I've been slacking on writing a race report, i wanted to wait till i got home to take a look at my power numbers from the bike and get some other pictures scanned in, but here's a short version.
Woke up early on race day as usual, got 800 calories of protein shake in at 2 am, cereal at 4am, ran out the door and forgot my egg burrito, oops. Got down to the race site, still dark, really crowded, could feel the nervousness in the air.
Pretty much just sat around, waited in line for the porta potty(they only had 21 porta potties for 1800 athletes, that was crazy wrong). Had a bottle of gatorade and some gu to try and get the calories i missed from forgetting my breakfast. Overall things felt normal, certainly nervous.
The pros started at 6:45, the rest of us waded in, i treaded water for about 10 minutes near the front until the canon went off; finally. It was typical mayhem, no better no worse than other races, except it just never let up. The swim felt like it took forever, i felt like i was swimming really hard, as hard as i could, certainly felt faster than my time showed, but this course tends to produce slower times.. I came out of the water at : 1:06:38
T2 was packed, i changed on the side and picked up my bike.. The bike course, wow, the bike course. This course is anything but flat, but thats not what makes this course so difficult, its the conditions.. Hot, Humid, and Windy, and Windy, and Windy. I usually give myself about 30 minutes to settle down, but things weren't feeling quite right, i had some major stomach cramps which i attributed to salt water, and my heart rate was elevated 10-15beats for the power level i was at and wasn't coming down, something didn't quite feel right. We had a tail wind out of town so speeds were pretty fast in general, but it got hot fast. Within an hour i noticed my shorts were already covered with salt deposits, never seen it happen that early in a race. I decide to up my salt intake, drink as much as i can, and drop my power level 5-10watts to try and get myself normal(i never really made it). The climb to hawi starts around 42 miles or so, this is where it got really tough. The cross winds are legendary there and this day was no exception. There were a few points were i thought i was going to lose control of my bike, it was kinda scary. The pros were coming back and they were all over the road too, it was brutal.. It was in the high 80's at this point and the wind was crazy, i was happy to make the turn around at Hawi, but nervous about hitting the crosswinds again. More of the same, scary yet again, i was happy to finish that out and back and still be alive, really, i was happy to still be on my bike. the last 40 miles back to Kona was brutally hot, these are all rollers thru the lava fields, everything is black so the heat off the road is probably 10-20degrees hotter than the air temp. I could feel myself baking and wondering if i'd be able to make it back, i just couldn't drink enough. I finally made it back into town, thankful to be done on the bike. I can't stress how hard this bike ride is, the wind and the heat are unbearable, and down right dangerous, it is crazy crazy hard. My bike time ended up being about where i expected given the slightly reduced effort. Bike Time 5:27:06
As i was running thru transition, i noticed my feet were really sore, as i got into the tent, i found my toes had blistered on the bike.. What, blistered on the bike? Yep, the intense heat of the road caused my feet to swell in my bike shoes and ended up giving me some blisters.. I took some extra time in this transition to vaseline my toes and comfortably put on my shoes, oh yeh, it was friggen HOT.
The marathon alway hurts, today would be no exception, for whatever reason things weren't going my way and i knew it was going to be a long run, i walked the aid stations right from the beginning, taking in as much fluid, salts, coke as i could, hoping it would get me thru. The first 10 miles or so were just ok, nothing fast, but i at least was running in between aid stations. Then the wheels began to fall off. I was just plain hurtin, it was hot, i was completely soaked, there was just no way to cool off, not even walking helped much. Seeing my family was certainly uplifting, but it just wasn't enough.. You enter the energy labs around 18, at that point i was beginning to get dizzy, this is a really bad sign things are going bad. From then out i was more concerned about staying upright, so i started walking more and more.. Mile 20-25 was all walking, i managed to "jog" the last mile or so into town, just had too. This ended up being my second slowest marathon time ever, but still not too bad considering how much i had walked: Run Time: 4:29:53
Overall Time: 11:13:33
Even though i had a bad day, it was still very special, its hard to explain how that last 1/4 mile on Alii drive felt. So many things come to mind, sure its the end of an incredibly long day, but also the end of an incredibly long journey. All the hours i've trained, the hours i've thought about it, the personal and family sacrifices given over the years, and so much more, all to enable me the opportunity to run that last 1/4 mile on alii drive. I've seen it on tv hundreds of times and no tv production can do it justice. My head was clogged with emotions, i just wish it could have lasted longer. I can't really describe how it feels to accomplish something i've been striving for for so very long, so i won't. Simply put, it was amazing.
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