Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Kona 2014 - Reflections on the Race of a Lifetime

It's good to be back home. Rested and now finally in my off-season, I've had a chance to gather my thoughts, spend some quality time with St Pete and reflect on Kona and the experience it was.

Finishing Kona was more than just finishing another ironman.  Or finishing ironman #8.  The lasting memory is that it feels like I have come of age as a triathlete.



While doing one ironman is an amazing achievement in itself, completing eight is moving me into even more rarified territory.  And being able to add a world championship event into my stable of finishes just rounds out that experience and self-awareness I have around my own abilities.  There is still plenty to learn and new challenges to explore with this sport but I've now got a significant bank of experience to draw upon when I'm talking to Coach D about the next goal or when I'm talking to others about starting their own journey.

I'm really happy with my day and how it went.  I've heard so many stories about people having bad days, or blowing up, or not finishing, or being dissatisfied with their performance in some way.   For me, I achieved my number 1 goal and that was to finish.  I did that in style, and with a smile, and felt strong as I turned onto Ali'i Drive and headed for the finish chute.  There were no nutrition issues, I paced the bike leg well for the conditions and I think my run was my best executed yet.

My finish time was irrelevant (this race was not about achieving a particular time) and the data I collected out on the course was only patchy (the Garmin 810 and 910xt both had issues at various times during the day).  But that just goes to reinforce the importance of not being so gadget-dependent!  I went by feel and it didn't affect how I performed.  I rolled with the punches - didn't get upset by being held up in the swim, didn't beat myself up trying to get through the wind on the bike and took the run one aid station at a time.  Put together these aspects didn't make me the fastest on the course - far from it - but it definitely seemed to make me one of the happiest out there and definitely more satisfied than many high achievers that came in ahead of me.

(To put the bike leg into perspective, the average bike split time for my age group was 42 minutes slower than 2013 and the average overall finish time in my age group 55 minutes slower.  All the talk about the wind being some of the worst in 15 years was no joke.)

My placings were interesting.  My typical pattern is to be at the bottom end of the field out of the swim. Then I pick up stacks of places on the bike before losing most of them on the run.  In Kona the swim went to plan, coming out towards the bottom of my age group.  But that was OK as I gained 10 AG places on the bike.  But get this: rather than lose all of those places again on the run, I gained a further two places!  So another result to be pleased about.

Ultimately the day went to plan.  St Pete and I put everything we had into it, trusted in Coach Dave, and it paid off.  I have some great memories and we made the most of the experience. The fact that I may not get to do this race again won't distress me.  I don't have any feelings of needing to come back for redemption or to fix something that was executed badly.  Of course that won't stop me continuing to enter the lottery or training my butt off in the hopes that, as I get older, attrition in my age group will finally get me on top of that podium and present another opportunity to ride and run amongst the lava fields!

It's been a big year.  Three ironman events in 8 months is a big load in anyone's books and it'll be good to have some time off before building into the next training block in preparation for Ironman New Zealand in March.  Coach D, St Pete and I have set a ballsy goal for IMNZ and it starts with a 12.

Yes, Kona may be over but it's far from the end for this irongirl's adventure. 

Photo credit: Allan Lee

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