Ironman 70.3 Honu 2011

Hapuna Beach

It's been a while since my last blog, I had a lot going on but not too much related to Triathlon that didn't required a quick update. So I kind of waited until my next Important Race.
So first... Here's the quick update since Abu Dhabi:
After Abu Dhabi I was in a pretty bad shape, all beat up in many ways, my first ever DNF, burnt Feet, the worst Jet lag ever, and to top it all I went to see the Doctor because in the last few months previous to Abu Dhabi I wasn't feeling really comfortable in my bike (saddle wise)... To make the story short I ended having Surgery that same day, they removed a mass I had down there that luckily was just a 1 inch Cyst with no traces of cancer.... On the bad side, I obviously had to stay away from my bike for a while, and let me tell you..... I had no desire at all to jump into that saddle ha ha!
So I had to skip Lavaman and Ironman St George.

The Brutal Mass Start Swim

OK now Ironman 70.3 Honu 2011.
After all that happened this turned out to be my main event of the year, so the pressure to do well was on... I usually don't get nervous at all, but I was felling obligated to do very well and that put me in a "tense" mode the days before the race. Honu is definitely my favorite race, not only because it's a beautiful race in the best place, it's because now it's in my own backyard! with my friends!

And should have been enough for me to avoid this BIG Mistake, after checkin in the Bike at Hapuna Beach I had planned to eat my favorite Hamburger at the the Fairmont Orchid at Mauna Lani, everything was going according to plan, but it started to rain just a little, so we decided to eat somewhere else, we went to an Italian in Waikoloa Beach Resort, they didn't have my burger and also they didn't have a steak that I like, so I went with another kind of steak, I was starting to feel hungry so when it came and I noticed it was FULL of garlic I juts ate it! In the moment I finished I knew I was in trouble, my stomach is very strong, I almost never have G.I. Issues and it was making some weird noises, went home, reprehended myself a couple of times for doing that and then went on to keep a positive frame of mind.
At 3am I was throwing up in the toilet! I kept myself in positive and drank tons of coffee, I was wired and went on to the start at Hapuna beach.

Coming out of the water in 6th

The race start in Honu is always very physical, this time it was Brutal! The race has been growing since the first time I did it in 2009 when we were 1300, it went to 1550 in 2010 and now in 2011 we were 1800 guys, so you can imagine the first turn buoy! That's exactly when I got an elbow right in my Jaw! I heard the BONE sound going through my body and then realized that I couldn't close my Jaw! it was out of it's place, it didn't hurt so I just kept on swimming, that went on for a couple of minutes until it finally got back to it's place, I don't think it really slowed me down but it was a weird feeling.

Back from Hawi

My Age Group was enormous! 238! I came out of the water in 6th place and went on blazing through T1.
The first part of the bike was ok, I wasn't feeling great and strong but also I had no stomach issues and that helped me keep myself into positive side. At the turnaround in Hawi my energy levels came up when I finally saw where I was in the Overall so I hammered all the way back to Mauna Lani.
Arriving to Mauna Lani Beautiful Golf Course is always like finding a Oasis in the middle of the dessert, specially after riding 90kms in the Dreadful Queen K and the Always hard Climb up to Hawi. Too bad that feeling lasts only for a brief moment. I came out of T2 ready for what I knew it was coming, even that the Run Course is beautiful it's a damn hard RUN!

Arriving to Mauna Lani T2

Mauna Lani Golf Course "The 1st Mile"

I always tend to do a pretty fast first mile even if I try to keep it easy and relaxed, maybe because I always see and hear Paola Cheering me up, I don't know but I thought that my first mile was going to be well under 7minutes close to a 6:30 so when I saw a 7:05 at the first mile marker it made me remember myself throwing up in the bathroom a few hours ago......

You just can't beat this view with the Ocean in the Background

For a moment I felt pretty scared of the remaining 12.1 Miles! So I started to work in my mind, I took every mile like the only mile, the problem it was that every mile felt like the last mile I could do at that pace! And it wasn't even the pace I knew I could hold on..... So in reality I felt like crap for the for the first 7 miles, after mile 7, I felt better, my pace didn't improved but I felt more comfortable, I knew that pace was what I had in me for that day and went on to just try to keep it up!

It's a really tough course

Does it seems Flat to you?

When I came to the Mini Energy Lab I was prepared, so I put the gas down, I felt even better and coming out of it in one piece I was almost there. There's nothing compared to see the horizon all green with palm trees and the Ocean in the background with one mile to go. It was a tough day at the office as it is always in Honu and in general it was an OK result, 46th Overall in what seemed to be the Ironman 70.3 World of my Age Group.

Paola always by my side 

Our friends Cory & Alyssa

Yeah!