Congratulations to everyone who raced in Kona this year, especially fellow Timex teammates Tim, Jackie, Cindi, Sergio, and Tamara. Tim and Jackie had awesome days out there, representing Timex on the podium. Now back to me….

I’ve dreamed of standing on the podium at the Ironman World Championships since I started racing triathlon 5 years ago, and this past sunday evening, I finally got to do so…..so hooray for me! I came into this race in fantastic shape, but without a time goal. The weather conditions on this course are what make it oh so difficult, and this being my first time to the big island, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Apollo 57 landed…..excuse me, United flight 57 landed in Kona on tuesday evening, and upon deplaning, I immediately learned what the legendary Kona heat was all about. I broke a sweat waiting for my luggage, and I don’t think I stopped sweating until I got back to Wisconsin. Leading up to the race, I was very calm and relaxed. No point in worrying about the race when I knew I was ready. I spent the days before the race eating, relaxing, doing some short workouts, and shooting a porno with Roger.

Race morning was a different story. All the nervous energy I had suppressed was suddenly released. The mental effort it took for me to commit to swallowing my breakfast felt like trying to swallow a lethal dose of poison, or jump off a ledge to my death. I wore my slightly too big camo board shorts, that Jackie has kindly described as “offensive,” and made it through the standard pre race activities undetected, and then headed down to the water where I met up with Jackie and Cindi.

Treading water before the start, it all hit me. This was what it was all about. Nervousness turned to excitement, and it was ass kicking time. To clarify, I was planning on dishing out the ass kicking, but instead it seemed the other way around for the first 500m of the swim. Roughest swim start ever! In hindsight, I started way too close to the pier. Things cleared out eventually, and I felt really good, and was passing people the entire time. I was a bit surprised to see how slow my time was, as I ran up the steps in 1:02, but looking back at the results, I out swam a few guys that normally beat me out of the water by 2-3 minutes. For those keeping track (which I am pretty sure is only me), Jackie beat me out of the water, despite my year long claims of total aquatic dominance in Kona.

As I hit the T1 tent, I couldn’t get my Aquasphere skinsuit off. I’ve never had this happen before, so I asked a volunteer for help, but they just jammed the zipper and made it worse. I eventually turned bright green and incredible hulked (yeah it’s a verb now) my suit off. All other men in the tent at that time immediately DNFed after my incredible display of pure man power.

                              That speed’s all real baby!

Now it was time to see what the Speed Concept was made of, hopefully real speed, and not the conceptual kind. I had strict instructions not to hammer the first drag strip through town, and to the disbelief of some, I took it pretty easy, although my +25 mph average would suggest otherwise. I blame the bike. Coming down Palani Rd, about 2 miles into the bike ride, I heard the comforting jingle of both my CO2 catridges falling off my bike and bouncing off the asphalt. I was now rolling commando on the bike course, and unlike wearing no underwear, it wasn’t a particularly liberating feeling. Something unexpected always happens in an Ironman, so I quickly put this behind me and the rest of the bike ride was pretty uneventful. My strategy was to ride easy to Kawaihae, put in a solid effort on the climb to Hawi, recover on the descent, and then ride strong for the last third of the course. I executed my plan well, staying aero and passing about 1000000 people on the climb to Hawi, but ran into a bit of trouble on the descent. I hit a huge bump, lost both my water bottles, and managed to only get one bottle at the next aid station, which meant I rode ~15 miles on 1 bottle of water. This would not be a disaster under normal conditions, but here I was going through almost 4 bottles every hour, so this put me in a hole for a few miles. I did manage to get some fluids in me at the next aid station, recover about mile 90, and ride strong on the way back into town. Overall I rode pretty conservatively and posted a 5:00:45 bike split, which I am happy with considering it was head winds both ways (really, it was, I swear).

The second transition, thankfully, did not require any super human feats of strength on my part. I asked for some sunscreen, but after seeing how burnt I got, I am suspicious that I actually just received a creepy back rub.

                              Mile 1: Thinking about my back rub

The first two miles of the run redefined my definition of “Hot.” If it was that hot the whole run, I wouldn’t have made it. It seemed to cool off a little as I ran out of town, and I actually was making pretty good progress, running just over 7 min pace even though I was walking all the aid stations, grabbing water, gatorade, cola, and throwing ice down my shorts (which is great for keeping you cool). I did manage to accidentally throw a cup of cola down my shorts as well. It didn’t work any miracles, so I decided to take the rest of my fluids orally (in case you were wondering). As we came back through the “hot corner” in town, I really started to melt. I walked most of Palani (which is waaaay steeper than it looks on the race video, FYI), but then seemed to be running OK until the energy lab, at which point I was less runner and more of a slowly moving blob of biomass. I was actually still running very fast at this point…..it was just all the damn walking I was doing that was slowing me down.

Mike Lavery, You are and IRONMA–

ooooh, uuuuum, cleanup on aisle 3, cleanup on aisle 3

I eventually finished, with a time of 9:36 (my 2nd fastest IM), 5th M18-24, and a 3:26 marathon (personal worst!!), although I don’t remember the finish. Some dudes scraped me off the line and brought me to the medical tent, where I became more than intimate with someone else who almost left “it” out on the course. Unfortunately, “it” wasn’t left out on the course, but was trapped in said persons’ tri shorts, and “it” passed within a few inches of my face as I sat with nausea in the medical tent. I’ll spare the details of “it” so someone (me) doesn’t throw up on their computer.

Overall, I left it all out there (no, not the “it” from the paragraph prior), but the more I think about it, I’m not satisfied with how my race unfolded. My bike power numbers and run speeds in training suggest I have a lot more in me, and I know I can go faster. I was just not ready for the heat. I don’t think I made any gross errors in hydration, nutrition, or pacing, but the very cool summer we had in Wisconsin did not give me much time to acclimate. I do feel like I went as fast as I could on the day, and I learned a few lessons that will help me next time I race on the big island.

Still, 5th in the world ain’t too bad! I can’t complain. I’m already excited to get back at it next season to build up to Ironman Wisconsin, hopefully run a bit faster, and make it back to Kona in 2011. 

Mahalo

Mike.