At long last:
2014 Ironman
World Championship
October 11th,
2014
Background
Location:
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Distance:
2.4-mile swim/112-mile bike/26.2-mile run
2014
Triathlon Race Number: 9
Career
Triathlon Race Number: 146
Career
Ironman Number: 13
Conditions:
Mid-80s, Humid, Very Windy, Partly Sunny early, overcast late. Water: 79 degrees with a noticeable swell.
It’s
pretty hard for me to believe that I was privileged once again to race the Ironman
World Championship. This was to be my
third time at Kona, as I had raced here in both 2010 and 2012. My times for those two races were 13:49:17
and 13:42:59.
I
qualified for all three of these races through the Ironman XC program. I qualified at Oceanside70.3 in 2010, Ironman
Arizona in 2011 (for 2012), and last year at Ironman Lake Tahoe. That very challenging race was the only time
I’ve covered the Ironman race slower than my above two Kona times.
As you
can tell, by Kona standards I’m not a very fast Ironman triathlete. While, I’ve gone sub 12 hours at the IM distance
several times, the heat and humidity takes its toll on my relatively larger
body. Additionally, I’ve tended to view
Kona as more of a “victory lap” to be savored and enjoyed as opposed to the
more rigorous training I tend to invest in trying to qualify for this race.
2014 was
no exception. I spent the first part of
2014 down in Argentina summiting Aconcagua—the highest mountain in the Southern
Hemisphere. This three-week effort left
me elated but depleted both physically and mentally when I returned to the U.S.
in early February. After a few weeks
focused mostly on recovery, I began my Ironman build-up a couple months
late. Further, in the months prior to
climbing Aconcagua, I had significantly shifted my training focus to prepare
myself specifically for climbing that big mountain and the physical demands of moving
at nearly 23,000 feet. This meant little
in the way of triathlon specific training.
For example, I had not been in the pool in three months when I first
dipped my toes in the water in late February.
As the
2014 season unfolded I noted a distinct feeling of needing to hold back quite a
bit and not get burnt out, neither physically nor mentally. I was plagued with a series of nagging
soft-tissue issues, most notably in my left calf. I really needed 2014 to be a recovery year
and at the same time, I had to get ready to race one of the most demanding
single day endurance tests. As the
season unfolded I backed off both my training and racing from my original
plans. I had only raced 8 times prior to
Kona (versus a plan of 12) and I got off the plane in Kailua with a lot fewer
training miles (with the exception of my swim) and a body that weighed in at
178 pounds (I’m 6’ 1”). In contrast, I’ve
raced IM Florida back in 2007 at 163 pounds, which is about as light as I can
go.
I don’t
want any of this to sound like an excuse, but I knew I was not in my normal
Ironman shape when I arrived in Hawaii.
Still, I had worked hard by most measures and I was still hopeful I
could have a solid race and perhaps lower my course personal best again.
Judy and
I went at the end of September as we had once again rented the house we stayed
in back in 2012 in the Kona Estates section of Kailua. This is a wonderful four-bedroom house right
on the water, less than a mile from race central. We were blessed with my mother flying out to
join us as well as all four of my adult children (this is the first time that
all four have attended any of my Ironman races at the same time). I was especially excited that Alex, my
youngest, was joining us, as he had not been able to come when I raced here in
2010 and 2012.
We did a
bunch of touristy things, although not as many in prior years as we were
content to relax and enjoy the beautiful Island. We entertained a number of our XC colleagues
as well as Midge and Tim Kerr, our friends from the Jersey shore. Midge had been my primary training partner
throughout 2014 and she was pumped to be racing her first Kona, and indeed her
first Ironman!
Soon my
family had all arrived and we jumped in and participated in all of the pre-race
events such as the Ho’ala Swim, the Path 5K, the Parade of Nations, and the
Underpants Run. I did all of the
pre-race preparation as well and soon enough it was Friday evening, October 10th. My bike and transition bags were safely
stowed on the pier and I went to bed calm and collected and genuinely looking
forward to the great adventure that Ironman racing provides!
Race Morning
I slept a
solid 5-6 hours and awoke feeling very calm.
