I was 100% terrified of the swim start. I had never done a "treading water" start in an IM and for some reason it seemed way worse than running into the water. It's not. In both I get clobbered, I think I am drowning for brief moments and then I alternate between thinking I'm going too fast or too slow. But in Kona BONUS - there were bright orange fish and things to see in the water!
My main fear last year on the bike was that the wind would blow me off my bike. This did not happen, although there were several occasions where I was sure it was going to. My bike ended up being a very LONG section of the race - mostly because I was just slow. I could come up with other excuses, but we'll just leave it at that.
I'm the one in the back here. It appears as if I'm drafting, but I guarantee you almost EVERYONE passed me on the way to Hawi last year. So this was merely another one of those instances.My friends drove all the way out to Hawi to cheer for me and I've never been so happy to see them.
Coming back from Hawi a girl sat on my wheel for about 10 minutes until I finally asked her to go cheat elsewhere. The fact that someone who was biking just as SLOW as I was would even consider drafting struck me as being very funny. It was one of those "REALLY?!!" moments.
The run was actually my favorite part. For the first time in many hours I wasn't as hot because I could put ice in my mouth or down my shirt or on my head! My goal had been to finish before the sun set. I was on the Queen K when it dropped into the ocean. Oops! Thankfully I ran into Jeff shortly thereafter and he ran with me for a bit (in his flip flops)! This was somewhat hillarious and somewhat depressing that he could keep up with me in flip flops (although Jeff is an extremely talented runner).
It took me 11 hrs and 26 minutes to experience the Kona Ironman last year. I loved (almost) every moment of it! Here's to watching the Kona sunset when I'm done with the race this year!
