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| Less than an hour after finished--barely managing to hide the pain! |
We stayed again at the
Royal Kona Resort, just a mile into the run and little less than that from the
start/finish line. It is just outside Chaos Central with beautiful grounds to
spend time at, complete with its own private lagoon to swim in on the ocean.
There is food right next door at Bongo Ben’s or Hugo’s on the Rocks where many
parties take place after the Ironman. This was the first time there with our
son, he really enjoyed it so much and can’t wait to go back. The experiences he
had such as going over 100 feet under the surface in the Atlantis Submarine,
snorkeling at Turtle Bay, hiking the rim of a volcano at Volcano National Park
and spending a lot of time in the pool were just invaluable. So much to see and
do while we were there, it was a summer vacation in the fall!
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| My trusty but getting outdated steed! |
Below is basically a
summary of the answer I gave a friend when he said he was worried when he saw I
only had two water bottles on the bike. I felt it was a decent enough answer
that also pretty much summed up the trip from a race perspective, with a few
edits.
 |
| Volcano National Park |
I've come to the
conclusion that with aid stations every 10-15 miles (depending on the Ironman
host site), that 2 is enough. By the time I finish 1 bottle I'm usually 45
minutes into the bike & still have one in reserve & just exchange at
aid stations accordingly. The mix at the stations is less calories but I'm
still getting my "special needs bag" half way through the race (56
miles). The other thing is: Who wants to drink hot liquids? In Hawaii, drinks
get hot really quick so it doesn’t taste good or go down easy if you carry more
than two bottles, they’ll just heat up and not cool you off.
 |
| #1--Fredrik Van Lierde's bike race morning (he's in the water swimming at this moment). |
Getting enough liquids
on course isn't usually an issue. It also saves weight (1 bottle---large, is
about 1.8 lbs full). My issues are strictly heat management. Just not good
racing in anything above 71-73 F usually, I start falling apart from
overheating as my sweat rate is 4 lbs per hour at an outside temperature of 85
F. That is an unusually high sweat rate.
 |
| Our Hotel Lobby: Royal Kona Resort |
In summary, the swim was
I think my slowest ever & I have been swimming well I think this year. My
biking was coming around at Ironman Boulder but had issues with vomiting
on the bike causing me to not take in or absorb enough calories to run well off
the bike. I have read that some people who have issues with too many liquid
calories, should look into some solid foods along the way. Not much, just some.
Liquids/gels absorb better and are broken down already to a point, but some
people actually needs just a “tease of solid food” along the way. It’s just the
way certain people are built. This is one thing I will look into for longer
races and experiment with.
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| At Kona Brewery |
This time I was just not
moving from the start. The swim likely was the slowest in Hawaii (big waves but
just had a slow swim all together). I’m not sure if it was because I had
absolutely no coffee on race morning, or while I was there in Kona. I wanted to
see if some of the issues I was having lately in races was due to too high of
acidity in my stomach. Apparently, I can go back to drinking coffee race
morning because I still had the issues.
 |
| Volcano National Park |
The bike…the legs never
could produce the power & I'll have to investigate that further as I had
what I think may have been my 2nd slowest bike ever there. Part of it was I’m
sure, due to racing a second Ironman in one year on a little more than 12-13
hours on only a couple weeks as my larger volume weeks this year. You can race
an Ironman off of that little volume if you’ve been consistent, but racing two
in a year with only about two months between is a bit of a stretch. There are
professional “age groupers” who do nothing more than train and call their “job”
coaching a few athletes, but with a real full time job myself, as well as
coaching, maintaining a house, HOA Board work, family and other projects
mid-production, it is a huge undertaking and performance will eventually
suffer. Things need to be streamlined and/or outsourced a little (okay, a lot
more). In short, I’m out of balance and that drastically cuts into the focus of
everything else. I’m too scattered, which is something I help identify with my
athletes I coach. You need balance to perform well.
 |
| View from our Hotel balcony |
Each Kona has been more
of a reward just in getting there and I really do not think, I’ve gone there to
actually RACE it before. It is the frosting on the cake. For some it is the
main thing. For me, I automatically know the heat will destroy me so it becomes
one of those “also-ran races” where you just do it but don’t focus on it much.
Odd, I know. One would think it should be the opposite. Knowing yourself goes a
long way to deciding which are key races for you though, what you would be best
at. I’m thinking now that is the reason it really isn’t an issue for me to
qualify traditionally. I know the races I go to qualify at, due to the
demographics of the course and conditions, pretty well. I know what I race will
be conditions typically in my favor. The reward is always something that
traditionally does not suit me well…a race hotter than hell and humid like no
other, often with winds equal to both of those. I’ve read up on every heat
management preparation and training protocol I’ve found. I’ve trained in a
sauna, in the middle of the day, in extra clothes, in super windy conditions,
in 100 F heat in the dead of summer. That is just the start. Still, I suffer
from overheating and shut down.
