Here’s Paul and I chilling at the side of Alii drive watching the final finishers come in. Jane befriended a couple of local ladies with these awesome chairs. They went off to their car to get these extra chairs for us.

Race Report here.

Yesterdays race was a battle. I can come up with alsorts of reasons why I just couldn’t run fast …. the experimental period between the two races didn’t work, I pushed too hard in the tough cycle conditions. That, however, would be ignoring the ‘Elephant in the room’. I was just not recovered from Wisconsin, I was plain and simple tired. The reasons why I can’t recover for another race so close may be just the simple fact I’m nearly 40 and need to be more careful about recover. I’ll certainly think long and hard before trying two Ironman races so close again.

I do endurance things to see how far I can go. This lead me to Ironman. When you perform well you can argue you’re not testing your limits for that day. It’s when you melt down u’ve hit your limit and can learn something. Yesterday I used up all my juice by the end of the bike. Unfortunately I didn’t realise this till I was approaching T2. My legs worked for about 20 minutes of the run then there was an almost instant drop off of 90 seconds per mile. The rest was a case of mind over matter. It was hard but if I can apply that mental approach to keep pushing hard when I’m running well it could be a great help towards the sort of run splits I’d like to be doing.

All that said I had a fun day yesterday and there is no doubt this is the most amazing Ironman experience. I seem to have sussed out how to qualify for Kona now I need to suss out how to do well at it. Pretty quick as well as the goal is sub 9:30 next year !! Just need to find an hour ;o). This course really has a sting to it. On paper it looks quick but the weather is what stuffs you. Yesterday the swim was really choppy … fastest pro time was 48 which has to be a couple of minutes down on normal. We were treated to harsh bike conditions – we had the infamous Kona winds. I was quite pleased to be honest that finally I race in the gusting, nerve wrecking side winds and had a horrible head wind for the final section on the Queen K. The run conditions were excellent – cloud cover and relatively cool. Shame I didn’t have the legs to make the most of it.

Last night we watched the final finishers coming in. We sat for most of the time with this two local ladies how had these great reclining chairs with holes for beer cans in the arms. They went to their car to get some more chairs. Loads of people took photos of Paul and I sat their with our finishers t-shirts and medals cheering in the last finishers. We’d been to Splashers for beers and food – nice big burger. Then for Volcano Ice Cream. Paul and I went to the finish line to watch the last half hour of finishers. About half a dozen finished in the last 10 minutes … one on about 16:58:30 and the final one came in 4 minutes late. The crowd was awesome with everyone shouting “You are an Ironman!” to each final finisher.

This morning got up and swam with Toby and Paul. Nice easy swim. We met Roger and Mary in splashers for monster breakie. Then to the expo for finishers gear before heading out for 20 minutes on the bike. Packed the bike so I can now chill out with Jane and everyone to celebrate her birthday.

It’s been an awesome trip. Really made great by meeting Paul and Toby and having Roger along. It makes all the different having people here you know and hang out with. I think I’m hooked on Kona and pleased to know I’ll be coming back. Will spend my down time thinking about how I can be properly prepared for the race next year.