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06-05-06, 03:09 PM
This is a long read...sorry in advance :)
Well…after months of anticipation, the Honu Half Ironman went on as scheduled on June 3rd. Some of you know that my training was about one-third what I had planned when I registered for the race. Even though the winter tends to be my busy season, I didn’t expect that I would spend 50+ days in hotel rooms since Jan 1. I only swam once this year and that was a half-hearted half-mile or so in the ocean on a business trip. I think I logged a total of 25 miles or so of running. And I had about 600 miles of cycling it. Not exactly the recommended program for a Half. So on race day I wasn’t as fit as I wanted to be but I felt pretty confident that I could finish…and from where I started two years ago, that would be a major accomplishment.
Rose and I got here on Tuesday afternoon and did our errands (Costco run, bike shop visit for CO2, unpack my bike, etc). We also took a ride up the coast to scout the bike course. I’ve been coming here since the late 80’s and have been on that road many times…but I never thought about what it would be like on a bike. Wow, it was a lot more rolly than I remembered. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I did a couple of practice swims, some easy rides, and a short run.
Guys and Gals, if you haven’t participated in an “Ironman” event, it is a must. Everything about it is awesome...from the volunteers to the swag bags to the bike numbers, it's all first class. They really make you feel like an athlete. For the most part, the other participants are also very cool and there is so much camaraderie.
So anyway, race day comes and I’m standing about waist high in the Pacific. Pele must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed because she decided to give us a good measure of wind with the occasional 30 mph gust and some nice surface chop. The previous days included calm seas and nice breezes. Oh well. When the cannon (yes, the cannon) went off, I just stood there for about 15-20 seconds drinking in the experience and letting the 860+ people sort out their positions in the mass start.
As I dove in, I felt absolutely great and settled into a nice easy stroke making sure to keep my form good and not tire myself out. The water was about 78 degrees and visibility was over 100 feet. Fish ducked into the reef as thousands of arms and legs disrupted their normally peaceful habitat. Around the second buoy I noticed that the current would be in our faces for the longest leg of the swim…oh well. I followed and threaded my way through the large group occasionally getting a foot in the stomach from an errant breast-stroker. All of a sudden, the pack made an abrupt right turn as someone finally realized that we were all heading toward Maui. It took a few seconds to control my laughter at that point. I think in the end we probably added another tenth or two to the course. Finally I rounded the last buoy and headed for the beach. I felt strong as I ran toward the “Swim Finish” arch and I heard Rose cheer for me. I was all smiles and I stopped to give her a kiss before crossing the timing mat in 44:43. My goal had been 45-55 minutes so I was happy and felt fresh. The time had me in 614th place overall and 105/126 in the M35-39 group.
http://www.betheball.com/9176-039-026f.jpg
I trotted over to the showers and deliberately got all of the sand off my feet before walking up the semi-long hill to T1. I really wanted to take my time and keep my heart rate down because there were many hours still to go. My T1 time was 5:53 which was a tad slow compared to the rest of the field but not really that much so. In fact as I look at the results, my T1 was downright speedy in comparison to the others who finished around me. Bike at my side, I trotted toward the mount line to start the bike.
The parking lot at Hapuna is a couple hundred feet below the Queen K so the start of the bike is a bit of a grind. I had the Cervelo in 39/23 and just spun my way to the top before heading south on the highway. We had a nice tailwind for this short section and I quickly dialed it up to 23 mph as I started picking off cyclists. What a great feeling! After about three miles, we reached the Mauna Lani entrance and flipped a U back north into the wind.
Tucked into the aero position I was still able to keep 18-19 mph on the rollers toward Kawaihae. My average speed was looking good and I thought I might be able to turn in a sub-3 hr bike time but I knew the road was going to get much harder in a few miles. I reached the T in the road and made the left toward the harbor, which brought an exhilarating downhill. I’ve always been a good downhiller and my current level of mass doesn’t hurt. I started quickly overtaking people to the point that I just got out into the middle of the lane. About 2/3 of the way down I took a quick glance at my spedo and saw 45.9. I thought, if I really pedal hard, I should be able to hit 50 by the bottom…almost as if Pele knew what I was thinking, a side gust came up and scared the living crap out of me. That was the end of that idea.
http://www.betheball.com/9176-217-021f.jpg
At the harbor, we made a right turn and started up the hills toward Hawi. About 40 minutes into the ride I started to pass an abnormal amount of cyclists with flats. As I’m gnawing on my PB&J, I’m thinking, there must be something along this part of the road…suddenly my ride starts to get a bit rougher…bugger. So I take my last bite of my sandwich while looking at my flat front tire. The culprit was a tiny metal staple, which I later learned was a common occurrence that day. I know that many of the locals don’t like these races so I suspect that someone seeded the course with these little surprises. Sad, but not the first time it’s happened here. Anyway, I pulled off the fastest tire change of my life…probably because I was calm about it…and was back on the road. It was a bit tough getting back in the groove but after a mile or two I felt good again. The bad part was that I forgot about eating the other half of my sandwich…bad.
