BlogOctober 15, 2007 Kona 2007 Race Report It's difficult to put into words the last few days spent on the Big Island of Hawaii. I came to the 2007 Ironman World Championships feeling like I was fairly prepared and with what seemed like a realistic viewpoint. I learned, that in this race, a lot of assumed objectivity goes out the window! From the second the plane landed last week I was ready for this race. I liked Kona right away, and it seemed too cool that the drive from the airport into town covered the last ten or so miles of both the bike and the run! It looked desolate, but not too big a deal. Once arriving in the area, days passed with normal pre-Ironman light training. As the event grew closer, the pre-race hype here was a little overwhelming! I tended to stay quite a ways from the scene down by the race but even still it was apparent. I couldn't imagine being one of The Big Three or anyone else who took their result in this race too seriously. Pressure at a triathlon? It seemed odd. Every morning during the pre-race week most of the competitors gathered down at the swim start to do some of the swim course. The ocean was clear and beautiful, so it was like snorkling while swimming. That first day I saw a big sea turtle, lots of tropical fish, an interesting stingray, all in a 30 minute workout. I also saw hundreds of some of the fittest people I've ever seen all looking quite intense. Not your normal Ironman crowd! Laurent Jalabert, my former cycling idol was down there swimming. With a bit of insistence on my part, I was lucky enough to get my picture taken with him. I also got to meet a lot of non-famous people who seemed pretty cool. Everyone looked, and probably was, fast and I was asking for the advice in this crowd. My shoulder injury had plagued me for a while, and I had a lot of fear that this swim would give me trouble. 2.4 miles in the ocean and no wetsuit, with the possibility of surf and chop, it could be hard on me coming in undertrained. I got out on the bike course a couple of times. My first ride was easy and I thought it would be a piece of cake. The second time I went out a little further and the wind was howling like a Phoenix Coyote. I rode with my friend, Dr. Eric VM, and he knows a lot about this place so he was showing me the ropes. I was maybe 20 miles out at that time and the scenery was just black lava, so it was hot too. Everyone said that from that point to the Hawi turn-around, about 50 miles out, the wind increased in speed, often double. Now this ride scared me. I tried not to think about any of this too much and let the preparations go on as planned. Race morning, there was nothing unusal except the feeling that this was a MAJOR sporting event. On par with an NBA finals game or something like that. Just so many cameras and people watching, no parking, helicopters, normal things like that. A lot of the people may have had little or no interest in triathlon but were there because it was the place to be. This was nice to see as it rattled my nerves and forced me into being pumped to race. Heading down for the pro start I looked around at the 95 other pro dudes and realized I recognized just about all of them. Most Ironmans, I look for the 4-5 real players out there and try to key off of them. Now they were all in one place here for this one day, from all over the world! Right before I jumped in the water with ten minutes before the gun I heard that Faris Al-Sultan got sick overnight and wouldn't be racing. It was unfortunate, because it's always nice to experience a good race. Not having him out there had to take a little something away from the event. We lined up to swim with famous big wave surfer Laird Hamilton as one of the paddle-boarders attempting to keep us from creepin' across the elusive starting line. He's another famous guy I always wanted to meet, still do. I think these guys got tired of holding us back and so off went the cannon. I went out fairly hard as planned. Everyone told me if you can get through the first 800 meters with this group, you can make it the remaining 3200 to the finish because there are so many good swimmers. By the time you're 30-40 guys back it's like you're swimming downstream in a current. This was true! We stayed as a massive group all the way to the turnaround point at 1.2 miles until it started to splinter a little bit. My shoulder wasn't bothering me much, and we seemed to get out to the turnaround in no time so I was clearly in a submerged giddy state. Coming back I was in a little group that broke off the back but secretly I was a little happy about this. I was hoping to make it out of the water feeling good, not wasted. This little group I was in contained