Ironman 70.3 Hawaii Race Review

So I have not been in a rush to get this race review written and where does one start when reviewing your all time worst ever completed Half Ironman........ I figure with the word 'completed' I made it to the finish line.

Considering when I was a kid, (and in my defence a very young kid) I thought that Hawaii was the little island off Beachlands that you can walk to when the tide is low, and always wondered why my classmates talked about long plane trips to get to Hawaii, I figured it was time I went!

In planning my 2013 race season, I decided I was going to pick out some races in the warmer temps as I don't seem to have a good track record with extreme cold, and with the great Hawaiian airline deals, a quality felid, a great Ironman 70.3 race and a matter of world geography to sort out I figured it was a really good fit.

There were no official home stays for the event so it was pretty stressful and last minute trying to find accommodation. A huge thanks to Brent Tingay is in order as he came to the rescue with the offer of sharing his accommodation, even though we had never met, and what was originally going to be a pull out sofa bed turned into my own room and big comfy bed so it turned out perfectly! It was great having company and someone to train with etc

In the weeks leading up to leaving NZ things got very busy and training got a bit compromised but I still managed to get my key sessions in and going into the race I felt really good about how the body was feeling and confident about racing.

The arrival to Hawaii and pre race week had all gone really well and I was feeling really excited to race! We had had some beautiful training swims in the crystal clear ocean accompanied on a couple days with some rather cute turtles! we had had some windy and hot days but nothing to extreme and the  prospect of the race conditions was looking near perfect.

True to Kona form though the island was saving its best for race day and as I woke up race morning I could hear the intensity of the wind howling past the motel. Our accommodation was up high on a hill so I held  onto the hope that it would be calmer down on the coast.

Wishful thinking that was to be and as we pulled into transition on the bus it became obvious that today would be a very honest day's work.

Wind aside, my body was feeling really good and I had a really good mix of nervousness and calm focus. We had our own pro toilet in our transition area so there were no queues for the bathroom last minute and pre race final set ups and warm up all went well.

I was actually looking forward to the swim as even though it was to be my first non wetsuit swim the water here is so warm and clear that i was excited to be racing in it.

I got off to a pretty good start and swam to the front of a group of girls to try and hold the gap between us and the next group but as things started to spread out and the tapping of the hand behind me on my feet disappeared I realised I was on my own and focussed on making as big a gap between me and the girls behind. I swam really well until about 500m to go when I got passed by one of the girls and started to slow up a bit. As we turned around the last boy however the age group men were around us as they only had a 3min delayed start behind us. So I hung onto as many feet as I could and headed for the shoreline. It was pretty rough going and I got swam over a bunch but I was just happy for what ever tow I could get. It was a blinding view into the sun so we were all swimming blindly to shore!

Considering it was a non wet suit swim I was pretty happy with my swim and arrived into T1 in 6th spot. As I ran up to T1 i could feel the heat and wind but it was not until I climbed up the hill out of the transition onto the Queen K that I felt the true impact of the wind. Despite the wind however I was feeling pretty good and so I tucked in and headed off, By the first turnaround I had picked up 5th spot and was riding well.

However by 20kms I started to get cramps in my adductors and quads and that was the start of a very long and very hard 70km. I lost my 5th spot and was back into 6th. We rode into the headwind climbing right up to the turn around and I was struggling to keep my watts up. I just keep telling myself to stay strong and keep going and some how I managed to pass another girl on the hill and reclaim my 5th spot. Nearing the turnaround I could see the first 3 girls on there way down so I knew I was still in reach. As we made the turn however and headed down hill somewhere the wind changed and it became a downhill head wind. What should have been an undulating but quick whizz back into T2 to make up for the hard slog out there was now a hard slog back to T2

I managed to keep going and get through the cramps. I knew I had cramp spray in my T2 bag so just had to make sure I got there. It was a huge relief to get to T2 even as my legs seized with cramp as I tried to dismount my bike. After nearly falling off I hobbled into T2 and out onto the run guzzling my cramp spray.

I have honestly never felt this bad heading into the run leg and I wondered if I would be able to finish. Somehow I kept going and held onto the thought that my running legs would come back to me at any time. However after a few miles even  though the cramp spray worked it wonders it became very obvious that I was not going to be capable of anything more then a shuffle today.

I decided that i wanted to make sure that i made it to the finish line no matter how long it took me and I held onto that commitment to myself. My shuffle made it pretty easy for the girl in 6th to pass me, and it was gutting to watch my days pay packet run past,  not that she was running very fast though, just that i was going so slow. It got pretty ugly out there and it was just a shuffle to each aid station and a slow walk through each taking on as much fluid as i could. I did my best to be encouraging to the girls who past me but i was in a world of hurt and was not to a wear of what was going on around me apart from the fact that the ground beneath me was not moving fast enough!

I have to say the worst part of the run was when we headed out onto the desolation of the 3mile out and back road. As i headed out along this road i remembered the race director say that people went into this part of the race feeling pretty good but came back looking terrible. I tried not to delve into the thought of what happened to those that were in this bad a state entering into this part of the course. The heat was intense and the surroundings baron and dead apart from the raggedy old goats wandering around the lava rocks. It felt like we were running through Ethiopia not the paradise of Hawaii! The lovely girl in 5th place came trotting past on her way back and smiled and said "its not far to go" but as the road continued further and further into the heat her words of encouragement sounded like some kind of sick joke.

So in the end I crossed the finish line and believe me it could not have come quick enough.

I was so sore and sunburnt and felt sick, I cant remember feeling this beat up after a race except after my first marathon.

So the race did not go to plan at all. I was gutted to have my first race end up this way after feeling so good going into it. I presume I just didn't get enough electrolyte into me and that resulted in the cramps, but it was gutting to have my run go so terribly as that is what made the difference between a solid but okay day to my worst race result ever.

However going back to my words at the start I still finished the race and I can at least put it in the completed race box and not the DNF box.

Disappointed? yes HUGELY!

........but I have definitely learnt from it. To be honest it has ruffled my confidence a bit but things like this happen and its all part of what we do, so as I said the race goes into the completed box and I now move onto the next race with my eye on putting it once completed into the PB box!

So ready to move onwards and up wards? OF COURSE! BRING IT ON!