Kona Pics

The most telling one here is the look on my face at the end of the
bike. They other would be how happy I was to finish.
Coble

Race report

IM Kona Race Report

I am sure there is some proverb about preparedness and success but I
obviously did not follow. If anyone is interested in my excuses we can
do that in another email or over drinks.

Pre-race
At about 4:45 I packed my whole family in the car and headed down to
Kailua from the Mauna Lani (~30 miles) and arrived in to get set up.
They made you walk all over the place to get numbered and what not so
while I had plenty of and didn't need to set up the bike much I was
pretty much doing something all of the way till 6:45. Included was
getting my wrist taped. We did a wrap of stretchy tape and then a wrap
of water proof tape.

Swim 55:xx
I hopped in about when the PROs started so that I could get fully
warmed up. The new Sailfish suit felt good and the taped wrist felt
better than it had snorkeling on Friday. I found Matthew near the
middle in the front row. I seemed relaxed and was resigned to swim
slower than expected thanks to the darn wrist. I little pushing and
shoving as the few minutes counted down and then the cannon went off.
It was actually less chaotic than I expected. I could be that the
start area is rather wide; people know what they are doing and stay
out of the way of the fast people, or some combination. Either way I
started smooth and decided try a few open palm strokes in the first
few hundred meters. Since the pain was not as bad as I expected and
decided that kicked in the face hurt more than swimming with my wrist
I decided to just push through the pain. I found a good rhythm about
20 min in and found myself next to Chris Hauth. Right as we entered
the turnaround I noticed that Chris kicked it into another gear and
must have wanted to bridge a small gap.  I did not feel like swimming
any harder on my wrist so I let other people hold his feet. I probably
should have taking matters into my own hands since they were not the
strongest swimmers because at about the 40 min mark the rubber band
snapped and my group lost the leaders. I swam to shore with what was
the 3rd group about 2 min down of Matthew's group and maybe a minute
behind Chris. Albert and I hopped out of the water at about the same
time.

T1
Nothing special. I took my time and made sure to put the lip block in
my shorts. Smart move because I have healthy lips today. It wasn't
till mile 15 of the bike did I realize that I did not get any
sunscreen in T1. I did put my bike shoes on and rank with them. Little
awkward but no big deal.

Bike 5:19.xx
I felt rather strong on the bike. Comfortable on the Leopard I had
borrowed 4 days before (after one BS crash my Cervelo is jinxed). The
first quick out and back felt ok. And when I hit Pailani I knew my
power was a tad low and/or these guys were going hard. I decided not
to do much passing and would sit a legal 10 meters back of a group.
Problem was they were not sitting 10 back and/or I could not maintain
much power. I would lose a group and then holding on. I did this all
of the way to the 19 T, still feeling reasonable. The road up to Hawi
undulates and then climbs the last few miles. It is something that
could be done 100% in the big ring if you are in shape. As the road
trended up I lost more and more ground but still on pace for a sub 5
bike. Then the turn around at Hawi. My power was dropping like a rock.
And by the time I made it to the 19 T I was cooked. Just in time for
30 mile of blast furnace headwind. My decent pace became a snails pace
and I suffered back to the airport when the headwind subsided. I took
a relaxed last couple miles and got mentally ready for the run.

T2
I took my time and switched socks, got a full dose of sun block, and
set myself up.

Run 4:08.xx
I knew I was in for a rough one pretty quickly. The run heads up a
quick hill, over a few blocks, and back down, to Ali'I Drive. Feeling
ok I just found a tempo. It was slow but it was as tempo. But then at
about the 2.5 mile marker on Ali'I I needed to walk. Hips hurt; ankles
hurt, and was pooped. I decided to walk the aid stations for a while.
Then I decided to walk a mile which became 2 miles. After the
turnaround on Ali'i I was able to struggle to each aid station when I
snagged ice and made some sort of ice water Gatorade cocktail. After a
few more miles I needed to walk all of Pailini up to the Queen K
Highway with another 15 miles to go. Looking at the watch I was
resigned to a long evening walking in lava fields. My feet now have
blisters and I need to walk mile 14. Standard walking pace is 20 min
miles. I did not feel like making my remaining 11 or so miles to take
up to 4 hours putting me at 12:30-13:00. So I some how found a good
rhythm of decent trot between aid stations and then walking those.
Energy Lab is a 3.5 out and back in more lava fields but by now my
rhythm had improved and now had my sights set on 11:00. 10k to go I
was at 9:47 and figured that if I didn't walk much I could cruise
under 11:00 and as I got closer to 4 miles to go 10:30 was no back in
the picture. The last 3 miles (some of it is downhill) must have been
by far my fastest but I just ran out of real estate. I happily cruised
down Ali'I passed one more guy and then watched myself on the big
screen crossing the finish line. I was beat up, out of shape, and sure
happy to be down.

Post race
A few hugs, pictures and some ice cream. I sat in an outrigger canoe
for 20 min. Some chatting to my great family of cheerleaders, but a
lot of thinking. We were all tired so instead of waiting around to
watch other finishers I was willing to head home with my family, they
did not want to stay. As I walked back up the hill, I had a moment of
deep sadness and/or relief and/or regret.

Post Post race
I thought to myself it could have been much worse. I should have been
better, but the way I prepared it could have and probably should have
been much worse. 4:08 was an hour slower that IMAZ, bike was ~35 min.
Should I have gone 8:52? No. Good shape, 9:30 is a good day. Is that
next year? Who knows? Let's get the sand out of my blisters, let them
heal up, and plan for 2010. All I know is, it will be better than
2009.

2009 Wrap up
Triathlon:
•       Wildflower – 4:37, too slow
•       Alcatraz – 2:25, 2nd, but slow
•       Donner – slow
•       Treasure Island – a decent win and decent race
•       Pacific Grove – only an ok race but 2nd ain't too bad
•       Kona – ok considering

Cycling
•       No results to speak (of except chasing down a PRO break at Merco RR)
– pathetic

Swimming
•       Decent Trans Tahoe
•       Decent Maui and Waikiki

Running
•       Pretty good Hood to Coast
•       Decent(1:25ish cruising) poached SF ½ marathon +
•       Not enough running races/training

Goals and Calendar for 2010 to follow