Ironman 70.3 Hawaii Race Report. Plus Lavaman and Ironman 70.3 Oceanside :)

I know, I know..... 
I owe you a few Race Reports... So here we go, 3 Race Reports in one Blog Post:

The Excuse:
After the Monster Half Ironman everything went so damn fast that I didn´t really had time to even write a small race report.. The training became serious after seeing how much I needed to work in my run, it was all about training and we also had guests in our home. Anyway.... I trained like a madman and everything went well, no serious injuries luckly, just a little tightness in the legs but nothing my Normatec Boots couldn´t fix.

Lavaman Waikoloa 1st Place (10th Overall) March 24
The first serious race was Lavaman Waikoloa. Considering that most of my training was aimed at Long Distance I think the race went pretty well... Actually I think it went Awesome! I came 10th place Overall with a very strong field, plus ahead of me there were Only Pros! I think only one Age Grouper came ahead of my in 9th. A field this string is usual for this beautiful race.
The race was won by Chris Lieto, Benjamin Williams came in 2nd and Tim Marr took 3rd place. I won my Age Group and obviously I was very happy to crack a Top Ten.

Ironman 70.3 Oceanside 11th Place (124th Overall) March 30
The next day I was already flying to California for Ironman 70.3 Oceanside. This race was a more important for me since I was racing with and against all my Team Mates from ICHIBAN TRIATHLON TEAM (click and ¨Like¨ on Facebook) They all came from all over the world, Japan, USA, UK, Monaco etc... And since we all keep track of each others training is like a very friendly competition in parallel with the Race itself.
I was a little worried about the water temperature because I was using a Sleeveless wetsuit, I´ve never felt good with full sleeves and everyone was saying that it was very very cold, and when you hear this from the Brits that are used to gruelsome weather you can´t help it, you worry about it..
The swim went quite well, a lot of traffic due to all the wave starts but nothing to worry about, no Hypothermia at all, actually I was feeling hot towards the end of the swim. I came out of the water in 27:40 and went on to the Bike leg. I loved this course, it´s hard and true, so not too many drafting cheaters around, I was feeling pretty good and fast, but when the big hill came I realized I forgot to change my rear cassette, I didn´t had the gears I wanted to have so I could keep a high cadence the whole time. I didn´t suffer the hill but I had to grind slowly and I knew this was going to hurt my run... And it did...... I came in 9th position with a 2:34 wich is not bad for Oceanside. I started running 4:20min kilometers (7min miles) and felt quite good, I was hoping to hold that pace for the entire run and maybe even speed it up the last few km´s but after 16kms (10miles) I started to pay forgeting to bring the correct gear for that hill. I couldn´t hold the pace and I had to slow down a little bit.. the last 5k my average came down to 4:49min/km (7:45min/mile) I finished strong with a 1:34 Half Marathon and I cramped inmediatly after crossing the line which left me a good feeling of giving it all and doing my best.
The rest of the Team did incredibly good, we had the chance to show the following:
¨WE ARE NOT HERE JUST FOR THE COOKIES AND COFFEE¨
Ichiban Triathlon Team Results:
Tommy Vonach:   Total Time 4:22:01 Div Rank 4th Overall Rank 56th
Jenson Button:      Total Time 4:29:00 Div Rank 5th Overall Rank 78th
Tom Dudden:       Total Time 4:32:59 Div Rank 7th Overall Rank 90th
Yu Yumoto:          Total Time 4:39:31 Div Rank 18th Overall Rank  117th
Jano Soto:            Total Time 4:41:07 Div Rank 11th Overall Rank  124th
Andrew Gardiner: Total Time 5:12:15 Div Rank 65th Overall Rank 382th
Fraser Thomson:   Total Time 5:36:20 Div Rank 112th Overall Rank 746th

Too much caffeine?

Jessy, Fraser, Paola, Jano

Ichiban Triathlon Team

The 2nd Excuse:
After Oceanside we spent a couple of days in Los Angeles and then we went to Mexico for 8 days, I didn´t trained much so when we came back to Kona I felt I needed to catch up for the what was coming next: The plan was to start preparing Challenge Roth and in the way race Ironman Honu 70.3 and Berlin 70.3. Easier said than done.

Ironman Hawaii 70.3 June 1st Kona Hawaii.  7th place 39th Overall
This is my 5th time doing 70.3 Honu, the way we call it in Kona.
I´m proud to say that I always choose hard races, competitive and hard, but Honu is on its own league, I think I can say this is a damn tough race, maybe one the toughest races in the WTC circuit.
Well.. after saying all this, this year it was by far the toughest conditions in 5 years, and from what I hear it was the worst ever!
The swim start is always super violent, and this time there was no exception, the Pro Wave started at 6:50 and 3 minutes later all Male Division....In total we were 1800+ participans, so lets say 1500 Ultra Competitive guys!
I´ve been swimming a lot and I felt confident to be able to start very fast and then hold a good pace, and I think I would have been able to do this if there was water to swim in.... for the first 400 meters there was no water at all... Only a sea of arms, legs, elbows and backs! TOTAL CHAOS! Awful! just after the first turn buoy it started to get better, but in overall the swim was hard for everyone, the times were slow. I came out of the water in 30:48 but since I passed a few Pro Girls towards the end I knew that it was not a bad time.
I jumped into my Bike and as soon as I started riding on the Queen K I knew the wind was going to be Terrible and Cruel on our way up to Hawi, I also saw I was in a pretty good position! after the first turnaround I saw that after the Pros there were not many Age Groupers. Startting the climb up to Hawi I saw I was Spot On! The Wind was Howling! I passed more guys and in the turnaround in Hawi I was up there in the Mix, Craig Alexander was crushing everyone in the field and maybe 5 minutes ahead of the next one, but after that we were all spread apart by 30 seconds more or less...
The wind was not only stronger than usual, this time it decided to change and give us a demostration of how mean Madame Pele con be, headwind all the way! My 2:33 Bike Split was good enough to get me to the start of the Run in 35th place Overall. I know perfectly this course, and it doesn´t get any easier, I started to run conservative because I knew what I had ahead of me, grass, steam, hills, heat, more heat, and at mile 10 the Horrible Hells Kitchen! a 2 mile stretch of Mini Energy lab out & back to Hell... So I was trying to keep control to be able to unleash it towards the end... I was running 4:20min kms and feeling incredibly good, but this time my mistake was taking it too easy, when I passed the 7 mile marker I saw I was going to easy! WAKE UP JANO!  I screamed to myself! what are you doing? Crap! I won´t be ale to get back those minutes lost. In the intent to save it a think I lost focus for a while. So I got my initial pace back of 4:20´s and I passed Hells Kitchen unscratched! It´s incredible and even funny to see the faces of the guys at that turnaround I think that at that point of the race no one expects to get any harder!
My Run split for the Half Marathon was 1:39, maybe not what I wanted but considering the conditions of the whole race I was happy with my race... 7th place in my Age Group and Better than this was being 39th Overall with 20 Pros starting the race!
50 hrs later I was on a plane to Europe, next is Ironman Berlin 70.3 June 16, another race with my mates from Ichiban Triathlon Team.
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