About three miles from the Hawi turnaround, we were blessed with a few minutes of rain that felt great. Unfortunately, the cross winds had me working a lot harder than I wanted to. I reached the turnaround and tucked in for the much needed, five mile descent…Woohoo!!! The road started rolling again as we approached Lapakahi and I noticed that my pedal stroke didn’t feel very powerful. I looked down and noticed the other half of my sandwich that I should have eaten by now. Once in my system, it took a few minutes to give me my strength back…which was good because I was going to need it to climb back out of Kawaihae Harbor. Let’s put it this way, 46 mph going down results in 7 mph going up…ouch.
The last nine miles of the ride were fairly uneventful I spun an easy gear in preparation for the run. On the last uphill going past the fire station, I started to get a little cramp in my right hamstring…it worried me a little but I ate a pretzel and made a mental note to take some salt tablets at T2. As I made the final turn toward the bike dismount, there was Rose…big smile…cheering me on. I smiled and told her to go back to the condo and throw away all of the lemon-lime Gatorade…there was no way I could take another sip of it at that point. So, I get off my bike and a volunteer takes it from me, leaving me to trot across the mat, total bike time, 3:29:43 646th fastest, 107th in my age group. I really thought I was doing better than that, more people than I thought must have passed me while I repaired my flat.
The moment of truth had come. I really haven’t done a lot of running over the past ten years and quite frankly, it’s painful to haul my 225 lb a$$ along the road. I sat in the T2 tent putting on my shoes and grabbing some Gatorade (thankfully orange) to go with my salt tabs. The volunteers were awesome. As I exited the tent, a line of porta-lets were lined up and I decided it was a good idea to make a pit stop. The final result was a less than speedy T2 time of 7:31. Who cares? There was Rose, taking pictures of me as I headed out on the run…after a quick kiss for luck.
Well………..the run was hot…and long…did I mention long? It wandered through the Mauna Lani resort with seven out and back legs thrown in for fun. It came back past T2 after about 5 miles or so and Rose gave me another cheer. After another half-mile or so, I ran past the hotel pool where the “HEY CJ” cheers were abundant. There was Mark who had completed the swim and bike but bailed on the run due to plantar fascitis and Jack who missed the swim cutoff by 23 seconds…that really bummed me out.
http://www.betheball.com/9176-091-021f.jpg
Anyway, I continued to shuffle through the six-mile mark when my legs and feet (mostly feet) went on strike. For the next four miles, my mind fought with my body for supremacy. My heart and lungs were fine but the body really hurt. Trot, walk, trot, walk, walk more, trot, walk. I started drinking coke instead of Gatorade and that seemed to be working so I decided to stick with it. As I reached the 10-mile marker I looked at my time and figured that I could still break eight hours if I went for it. This new goal brought me renewed energy and I plodded along the last out and back leg which essentially looks like a road to nowhere. Through mile 11…that took a little too long, better speed up. This guy wearing a hat with horns coming out the side and a shirt saying “Cowman” passes me on the left. More cola and sponges at the aid station…keep going. There’s the 12 mile marker, 13 minutes left…maybe. Through the last aid station, this time no walking. One of the volunteers shouts, “Just over a mile to go!” WHAT? It should be like three quarters…he must be wrong. Through the round-about, six minutes left. “Faster CJ!” There’s Cowman walking, we can hear the announcer but can’t see the finish. I pass Cowman and slap him on the a$$. “Let’s go dude.” Ten seconds later, they guy flys past me…I guess that worked. A slight right turn and onto the grass. 2:30 left…how far is the line? There it is, I’m gonna do it! There’s Rose, there’s Steve and Marian who must have finished about 15 minutes ago. Under the arch, 7:58:55! I am half an Ironman :) The adrenaline rush is awesome.
http://www.betheball.com/9176-041-022f.jpg
Final standings, 783 overall out of 818 finishers. 116/126 in my age group. Third slowest run time in the field. At least I know what to work on. Heck, if I can get to be an average runner, I might be OK at this triathlon thing.
A short walk to the finishers tent to get my medal, t-shirt, and cap. The lady congratulates me and says, “You need a large t-shirt, right.” I laugh, “Extra large please.” She says, “They run pretty big.” I respond, “That’s OK, so do I.” The sound of thirty volunteers laughing was just what I needed.
Thanks for enduring the long read. I’ll post some pictures when I get them. Thanks to all of you who offered support, you were all there with me on the run when my body quit. The thoughts of you guys kept me going…as H20Chick said, DNF was not an option.
