Hawai’i. The Big Island. Kona. The Queen K. The Hawi turnaround. Legendary places in the island chain where Ironman was born. And I got to race here!
Mentally, I approached the race as a “participatory event” while on vacation with Shellie and Brynn (comfort goat). I took 2-3 weeks to recover from IMTexas to where I was feeling close to 100%, and didn’t really do any focused training for Honu. I figured I’d enjoy the course and just rely on residual fitness to get me to the finish line. Looking at course maps, that seemed like it would be sufficient.
Course maps lie.
Pre-Race:
Traveling to Hawai'i is a chore. Traveling to Hawa'i' with a bike... Bleh.
We left Armstrong airport at 6:30 AM on Wednesday for what was about 12.5 hours of travel to Kona International Airport, and arrived at 1:44 Hawai'i time. After driving to the resort and getting lunch, we got checked into our condo and made ourselves at home.
Thursday morning, I got up and went for a run to try and get an idea of what I was in for, but athletes were restricted from running on the golf course. I ended up running about 3.5 miles and was feeling pretty good. That afternoon we went to the beach where I did some swimming. Swimming here is nothing like swimming in Lake Woodlands, or Lake Ponchatrain, or anywhere else I've ever raced. The water was crystal clear to the bottom. I saw fish that I've only seen in aquariums. It's breathtaking.
In between my run and my swim, I went over to the expo to get checked in. I also got to meet Mike Reilly again, and as a 'Thank You' gift from BnG Endurance to Ironman for an amazing weekend in Texas, I gave him one of our team's trucker hats.
Thursday evening, we drove the bike course up to Hawi. Between the wind and the hills, I began to dread the bike leg of the course. I knew it was going to be a bear when our Jeep was getting shoved all around the road by the wind. But in Hawi we found a funky cool sushi place for dinner, then stopped at a shoreline to see the sunset.
Friday, I got up early and went for a bike ride on the Queen K. I wanted to make sure my bike was working well after the disassembly/reassembly, and also get an idea of just how bad the bike was going to be.
It was rough. I rode from our condo to Hapuna Beach where the race starts, and back. Going north was insanely tough between the climb and the wind. Coming back, I hit 30+ MPH on a downhill.
After going to the athlete briefing and hearing Mark Allen talk about his first race against Dave Scott, (yes... that Mark Allen!) I dropped my run gear at T2 and met back up with the family to get lunch and head up to Hapuna Beach to drop off my bike and get in another swim. Again.. crystal clear water and visibility clear to the bottom of the ocean floor. But the wind made the swim back in really difficult. We left the beach, picked up some fresh Mahi Mahi for dinner, and came back to the condo to eat and get to sleep.
Race Day - Swim
Saturday morning, I got up early, ate some oatmeal, drank some coffee, and got dressed. We took the half-mile walk down the hill to the Fairmont to get on a shuttle bus to Hapuna Beach, where I put my Infinit bottles on my bike, blew up my tires, and did a last check for anything else I'd need. There was a designated swim warmup area which I took advantage of. The wind was much calmer and the water was almost glass smooth. It looked perfect for racing.
My wave was set to go off about a half-hour after the race started, so I waded out into waist deep water to watch the first couple waves go out. Then I lined myself up in the swim corral and waited.
Finally the M45-49 AG was ready. I seeded myself to the back of the wave and hoped for the best. We had a beach start, so I sprinted to the water, walked out to about waist deep water, and started swimming. Between the timing of the start and the clarity of the water, it was easy to find space to swim in. I had zero contact with other swimmers for probably the first 500 yards, and the contact I did have was a tap on my hand by someone's foot who was breast-stroking to figure out where he was going. Around 1000 yards in, the women in the wave behind me were catching up to me, so it got a bit more congested, but still nothing like Texas. And at this point we were probably a quarter-mile offshore, and were swimming over reefs in 40' of water. Had I not been racing it would have been pretty amazing... Actually, it was amazing. Slowly, but surely, I made it to the turn around and worked my way back to the last turn buoy. And the last 50 or so yards in, I was able to basically body surf my way in. It wasn't a fast swim, but it was fun.
Bike
The bike course was, uh... challenging. It went out from Hapuna Beach, south to Mauna Lani, then turn around to go north to Hawi, then back to Mauna Lani. The Hapuna to Mauna Lani stretch was fast between the downhill and the tailwind, perfect for building up false expectations. But then after turning around it was nothing but headwind and mostly uphill riding for about 7 miles. Then at Hwy. 270 there was another long downhill before the long climb to Hawi. Prior to starting the climb to Hawi, I was on pace to go under 3 hours. But 5 miles at a 2-3% grade into a monster headwind wrecked that idea.
After turning around at Hawi, that long grinding climb turned into a fast fun downhill. And the views... Spectacular! At one point, I was awestruck looking at an overlook over the ocean. But then soon after.. back to grinding up another long climb. Eventually I got back to the Queen K, and from there to the resort was a net downhill. I took advantage of that to get my legs loosened up to go run.
Run
The run took place mostly on the golf course at Mauna Lani. Lots of cart paths and fairways, which meant lots of surface changes. And for good measure there was a stretch of road that went out into a lava field that was affectionately referred to as "Hell's Kitchen".
I was in and out of T2 in about 3 minutes or so. And at the first aid station (about .7 miles in) I covered myself in sunblock, because it was hot and the sun was beating down. I knew this was going to be a hot slog of a run. What I wasn't prepared for was the sudden elevation changes on the cart paths. People who had done the race had said the fairways were tough to run on, but I had more difficulty with the sudden up and down on the cart paths between the fairways. And Hell's Kitchen was a straight road with a slight downhill to the turnaround, which I also didn't really have an issue with despite the heat.
At every aid station, I'd dump ice down the front and back of my jersey, and shove a cold sponge over each shoulder. I also got sprayed down and occasionally dunked my hat in ice water the aid station workers had the sponges in.
The second loop was easier than the first, as some clouds and vog rolled in which cut the brutal sun down quite a bit. But getting any sort of rhythm on the course was next to impossible. Still, it was on a golf course overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the Big Island of Hawai'i.
And the coolest part of the run... There are a bunch of feral goats on the island, and there were quite a few who decided to spend their Saturday watching a bunch of idiot humans running on 'their' golf course.
It wasn't a fast day. It wasn't one of those race efforts that I'll look back on as a pinnacle of my athletic achievement. But on a really tough course in really tough conditions, including my first ocean swim and first non-wetsuit Ironman swim, I'll take it. I'd love to do this race again if it wasn't so prohibitively expensive to do so. If you're ever in a position where it's a possibility... Just go.
