Pre-race:
Since we got to Kona kind of late, there wasn't much time to do things outside of the usual pre-race activities. We got in on Wednesday a bit after 3pm, checked into our airbnb (which was conveniently only 3mi from the airport and about 7mi from the race start), stopped by at Trisutto party and got the most essential groceries. Oh, and Justin built my bike too :-) Thursday we checked out the race venue, I checked in, did a short bike ride on Queen K (while Justin bought me CO2s for the race) and a little swim in the ocean. (Oh yes, and we ran into Lucy Charles when we went to pick up Justin's ticket to the Welcome Banquet.) In the afternoon we went to a beach that our airbnb host recommended. It was beautiful! Justin went for a little swim / turtle chase while I relaxed on the beach.
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| Justin thought this sign was funny - until a seal came to take a nap at the beach :-D |
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| Seal napping on the beach |
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| Turtle that Justin chased around with his camera |
Friday was already the day before the race, so I did my usual short and easy morning run, a short ride and a short swim (this time at the Kona Aquatic Center). I checked in my bike and bags as early as I could (a bit after 2:30pm) and then we went back to our airbnb to rest and relax. We made some pasta for pre-race dinner (I didn't want to risk a restaurant, plus I imagine most restaurants were crowded and expensive) and we went to bit relatively early (8:30pm).
Race morning:
We woke up at 3:30am with the goal of getting out of the house between 4:15 and 4:30am. There was almost no traffic going into town and we were even able to get parking very close to transition. The body marking was a bit more involved than in other races (volunteers applied our race tattoos and then also weighed us) but because we arrived relatively early, there was almost no wait. I dropped off my special needs bags, inflated my tires (never saw that many race-provided pumps in transition!), lubed my chain (it rained overnight) and put water bottles on my bike. I went back out of transition to say bye to Justin before the 1st wave of the race (pro men) went off. I tried to watch the pro swim start from transition but I couldn't really see through all the people who were standing in the VIP section at the edge of the pier. I did see Jan Frodeno and Bob Babbit spectating though :-o (Bob Babbit even wished me good luck :-D). I did a decent warmup (about 12min) and soon after it was time for my wave to line up.
Swim (1:11:23):
The start line was about 100m from the shore. I got there as early as I could, so I wouldn't get stuck too far in the back (they let us in right after the age group men departed - 15min before our start). In the end, lining up near the front was not a big problem. The start line was pretty wide and it looked like most of the people wanted to be closer to the buoy line, so the crowd was not too bad where I started (maybe 15-20m to the left?). I positioned myself maybe 3-5 people deep, which was about 1-2 meters from the start line. When the canon went off, I tried to start a bit faster than usual to hopefully get on some faster-than-me feet. I think I did an OK job with this but it definitely could be improved. Also, maybe I should have been a bit bolder and line up even closer to the front. After the first 15-20min, I ended up swimming around people of about my speed. Maybe a tiny bit faster than me since I was not really able to pass and drop them (I tried a few times) and drafting off them felt a bit easier than swimming next to them at the same speed, so I tried to mostly draft. We did pass a decent number of men (who started 15min ahead of us), so that's always a good feeling :-) The water felt nice and it was very blue. The only not so great thing was that my neck started chafing pretty badly not even halfway through the swim. I only applied a little bit of body glide prior to the race, thinking that it's not really needed since I was not wearing a wetsuit (just a swimskin over my trisuit). But it seems the top of the zipper on a swimskin can still do quite a bit of damage to the skin, especially in salt water. Next time I'll definitely use vaseline. I felt like I was swimming alright but I never really know until the swim is over and I can see the time. I was hoping for sub-1:10 but was prepared for the worst since I haven't done a non-wetsuit Ironman swim since 2013. 1:11 was a nice surprise!T1 (4:02):
Most crowded women's changing tent I've ever seen :-o I guess because my swim time was pretty average here (actually below average in my age group).