I had my PB&J sandwiches and some of Kona’s finest Java. Soon the rest of the gang was up and we all made
our way the short distance over to the race start. I did all of my pre-race activities
(body-marking, filling my bottles, pumping tires, etc.) smoothly and efficiently
and spent a very relaxing time before the start with my fellow XC competitors
and with my friends and family.
The
morning dawned with the promise of a beautiful day. Sunny and not yet too warm. The wind was non-existent but there was a
noticeable swell pushing some modest size long-period swell into the bay. This swell was not as great as I remember it
in 2012. However, I was aware that there
was considerable wave energy coming from the 320-degree compass point. Since this direction caused Maui to shield us
somewhat on the west coast of the Big Island the swell was not as pronounced as
it might have been. I was curious if all
that energy would translate into as strong a current sweeping south as we had endured
in 2012. Time would tell.
The Swim
Despite my
general underinvestment in training noted above, one area where I felt I was
noticeably stronger was the swim. I had
actually worked pretty hard on my swim and had done in excess of 10 swims
greater than 2.4 miles leading up to the race.
My long swim was 3.3 miles during which I went through the Ironman
distance in 67 minutes. Indeed all
summer, my swim splits in my long swims were very good for me and I entered the
race feeling that I was in the best IM swim shape of my life.
I swam the
Ho’ala swim the week before Kona on effectively the same course and clocked a
76-minute swim. This compared favorably
to the 80:27 (2010) and 81:20 (2012) I had previously swam here. I felt that I was in at least sub 66-minute
wetsuit swim shape (that being my IM swim PR) and I knew that was roughly
equivalent to 75-76 minutes here in Kona (I’m not a particularly efficient
swimmer without a wetsuit due to my non-existent kick). In any event, I felt very good on race
morning and was confident I would go sub 80 minutes, and hopeful of going sub
75 on race morning.
The male
pros left at 6:30, with the female pros five minutes behind them. For the first time in Kona history, the Age
Group triathletes were also split with the men going at 6:50 and the women at
the traditional 7 a.m. start time. As I
did in both in 2010 and 2012, I lined up way to the left of the starting
line—just about as far away from the pier as you can get. I was on the other side of the big red TYR
floaty thing. This approach led to
enjoyable, stress free swims in both my prior times here and I didn’t see any
reason to tempt fate and try something different in 2014.
I was
about 2-3 athletes back from the start-line and at the start I swam at about
90-95% effort and concentrated on trying to stay out to the left of the bulk of
the field. I didn’t feel really good at
the start but I thought my body felt just fine—certainly good enough to have a
good swim. Soon, I backed my effort down
just a bit and began to try to jump on the feet of faster swimmers as they came
by from time to time.
Soon
enough I felt my 910 vibrating and I glanced over at my watch to see how
quickly the first quarter-mile had transpired.
I saw 6:37, which translates into a 63:31 2.4-mile swim pace! Wow! I
sure didn’t expect that. I wasn’t
working all that hard and it sure didn’t feel that fast. I mean 6:37 is a time that isn’t that
disappointing to me for a quarter-mile Sprint swim.
Frankly,
I was a little skeptical and I decided I’d wait for another split or two before
I concluded too much. Too be on the safe
side I did back down my effort just a bit.
Soon enough the half-mile point came up and my 2nd quarter
was logged in 7:14. This was a little
more believable but it still seemed too easy.
I upped my pace a bit more to what felt right (I have a very good sense
of the “right” pace on my long swims). I
began to consider the possibility that I was being pushed along by a pretty
good current and that while my early splits were great and I appeared to be well
on my way to a swim PR, I shouldn’t expect these splits to be a true measure of
what was actually happening.
The next
two quarters were swam well below (effort wise) what I can push an IM swim and
they came in at 7:08 and 7:01. My first
mile had passed in exactly 28 minutes (67:12 pace) and I was increasing coming
to believe I was going to be swimming into a pretty strong current on the back
half of the out and back swim.
The other
item that was causing me some mild concern was that the distance to turnaround
boat seemed to be quite a bit further than the additional 0.2 miles it should
have been. I’ve often heard that the
Kona swim course is longer than 2.4 miles.
My two prior times that I swam here I either didn’t have a GPS or in the
case of 2012 I messed up using it so prior to this year I did not have a
personal GPS measure on the course length.
