Race Report: Honu 70.3, Part III

Since Ironman Canada is the "A" race of the year, I didn't have the typical time goal expectation going into this race. After crashing during the bike at Wildflower Long a month earlier, my main goal naturally is "Don't crash!" I was more curious whether I really don't melt in hot weather racing like I think. Honu 70.3 would be the true test as it felt humid here in Kona even at night.

Swim (0:49:44)
This was my first non-wetsuit swim race, and thankfully the ocean water was pleasantly more buoyant than I thought. What a nice surprise! The swim was an in-water start and in a triangle. At the first buoy, there was quite a bit of congestion, so lots of arms flailing and legs kicking as we tread water for a minute. The water was so clear that we can wave at the scuba divers as we swim. I must be getting better at swimming because the second buoy came sooner than I expected. The water was so clear that I was able to spot a Trifinity race kit after I rounded the second buoy. I knew it must be Lisa, so I put a surge on to catch up and tried to stay on her toes for the rest of the swim. I came out of the water pleased with the 1 min 30 sec improvement from Wildflower Long.

T1 (0:05:50)
It was a rather long incline up to the transition area, but I should have known that given it took awhile to get down to the swim at the start.

Bike (3:30:07)
I didn't get a chance to study the bike course map, so I hoped the direction would be clearly marked. The first stretch going south had a slight downhill, and I was freezing! I could barely feel my fingers and my toes were having an argument with my mind. I was so glad to make the first turnaround because we started climbing a little and I started to warm up. We stayed on this road for a really long time, and I felt like I was getting slower and slower. If I had studied the map, then I would've known that it was because we were on a false flat. I didn't know this at the time, so I just put my head down and kept plugging away.

At one point, I saw a guy shamelessly drafting off a girl up ahead. I say shamelessly because he was literally right on her tail with probably less than a centimeter to spare. Ten minutes passed by, and he was still drafting off her. Finally, someone passing her told her that she had a tail, and she sped up to try to shake her tail. Unfortunately, he also sped up and stayed right on her tail for as far as I could see them.

That was a nice distraction, and now back to the grind. By now, the headwind going towards Hawi has picked up. Apparently this headwind is almost guaranteed to be there each race. Since my bike crash, I haven't gotten the courage to get back down on my aero bars, so I could only try to duck as low as possible. I was so relieved to see the turnaround and the end of the headwind. The moment of relief lasted only a few seconds because I realized that we had been on a false flat, and now we're descending with a tailwind plus cross wind. For someone who loves ascending more than descending (aka I hate descending), I was just hanging on for dear life. Every time the cross wind hits, I screamed silently inside.

I didn't even care about what time or pace I was going. I just wanted to make it back without another catastrophic crash. And thankfully I did!

T2 (0:01:44)
Fast, but still not my fastest!

Run (2:21:31)
Again, I didn't study the run course map, so I just hoped for the best. I knew the first couple miles were going to be sucky, so I just focused on one foot in front of the other.

A few miles later, I heard a familiar sound call my name and it was Julia running on the other side in the other direction. Another few miles later, I saw Julia again, so now I'm starting to figure out that it must be some sort of clover shaped run.

I could feel the hot sun on my skin, but my body was actually cooling down so much so that I was shivering. All the friendly volunteers at the aids stations were offering ice, and I was probably the only person that was running away from the ice sponges. Brrr...

My legs were starting to feel a little tired when we started to go down a hill. I knew that means we got to go back up the same hill and I knew I could still negative split if I just pushed through the last couple miles, so I resolved to myself while I was running downhill that I would run up the whole uphill without walking. It took everything I got not to stop and walk. I was so happy to round a corner and finally saw the stretch down the finish line.

I did it! I negative split!

 

Total (6:48:54)

Overall, this was a huge PR for me. I thought it was my first sub-7 performance, but I had forgotten that I broke 7 hours at Vineman 70.3 two years ago. The best part of this race was truly yet to come because now it's real vacation time!!! 

I would highly recommend the Honu 70.3 half ironman to any triathlete who wants to enjoy a beautiful course, gets a glimpse of the iconic Kona race course, and tags on a nice vacation after the race!

Aloha!

