Kona - 2008 - Race Day

anxiety, anticipation, INSANITY, frustration, excitment, strength, weakness, determination, pride, beaten, focused, elated, agony, encouraged, lonely, hopeful, exhaustion, triumphant............finished!

Those are just a few of the emotions that all of us felt yesterday at this amazing race. I haven done a lot of races in my lifetime and none of them compare to this one.......on many levels. Starting at 5am in the morning, the music is blaring at the transition area as 1800 anxious triathletes frantically run around dropping of their special foods and drinks at their designated locations, getting body marked, pumping up bike tires, putting nutrition and fluids on the bike and making their way down to the swim corral. The Navy seals parachute in and then the drums and shell horns start, the helicopters and news cameras are everywhere. The professionals are in the water at 6:30 awaiting the cannon that fires at random so you don't know when it will happen. As soon as the National anthem ends, the first cannon fires and the pro men and women are off. Now it is chaos as all of us amateurs make our way into the narrow swim line. There are kayaks and canoes to keep us inside the bouys but all you feel are arms and legs trying to stay afloat for the next 15 min. Every where you turn you are faced with someone in your space and you start to feel a little claustrophobic. It is getting cold and you are just fighting to not get tired waiting for the start. All of a sudden the cannon goes off and it is just white water in your face. It was a constant beating for over an hour and while it was great that you could see the bottom and the scuba divers down taking pictures, all you wanted was to get the swim over and get out of this craziness! The "turn bouy" for the swim happens to be a big sailboat so that was at least easy to spot but for most of the swim it was just following the arms and legs in front of you.

Ah the swim is over! So we all run thru the hose showers to rinse off before grabbing our bike bag and heading to the changing tent. As we head out onto the bike the streets are lined with spectators cheering and clapping you really do feel like you are somebody! The first few miles of the bike were through town so you had to be cautious and it was a good opportunity to transition from sea legs to land legs. So after about 30 min of in town riding we headed out to the famous "queen K" highway. It was starting to get warm but I was just so excited to be there............that lasted all of about 90 min until we started to head towards Hawi and the winds picked up to a lovely 30 mile an hour head wind/cross wind. Your enthusiasm takes a real beating when you go from cycling at close to 20 mph to 9 or 10 mph in that wind. So for over 90 min it was constant wind in your face, even the beautiful coastline in the distance was not enough of a distraction. However the idea of that lovely tail wind after we would turn around was motivating. When I finally reached the turn around I was excited to see my parent's, my brother, sister in law and my 2 nieces there cheering for me. And yes that tail wind.................which unfortunately lasted all of about 25 min as the winds shifted. So now it is back to that cross wind where you are leaning sideways to avoid being blown off the bike. I have no idea what the gusts were but it was enough to make it difficult to even grab your water bottle to take a drink. The heat was beating down and I heard that the heat index was over 100 degrees. I thought when we made the turn back to the Queen K that we would be out of the wind but instead of the cross wind, it was back to the headwind. That has to be one of the most demoralizing feelings and all you can do is put your head down and pray. Your mind wanders to all sorts of things and you really think of the pure insanity of all of it. I have to admit, the last 12 miles seemed endless but once again the cheering crowds as I headed back into town lifted my spirits. The volunteers are absolutely amazing as they take your bike and help you get your socks and shoes on as well get you anything else you need to get started on the marathon. The first few miles flew by pretty quickly as Alli drive was completely closed to traffic so it was all runners and spectators. Every aid station was full of gatorade, cola, water, sports gels, chicken broth, bananas and orange slices so you sort of get to pick what sounds good at that particular moment. I saw my family and friends again both at mile 2 and mile 7 and then it was up a hill and back out on the queen K. I felt pretty good up thru mile 10 and then my achilles was really giving me a tough time so I started taking walk breaks thru the aid stations to give it some relief. And the count down begins.........it really gets tough around mile 15 or 16 as there are still so many miles to go and yet you have done so many miles. The course takes you through what is called the "natural energy lab" and it is anything but that. You run down a hill to a desolate place and turn around and run back up the hill. The aid stations are now your only drive and you say to yourself, "just run to the next aid station." Now it is getting dark and there are no street lights and all you can see is the line of "glow in the dark rings" that the runners are wearing. At about mile 20 I started making bargins with myself such as "you get to walk for few seconds at the next aid station", "you can still break 4 hours in the marathon if you stop being a whimp", "you can run 6 miles in your sleep!"...etc. I think that was the longest last 2 miles of my life as I could hear the crowds screaming and the lights of the finish line were so close. The course took you down a big hill before the last turn onto Alli drive and I thought it might be less painful to just roll myself down the hill..........but not so glamorous so I kept running. The finish line was the best thing I could have seen with the big screen TV, the announcers, the grandstand filled with specators, my family and complete strangers high fiving me all the way down the line. It was awesome but a huge relief as I have never wanted to be finished with something so badly in my life as every step was painful. After you run up the ramp and you have been declared an "ironman", you get a fresh lei put around your neck along with your finisher medal. You are then shuffled off to the food tent (which I was already on the verge of hurling so I by passed that) and on to pick up you finisher T shirt. The next 2 hours are spent attempting to eat 1 piece of pizza and get your stomach to settle down. Of course you get to watch all the other athletes come in as well and that is always inspirational.

My athletes did great! We came here for our first trip to kona and finished in the top half of our age groups on a really tough day. Everyone was saying that this is the toughest year they have had in a long time due to the wind and heat so I am proud b/c the difference between this race and the other IM races is that it is the "world championships" and all but 150 people actually had to qualify to get here. So we came, gave it our best and we are "Hawaii Ironman finishers!"

Today is a day of miserable soreness. We have all sworn that we will never do this again. Of course that is such a silly statement that I have probably said at least a dozen times in my life and yet I still find myself signing up for some other crazy event. I must admit though, this race was the hardest race I have ever done and I have enough hurt to last me awhile. We are about to head to the awards banquet, that is if I can get up from this chair. Things are ok if you keep moving but once you sit still, it gets really ugly!

We only have 1 more full day in kona so we hope to go to the volcano tomorrow. Thanks again to all of you who have supported me (us), prayed, thought about and took the time to read the blogs. I hope you enjoyed this incredible experience with me.

See you at home!
Heather