Ironman Hawaii

Here's my race report from my first Hawaii Ironman experience. It was a rough day out there, but an amazing experience. Can't wait to get back there!

Being my first trip to the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, the whole week was really an amazing experience. There’s so much energy and tension circling Kona leading up to the race and not only do you run across pro triathletes just hanging out doing their daily routine, but everyone else in the town also just looks uber fit and they’re out strutting their stuff all week. I could easily double the length of this race report talking about the leadup to the race itself, but I’ll avoid the temptation.

Race morning went pretty smooth. Got to transition nice and early, got things set up. Found my friends Laura, Kelly, and Chris in transition and talked a bit doing our best to stay relaxed. Threw on my Torque and got in the water about 12 minutes before the start to get out to the start line and pick a position.

The start line of the Hawaii Ironman is one of the most ridiculous places I’ve ever been. Part of that is just the craziness of being there and realizing that I was actually doing it, and part of it was just the crowd and the battling for a sliver of space out there. I honestly couldn’t wedge in nearly anywhere, and all the people treading water kicking each other and tangling limbs was just obnoxious. It’s just kinda something you deal with and when the cannon goes off you immediately wish you had as much space as you did before!

The swim out there was rough. I swam pretty well I thought, but I still didn’t have any free space all the way to the turn. Managed to settle in a bit on the trip back to the pier. Swam up next to Laura, and when I realized it was her I hopped on her feet for a tow just like I do in training. Worked out pretty well and the trip back felt much more open and comfortable. Got out with a time of 58:41 which was a bit slower than I’d hoped for, but with the way things had gone at the start I felt pretty good about it.

Out onto the bike and the madness continued. In the 8 mile stretch thru town I had to let 100 guys past me, which was even more ridiculous as every time I looked at my Powertap I was WAY over goal power. It was really tough to keep it under control as the crowds were screaming and there were so many other athletes around hammering it. It was about 20 miles into the bike before there was any real ‘peace and quite’ so to speak.

The ride out to Hawi went pretty well. I was on track with my power numbers, I was getting my nutrition down even though I wasn’t feeling THAT great. There was a fairly strong wind in the stretch past Kawaihae but nothing I couldn’t deal with. Nutrition started to be a bit of an issue as I approached Hawi. I’d gotten down the bottle of GU I’d intended to in the first 60 miles, but it wasn’t settling THAT well. I’d taken some coke around the 40 mile mark to try and settle my stomach a bit which I’d hoped to avoid entirely on the bike. I didn’t think much of it at the time but in the second half of the bike it became more and more of an issue.

Special needs was a debacle as nobody had my bag ready as I rode by. I kept screaming “1804... 1804!!!” and nobody even batted an eye. Luckily as I hit the end of the special needs pickup a spectator saw what had happened and ran back to get it for me when I pulled over. I wish I could have bought that man a beer post race because he saved me a lot of unnecessary stress.

Back down from Hawi with the wind at our back I felt really good. Held solid tempo and reeled in a few people. Even though my stomach wasn’t cooperating entirely I was still on track nutritionally and my legs were strong. Basically when I hit kawaihae again with 35 miles to go is when I realized that things weren’t going to come together.

My stomach started to be a real problem as I just couldn’t get down the calories anymore, and since I’d planned to get my electrolytes on the bike thru my GU Brew; not getting my calories meant not getting electrolytes. This coupled with trying to get in as much water as I needed just resulted in a sloshing brew in my stomach. Also in this stretch my legs just didn’t have the power. I’m not sure if it was the nutrition talking, or the heat, or maybe just being 6 weeks off IM Canada. Whatever it was I struggled a lot in the last hour and a half of the ride. Finished 5:16 flat which was a bit slower than I felt I could do, but definitely wasn’t a bad ride so I was still pleased overall.

When I hit the run transition I was ready to be off the bike. Once I’d gotten a few strides running thru transition my legs didn’t feel too bad, just my stomach was a bit heavy. I had salt pills ready for the run, so knowing I was low in that area I crammed down a few as I left transition with some water and started trying to get things together again.

The first mile was a bit rough, but my legs were coming back so I just needed to get my stomach working again which I thought I could do. For the first 5 miles I was walking the aid stations, getting down lots of water and salts with a bit of coke or fruit for calories. From about mile 4-8 I honestly felt pretty good, I was still walking the aid stations, but I really felt like I could keep up the 8:50/mile pace I was averaging.

Problems came quickly when I ran out of electrolytes only 9 miles into the run. Given how I was feeling I’d planned to walk up Palani hill, but I only made it about a mile past the top before I just started to come apart and walk. Pretty quickly a fellow TYR athlete Trish caught up to me and spurred me on. We shuffled together from about mile 13 to the turn around in the Energy Lab at mile 18-ish.

That was when I really started to suffer with cramping. I had shuffled back to the gradual climb out of the energy lab where I walked the stretch to the top thinking I would pick up the run there and shuffle home. Once I hit the top I tried to run and immediately my quads and calves tried to cramp up bringing me to a standstill. I started walking again and even doing just that my quads were snapping tight on me.

Just past mile 20 I saw Laura running the other way and she was suffering too. We shared a few encouraging words and carried on. As we parted ways I turned to yell again and both sides of my torso cramped up. I was crushed at this point as it wasn’t even my legs that were failing me, it was everything. I didn’t think I could bring it back.

Luckily somewhere around mile 21, VO2 teammate Chris Whyte caught up to me and walked with me a bit. I explained what was going on and how I felt broken down but he convinced me to give it another go and run with him. We rolled thru an aid station where I crammed down a bunch of chicken broth and water and we started trotting along, really easy at first but managed to pick up the pace to something I’d only call slow. For everyone who’s done Ironman, you know that slow is pretty good at mile 23 ;-)

Another aid station, more chicken broth and water and I was feeling like I could hold it together. It wasn’t pretty, but Chris had pulled me from not knowing how I was going to get to the finish line to again thinking I could beat the sunset that would happen around the 11 hour mark.

Once we’d made the top of Palani hill it’s basically all downhill to the finish line. The crowds were back and the energy builds as you get closer to Alii Drive. Running the 400 yards down Alii to the finish line was amazing. I’d been so ready to see that finish line for hours at that point, but once you get so close you just want to soak up that energy a bit longer.

Crossed the line with a 4:21 marathon which was about 40 minutes slower than I think I was truly capable of in those conditions, but in the end my 10:42 first IM Hawaii was in no way a disappointment. The experience of being there was the main goal, and the knowledge I’ve gained thru a rough day will ensure I don’t make many of those mistakes again. Plus it was great to share the experience with some great friends/training partners, as well as with my family who surprised me showing up in Hawaii the Thursday pre-race.
Thanks to everyone who’s put up with me all year in training, and made it possible to achieve one of my life goals racing the Ironman in Hawaii. Now let’s see if we can do it again next year! ;-)