Kona 07 Race Report

So, with a little delay here it is, my race repost from this years Ironman Hawaii!

Ironman Hawaii 2007 – Am I melting or what?

Well there I was on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocrean some time in October 07. It was Satursay and I had gotten up very early at 3:45am. Outch! But let me switch to the present:

Eat, eat, eat and that’S only the beginning!
No excuses now I have to eat whether I am hungry or not. Breakfast consists of three bagels and four toasts with a little butter and a lot of jam. Coffee just with sugar, no milk today wa are taking no chances here with my stomach.

Awe leave the Royal Kona Resort at about 4:45am to go through the usual routines:

1. Getting to the start area
Usually that’s the boring part of the day but not today. This one is very special so I try to soak it all up.

2. Drop off special foods
Yes, even if they provide a lot of food on the course, again I take no chances today.

3. Being body marked
This is kind of a reminiscence of the old times of triathlon but they insist on it. One thing I do even if it’s not permitted: apply sunscreen before being marked. I’d rather have the number come off than being severely sunburnt at the end of the day. It’s health first after all.

4. Getting the Bike ready for the race
Pump up tires, apply water bottles and check if the brakes work alright.

5. Getting myself ready (the most difficult part)
Take casual clothes off, put race clothes on, allpy a lot of grease to sensitive areas and put on the incredibly fast speedsuit on top of it all (everyone has one so I could not resist.)

6. Say good bye to Michelle until we meet again at the finish line
Somehow this always seems like going to was (even if naturally I have nerver literally had to go to war in the first place)

7. Wait, wait, wait….
… just to meet quite a few people you know at the other end of the world…

Before the event I have sworn myself to cherish every precious moment of this once in a lifetime occasion. But as the day progresses and I head on to the start line the usual race mode takes over.


Shortly after the pro start at 6:45am we age groupers are ushered into the water. Somehow I am one of the first to go and thus find myself in a place I did not want to be: in row two just behind the start line. But as there are more and more swimmers coming close I can’T go back any more. I hope this works out.

I am a little surprised to hear the start gun go off about a minute early and off we go! It really is like being inside of a washing maschine! And here comes the brawl! Now I realize that I did go a little too far to the front. I am just not able to swim as fast as people tend to do in the first 500m of such an event. So there are quite a few impatient guys who swim right over me, kick me or just push me aside. After about 300m I get a kicked in the chest, the sensor belt of my heart rate monitor opens and asthma strikes. Damn it, not again. I swim backstroke for about half a minute and it is over. And here comes the next problem. I started out on the far right side of the starting area so now the kayakers try to lead/push us over to the left in order to go around the buoys the right way. This makes for very tight quarters every 200m. Luckily the worst is over after about 1k and I finally get to swim alittle.
I reach the turnaround after 30:30min, a little behind schedule but that’s ok considering the brawl at the beginning. What I did not consider on the other hand was that there is a current against us on tha way back which brings me ashore after 1:06h. I am a little shocked but what the heck! Can I do anything about it now? No! So let’s go on. Here comes the fun part. the bike!


T1 – Tim with his shoe in his mouth why is that?
But first ist’s transition time!
Take off the speedsuit and off we go! Wait a minute, I still have to put the sensor back on! How do I do that with my shoes in my hand while running. No chance, so put the shoes in your mouth, smarta**. Shortly after that I finally find my bike and off I go.

