything black - you will melt

6. Suncream is not conducive to 90% humidity- just when you think you have rubbed it in it resurfaces quietly and makes you look like a streaky white zebra

7. The more sun tanned you are the faster you go

8. If you want the experience of swimming in a washing machine - hit the swim course after 11am - that's when the swell 'gets up'

9. Salt tablets melt in extreme heat

10. Dolphins are very big up close

Right - time to cook some dinner and make a plan for tomorrow!