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 :-)