The bike: Full throttle? I’d better not!
How I was looking forward to this. Go all out on the Queen K highway, finally. But first I have to dodge a few bullets. That is speaking of all those no brainers who fix their bike shoes to the pedals in transition and then in the middle of “battle” have to try to put them on while mounting the bike. I don’T know why all coaches urge people to do that. With 1.800 athletes doing this and in consequence not looking at the raod ahead but only at their shoes while riding a bike, it is plain dangerous. I am very blag when I have finally passed this danger zone.
During the first few miles which lead through Kona town the course is really full of athletes. That’s especially the case for Kuakini Highway where they have a turnaround and riders on both sides of the road riding triple file. S fom here on it’s overtaking time! Therace and my heart rate settle in a little after we reach the Quaan K highway at mile 10. Now it’s: On the aerobars and go! Only there do I notice that I lost the sponge from my aerobottle and have to think of an alternative solution in order to prevent the liquid inside the bottle to spill each time I hit a bump. I decide to go for an energy bar, not a sock like Flo did at Wildflower!
How fast do a go? I don’t know, because just as I turn on to Queen K my bike computer calls it quits! Damn! But nonetheless I have my heart rate as an indicator as well as the fact that I overtake a lot of athletes and am only overtaken by a few. That is until mile 32 when I hear a strange humming sound from behind. When the first rider passes me I realize this is a giant group of about 40-50 athletes riding in a peloton much like the Tour de France. When I shout at one of the guys asking what the hell they are doing there he just tells me to mind my own business and settle in with the group! Nope! I’ll surely not do that! I rather pull over to the shoulder, luckily ist 3y whide here ant let them pass. After they pass I realize that I just can’t let them go and a few fuses break in my head when I decide to overtake these cheaters. For the next 20min I clearly put an effort into it that is way abou what one should put in. I later notice that I went at more than 170 bpm for that time. Not really smart but I could not help myself.
I arrive at the bast of the seemingly endless ascend (it’s 18 miles actually) to Hawi with no group in sight and only now does the IM Kona become what people always talk about: quite damned windy on the bike. The winds blow hard from the right and I have pay lot attention in order not to be blown over to the other side of the road because arount this time the leaders start to appear. I am really thrilled as I expect Normann to be in front but cannot spot him anywhere within toe top 10 riders. Something must have happened (See more details here: )
The wind then becomes a straight head wind on the last 6 miles to Hawi and I am sure this thing will also blow apart that giant group behind me. At the turnaround I am still on course to break five hours on the bike an look forward to get my special food bag here and to the 18 ml long descent from here on. But as was to be expected I don’t get to enjoy it too much. First I have to grab to wild bull my bike becomes by the horns literally because of the gusty winds and second I see the group again. It still exists but has shrinked to some 30 riders. All my effort has put a mere three minutes between me and them. Bullocks!
Back on the Queen K highway twenty minutes later it soon becomes obvious that I’ll not be able to break the five hour mark today! The wind has shifted again to blow right in my face! Great! But I did ask for hard conditions today in order not to be subject to remarks like: “Yours was such an easy year, come on!” after the race. So why do complain!

Wow, this is hot!
A little later a section thing becomes obvious: It’s going to be very hot today! Or perhaps it already is, how am I to know! When you ride your bike on a windy day at an average of approx. 22 miles per hour you don’t really notice how much you sweat as the sweat evaporates incredibly fast!

Then how do I notice? I get cramps in my left leg at around kilometre 150 of the bike! Damn! Really, I did everything to avoid this. I knew of this risk that beforehand and did have a strict nutrition plan I adhered to from the beginning of the bike. Let me list the ridiculous amount of food I consume during the five hour bike ride:

- 2 water bottles on the bike at the beginning of the bike
- 15 bottles of Gatorade
- 15 bottles of water to spray over my body to keep that moist
- 10 Powerbar Gels (two every hour)
- 2 ½ Powerbar Performance Bars (half a bar per hour)
- 10 salt tablets (two per hour)

That makes a total of 2,5 galleons of liquid, about 80-90 grams of carbs and 1,8 liters of liquid per hour.
To eat or drink more, to me is just plain impossible! It appears to me anyway that I am rather eating then competing out there on the bike. But it seems I just cannot drink and eat enough to replace the fluids and salts I lose in such conditions. Bad luck, I suppose. If anyone wonders how, with all this drinking how often I had to go to the bathroom during the race, I have to disappoint you: not a single time!
So what is there to do now? Slow down and drink even more! That’s what I do!