At the Ho’ala swim the week prior I measured the course at 2.5 miles.
Not much
to be done about it and just about when I hit the first turn buoy my watch
vibrated and my 5th quarter mile split came in at 7:07—I knew then I
was swimming longer than 2.4-miles. I
made the first and 2nd right turn with little drama and I was soon
heading back towards the pier. Out by
the turn buoys the water was too deep to see the bottom and since I breathe
predominately on my left side, I didn’t have any physical way of gauging my
pace. I knew if the 6th split
came in the low 7s like my recent splits then I was going to swim in the low to
mid-70s.
The
moment of truth arrived and I looked at my watch and it read 8:48. Rut-roh!
It now seemed pretty clear there was a current and I did a quick
calculation. I made the 1.25-mile
turning point in 35. Multiply by 2 for
the return swim at the same pace and get 70.
Add another two minutes for the length between the two turn buoys to get
to 72 and then add 5 X 1:40 for the extra time per quarter and let’s see we are
in the 80-81 minute range. And another
couple of minutes to swim the length of the pier and exit the water and ugh,
I’m looking at an 82-83 minute swim.
Darn!
About
this time the fastest AG women started plowing through us middle of the pack
Male swimmers. This new wave format was
definitely a bummer for them. We were
obviously slowing them down and they didn’t have the benefit of drafting the
faster AG men. I drifted to the right to
give them space and avoid getting knocked around too much as they went by.
Indeed
there was a quite strong current flowing away from the pier on this
morning. When I began to see the bottom
again I could see how relatively little progress each forward pull brought
me. I upped my effort as I felt I had a
lot left in the tank but this seemed to be of only modest benefit. I soon drew even with the pier and waved to
my family, who were busily waving to someone else behind me. I yelled a couple of times and then they
recognized they were waving to the wrong guy—I have a lot of pictures of some
other guy! I gave them the thumbs up and
headed towards the swim finish. Here are
the rest of my quarter mile splits:
Split 7: 8:58
Split 8: 8:49
Split 9: 8:36
Split 10: 8:10
Split 11: 4:02 (0.11
miles)
As the
above indicates I swam a total of 2.61 miles.
I don’t know if this confirms the course is long or not. My Garmin could be inaccurate. I could have swam a longer than necessary
course. But there you go.
My total swim time was a
disappointing 82:30. My official time was recorded as 82:43. I was 65th out of 115 in my AG,
which translates into the 44.3 %-tile.
This compares to 42.9 %-tile in 2012 and 35.7%-tile in 2010, so despite
being slower I was relatively faster than my peers.
Transition One
I
reoriented to the vertical plane and glanced at my watch as I climbed up the
temporary steps into T1. I registered my
vaguely disappointing time but that emotion was quite temporary. I knew I was in good swim shape and I gave it
a really solid effort. It’s hard to feel
bad about my swim on this morning.
I
unzipped my swim skin, sprayed my face with the fresh water hoses and found my
T1 bag on the rack. I ran into the tent,
which was quite crowded despite my pedestrian swim time. I went all the way towards the back of the
tent and found an empty seat. A kind
volunteer (they are phenomenal here at Kona) helped me do my stuff and soon I
was heading out of the changing tent.
I waved
to my family and relished their enthusiastic verbal support. I ran around to where my bike was racked and
chatted a bit while I put my helmet on and the GPS device I planned to wear so
that they could track me during the bike and run. Soon enough I said my final good-bye and was
on my way.
My total T1 was 6:28, which compares favorably with the
7:24 I recorded in 2012 and the 6:52 in 2010.
The Bike
I mount
up and head out near the junction of Palani and Ali’i with the crowd noise and
blasting music registering in my ears. I
maneuver past the Old Airport and up Makala and then after a short stretch on
the Queen Ku’ahumanu Highway I plunge down Palani onto Kuakini. This first part of the bike always seems a
bit frenetic here at Kona as there are a lot of slow swimmers/fast bikers
intent on “catching the bus”—more on that later. Also, everyone is pumped up and bursting with
energy from their pre-race tapers. I try
to ignore this early madness as most of the Kona folks are better than me and I
have no intention of getting involved in the drafting that does seem to plague
this race. I also want to pay special
attention to avoiding any accidents—I surely do not want my day to end before 9
a.m.!
