2012 Ironman Hawaii Race Report

This season has been a series of ups & downs, starting out the season well in some short running races and a decent Boulder Sprint Triathlon. Ironman CDA went quite well for me by being able to qualify for my 10th start in the Hawaii Ironman. The Boulder Peak was only less than two weeks from finishing the Ironman in Idaho so despite being totally flat and sub-standard swim/bike AND run, I managed a podium finish in 3rd place. The big issue throughout the 5430 half (now called the Boulder 70.3) was I had a foot injury from CDA--which kept me from running throughout a large portion of the summer from Ironman CDA to Boulder 70.3 except for aqua jogging. Luckily, there was enough time to recover by Ironman Hawaii to get in a few longer runs.


Bad luck started with couple months prior to Kona, but this may have been a blessing in disguise. The lack of training either helped or hurt me. I’m not sure as there has always been a large volume training build, with a month and a half left before Hawaii. This time training looked like this:

The below are dates with hours/minutes of total training time taken directly from my Training Peaks account log.

Aug 6-12: 6:27 (still injured)

Aug 13-19: 2:10 (still injured)

Aug 20-26: 1:41 (still injured)

Aug 20-Sept 2: 8:47

Sept 3-9: 11:54

Sept 10-16: 13:09

Sept 17-23: 7:11 (sick)

Sept 24-30: 7:19 (sick)

Oct 1-7: 6:34

Oct 8-12: 3:10

Ideally this low of volume is not an ideal build up for Ironman. I also may have ramped up a little too soon but there was an illness “floating around” which many people have gotten or have now.

The race (October 13, 2012):

I placed myself far left as I could, swimming the entire 2.4 miles casually as I would a warm up training pace. It was uneventful & quite tame as there was not a lot of punching/kicking this time around. The entire plan for today was to a) spend 2/3 the race screwing around going slow, then nail the run b) make hydration & pacing the priority. The entire swim was purposefully spent going slow. Yet, my time/placing was actually pretty good without even trying. It’s hard to criticize a decent swim placing with little effort.

The bike: Lots of drafting here, but Jimmy Riccitello and his draft marshals did an exceptional job catching the cheaters this year. I raced clear of penalty & rode as I would a long training ride. Hydration, calorie ingestion were all priorities. Special needs didn’t have my bag ready in Hawi so I pulled over for about a minute until they were able to find it & get it to me. Winds were the second worse I’ve experienced on the Big Island. Those hammering the bike were pretty much going to pay the price on the run. Therefore, I rode extra slow & conservative while trying to keep the body core temp down.

T2: This was only my SECOND of two bathroom stops for the race. Vast improvement! Usually it is 4+ times that I stop during an Ironman to relieve the body. However, I took my time in T1 & T2 to sit down and calmly put on my gear, grab extra drinks and make sure I was comfortable before heading into the next leg of the race. Usually I am tops on transitions but took a more relaxed approach this time.

The run: The plan was to hammer the run knowing I could pull off a 3:10. Five miles into the run on the left foot, a large blister formed to the left of the ball of the foot & between the second toe. Damage control had me altering the landing which then caused a right foot little toe blister. That in turn, altered my landing again, which caused a left foot little toe blister. The blister on the bottom of the left foot popped and feet were so swollen, that the friction caused skin to peel away to raw meat. The plan for a 3:10 run fell apart although I had plenty of energy to run that fast—the pain in the feet were nearly unbearable. The shoes (Adidas Adios 2’s) were great in training, but I hadn’t accounted for the amount of swelling in the feet (plus they are not “seamless shoes”) so yes there were issues. I walked all the aid stations after that, finishing in 3:23 for a 10:00:26…only 26 seconds from breaking 10 hours. My record here is not great with the heat being my #1 enemy. Never before had I finished the bike without being at least partially “blown up” so when the finish line came along, I had the energy to go another 10 miles, but the feet were done. Raw meat, it wasn’t pretty. Still dehydrated I was a little dizzy afterwards & just wanted to sit down to rest the feet. Either way, I was disgusted with the fact there was so much energy left at the end of this race, but not being able to complete the task due to the blistering. Oh well, it’ll be a return in 2014 when I age up hopefully. Take a year off in 2013 for short course & local races, complete a few home projects…then whatever comes after that.

My hats off to my Kona roommate Robert Brink who in his fourth triathlon (first Hawaii & 2nd ever Ironman), kept me at bay until just after the Energy Lab heading back to town. You kept it steady all day and it has been a pleasure to coach you this year and making your dream a reality. At 27 years, you have a long and strong future ahead of you in the sport.

In hindsight 2012 had ups and downs, Kona was while a disappointment in many ways, was a success in other ways. I’m always my biggest critic (I think!) Whatever I do is usually not good enough for me, although this time around keeping the heat at bay/under control as well as not blowing up on the course with such minimal training, makes me think of the larger picture in how much improvement can be made over the next couple years despite aging and supposedly should be slowing. Just because the general consensus is that we “should be” slowing doesn’t mean I have to. Hard work, planning and smarter racing can go a long way to exceeding what is nothing more than an unproven age barrier.