IronMan Hawaii 2007
By: Ken St. Pe'
KONA
07
Training:
My plan following
While I certainly wasn’t out of shape I knew that extra edge
was missing. John Fell told me
during one of our training sessions that he felt like no workout, no matter how
hard or long, could wear him out. I
had this feeling before
But hell, I really didn’t care.
I was going and that was all that really mattered.
I held out hope that the edge, the extra, might appear during my taper.
Pre
Race in Kona: It was actually
fun hauling three kids though the airport. My
four year old, John David kept me laughing half the flight.
My kids are really very good and you would think John David in particular
had been flying his whole life.
We arrived in Kona on Weds night which was probably a day
later than we should have. You
really need a few more days to settle in before the race.
Our hotel was 17 miles north of Kona on the race route.
The advantage of this was being away from all the pre race hype.
The place where we stayed was beautiful.
I hung out on the beach with the kids most of the time.
I did a few workouts and drove the bike course.
I did my swims in the bay in front of our hotel.
It had several reefs one of which held a large number of sea
turtles—pretty cool to do your swims with them.
My only pre race trips into the race site were to register and
to drop my bike. I never saw any
pros on these visits. I had hoped to
meet a few. The bike drop off was
great though. They assign your own
transition person to you when you enter. That
person walks you through everything. I
talked mine into bringing me to the pro bike section for a few pics.
This is just one example of how great they treat you the entire time.
They really do a lot of little things that let you know it’s the World
Championships. Your transition bags,
for example, come already marked with your number.
Your bike number is a plastic plate. I had put mine on wrong and they
have a guy at transition there with tools and tie straps to fix it and any other
problems you might have.
There was a ton of excitement in the air.
There were very fit athletes everywhere all speaking different languages.
Very few are speaking to each other, however.
There is that competitor’s tension between most.
You are constantly feeling people sizing you up while you size them up
also. I saw several already wearing
their timing chips—24 hours before the race start.
These are some intense athletes.
I took a moment to take it all in.
Just being there was victory enough for me.
I was a part of all the things I’d seen and read about.
The beautiful bay that is surrounded on three sides by the town, the
carpeted roadway in and out of the bike transition with “Ironman World
Championship” written in it and the huge finish line towers with the same.
Race
Morning: My kids spent the night with my parents so that morning my
wife and I drove into the race site and got there before
I finished my pre race carbo loading during this time with a
Starbucks Double Espresso. It sat
nicely on the four Ensures and oatmeal I had during the night and for breakfast.
Finally, I got into my Xterra speedsuit and got ready to enter
the water. While I was waiting, I
was next to Tim DeBoom. He had lost
or forgot his swim cap and was waiting for a last minute replacement.
I had no idea how small a guy he is.
He can’t weigh 140lbs.
Swim:
I got into the water with about ten minutes to go before the start.
The entrance is tight but not as bad as say Wisconsin.
You have to swim about 150 yards out to the start line and tread water.
The excitement really built to a head at this point.
You are surrounded by the fittest people you have ever seen in your life
and everyone is obviously jumping on adrenaline.
Again, everyone is speaking different languages.
The crowds along the shore are huge. There are helicopters overhead, Navy
Seals in SCUBA underneath you, and about 20 guys on surf boards going up and
down the start line to keep everyone back.
Then the cannon goes off and it’s mayhem.
I seeded myself 5 people back from the first row which was a mistake.
I got trapped by slower swimmers from the beginning and there was never
anywhere to go after that. They
first 800 meters were as brutal a swim as I have ever been involved.
Lots of pushing, shoving and guys grabbing your legs and arms.
But, believe it or not, I was as calm then as I’ve ever been.
I had realized just before the start that I forgot my heart rate strap.
I blew it off and decided that I was racing for pure enjoyment today.
Nothing was going to ruin that. “No worries mate” was the theme for
the day.
I made it out to the halfway point in just under 30 minutes.
It was very cool swimming past the catamaran and other boats you
recognize from TV. I knew the
currents made returning to shore slower. I
tried to dig a little deeper to make up this difference and hopefully swim 60
minutes. But there were just too
many people and nowhere to go. The
extra effort would only get you a spot or two and then you’d hit a slower
swimmer and loose two spots. If you
tried to swim outside the pack you had to fight the currents by yourself and
this just took too much energy for the time gains . No worries, I hit Dig Me
beach in 64 minutes which is really not a bad swim at Kona.
T1:
How
many times have you seen the Kona transition on NBC or CBS with one of the pros
running thru? It has the blue carpet
down the narrow pathway to the changing tent.