I feel
pretty good early on but of course it’s way too early to draw any meaningful
conclusions about the ride. My trip up
to Kuakini Estates is uneventful and soon I’m heading back down to the hot
corner. I hit the corner and begin the
short but steep climb up Palini. I hope
to see my family but I learn later that they are caught up in the crowds and
will arrive at this spot a few minutes after I go by. I’m on my own now!
The early
part of the Queen K is unremarkable and I note that there is very little
wind. I’m busy with my hydration and nutrition,
as I wanted to do a better job of both than I had done in my prior two efforts
here. I was surprised, however, out
around the Four Seasons when all of a sudden the wind picked-up dramatically,
seemingly out of nowhere (although from the Northeast). In short order I was facing a gusty, 25+ mph
head- and side-winds.
This
climatic development was completely unexpected and I went from cruising calmly
well below my threshold to straining to stay upright and maintain 15 mph. Also, it was clear that my power output,
which I had every reason to believe should have been comfortable around 180
watts, was falling well short of that.
The wind was so challenging that it was increasingly a problem to even
get my nutrition and hydration down in enough quantity. I knew I was potentially in a spot of
trouble. The first 40 miles, data-wise,
looked like this:
0-5: 15.5 mph/80
rpm/184 watts NP/181 watts avg
6-10: 21.0/80/182/175
11-15:
18.4/83/156/154
16-20:
18.1/80/153/151
21-25:
17.3/75/157/156
26-30:
20.1/80/155/151
31-35:
11.2/73/154/152
36-40:
14.3/71/162/158
A couple
of comments. As you can probably tell, I
had problems with my HR monitor so I have no good data there. Second, you can clearly see that I was not
producing the kind of watts I would expect to produce given my training/racing
this year. Why that is, I’m not
sure. Third, the section between 30 and
40 miles is not that difficult. In a
“normal” wind field, I would expect to average 18 mph during this stretch. In
fact in 2012, I did the stretch between 30 and 35 miles with an average speed
of 20.1 mph vs. the 11.2 mph today! Comparing 2014 to 2012, I lost 12 minutes
over that five-mile stretch alone! This
is pretty remarkable.
These
conditions continue over the next 10 miles as the pros start to scream by in
the other direction and as we exit the Queen K at Kawaihae for the run up to
Hawi. These 10 miles look like this:
41-45: 15.9/75/165/158
46-50: 18.1/80/148/145
You can
see from my power numbers that I was not doing well as I started the climb—I
was running a good 30 watts lower than I did back in 2012. I kept grinding along however and soon found
myself making the turn at Hawi. I
continued to run a couple of mph slower than back in 2012 with a power shortage
of a good 25 watts:
51-55:
13.2/75/159/155
56-60:
10.3/73/162/160
I stop
and grab my special needs bag and sit for a couple of minutes eating my boiled
potatoes and trying to catch up on hydration.
Mark Johnson rides up and we talk for a bit. It’s great to see him but the fact that he’s
with me tells me that it’s not just the weather that is making me slow
today—I’m definitely having a bit of an off-day for sure.
We say
good-bye and soon I’m hurtling down the descent out of Hawi. I see Midge and can see she’s not very far
behind me—I’m sure we’ll meet again on the run!
With the gusty crosswinds I play it super conservative. Indeed, I see three people down on the pavement—one
lady looks pretty bad with a broken helmet and a fair amount of blood on her
face—yikes! (EMS types were attending her to).
As I got
to the bottom at Kawaihae and made the turn out onto the Queen K, I found that
the strong wind that plagued us on the way our had now reversed directions and
indeed, I was looking at another 30+ miles of headwind—I wasn’t surprised and
in fact had a good laugh at the absurdity of the challenges the bike was
presenting on this day.
61-65:
28.1/78/126/124
66-70:
16.3/76/156/156
70-75:
18.1/74/156/155
75-80:
15.3/71/162/161
80-85:
16.5/71/143/142
86-90:
14.8/72/138/138
90-95:
11.6/69/143/142
95-100:
12.2/70/135/133
At this
point, I’m pretty much a basket case.