Cheers.
-CJ
Well…after months of anticipation, the Honu Half Ironman went on as scheduled on June 3rd. Some of you know that my training was about one-third what I had planned when I registered for the race. Even though the winter tends to be my busy season, I didn’t expect that I would spend 50+ days in hotel rooms since Jan 1. I only swam once this year and that was a half-hearted half-mile or so in the ocean on a business trip. I think I logged a total of 25 miles or so of running. And I had about 600 miles of cycling it. Not exactly the recommended program for a Half. So on race day I wasn’t as fit as I wanted to be but I felt pretty confident that I could finish…and from where I started two years ago, that would be a major accomplishment.
Rose and I got here on Tuesday afternoon and did our errands (Costco run, bike shop visit for CO2, unpack my bike, etc). We also took a ride up the coast to scout the bike course. I’ve been coming here since the late 80’s and have been on that road many times…but I never thought about what it would be like on a bike. Wow, it was a lot more rolly than I remembered. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I did a couple of practice swims, some easy rides, and a short run.
Guys and Gals, if you haven’t participated in an “Ironman” event, it is a must. Everything about it is awesome...from the volunteers to the swag bags to the bike numbers, it's all first class. They really make you feel like an athlete. For the most part, the other participants are also very cool and there is so much camaraderie.
So anyway, race day comes and I’m standing about waist high in the Pacific. Pele must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed because she decided to give us a good measure of wind with the occasional 30 mph gust and some nice surface chop. The previous days included calm seas and nice breezes. Oh well. When the cannon (yes, the cannon) went off, I just stood there for about 15-20 seconds drinking in the experience and letting the 860+ people sort out their positions in the mass start.
As I dove in, I felt absolutely great and settled into a nice easy stroke making sure to keep my form good and not tire myself out. The water was about 78 degrees and visibility was over 100 feet. Fish ducked into the reef as thousands of arms and legs disrupted their normally peaceful habitat. Around the second buoy I noticed that the current would be in our faces for the longest leg of the swim…oh well. I followed and threaded my way through the large group occasionally getting a foot in the stomach from an errant breast-stroker. All of a sudden, the pack made an abrupt right turn as someone finally realized that we were all heading toward Maui. It took a few seconds to control my laughter at that point. I think in the end we probably added another tenth or two to the course. Finally I rounded the last buoy and headed for the beach. I felt strong as I ran toward the “Swim Finish” arch and I heard Rose cheer for me. I was all smiles and I stopped to give her a kiss before crossing the timing mat in 44:43. My goal had been 45-55 minutes so I was happy and felt fresh. The time had me in 614th place overall and 105/126 in the M35-39 group.
http://www.betheball.com/9176-039-026f.jpg
I trotted over to the showers and deliberately got all of the sand off my feet before walking up the semi-long hill to T1. I really wanted to take my time and keep my heart rate down because there were many hours still to go. My T1 time was 5:53 which was a tad slow compared to the rest of the field but not really that much so. In fact as I look at the results, my T1 was downright speedy in comparison to the others who finished around me. Bike at my side, I trotted toward the mount line to start the bike.
The parking lot at Hapuna is a couple hundred feet below the Queen K so the start of the bike is a bit of a grind. I had the Cervelo in 39/23 and just spun my way to the top before heading south on the highway. We had a nice tailwind for this short section and I quickly dialed it up to 23 mph as I started picking off cyclists. What a great feeling! After about three miles, we reached the Mauna Lani entrance and flipped a U back north into the wind.
Tucked into the aero position I was still able to keep 18-19 mph on the rollers toward Kawaihae. My average speed was looking good and I thought I might be able to turn in a sub-3 hr bike time but I knew the road was going to get much harder in a few miles. I reached the T in the road and made the left toward the harbor, which brought an exhilarating downhill. I’ve always been a good downhiller and my current level of mass doesn’t hurt. I started quickly overtaking people to the point that I just got out into the middle of the lane. About 2/3 of the way down I took a quick glance at my spedo and saw 45.9. I thought, if I really pedal hard, I should be able to hit 50 by the bottom…almost as if Pele knew what I was thinking, a side gust came up and scared the living crap out of me. That was the end of that idea.
http://www.betheball.com/9176-217-021f.jpg
At the harbor, we made a right turn and started up the hills toward Hawi. About 40 minutes into the ride I started to pass an abnormal amount of cyclists with flats. As I’m gnawing on my PB&J, I’m thinking, there must be something along this part of the road…suddenly my ride starts to get a bit rougher…bugger. So I take my last bite of my sandwich while looking at my flat front tire. The culprit was a tiny metal staple, which I later learned was a common occurrence that day. I know that many of the locals don’t like these races so I suspect that someone seeded the course with these little surprises. Sad, but not the first time it’s happened here. Anyway, I pulled off the fastest tire change of my life…probably because I was calm about it…and was back on the road. It was a bit tough getting back in the groove but after a mile or two I felt good again. The bad part was that I forgot about eating the other half of my sandwich…bad.