Michllie Jones, this Danish guy Jimmy Johnson, and Norman Stadler. I was happy to be in their company and went about conserving as much energy as possible to the swim exit. Out of the water I felt amazing! My easiest Ironman swim ever. I should've perhaps tried harder to make the lead group but now I had Stadler to pull me up there right? DUDE, these guys took off through town. First you go up this medium-easy three mile hill, pull a u-turn, come back to town and then do the 50 or so miles out the Queen K to Hawi. I settled in with some big names, again, I was happy to be there. I noticed Eduardo Sturla and followed him up the hill. Near the top the lead guys came flying back the other direction. I was still within a couple of minutes meaning I'd had a very solid swim! It's amazing that I could see Norman up ahead out've transition and he'd all ready put perhaps over a minute onto me, so much for riding with him. Out onto the Queen K I was feeling strong. It was a big group, lots of big names. Ideally I'd be in the first group but I had to be happy with where I was. I was riding with Xavier La Flouch, I knew he was pretty good at the Long Course World Championships this summer in L'Orient. Also, of course Sturla, and Viktor Zemestev, who won Ironman Coeur d'Alene this year and Lake Placid last year. After a few aid stations, I noticed it was pretty darn hot, and really windy. Still no big deal. Heading into one of the aid stations I noticed I didn't feel like drinking. My stomach was huge too, well, bigger than even my normal beer belly. Everything was sitting in there. I learned later that during the ocean swim we take in 12 or so ounces of salt water. For the first hour of the bike, it's a good idea to drink just water to dilute this salt. Unfortunately, I wasn't smart enough to do that this time. So, I didn't feel like drinking because my gut was filled up all ready. I was happy to be in this group, so I figured I'd just roll along. Just before the left turn to Hawi, both quads cramped severely. This was so unfortunate because I'd all ready passed the swim comfortably, I wasn't too worried about the bike, and was told we still had a marathon to run! Also, we were rolling along and I felt like I had been conserving. We hadn't even started the climb to Hawi and I was trying to figure out how I was going to get up that hill with these cramps. Out the back of this group I went, and I continued riding easy alone. Now it seemed like forever until the next aid station, and I LOADED up. I took water, gatorade, powergels, everything. On my bike I took a couple salt tabs, probably exactly what I didn't need. I rolled along for what seemed like forever. I figured that as soon as I turned at Hawi it would be downhill and a favorable wind, this is what kept me going, all the time riding about sixty percent or my legs would lock up again. Somehwere on that hill Rutger Beke flew by me. Unbelievable, I had figured I was out've this race for 30 minutes and now the dude who has come in second place in this race is right with me. I followed him, I cramped, this was awful. I took in more fluids and it seemed like everything was piling on top of what was all ready in my stomach. It's unusal for anyone to cramp this badly so early in a race, something was wrong. I saw the helicopter coming back the other way, Chris Lieto FLEW by, followed closely by Sinballe. Then a pack, all the players in it, I figured the winner would come from there. In a few more minutes I hit the turnaround and could still see Beke. There was still hope! On the way down the hill the wind was brutal. Next year I'm using a shallower front wheel with less surface area. I was just getting blown around like mad! The wind was bad enough that I wasn't able to drink or ride in the aerobars, I just white-nuckled my way along for a few miles. By now, Beke had officially dropped me and I was riding on my own again. Nobody in front of me that I could see, nobody behind. You can see a long ways in this race too! Near the bottom of the hill, you take a right and head the last 33 miles on the rolling, hot, windy, Queen K back to town. At this point I'm tired of fighting cramps and just wanted to get back to transition with the intention of living to fight another day. Two things happenned at this point. The first was I passed Cameron Brown, he was just cruising, about to stop - he'd been 2nd here and is one of my most favorite triathletes. Every time I think I'm done I find myself near a superstar and have to keep going. The other was I remembered a conversation I'd had with good friend Preston Miller this past week. He made a good point that the most important thing for my first Hawaii was that