The preparation leading up to the event went well. We went
into Bletchley town centre and got batteries put into 3 dead sports watches
(marginally cheaper than buying new ones), had a Costa Coffee and some cake to
start the carb-load for the endurance feat that lay ahead, then nipped into
Sainsburys for nutrition to see us through the event – Hawaiian Pizzas, Beer,
Barcardi and Pineapple & Coconut juice for the Pina Coladas.
We got to HQ in plenty of time to set up the equipment,
getting the ironman.com live feed going and hooked up to the TV in the lounge
and Facebook/Twitter on my mobile. We were ready!
Before we knew it, the pros were off. I marvelled at how
effortless they made the swim look. It was all quite civilised for the pros
with so few of them going off at the same time. The Age Grouper’s start just
looked plain scary! I’ve been in quite a few mass starts now, including IM
Austria which resembled what Kona looked like. I used to handle them ok, but in
the last couple of years I’ve developed the annoying tendency to suffer anxiety
attacks when swimming in packs at the start of swims. I’m ok once my breathing
settles, but sometimes it takes a while to get there. This is something I
really need to get over as I can’t afford to lose 5 minutes on my rivals before
the race has even begun!!
Anyway, onto the bike and watching the route with interest.
The surface looked lovely and smooth, not like the potholed, metal surfaces we
have to put up with locally. The hills didn’t look too bad, although it was
hard to tell from the camera angles. It was the things you can’t see on TV that
seemed to be the main challenges on the bike, the wind and the heat.
Entering the last hour on the bike, I changed my nutrition
strategy from beer to Pina Colada and thought it would be wise to get some solids
on board, so we stuck the pizza in the oven.
The run looked quite brutal. I’ve never seen people take so
much from each aid station. It looked like a supermarket grab at times with
athletes taking anything they could lay their hands on. I’ve biked and run in
severe heat quite a bit and am not too bad at it, but this did look extreme.
Pete Jacobs was dominant on the run, it was so impressive.
Just his ability and presence pushed Marino over the brink, but hats off to him
to going for it. He could easily of took his foot off the gas and settled for
a podium, but took the “death or glory” approach instead. I like that sort of
attitude.
Leanda Cave was equally impressive. A very well judged run,
she knew what she had to do and paced it to perfection. Unlike Rach, who crashed on the sofa an hour
into the run. She took on too much of the Barcardi-based nutrition and DNF’d.
Hopefully she will learn from this experience when she’s in Hawaii supporting
next year!
I made it until the first Age Grouper came over the line. It
was past 3am and I was whacked. I loved watching it though and learned/reinforced
a few lessons, not just about Kona but racing in general.
This time next year ... !
TTFN!
Lightweight!
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