Mini Monster Half Ironman Triathlon 3rd Place

Last Feb 13th we had The 1st "Mini Monster Half Ironman Triathlon" right here in the Island, it was a great effort by Team Mango aka Carl Koomoa.
The swim was "obviously" from the Kona Pier to the 1.2mile buoy or King's Buoy, The Bike went up to the Queen K and north up to the turnaround at Mauna Lani, and the Run was up Palani, Kuakini towards the Old Airport and around Target to get back to Alii Drive all the way to the south end in Keauhou Shopping Center.

At the starting line I knew that I had to keep an eye in two guys, Thomas J. Vonach from Austria and Mario Erath also from Austria, both have been training here for the last few months, and I knew that they were both the ones to keep an eye on.... My goal at this race was to test my racing pace for Abu Dhabi, so I didn't Taper as much as I would for a BIG Race, but still I wanted to win.
So When the gun went off and in a matter of minutes we were just 5 guys and Yvonne Van Vlerken up in the front pack, everything went smooth until the 1/4 mile buoy, I really don't know what happened, I just lost my focus for a moment and lost my direction for a moment, that was enough to turn a group fast swim into a chase swim, I really need to say that Yvonne is a complete different person when racing than when training in the pool, is remarkable how she transforms herself into a  killer machine, I respect that!
When I got to the turnaround buoy I saw that she and Thomas were around 30 seconds ahead of me, I was mad at myself, so I tried to push harder, at the end they both came out of the water 1 minute ahead of me with Mario breathing in my neck a couple of second behind, we went into the Bike Leg with a little of head wind that later turn into a sidewind, at the turnaround we both were not sure on where to turn, so we passed the turn point and maybe lost a Minute there, Mario was the first to realize this, so he gained the front on the way back, let me say that is great when you find someone like Mario Erath to race, he never tried to take advantage of drafting, he was always aware of the distance between us, and I really respect someone who is so honest, specially when we both know that we might be fighting for the podium at the end of the race.....
Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to take this to the end of the race, because another distraction of myself........As previously stated there were no Aid Stations, so if we wanted to have our drinks at the turnaround we had 2 options, give them to Bill Greentree who was going to be at the turnaround or have someone to take it there, in my case was Paola, who also was leading the swim portion of the swim in her Stand Up Paddle Board (Maybe that's why I got distracted, I was just so happy to be looking at her during a race!) 

So I told her to hand me the water bottles, but I didn't showed how to do it, completely my fault, she handed me the water bottles facing forward and she also placed herself in a fast descent of a rolling hill, instead at the top where you go slower, so I lost my first bottle, and in the second attempt I had to really slow down, I didn't wanted to hurt her wrist. In those hiccups I simply lost Mario, and I was never able to reel him in. He got to T2 1 minute ahead of me in 2:19 and I arrived in 2:20, I wished that I could started the run by his side, but that minute was a long way in that first part of the course, so I never really had the chance to even get closer to him, I actually knew he was running faster than me.

The first 10k south in Alii Drive went hard but manageable, the real problem was the the temperature started to rise dramatically and there were just 2 aid stations, so keeping up the pace in the way back to the finish line ended up being a hard job, but in the bright side I was one of the happiest race I've ever done, it just felt so great to be a "Local" I got goosebumps every time someone called my name in Alii Drive, there's nothing like it! Here I was Racing in Kona as a Local.........Who would have thought this 2 years ago when I was buying my Cervelo P3 in San Diego.


So the Total Results were like this:


1st Place: T.Vonach      Austria Swim 29:17 Bike 2:15 Run 1:29 Total Time 4:14
2nd Place Mario Erath  Austria Swim 30:33 Bike  2:19 Run 1:32 Total Time 4:21
3rd Place Jano Soto        Kona  Swim 30:26 Bike  2:20 Run 1:36 Total Time 4:26

1st Place Female Yvonne Van Vlerken Swim 29:36 Bike 2:16 Run 1:29 Total Time 4:15 Yes she's FAST!
So here we are..... With almost all of the training for Abu Dhabi in the Bank, just a couple of hard weeks, key workouts and off to the Middle East! The Desert is waiting and getting hotter everyday!