A big smile came over my face as I ran thru the same area I’d seen many
times before. I grabbed my shoes,
pop-tarts and salts and hit the bike. In
Kona, you leave your helmet on your bike. The
run though transition actually takes a little longer than you’d expect because
they require you to stay on the pathway which circles all the bikes until you
get to your bike row.
Bike:
I had the Kuota Kalibur cleaned and waxed for the big show and it looked
good with my tri spoke rear and Zipp front.
I love this set up. It just
feels fast and I’ve always had some of my fastest bike splits with these
wheels. Mark Miller had that thing
tuned perfectly too. Once on the bike the first few miles take you on a quick
out and back down Alii Drive through large crowds.
My support crew wearing their specially made yellow T-shirts was waiting
for me at the first turn of the bike course and then again just before you leave
town to hit the Queen K for the lava fields.
It was indescribable to have my wife and kids, parents, brother and
sister, nephew, bro’s fiancé’ and family friend there all week and then out
on the course.
Right off the bat the pace from everyone is very fast.
The miles thru town felt more like a sprint triathlon than an ironman.
I was happy to get out of town and settle into a rhythm of my own but
really the pace continued like that for several miles and there were large packs
drafting at high speeds. I realized
that the majority of athletes swim right at one hour at Hawaii.
This means that everyone is hitting the bike at the same time and
drafting is almost unavoidable. The
referees must know this as there were none to be seen until ten or so.
By then the packs had broken up and everyone was pushing their own air.
Pretty early on I decided that today was not a day to hammer
the bike. It was my first time here;
I didn’t know the course well and wasn’t interested in pushing the pain
needle to where it had been at Lake Placid. Without a HR monitor I rode on PE
(perceived exertion) and this put my watts between 175 and 180—far less than
the 200-210 I pushed in LP. But my
speed was good. I was holding 20-21mph average for the first 35 miles. I figured
a 5:30 bike split would be solid enough. I
also knew the course got harder in the middle and end and figured I’d save my
watts for those sections.
The first 35 miles are rolling hills thru the lava fields. It
was windy but not horrible. Hot but not yet unbearable.
That would change. The scene is beautiful. Lava giving way to mountains
on your right and lava giving way to ocean on your left.
Slowly the road climbs north on the island and soon the real fun begins.
The Queen K dead ends at a T intersection and after turning
left, almost immediately you start climbing to the halfway point, the town of
Hawi. At first the climbs are gentle
but then become more serious. Then you begin noticing the wind more and more.
The bike course is now going thru the mountains (large hills).
On this side of the island the trade winds are coming right at you with
huge gusts every few minutes. There
is no longer a gap of lava fields between you and the ocean.
It is right there and the winds roll off of it and into you.
The gusts are strong enough to require you to get out of your aero bars
and grab the bullhorns.
The climb to Hawi is about 15 miles.
At this point of the race I had settled into my groove.
No one passed me and I slowly began passing back other riders.
My speed dropped way down here to an avg of 15mph or so.
I was just grinding into the wind and uphill.
It also started getting hot. I
started taking two water bottles at the aid stations and dumping one on my head
and the other in my aero bottle to drink.
I drank a lot of water on the bike.
I also took two salt tabs every hour.
Probably should have taken even more as the heat and wind really took a
toll on you.
About halfway thru the climb to Hawi the pros started coming
back the other way. I could see
Lieto out front and then a small second group which included DeBoom and Macca.
I think Beke was in this group too. I
never saw Nomann and figured he had dropped out.
They were obviously flying. It’s
amazing how fast these guys are.
The turnaround at Hawi has a double bonus—you get the head
back downhill, with the wind and you get you special needs bag.
I had one double mix of infinIT in a bottle and a bag of Fritos.
Up to this point I had my usual pop tarts (400cal), and one regular
bottle on infinIT (275cal). I had
also taken a coke by mistake at one of the aid stations and drank half (100cal).
My stomach was great at this point and I chowed on the Fritos.
I had never eaten these in a race before but eat them all the time in
training. They were a last minute
purchase in Hawi the day before--all a part of my plan to enjoy the day.
I was getting some strange looks as I ate my Fritos, but damn, they
tasted good. Corn, salt and corn oil – what else do you need?
This bag was about 300 cal and I chased them with the rest of that coke
(100 cal) I figured I was now at 1200 cal just over halfway on the bike.
Probably a little too high but since I wasn’t pushing it too hard I
thought I would be able to handle the extra calories.
