ironman World Championship - Kona - Hawaii

The icing on the cake? The pinnacle of the sport? Or just another race? See it as you please, but the Ironman World Championship in Kona is by far the most well known and iconic event on the calendar. A place of myths, race “wars” and many a disappointment, it is THE one, the holy grail to achieve for many.

After an amazing result last year at IM UK, the goal was to keep going a little bit longer, and I qualified in South Africa earlier this year. For me, that’s where the hard work was done, and I went to the the big island with no expectations, and no pressure.

So you think you know hot? Then think again! It’s not just the heat, but the humidity. And having done 4 very sweaty sessions in a heat chamber to get used to it right before going to the big island didn’t really do much to prepare me for the constant suffocating feeling you get as you get off the plane. No getting out of the heat chamber for cool air in here…

Thankfully, I arrived on the island 9 days before the race - after close to 24h traveling, urgh… - so I had a fair bit of time to get used to the heat and get rid of the jet-lag.

But instead of taking it easy the first couple of days, I went racing! Nothing crazy, but I followed the excellent suggestion from a few people, I registered for the O'hana swim practice race on Saturday morning, exactly a week before the big one.

Crystal clear waters, no wetsuit, feeling like I was lining up for the ironman itself, a few jitters, and some swell to look forward to. Interesting breakfast!

Far from my usual disappointing swims, however, this one went great, reaching half way in 32min and feeling strong! The return was a bit slower, possibly due to currents, and a bit longer (or so I’ve been told), as we finished on the beach of the King K Marriott hotel. But to my surprise, I finished in 72min! Faster than Wales or SA, non wetsuit… Happy!

First tee shirt and finisher medal in the bag. That was a nice start before a week of recces in the heat, registration, last preps and a bit of relaxation.

On race morning, the transition entry was mega faff, and even having arrived close to 2h ahead of the start, there was still a massively slow queue. Everything was dead slow. Body marking with water tattoos was a joke, then there was a queue to be weighed, then a queue to get into transition to put stuff on bikes, then we had to get out again to leave our street wear bag, then queue for the loos. For crying out loud, how hard is it to plan a bit for crowds at those races?! Water tattoos were completely pointless as they shredded as soon as we got in the water. I was barely putting stuff on my bike when the pro men canon fired… Utter waste of time everywhere! Anyway, I still had a few minutes before we were allowed to get in the water, but it wasn’t particularly nice to stress about how much time was left when that place should really be a well oiled machine!

I tried to enter the water as early as I could to warm up enough, but there is only so much you can do. At least the start line is some way from digme beach, so I could put a few efforts in.

Having swam 72 on the practice swim which was said to be long, I was confident I could do a similar time on race day. I put myself what I though was about ¼ to 1/3 from the left, but I now think I was more in the middle, about 5-6 rows back.

The canon went and it was all a bit of a blur with a mega emotional rush to be starting THAT race!

I followed feet as well as I could, had to give a few kicks in some arms being fed up with the feet-tapping, took a pretty big elbow in the rib-cage that winded me for a few seconds at some point, but other than that it was quite civilised, although in close-pack groups. Swimming in a diagonal line aiming for a far buoy, I found myself in the no-mans-land zone between the two lanes of buoys and had to adjust my course to avoid canoes. Whoops! I did swim in a straight line! But that line went past the buoy I initially sighted, and forgot to alter course. I didn’t have my watch, so no idea how fast I was going, or stroke rate etc. I was feeling good and reminded myself to keep pushing and not take it too easy. I passed all other buoys literally touching them, and only saw two super fast pink hats pass me just before the pier. Getting up THOSE steps I saw the clock at 8:04 and was super happy with that! Fastest swim in years! Non-wetsuit with some swell and current.

I really took my time in T1. I could have done up my suit while walking/running to my bike but I didn’t think about it at the time. I just wanted to make sure everything was perfect, and rolling up a tight sleeved suit on wet arms is just impossible! But hey, I eventually reached my bike and was on my way.

Not sure I managed to put my feet in my shoes by the time I was climbing Palani, but I eventually got everything sorted and was keeping an eye on my distances to others and the power. No wind was to be felt at that point and I settled in a nice rhythm up and down the out and back while some big legs were sprinting off.

Palani was fun that time around. I kept a cap on power and tried to keep distances again on the Queen K. Rollin rollin rollin! Cheats cheats cheats… draft fest passing, trying to find gaps and passing some others. Usual IM dance where marshals are non existent and guys blatantly suck your wheel.

After reaching Waikoloa, the wind went from not being really worth a mention to “FUXK WHAT??” Level. In a matter of 2/3K, it was “head down” and speed down for the same power cap. I kept an eye on power and HR, and kept eating and drinking, picking up people and generally feeling ok. At one point, I sat up and took a good old look at an Italian guy who was blatantly trying to stay on my wheel. I pointed at him and called him a cheat. All he did was move past and went to suck another wheel… Twat. Same with a German a little later. Those guys have no shame, and no marshal was to be seen anywhere.

Like many, I know there is a simple space problem at the start of the race, and if you want to ride legally, you either have to be at the front, push way over your FTP to overtake constantly until you reach the front, or let everyone go… You’d be on roadside for a while for that one! But further up the road, 70Km in, there’s no excuse for this behaviour.

