Lavaman Waikoloa 2012. First Important Race of the Year.....

Ok, finally I got to race again after Laguna Phuket Triathlon and Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championship in Thailand last November and December of 2011.... it feels like a long time and actually it was a long time, 4 months!
A lot of stuff happened... good and bad... In January I broke a Rib while Snowboarding in Vail trying to impress my son Jonatan, I wanted to show him how fast I could learn and how fast I could go.... At least he saw when I went down in a very impressive way ha ha!
So January was a recovery month and just until February I was able to get some solid work done, by March I was already getting some serious miles for Ironman Texas next May 19th, the idea of racing Lavaman was just take it as a fast day of training without really tapering for it. (That means resting)
But that changed when the previous week to Lavaman I got very sick with stomach flu, I had 2 options, go to the Doctor and get tons of Antibiotics get healthy but surely be all beat up for the race cause of the drugs... Or let my body do the work. I opted for #2 Gladly it was a matter of 5 days and no drugs...

During the week of the race I was able to get some nice solid bike workouts with Thomas J Vonach & Jenson Button and we also had fun swimming the Ironman course and joined by, Jessica Michibata,  Yu Yumoto, Mayu Gamo, Andrea Bess and Mike Collier, it was cool because getting to the race it felt like we all were in a Team ( wanting to beat each other at the race, but still a Team )
My expectations were not that high but I had a positive frame of mind, I knew I had solid weeks but nothing of speed since my focus was IMTX.
Sunday came and there we were, Paola with the camera and the Team all fired up and ready to go.
The swim went by like a swoosh! All of that Ocean Swims and Squad with Coach Steve Borowski paid off, I came out of the water pretty well placed and in front of Thomas, Jenson, and Yu, when on the Bike I was feeling good and relaxed with a good pace, and around km 10 Thomas passed me... a little after him Jenson and Sam Corace passed me, I didn't reacted fast so I lost them for a while, I was having trouble finding a rhythm..... It's hard to be training for months at a pace that you can hold for 180kms and then run a Marathon and now telling my legs to get into the Hurt Locker was not easy at all, I had to remember and remember to push it, I catch Jenson and Sam maybe a km before the turnaround, and then right after that on the way back I lost them again.... It was like if I had a speed control in my legs.
Got to T2 with a bike split of 1hr flat and made the mistake of going out the wrong way, I lost 30 seconds finding the "Run Out" way... (That's for not paying attention before race start)
The first km hurt a lot! again..... I haven't been doing any speed workouts, so when I found my pace was under 4min/km or under 6:25 minute miles I was quite happy.







The Lavaman Waikoloa Run Course is Beautiful, first you run in the Main Street of the Beach resort that has perfectly groomed lawns and a nice shade from the trees, then you go around the Impressive Hilton Waikoloa Hotel, running through the pads and then you get to the coastline! I heard someone calling it the X-Terra part! 100% Accurate!
That's when it gets very interesting, loose rocks, sharp lava rocks, trails in the side of little cliffs where you go totally side inclined, and then loose sand, it's funny because it's when the terrain is so difficult that you kind of forget about the effort you are doing to hold that speed, so in a way it's easier because its so much fun! After the turnaround I saw that if I pushed hard I could get a top ten, so that's what I did... I overtook the 2 guys that were between me and my top ten.

The last km of the run course is around a beautiful lagoon where you can see who's in front of you and also who's behind you for some 500mts... so seeing the finish line while I knew I was not in danger of loosing my place was really cool, I had time to enjoy the moment and see around the people cheering, people that I know from town and it was a really nice experience...
Once I said that usually my favorite race is the last one just because I always try to live the present, and this time it's not only because it's the last one, it really a beautiful race in a beautiful place!

The "Team" did great Thomas J Vonach was 4th Overall, Jenson Button was 6th Overall Yu Yumoto was 16th Overall.
I was 3rd in my AG & 10th Overall Mens, with a Finish Time of 2:05 PB!... Not bad for an Old Bugger in a very Legal & Non Drafting Triathlon.
Jessica Michibata did a PB after doing a Marathon recently and Also Mayu did pretty good too...








Macca won the event and it was really cool to be part of this race, by the way...
Paola shoot great pictures of everyone and we celebrated with a nice Barbie & Beers that evening.
Today is Tuesday and I'm already logging some miles again, but I had now that racing fire in high mode, I love this sport, I love to train for Racing, and I love to Race for training too!
And as I always say....
It's about the Journey... Not the destination!

My Wifey Paola, Always Together Forever & Ever!