Race Report: Honu 70.3, Part II

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonades, right? A two-hour delay on an early morning flight means I get to sleep in for two extra hours.

At the airport, a different aircraft had to be brought in because last evening's flight never made it to SFO, so all the people on yesterday's flight were put on or waitlisted for this morning's flight. While I was bummed that I missed the First Class upgrade by one spot, I was glad I was confirmed on this flight because about 20 people were bumped including at least one racer who was trying desparatly to make his case to the airline staff. Even better, once we were airborne, the pilot informed that we will be making up the time delay by an hour. TOTALLY LEMONADE!

I had fully visualize today's "pre-race" race against time during the flight. From the moment the plane touched down in Kona, it was game on! Grabbed TomCat, hopped into car rental shuttle then rental car, and the race down the Queen K begins - wow, this must be what racers at world championship feel except I'm barely breaking a sweat!

The next few hours were a blur:
~ arrived at Fairmont, the race expo
~ shuttle from race parking to expo
~ paid USAT fee
~ picked up race packet
~ dropped off T2 bag (thank goodness it was pre-packed and I had it with me)
~ finished a sandwich in less than a minute while gawking at Chris Lieto, the race's #1 seed
~ shuttle back to race parking
~ drove to Hapuna Beach
~ put bike together (thank goodness Colin helped me slapped it together in only a few minutes)
~ dropped bike off at T1
~ hurriedly back to check in at hotel before all the hungry athletes show up for dinner at my place, and when I say hungry athletes, I mean like I was getting messages in all CAPITAL LETTERS because I haven't yet check in so cannot inform where dinner was!!

6pm. Done. Not a minute earlier. A whole day's gone by but now it's finally time to sit back and relax. Our wonderful pre-race chefs, Allison & Liz, made all the racers a wonderful meal. THANKS ladies! Fueled and now ready for the real race!

Endurance Sport, Part III to be continued...

Race Report: Honu 70.3, Part I

Traveling for triathlon races is no easy task because of the amount of equipment involved. TomCat, my bike, is not yet packed. His pedals wouldn't come off so needed a visit to the LBS (local bike shop). He just got a new hydration system so needed to test out the positioning - yes, totally broke the rule on not using anything new during a race but it's going to be hot in Hawaii plus better to test it at this race than at Ironman Canada.
 
Another new gear I bought was the half wetsuit - just the bottom - since a full wetsuit would be too warm for this water but the bottom will still have the buoyancy for the legs. As I'm trying it on for fit, a text from United Airline came in to notified passengers that tomorrow morning's flight has been delayed by 2 hours. Funny enough all week long I've been telling our Hawaii crew that if my flight is delayed by 2 hours, I would miss the registration/packet pick-up and would be forced to sit on the beach under the sun with a Mai Tai or Piña Colada instead of racing. Oh no, how dreadful! ;)

With the wetsuit bottom pulled up halfway, I waddled over to my computer to check the new flight arrival time and race logistics in Athlete's Guide. Now with the wetsuit bottom still halfway done up, I'm flipping through the Athlete's Guide and noticed that the wetsuit rule has been updated to no wetsuit allowed - full stop (versus previously wetsuit was allowed but racers wearing wetsuit would not be eligible for podium nor prizes). Well, no more need for this wetsuit bottom that I'm trying on. Got it off faster than I could ever put it on!

Next task is packing TomCat into his travel bag. Pedals off - check! Seat off, derailleur off, wheels off - easy! Affix frame to the bottom of the travel case and wheels to the side of the travel case - took a bit of time but not too bad. Oh oh, I don't have any foam paddings, what shall I do? Oh yes, I knew all the cotton race t-shirts collected over the years would come into good use one day. The next part, the wrapping of bike parts to bike frame so nothing is loose, took forever. Two hours later, TomCat is ready for Hawaii. Three hours later, I was packed for Hawaii. But then I realized that I will have less than an hour between touching down in Kona, picking up luggage, renting a car and driving to race site, so I would have zero time to sort out T1 and T2 transition bags there, so unpack and repack everything in the fourth hour.

Five hours later, I am ready to start the destination race journey. For a fast pro, he could've finished a half ironman in this time.

Endurance Sport, Part II to be continued...