From Kawaihae to the bottom of the climb I kept a lid on things, but went to work on the climb and got past quite a few large groups. Climbing is my game, and I knew that I would not be able to pedal fast on the descent with my lack of gears (I thought I’d have needed a 54). We were still in a headwind and progress wasn’t particularly fast, but steady and feeling strong.

I thought, like everyone else, that we’d have a tailwind on the way back, but nope! After the little rise when coming back out of Hawi, the wind was a headwind again… Ugh!! It would be like this and getting stronger all the way back! I didn’t really notice any bad crosswinds. Sure, the bike was moving a bit in between the rocks, but seriously, nothing major like the horror stories I’ve heard of past years, and I stayed aero for pretty much the entire ride, including the climb up Hawi. I stupidly managed to finish all my gels by 140K, and shot blocks were getting tedious, but that’s all I had. I should have packed a BLT somewhere!

I followed the pro race from the inside and saw the men pack on the bike thinking “it’s all to play for”, while the mega gap for the women was more “it’s all over!”, specially Rinny being so far behind solo leader Ryf.

The headwind on the way back was very strong. I’m not sure if that’s visible on the Garmin files but the return was looooooong!! There weren’t many riders left around me anymore and it was nice to have space and be able to put my head down properly without having to look too much where I was going. I finally reached the airport, the energy lab, then saw Frodeno with Kienle in town, a few kms before I turned on Makala Bvd, thinking “show time”. I was happy, smiling, feeling great, and couldn’t wait to get off that damn saddle! As usual in an IM ride…

The bike was a lot slower than I expected, but although I can now say that I could have pushed more, at the time I thought that I had done rather well to keep a lid on everything in the wind. Doing a bit of maths, it looks like I’ve got a good VI of 1.024 with NP 207W and AVG 202W, with a moderately low intensity factor of 0.75, and a TSS of just over 300. So numbers do prove that while it was well executed and stable, setting me up for a good run, I could have definitely pushed a bit more!

T2 was the whole “hairdo / have a natter / take your time / laugh at stressed people” shebang, and I really, really took my time. It was all about enjoying the day.

I can’t remember thinking too much about pace on the run, only looking at my HR and noticing it was pretty low, so I kept going! Not crazy fast, but maybe a bit too hard given the heat an humidity. Trying to maintain this over the first inclines did need some effort, but I was only going by HR and all was good! I was high-fiving kids as usual, and also some good friends that were there in the first mile, and it was all a bit surreal. I kept on the coke, sponges and ice all the way around, with a couple of gels and a couple of nutella pods (yum!!!) as treats for each 8km completed.

Overall, I still kept a bit of a lid on the initial few Kms, remembered that there are a couple of long climbs on the out-and-back (as I discovered in training!) so HR was my measure. I’m pleased to say that I ran up Palani all the way, at my rhythm, but feeling good and not tight at all! I had a nice chat at the top with the guys giving away salt tubes (yes, still running and chatting :p ), but the Queen K quickly felt boring. Not very hard as the surface is really smooth, but just boring in between the amazing volunteers cheers at the aid stations.

Then I saw the solar panels and thought “YES!”, while smiling to myself. Crazy people everywhere, a great DJ at the bottom of the road with those CLIF iced sponges, and special needs to look forward to. Having ran the energy lab section in training, there was no surprise other than it turning back shorter than what I did during the week. I didn’t feel hot, kept my HR in check, and had a good time. I took my special needs stuff, but I ended up carrying it home. My stomach had had enough, so water and coke were the name of the day for the last Kms.

It’s only after being back on the Queen K that I started to feel a bit tired, and my run started to be laboured. But I was still passing people, and that kept me going. My watch was telling me I could get close to 3h15, but sadly, the rollers back into town were a lot steeper than I remembered, and the pace slowly drifted away.

I had to stop a few seconds at the top of Palani to stretch my hamstrings and avoid hobbling down the hill, which worked a treat. That’s the only place I got passed on the whole run, but I couldn’t care less as this was the end of a brilliant day! I passed early race leader Meredith Kessler on Kuakini, before reaching the bottom of Hualalai, and turn right this time! Not far now! High five people. Turn around see if anyone is coming behind (I wanted a good photo!!) and run down THAT finish chute and cross THAT line!

In the end this was an IM marathon PB for me by over 2 minutes, so even if I tired in the end, it was well paced.

I was hoping some of the BLL gang back in London were still awake and not too drunk, still thanking the amazing people coming out to cheer at the finish, then getting helped away from the line by two very nice volunteers. Not that I needed help, but it was a nice touch.

Collect medal, bag of goodies, find a free spot on the grass and… And that’s it! WC done!

It’s a real shame one can’t simply register for this race, as it’s a well balanced course and a great setting. If not for the qualification, I’d do it again happily!

But this was my last branded IM race so this was special to do it in style. Thanks Paul and Troy for the amazing BLL kit! The end of two years of proper chase and mental strain, so that was a mixed bag of emotions.

I’m not going to do more than one iron distance a year now, but I’m moving onto sillier ones in cold water.

See you out there!