I took in the second infinIT bottle (550) on the way home without any
problems. I hindsight, I may cut
some of the solids and go with Gatorade and GU next time.
The heat and sodium depletion probably require a different nutrition
strategy.
I was flying down the road from Hawi with the downhill and
tailwind. I had lost my 20-21mph
pace on the way up and was able to get some of that time back on the way down.
But as usual, you never seem to get all your time back.
This section was fun but scary too. I hit speeds of 30+ mph but then
I’d get hit by a gust of wind that would almost take your bike from underneath
you. I was torn between feeling I
needed to squeeze some free speed from this section and wanting to stay upright.
Staying off the pavement won out and I spent a lot of time in my
bullhorns instead of aero.
Once out of the big hills and back on the Queen K for the last
40 miles, the race really showed why it gets it reputation as the toughest.
Heat, wind, hills, heat. I
never got a handle on riding the lava fields.
During my two short training rides and in the race, it seemed like you
could have a tailwind, then a headwind in the same short stretch.
The terrain has slow rolling hills but you could find yourself holding
22mph going uphill and 17mph going downhill.
All the while you are cooking under the sun and the radiant heat from the
black road and lava. I hardly ever
sunburn. I put on SPF 50 before the
race and hit some more before the run. My
back, shoulders and arms were fried to a crisp.
My race numbers are permanently burned into my arms.
This section was just pure grind.
I decided to push a little harder here so as to not lose any more time on
the bike. My watts moved to the 200
range. I started collecting many
riders here who had gone out too hard and blown.
But frankly, it was not as many as you would think.
These were some top notch individuals.
I actually started feeling a little guilty here and that feeling
continued through he run. I had
decided to have fun and enjoy my day without going too deep.
The people around me, however, were racing and giving it all they had.
I knew then that I had to make it back here and give this race my all.
Not that I regret my decision. It
was the right one for me but the competitor in me wanted to be pushing my limits
like these others.
The
run:
T2 was uneventful, except for getting to run thru the famous change
tents. I went quickly but took a
minute for a pee break and some more sunscreen then hit the road.
My total time was 7:10 at the start of the run.
I had no real time goals but wanted to go under 11 hours.
I settled into an 8 min/mile pace and hoped to maintain that for as long
as possible. I felt good the first
few miles and actually had to slow myself from 7:15-7:30 pace.
I wanted to try and run evenly all 26 miles without slowing down the
second half.
It was hot and I was very concerned about not dehydrating like
I had in Lake Placid. I alternated
Gatorade, water, coke, at every mile. The
first half of the run was out and back on Alii Drive. This
route is right along the shore and has some shade and only a few small hills.
Even so, it was very hot. I’d
dump water on myself at the aide stations every mile and I’d be bone dry
before I got to the next one.
After about mile five the run turned into stomach management
more than anything else. For
whatever reason, I decided not to take anymore salt tabs on the run.
I thought I could get enough sodium from the Gatorade and coke.
This was probably wrong as I had already lost so much on the bike.
The doctor who gave me my I.V. after the race agreed.
I ended up puking about 20 minutes after the finish.
First time for that. No
Fritos came up though!
I went thru periods of feeling pretty good and then feeling
pretty damn bad. At mile 13, the
race hits the Queen K, the lava fields, and from about mile 15 on in the stomach
shut down. By the time I reached the
Energy Lab at mile 18 or so, I was in full “just get me in” mode.
I calculated that 9 min/mile would put me in under 11 hours and I ran
just fast enough and walked the water stops long enough to hold that pace.
All around me though, there were people crushing themselves.
I saw several people throw-up and then take off running again.
I think I was most impressed by the age group women.
Several were battling it out and pushing each other to their limits.
You could just feel the determination.
The
finish:
Out of the lava and back to Alii Drive for the last few miles the
excitement hit me again. The run
through the stands of people and finisher’s chute at any ironman is an awesome
feeling. I saw my dad and brother
first and then my wife and John David off to the side.
I began raising my hands over my head and of course the crowd only
cheered louder to see my excitement. My
two oldest, Luke and Elise, were waiting to run to the finish line with me and
that was very special. I am driven
by the desire to be a role model to my kids more than anything else I do for
them. I want them to see that you
really can accomplish anything you put your mind to.
They got to see and experience it. I’m
certain it is something they will never forget.
An hour after finishing, I was already planning my next race
there. Many people had asked if I
would hang it up after reaching Kona. I
didn’t think I would but didn’t know for sure until after the race.
I had a great day and learned a lot about the course and the conditions.
If I never make it back, I’ll have no regrets but I want a chance to
give that race my all.