I get through it. Not through just the swim and some of the bike, but the whole race. Macca dropped out've his first two tries at Kona and finally walked in on his third for an 11+ hour day. I remembered him saying that he needed to just post a time, even walking, so that he could prove to himself he could finish and work from there. This guy had won many World Championships and was perhaps the most recognizable personality in the sport at that time. If he thought it was important, man, I really had to do what it took to get to the finish! I made the right turn and headed for town. I couldn't see anybody behind and Brown was quickly gone behind. Thankfully there was a tailwind so I put it in a big gear and just turned the legs hoping not to cramp. I set a little goal that I wanted to get back to transition before the first pro female. I didn't realize at the time that they were almost half an hour behind me. I continued for an hour all alone. Still hot, still not digesting anything, still throwing up every now and then off the side of my bike. It kind of made me chuckle, the whole situation. Around 15 miles to go this dude rolls by me with a 'nice job'. I figured, ah, I'll try to ride with him. I felt terrible, but I liked this guy's riding style. He looked smooth, strong, seasoned. I couldn't imagine Michellie Jones rolling up on him so I figured if I could ride with him to the finish, without cramping, I would accomplish my goal! He made me increase the tempo, close to getting cramps a couple of times, and I felt the little tinges you get right before a muscle locks. Thankfully, he never went too fast and we rode together all the way back to the run start. I later realized (just from looking at the splits, race numbers, and pictures) that this guy was Thomas 'Hell-On-Wheels' Hellreigal. 1997 Kona Champion and former bike course record holder before Sinballe broke it in 2005, apparently a guy like that looks good even on an off day. Into transition there were some big names heading out onto the run, oh man, this meant I still had to race. I glanced at the clock and it read 5:48, with a 3:10 marathon I could still break 9 hours on a brutally hot and windy day in Kona. The problem was that I hadn't taken anything in for SO long that I knew the possibility of making it through a marathon was miniscule. Off on the run I was overwhelmed by the camaraderie through town. My friend Lance Muzslay yelled at me,'you look awesome, better than anyone so far!' I actually believed him. I had to look worse than ANYONE so far, I was so lucky to be there and shouldn't have still been in the race. I looked and felt awful. I ran through town, trying to look good until I got away from all the people. I was around 25th-30th place early in the run which wasn't terrible considering everything. A couple miles in, heading down Alii drive I was finally able to do some throwing up in peace. Thankfully, this was followed by an aid station. These aid stations rocked. I sponged my body all over, put some sponges under my shoulders, and then put a bunch of ice down my tri-suit which gathered in the groin area. This was fantastic! About 1.5 miles from the first turn around at mile 5 Lieto came back looking pretty fast, this guy was really ready to rip it up here. Soon after Lieto I saw Deboom, Alexander, Macca, I figured Macca would probably win. It surprised me that I actually was still sort of in the race! I made the turn around about 10 minutes later and started heading back to town. My plan was to run as far as I could (except for vital stops) and then when it was finally time to walk, walk the rest. Around 7-8 miles it was time to walk but the problem I faced was that you ran through town again at mile 9 and the crowds were building. I didn't want to be the first pro walking, even though this would probably make me famous as I'd be spending a lot of time in front of thousands of people. Now I was forced to RUN for three more miles and pretend I felt ok when I could barely stand up. At mile ten, leaving town I saw my dad and he told me that I'd lost 4 minutes to the leaders in the first ten miles of the run! The way I felt, and the stops I'd been making, this was remarkable! Mind you, this was 4 minutes to Lieto, who'd lost about 5-6 to Macca but was still leading, of course at the time that math was impossible to do and there's no way my dad would've noticed such a pessimistic (for me) observation. As soon as the crowds were gone and out onto the Queen K I started walking. I lathered up the sunscreen and set a goal just to finish. I wasn't sure I could make it. Also, I wanted to cheer on some of my competitors and other friends as I normally don't get to do that