Bike (5:11:31):
The first few miles were a small loop around the town and a short out-and-back on a relatively narrow road, which was quite crowded. I tried to pass some people on the uphills but I took it easy on the downhills (and got passed back) since passing people at high speed with not much space seemed a bit risky. The crowds didn't really thin out much during this race but once we were on Queen K it wasn't a problem to pass people. The course was pretty scenic and without too much wind it was quite fast too (my bike time ended up being a 2min PR for the distance for me!). I checked my power from time to time but I mostly went by feel. I had no idea what my average power was until after the race since the fields displayed on my watch were slightly different than what I remember setting them to (maybe a software update reset them?) But my power ended up being right where it was supposed to be (161W average and 170W NP if anyone is interested in the numbers). In terms of nutrition, I had my 6 bottles of Infinit (3 on the bike to start with and 3 more in special needs) and I supplemented that with maybe 1-3 bottles of water. I used my original bike Infinit formula for the first 4 nutrition bottles, then switched to what used to be my run formula (slightly less calories than the bike formula and no protein) for the last 2 bottles. I think that helped my stomach feel a bit better for the run. I saw a lot of people grabbing water at aid stations just to cool off and also keeping it on their bike to cool off between aid stations. That did seem like a good idea but since I wasn't feeling too hot for most of the bike, I chose to not take anything from most aid stations in favor of not having to slow down. When I did grab a bottle, I always used it both for drinking (filling my front aero bottle a bit) and cooling with whatever was left. Fortunately, right when I was starting to feel a little too warm in the last 30 miles, it started raining, so that took care of it :-D (otherwise I would have probably picked water for cooling at next aid station) I did take water at what ended up being the last aid station, about 15 miles from transition, which was a good decision (thank you, Mary Beth for pointing this out to me!).T2 (3:53):
I was pretty pleased with my bike time and was ready to run!
Run (3:53:59):
Once again, I tried not to start too fast. I think I did a good job with not overdoing it in the first few miles, even though I got passed by quite a few girls (I did pass some of them back eventually). It didn't take long (8 miles?) and we were up on Queen K again. From the beginning of the run, I was paying special attention to cooling at every aid station (mostly with sponges) since I was feeling a bit too warm (and so many articles that I read about the race emphasized cooling on the run too). Getting a bit sunburned on the bike certainly did not help - my forearms felt like they were on fire. I was of course drinking quite a bit too (Infinit + extra water and lots of ice) but despite all of this, I started to slow down. Also, since the special needs station was not until mile 18, I eventually ran out of my nutrition and was doing mostly water for the last 3-4 miles before special needs. (I did take 2.5h worth of nutrition with me but ran out a bit quicker than I expected.) Once at special needs, I filled maybe 3/4 of bottle with a bottle worth of Infinit and drank about half of it in less than 10min since I was starting to feel pretty out of energy. My pace was pretty slow at that point (over 9min/mile) and the race quickly became a survival shuffle. It didn't help that my watch was consistently getting ahead of the mile markers (overestimating the distance). Up until mile 20 I was hoping that the mile markers were just misplaced and eventually they'll align with my watch. Sadly, they didn't, so the finish was a mile further away than I hoped for :-p Also, my stomach started feeling slightly weird around mile 20. I considered going to a portapotty between mile 20 and 24 but every time I passed one, it was occupied and often had another person waiting. I guess I was not that desperate. Plus, I was running alongside a girl (from a younger age group) who was puking every half mile or so and still running faster than I was. My stomach discomfort was probably nothing compared to that. (though at least she could relieve herself without stopping for too long and without having to go to a portapotty, LOL) The puking girl eventually dropped me and seemed fine after we both finished - she actually got 3rd in 18-24 age group, only 48 seconds ahead of the next place in her AG (and 63 seconds ahead of me) - no wonder she was so relentless!
Justin was cheering me on about 1.5 miles from the finish, from which point it was pretty much all downhill, so I got a bit of a second wind - thank God. I think it was the fastest last 1.5mi of an Ironman for me up to date (which sadly cannot be said about my entire run but at least I kept moving and did not do any walking). I was very happy to cross the finish line (in 10:24:48) and even managed to smile a little :-)I am very happy with my first Kona experience. Sure, the run was not as good as I hoped for but other than that, it went very well. Big thanks to my coach, Mary Beth Ellis, for helping me to qualify for Kona and to prepare me for racing here in the best possible shape (the training between Mont Tremblant and Kona was at times quite intense!). Huge thanks to Justin for coming to Hawaii with me despite his limited vacation and tough work travel schedule. And thank you to all my friends and family who support me in training and racing - your cheers, kudos and words of encouragement mean a lot to me.
Next up: a few running races in November and probably December. Not completely sure about next year just yet but there will almost certainly be some half and full Ironmans involved. Stay tuned! ;-)