I’ve covered the last 10 miles at barely an average of 12 mph. I’m “spinning” at 70 rpm and my power is
barely that of a normal recovery ride. I
feel dehydrated and while not demoralized, I’m definitely ready to get off of
my bike. I try to stay in the moment as
much as possible and appreciate the privilege that it is for me to be here
racing—even if I’m having a pretty rough time of it.
I suck it
up and push through the final 12+ miles:
100-105:
15.4/70/133/132
105-110:
16.8/71/136/136
110-112:
19.1/70/133/133
I finish the bike with an elapsed
time of 7:13:49. This is by far the slowest bike
split of my IM career. I was 6:22 and
6:21 in 2012 and 2010 respectively—over 50 minutes slower this year. Some of this was the wind for sure, but a lot
of it was me—it just wasn’t my day today.
In 2010 I averaged 170 watts and in 2012 174 watts. Today I averaged just 151 watts. My normalized power was 158 watts. My cadence was just 74 rpm vs. 80 in 2012 and
73 in 2010. My average speed was a
pedestrian 15.6 mph vs. 17.6 in 2012.
I was 89th
on the bike in my AG—just 23.5 %-tile. I
was 41.8 %-tile last year. Still, I did
persevere and get it done and I was happy to give my bike to the volunteer and
head into transition!
Transition Two
I walk
into T2 and it occurs to me that I am fried—hard to believe that I need to do a
marathon, though I’m confident I will. I
see Kara and hi-five her and control my stroll through T2. I say high to the family and chat with them a
bit and head on into the changing tent.
A nice
volunteer comes up and puts a soaking, ice-cold towel over my head, which I
just sit under for a minute or two—I think it helps. I make my change and he lathers me up with
suntan lotion. I hit the head and soon
I’m on my way. My total T2 is 9:26, which is, not surprisingly, slower than 2012 and
2010 (7:44/8:28). I don’t even
notice this because my time is not of much of a concern anymore—it’s all about
getting to the finish line and enjoying the process of doing so.
The Run
As I jog
up the hill towards the hot corner I wave to my family and they shout words of
encouragement. I put on a brave smile
and start putting one foot in front of the other. I know straight away that this is going to be
a real “suffer fest”. I’m pretty much a
basket case after the bike today.
I planned
to follow the path I followed last year where I would run from aid station to
aid station, do my aid station thing and then walk for 1 minute more. I do this for the first mile and I can
already tell that is going to be a struggle.
I make the decision right away that I’m just going to run-walk the whole
thing. I’ve got plenty of time before the
cut-off and I already know this is going to be (by far) the slowest IM of my
13.
As I head
out Ali’i, I see Tim Kerr around the 5k mark and he tells me I look great. I tell him that he’s a lair and that Midge
won’t be too far behind me. My first
five miles out towards the turn around looked like this:
1: 10:44/129bpm
2:
13:34/114
3:
14:08/114
4:
13:57/100
5.
14:33/111
This is
about the pace that my wife typically “powerwalks” but it was all I had at this
juncture of the race. After the
turn-around I decide I need to walk even more as I’m feeling a bit
light-headed. I’ve relaxed into a place
where I just accept I’m having one of those days. I see Midge and figure she’ll catch me by
mile 7 or so—I look forward to chatting with her and when she does catch me, we
talk about how hard the bike was and then I urge her on her way. She looks great and like she’s enjoying her
first Ironman. I also see Mark and he tells me he’s going to try to catch up to
me but I caution him to be careful—catching me is no prize today and there
still is a long way to go!
My next 5
miles go by like this:
6: 15:42/
7: 16:03/
8: 16:32/
9: 16:39/
10:
16:48/109
My HR
monitor dropped out there for a while.
Normally, when I walk this much I expect to recover a bit and then I usually
can mount a bit of a rally. I feel today
however, that I’m slowly deteriorating, even at this modest effort.
I hit
Palani Hill, which I’m excited to do.