in big races. I walked and walked and walked and with a few miles to go Brian Lavelle creeped by at a glacial pace. Brian's an amazing triathlete and a guy I look up to. I figured I was tired of getting sunburned and he's running ultra-slow (we're talkin' 9-10 minute miles here) so perhaps it was time to start running again. For a while I yo-yo'd. I couldn't run that slow, so I'd get fifty feet ahead, then I had to walk, so Brian would catch me and put fifty feet onto me. This went on for a while until finally I just stayed with him. Honestly, this was far more painful than run-walking. When we hit the last steep downhill with a mile to go he took off running! I actually went slower as I figured such an activity may jeopardize my chances of finishing! My plan was to walk the stretch before Alii Drive so that I could run to the line on the finishing camera and look cool, but that didn't work because I saw my friend Shawn who was yelling at me to run. Oh man, this would really suck if I screwed it up now, but I made it up to waddle-speed for the final 400 meters and ran through the finish, sort of. You have to climb this ramp up to break the finishing tape, this was so difficult. After the finish they took me straight to medical. They asked me how my day was, I told them I'll be posting a blog in a few days. They told me that's not what they meant. I laid there for a while and this doctor asked me what size my bike was, I told him. He then said that if I knew that I was all right. Maybe he didn't realize that I would probably forget my last name before my bike size! After another twenty minutes I got up and moved over to the hotel pool next to finish line. This was maybe 30 feet from both finish and the medical tent. My family was here, and they were ordering all kinds of food and drinks. It was kind of cool watching people come in, many collapsing, being whisked straight through where we were to medical. I ate a little, drank some, wasn't feeling any better. After an hour or two things got worse. I had to lay down. I did, at the pool, then I went back to medical, 3 hours from when I finished! They didn't like some of their test results this time and immediately got an IV hooked up. In there, they put lots of anti-nausea medication as that was one of my biggest problems. I told them I'd been throwing up all day long wasn't feeling any better. When that was done, it was time to go home and go to bed. Still not feeling well, I was up all night fighting the urge to throw up and an upset stomach. It was awful! I won't do this race again without taking a good look at nutrition and talking to some true experts about how to combat what I experienced out there. In writing this I feel good that I feel this bad, in the sense that even though my time isn't what I would've liked I did leave all that I had on the day, on the course, just as PM had suggested I do. Here's a few other things I learned about my competition in my first KONA: -Chris Lieto rides a bike fast, really fast. When I saw him flying back from Hawi, it left a visceral impact on my psyche. -Laurent Jalabert is a great cyclist and a pretty good triathlete, he's not all that friendly though. -Tim Deboom is far from finished and may not have won his last IM World Championship -Luc Van Lierde ' ' -Rutger Beke has lots and lots and lots of resolve. -Macca is the man, and will be for a while, he approaches the sport with the strongest mind and perhaps the most talent, an unbeatable combination. -If Macca faulters or even becomes the slightest bit lazy, Craig Alexander is ready to take over. 2nd in his debut Kona with a 2:45 marathon, SICK. -Throwing my expectations out the window somehwere near Hawi is the only thing that got me to the finish! Also, before I forget, I'd like to thank some of my many fantastic supporters for getting me to this point. TRI-SCOTTSDALE, for motivating me every single day to do this great sport with great friends. RIGHT-TOYOTA, for a fantastic vehicle and great sponsorship. WELLEMENTS, for very healthy and tasty organic energy bars. VEMMA, for your incredible juice, and of course GO! AIRLINES for getting me to the races! Also, working with Nate at ENDURANCE REHAB is the only reason I got through that swim (ironically, the best part of my whole day!) and GAINEY VILLAGE for giving me a cool place to hang out and train with cool people. This winter I'm also very much looking forward to doing more work with the SUSAN G. KOMEN Foundation now that I'll have a lot more time on my hands. This should continue to be an amazing experience and rewarding on my different levels. See you in Clearwater! Lewis « Back to Blogs |
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