Loneliness is somewhere else!
When speaking if the Kona Ironman people always talk about that mythical struggle of the single athlete against the forces of nature out on the lonely highway. Well, lonely I never was! This experience seems to be reserved for the very first riders in the race and those fighting hard to make the bike or run cut off! For middle of the pack guys like me it’s really crowded out here. Not that I’d have liked to have to fight to make any cut off, though! ;-) Even though those out there for 14+ hours are the real heroes of the Ironman!
For me at least the last 25 miles are fair riding with not too many drafters around!


Get off the bike and into the sauna!
When I utrn left on Kuakini Highway down into Palani road an hour later I realize to my dread that now comes the weakest discipline. With my knee surgery in late May and the car knocking me off the bike in late August I could run only some 400 miles all year and surely I’ll have to pay for this now. But what can I do? I’ll make the best of it!
The second my feet touch the ground for the first time after 5:09h on the bike I am made aware of what is going to come! A hard time. My left quad cramps immediately and I have to stretch it even before I head out onto the run course! In the changing tent the leg cramps for a second time when I put on my beautiful socks! ;-)
So a pack the additional salt tablets I had put in the run bag just for this very case and head out onto the run after two cups of Gatorade and a cup of cola still in transition.

Cloud Cover? No, not today!
Going up Palani road once again I look to the sky and hope to see a few clouds up there. Every day of the last two weeks the clouds came in to Kona at about 1pm and we had all hoped for them to appear today also to at least make the part in town a little easier. But not today! The only clouds I see today are those high up on Mauna Loa but none makes its way down to the coast.
I am playing a strange game already. The name of it:

“Find your speed”
That’s the game you play every time at the beginning of a marathon that is part of an Ironman but this time it is very different from all the editions I have previously known. Why? Today I just cannot stay within any range of speed I had established as a race pace in the months before. The muscles of my right leg decide what is possible here and now! I try my intentional speed (a 7:30 mile pace) and the leg starts to cramp; I try the backup speed (8 minute miles): the leg denies that, too. In the end I settle for a speed around 8:15 min/ml but that does not take into account the high temperatures today, yet! They tell me afterwards we were in the high 90s for the most part of the run, I can not really tell myself it’s just plain hot.
So finally I just shift to survival mode which means to walk through every single aid station (15 total on the run) to grab as much fluid and ice as possible. I usually drink two cups of Gatorade and one cup of cola each time. To keep my core temperature down this will not be enough, I know so I grab three cups of ice at each station as well. one goes into the back of my jersey, the second in the two rear pockets of of it. The third is applied to my quads, being tucked under the front of my tri shorts as well as my TCSD running cap.
With this strategy my speed is actually somewhere around a 9 minute mile but really don’t care today! With IM Switzerland 2006 (I severely overheated there last year and “ran” the marathon in 5:09h) in the back of hear I just focus on hydration, hydration, hydration! It’s just incredible how fast the other athletes head off into the marathon! I came off the bike 250ish overall and people just fly by, surely heading out with the target of a sub 3h run split. Later on quite a few pay dearly for that, but for me that’s just way too fast!
On the way back from the turn around in Kona I see Craig Zelent whom at this point seems some 40min back and I expect him to surely catch me before the race is over. Craig had a very hard time later on the run so this did not happen.
After 10 miles inside of Kona town it’s hot corner time # 6 and up Palani Road on foot! At that time I am not able to smile for Michelle any more who looks a little worried because I am behind what she thought what I could do today, too.
A little further up the road I just about stumble into Chris McCormack the champion of the day who flies down the hill and already celebrates his victory more than a mile from the finish line. Lucky him!