About three miles from the Hawi turnaround, we were blessed with a few minutes of rain that felt great. Unfortunately, the cross winds had me working a lot harder than I wanted to. I reached the turnaround and tucked in for the much needed, five mile descent…Woohoo!!! The road started rolling again as we approached Lapakahi and I noticed that my pedal stroke didn’t feel very powerful. I looked down and noticed the other half of my sandwich that I should have eaten by now. Once in my system, it took a few minutes to give me my strength back…which was good because I was going to need it to climb back out of Kawaihae Harbor. Let’s put it this way, 46 mph going down results in 7 mph going up…ouch.
The last nine miles of the ride were fairly uneventful I spun an easy gear in preparation for the run. On the last uphill going past the fire station, I started to get a little cramp in my right hamstring…it worried me a little but I ate a pretzel and made a mental note to take some salt tablets at T2. As I made the final turn toward the bike dismount, there was Rose…big smile…cheering me on. I smiled and told her to go back to the condo and throw away all of the lemon-lime Gatorade…there was no way I could take another sip of it at that point. So, I get off my bike and a volunteer takes it from me, leaving me to trot across the mat, total bike time, 3:29:43 646th fastest, 107th in my age group. I really thought I was doing better than that, more people than I thought must have passed me while I repaired my flat.
The moment of truth had come. I really haven’t done a lot of running over the past ten years and quite frankly, it’s painful to haul my 225 lb a$$ along the road. I sat in the T2 tent putting on my shoes and grabbing some Gatorade (thankfully orange) to go with my salt tabs. The volunteers were awesome. As I exited the tent, a line of porta-lets were lined up and I decided it was a good idea to make a pit stop. The final result was a less than speedy T2 time of 7:31. Who cares? There was Rose, taking pictures of me as I headed out on the run…after a quick kiss for luck.
Well………..the run was hot…and long…did I mention long? It wandered through the Mauna Lani resort with seven out and back legs thrown in for fun. It came back past T2 after about 5 miles or so and Rose gave me another cheer. After another half-mile or so, I ran past the hotel pool where the “HEY CJ” cheers were abundant. There was Mark who had completed the swim and bike but bailed on the run due to plantar fascitis and Jack who missed the swim cutoff by 23 seconds…that really bummed me out.
http://www.betheball.com/9176-091-021f.jpg
Anyway, I continued to shuffle through the six-mile mark when my legs and feet (mostly feet) went on strike. For the next four miles, my mind fought with my body for supremacy. My heart and lungs were fine but the body really hurt. Trot, walk, trot, walk, walk more, trot, walk. I started drinking coke instead of Gatorade and that seemed to be working so I decided to stick with it. As I reached the 10-mile marker I looked at my time and figured that I could still break eight hours if I went for it. This new goal brought me renewed energy and I plodded along the last out and back leg which essentially looks like a road to nowhere. Through mile 11…that took a little too long, better speed up. This guy wearing a hat with horns coming out the side and a shirt saying “Cowman” passes me on the left. More cola and sponges at the aid station…keep going. There’s the 12 mile marker, 13 minutes left…maybe. Through the last aid station, this time no walking. One of the volunteers shouts, “Just over a mile to go!” WHAT? It should be like three quarters…he must be wrong. Through the round-about, six minutes left. “Faster CJ!” There’s Cowman walking, we can hear the announcer but can’t see the finish. I pass Cowman and slap him on the a$$. “Let’s go dude.” Ten seconds later, they guy flys past me…I guess that worked. A slight right turn and onto the grass. 2:30 left…how far is the line? There it is, I’m gonna do it! There’s Rose, there’s Steve and Marian who must have finished about 15 minutes ago. Under the arch, 7:58:55! I am half an Ironman :) The adrenaline rush is awesome.
http://www.betheball.com/9176-041-022f.jpg
Final standings, 783 overall out of 818 finishers. 116/126 in my age group. Third slowest run time in the field. At least I know what to work on. Heck, if I can get to be an average runner, I might be OK at this triathlon thing.
A short walk to the finishers tent to get my medal, t-shirt, and cap. The lady congratulates me and says, “You need a large t-shirt, right.” I laugh, “Extra large please.” She says, “They run pretty big.” I respond, “That’s OK, so do I.” The sound of thirty volunteers laughing was just what I needed.
Thanks for enduring the long read. I’ll post some pictures when I get them. Thanks to all of you who offered support, you were all there with me on the run when my body quit. The thoughts of you guys kept me going…as H20Chick said, DNF was not an option.
Cheers.
-CJ