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| In good spirits at mile 10! |
2012 was an exciting Kona for me as I was the youngster in
my new 45-49 age group and my preparation had been solid and injury free. I also had extra incentive to go for the win
with my fundraising for a local charity, Athletes in Tandem, for which many
donors pledged to double their donation if I took the age group world
championship title!
Race morning started with a minor hiccup as I went to top
off the air in my tires. My valve stem
had somehow spontaneously closed down in my deep dish 808 carbon rim, so there
was no way to either air up my rear tire or let any air out of it! The mechanic suggested I ride it as is (about
90psi) or risk catastrophe if I start trying to mess with the valve down in the
rim. My only problem with that was I
would have no way to repair the tire if I flatted with my Pit Stop flat repair…so
I was just hoping I didn’t flat!! My
whole attitude changed for the better when I ran into one of the race
announcers, Bill Gilsenan, who congratulated me for winning a year of free
coaching from MarkAllenOnline from a Facebook contest! I was so ecstatic, I forgot all about the
tire : ).
On to the race…as usual, I lined up in the thick of
things…right along the pier and as close to the front as I could manage. The start was unusually calm because they
never sounded the cannon for the age group race as they did for the pros (just
Mike Reilly was yelling “GO GO GO!!) and I think people were a little confused
for a moment. That was a nice
change! The swim felt great! I had a good pace to the turnaround boat and
then decided to just settle in for an easy cruise home behind another
swimmer. I just started swimming like a
crab so I didn’t hit his feet and enjoyed the ride home. I figured I could save some of that energy
for later! Got out around 1:07…second
slowest swim ever in Kona, but figured it was the same for everyone due to
currents (which it was).
Now for my favorite leg…the bike! I hopped on and took it fairly easy the first
10 miles, then settled in once hitting the Queen K for the long haul to Hawi. The first 30 or so miles were smoking fast
with a great tailwind, but that didn’t last too long. I was expecting a fast bike this year as all
weather forecasts had predicted mild conditions for the day, although I thrive
best in the toughest conditions and was hoping for high winds! Lucky for me, we happened to have one of the
toughest wind and heat race conditions in many years. The winds weren’t particularly strong or
scary, but the direction they were in sure took it out of all of the athletes! Huge numbers of them decided to draft as a
result which was so disappointing to see at the World Championships! Where is the respect?! There was also a grand total of maybe 10
minutes of cloud cover, so cold water at the aid stations on my head was my
savior! I passed a lot of women on the
bike, but with about 10 miles to go, I saw a woman in my age group pass by me. I decided to use her for added motivation
which was perfect as I was getting a little bored riding all alone in the final
miles of headwinds. I pulled into
transition with a 5:32 bike split…about 22 minutes slower than my last two
Kona’s. Looking back at my power data, I
rode really strong and put out the maximum number of watts I figured I could
sustain for a 112 mile ride (199W NP) so I was quite pleased with that,
especially with a HR of only 140bpm (lowest ever!...go MAO!).
By the end of the bike I was actually sick of riding and
ready to start the marathon…can you believe that??? However, when I got off the bike, I must have
looked like an old lady as I hobbled around transition and got passed by what
felt like a dozen athletes! As I rolled
out of transition, I still felt slow, but was pleased to find I was running a
lot faster than I thought (based on my Garmin), and felt pretty decent after
about a mile or so. At the out-and-back
on Alii Drive, I spotted the winner of my age group the past two years ahead of
me a good 1-2 miles, so I knew that I was probably in 3rd off the
bike. She didn’t look so good though as
she was leaning to one side already at mile 6!
I then saw the gal in 2nd who was only a couple minutes
ahead, and she was looking a bit weary too, which gave me a little boost since
I was truly having a blast and feeling pretty good at that point! At mile 10 I passed my husband, daughter and
brother who told me I was closing the gap to 1st and they were so
excited, which made me excited too! The
rest of the marathon got a bit tougher (as it always does!), but I was able to
focus on making it aid station to aid station and keep a positive attitude. By the time mile 21 came around, I had passed
1st place and closed the gap to 2nd place to 20
seconds! I was excited, but was really
hurting at this point and Gabriella was able to start pulling away from me in
the final 4 miles. Now I had another
potential problem…getting run down by Ann Smith who is a great runner (she
outran me by 8 minutes in a half earlier this year!) and was not far behind
me. I struggled up the final climb up
Pay-n-Save hill and figured she would be on my heels by that time (which she
was!), so I gave it everything I had on the steep downhill and with less than a
half mile to go, I spotted her maybe 20 yards behind me….YIKES! I kept pushing my hardest all the way to the
line and could only relax in the last 10 feet to hear Mike Reilly announce my
name. Ann finished a mere 11 seconds
later! Whew!! It was a hard fought 2nd place,
only a mere 50 seconds behind the winner, and I couldn’t be happier with the
outcome!
All in all, it was a perfect day in the lava fields! I kept that positive attitude, respected the
race, thanked every volunteer that I interacted with and was truly grateful to
be able to compete in such a special place!!
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