Not because of the climb but because I get to see my family. They are waiting for me there and it’s a real
boost to my morale! They give me an
update on Midge (nasty blister) and then the four kids walk with me for quite a
while. This is a real nice time as we
cruise along. It’s not lost on me how
special a moment this truly is. At one
point I hand my sunglasses to Anders and tell him “I won’t be needing these
anymore” (it will be dark soon). After
about a beat: “or if I do, I’ll have even worse problems than bright light in
my eyes”. We all chuckle at this and
soon I say goodbye and that I’ll see them all at the finish line. My next five splits:
11:
17:27/112
12:
16:55/108
13:
15:37/119
14:
16:09/112
15:
16:24/109
It’s very
dark now and pretty lonely out there on the Queen K. An official on a motor scooter drives by
every now and then and encourages us to walk together for safety but I can find
no-one who’s pace approximates mine—I’m either materially slower or faster (yes
there are some people out here that I’m passing!). In my 3 races here it always seems to take
forever to get to the Energy lab cut-off, but I finally do.
I’m
enjoying the night sky and all the stars.
Every now and then someone passes the other way with their glow sticks
and an occasional light. I’m making
steady progress and rather enjoying myself as it cools. I keep reminding myself I’m doing Kona for
the 3rd time and for a low-talent like myself, that is pretty
remarkable. Around 18 there is a giant
video screen and my four kids pop up and yell out taped words of
encouragement. I hadn’t expected that—really
nice to see friendly faces out there. I
also see Mark and we stop and chat. He’s
struggling and worried about making the cut-off but we do the math and I urge
him to stay conservative and he’ll make it (which he does on both
accounts). My next 5 miles (my HR
monitor stops functioning here):
16: 16:56
17: 15:22
18: 15:06
19: 17:21
20: 16:50
Back on the
Queen K I soldier on and soon familiar milestones present themselves. I dance at one of the aid stations and am
increasingly looking forward to my imminent trip back down Ali’i. Nearing 25, Andrew Mesick, the CEO of
Ironman, rides up and accompanies me for a half-mile or so. We have a nice chat (pretty cool that he’s
out there) and he tells me there were 231 drafting penalties handed out today
(over 10% of the field—this never ceases to amaze me here at Kona. I may be slow, but I do follow the
rules!) My next five miles leading up to
the top of Palani Hill:
21: 16:54
22: 17:19
23: 17:52
24: 17:48
25: 17:05
I turn
right onto Palani and head down the hill.
I can hear the party up ahead. I
make the left at the hot corner and I’m hearing tons of words of
encouragement. Us back of the packers
seem to be crowd favorites here at Kona—I think people relate to our struggles.
Soon
enough I’m on Ali’i—perhaps for the last time in this race—and I’m hi-fiving
and having a great time. A bit of a tear
or two slides down my face and finally I run down the final chute. I weave from side to side slapping as many
hands as I can. I can see myself up on
the big screen and it truly is amazing to see everyone and all the sights and
sounds!
I stop
before the final chute and pull an imaginary arrow from my imaginary quiver and
fire it at the clock. I run up the ramp
and I can see Alex ahead of me with a big smile. At the finish line I hold my hands up
pretending to be a “tree” and say, “I am Groot”, which is the family joke of
this trip.
Alex
gives me a lei and a big hug and soon all of my kids, my wife and my mother are
around me giving lots of love. Yep—it’s
a great moment! I see Troy and Frankie
and thank them and then am delighted to see Midge and Tim as well. I get my medal and finisher’s t-shirt and we
all get our pictures taken in various groups.
My run ends up taking 6:56:25. The slowest marathon of my life. I end up with a total time of 15:48:57—my
slowest IM by over two hours. I finish
1907 out of the 2187 finishers (12.8 %-tile).
I’m 108th on the run in my AG and I finish 100th
in my AG for the race (13.9%-tile). I do
manage to beat the great Laurent Cali, the famous cyclist. Most older competitors today have trouble
finishing and indeed none of the 80+ competitors can make it today.
We
retreat to the King Kam where I grab a shower and then Jen, Anders and I head
down to watch the 17-hour party. It was
a real blast and great to see the pros out there supporting the back end of the
field. One poor guy stumbles in after
the 17-hour cut-off and collapsed in front of the finish line—what heartbreak!
And so
another Kona draws to its end. I didn’t
have the race I wanted nor expected to have but it really doesn’t matter. It’s my favorite race in the world and now
I’ve managed to finish it three times—hard to believe. The best part though was having my whole
family there—it doesn’t get any better than that!
Thanks for reading!
Randy called twice from Base Camp today, strikingly different conditions from one call to the other.