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| KK, the "Real Starky" & Kevin Collington at breakfast |
The run…couldn't absorb
the liquids & started throwing up again. The worst of which left me keeling
over 2 miles from the finish in standstill--losing about a quart of Coke right
on the Queen K pavement for several minutes. I seem to be having a lot of these
issues lately. Definitely need to change my approach and in race nutrition.
Another possibility is the training. If you do not push a certain pace for
certain amounts of time, in extreme similar conditions, minimal training hours
may cause the body to not acclimate to digesting highly sugary substances. You
will consume while racing, little more than some course drink that is nasty,
gels, Coke—possibly very ripe bananas. Usually there is little else to eat
along the way except maybe oranges and pretzels. I find the oranges too acidic
to handle during a race. Pretzels, while great for the salt, are cake-like dry
and not easy to eat.The body just rejects it because you are pushing too hard
and the muscles need the blood flow while it is competing with the stomach for
digestion. The combination seems to result in the old fashioned “up-chuck” (my
observation).
 |
| At the King Kam Hotel two days after the race |
About the only thing remotely "okay" was T2. T1 was a disaster
as my "helper-volunteer" was an elderly man who was moving very slow
(God Bless him for trying though!) He had moved my bike jersey from the floor
in front of me to the back of my chair I was in while I wasn't looking & it
slid down under my butt & I couldn't find it. I honestly thought someone
accidentally tossed it in a bag & shipped it out of the tent with all the
other transition bags as they do, to keep things “tidy” once an athlete is
finished. In the chaos he didn't remember where he put it. Ultimately, his job
as I asked him--was to remove the small 2 inch piece of electrical tape on each
rolled up arm cooler & he just couldn't do it. I didn't want to rip it from
his hands as I just continued putting everything else—just because he was
trying and I didn’t have the heart to even hint he wasn’t really
helping—volunteers are the life blood of races so you MUST be thankful just for
being there. Between looking for my jersey & him having issues with the
tape, T1 was just over 8 minutes long (I think a new T1 record for slowness on
my part). I am actually known to be very fast in transitions except for Ironman
races--but this was ridiculous.
 |
| KK having a bad day (photo Jen Schaffner) |
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| Building the transition at the pier days before |
Long & short of it
was a slow body. I never got going, physically or mentally. Heat & wind
were issues sure, so was nutrition. Lots of stopping on the run to gather
food/drinks/ice at aid stations--but stopped 2 x on the bike (once for a pee
break) and once at Special Needs bag pickup. The run...lots of walking through
the aid stations & to clear the gut. It seems like every time I drank that
nasty Power Bar Perform drink, it came up minutes later. Thanks God Ironman
will be going back to Gatorade starting next year.
 |
| Rachel Joyce at gear/bike check in |
So it was a bust…the
worst race all year long. Not that Boulder was a great race...Boulder was not
up to what I expected. But Kona was worse yet. After having what I consider a
highly successful season—not losing my age group in any multisport race all
season until Ironman Boulder, it ended on not so good last couple races. I have
a few ideas to fix the issues in 2016, so I'll be mulling that over &
experimenting with new approaches in 2015 as I prepare for ÖTILLÖ in September 2015
& take a year off from Ironman.
10:41 is actually what I
believe my 3rd worst Ironman ever. But it is what it is & some days just
finishing is the goal. I'm not beating myself up about it, as I look forward to
newer challenges & continue to try to solve the riddle of Ironman Hawaii. I
can get there & race other Ironman races quite well, but in Kona...the
heat, humidity & wind just chew me up & spit me out. Some are built for
those conditions but I seem to be more geared for colder weather racing than
the heat. I think my high sweat rate has a lot to do with it.
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| Looking towards Kona from the pier |
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| You never get sick of seeing this in the morning--beauty! |
 |
My awesome escort on bag drop off day: Tim
|
Lastly, yes, the great
American speed skater Apolo Ohno who was a “guest celebrity” competitor; kicked
many folks’ arses. He was about 9:52, smashed my finish and many other top age
group athletes. Even if being one of the best in the world is his job, it is
impressive for his first Ironman. Final words, yes, I got “chicked” by age
group women as well. I’m secure in myself in that, they went faster on a day
that was clearly not so great for me. I don’t have a problem with that. They
have two legs/arms and so do I, if a woman beats me then congratulations! Same thing
goes for any other guy that finishes ahead of me. There is no difference, man
or woman, we all toe the line and the fastest ones finish ahead of the slower
ones, so put the egos away and get back at it, try to improve the next time
around. If we find ourselves headed down the wrong road, we can always turn
back to take the correct one!
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