Highway & Energy Lab, the hear of the myth that is Kona
The second half of the marathon here begins at the top of Palani Raod and people say only here you will know if you overdid it today. For me it’s just plain dull suffering like the ten miles before! Nothing new anyway for today! To be personally it does not seem hotter here than inside of town but maybe that is due to the fact that I get out here a little after 3pm!
It gets a little more mythical when we take a left down to the Natural Energy Lab things blend in. There I notice the course has taken its toll on pros today also. I overtake Johanna Zeiger and Rutger Beke who were reduced to a mere walk out there today but still made it to the finish line! That’s the spirit!
For the last 12 miles I just thought to somehow get from one aid station to the next, 9 minutes at a time! When I reach Queen K Highway again at mile 20 I suddenly realize it’s less than 6 miles from here, less than an hour to go. For the first time today Ben Fertcs words from the carbo loading party strike home. He had advised the athletes to cherish every second out there on the course because it would be over just too fast if you did not! Well, I’d better do that! and I do. I look around to take in the scenery but then, there is just nothing of note here. Well, that’s what people meant speaking of loneliness out on the run course! ;-)
From now on I count backwards, though! 60 minutes to go, then 50 minutes, every mile a little less time to go! My “strategy” spares my any real low in the second part of the marathon even if I’d rather not dare call it a strategy! Running that “slow” (sorry, that’s how it felt) really isn’t much of a strategy to begin with. I turn out to run each of the last 10k than any single one from kilometre ten to thirty.

As my watch stopped during the swim I really don’t know how long I have been going and doing maths at run mile 22 in an Ironman is a little difficult. But I still grasp that, if a hurry up a little that I can still make it in less than 10:30h. So when I reach the top of Panani Road again at mile 25 I decide to speed up a little on the last downhill section to the finish! Very bad idea, though! first my legs who were on the verge of cramping for the last four hours are a) not used to running faster than a 8:30min mile and much more important b) not used to running downhill at all! So here they just don’t want to follow the commands of my brain any more. So screw that, take a single step at a time! Due to the pain I am in the adrenalin is able to push through only on those famed last 500 meters on Ali’I Drive. But here pure joy pushes through! I have made it after a lot of suffering. In order to enjoy my finish in a little privacy I let three more guys pass and then prepare for the last meters. I go from left to right to cheer back to the spectators and cherish the moment!
Then my finish at IM UK last year comes to my mind and I remember how “cool” my jump at the finish line looked on the photo! So I desperately go for a jump! Very bad Idea! I am barely in the air when again my legs leave me. They were not used to running fast or downhill, how shall they grasp that now they are to jump and then land? So in mid air my left leg cramps and this is the very moment the photographer gets his shot! Look for yourself right here. ;-)

After crossing the line I am immediately taken to the medical tent as I nearly faint. This prevents me from immediately celebrating the day with Michelle but the doctor insists. When they ask me about my hydration status and when I have last been to the bathroom they don’t get the answer they were looking for. “Not at all?”, the guy replies and they put me on scales at once. The result: since they weighed me on Thursday I have lost 14 lb. They want to give me an IV at once but I instead drink three cups of chicken broth. After lying down for some thirty minutes I head back to search for Michelle and finally an able to celebrate the day with a slice of pizza and a little coke! Great!
To make along evening short: we head back to the hotel for a quick shower and are back to see the last finishers and the lights go out from 10:30pm until midnight!

So what remains from doing the race that started it all?
First of all: I have been there, done that, have ticked the box! Did I live up to my expectations? Yes and no! I really wanted to go sub 10 hours but with all the setbacks this year I realistically could not hope to do that. So I am quite pleased with the result especially as the whole trip was not about racing but about a vacation in the middle of which there happened to be a race. I think this is the way to do it if it’s your first time. Enjoy! Don’t put too much pressure on yourself and safe the real race for the second time. So if there ever is a second time I’ll make it a race only trip and see how fast I can go!
Second, and this nothing new. I am just not the person to race in extreme heat! I just sweat too much! I hydrated as best as I could but that was it! The one thing that could help, getting there long before the race was just not possible this year.
Do want to go there again? Sure but this time to do a R.A.C.E.!

See you in Kona in 20XX!

Tim



Thanks Michelle!