Congrats and well done. Kona is a magical experience! U handled the penalty well and there are clearly lots of penalty errors both ways. Ultimately would benefit from a tech solution....

Anyways well done....excellent time!

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Randy Christofferson(http://www.rcmioga.blogspot.com

Insert Doubt. Erase Hope. Crush Dreams.

Great race report, and more importantly a great race.

Unlucky not to break 10 hours, but given the circumstances in the swim and the nature & length of your penalty, I think you should get a pass on that.

Very good report. With the few pictures, would be excellent :)
Well done!

Good idea...I added the pics...sorry for the extra URLS in the post...I'm pretty much useless with computers!

Congrats on your finish.

One question about this comment:


8 mins faster would have been 51 and only a few seconds behind the Potts group. 6 mins faster would have been a 53 which is just behind the main pro pack. What makes you think you could have seriously swum with these guys? Plus, as far as I can tell there were only a handful of age groupers in the 55-56 range. With a few more in the 57-58 range. A 59 this year appears to be pretty darn good.

Fair question. In training I can regularly hit those numbers. In the pool, (50M), no flips turns, regular swim suit, I can go 50-51 for 3800m for a hard session. I was feeling very good in the water yesterday, but had to stop several times. Let me rephrase that...I chose to stop several times to avoid the beating I was taking and intentionally swam off-course far enough to find open water. In the circumstances of a mass start, (everything I experienced was entirely normal) I agree 59 was good. If it were a wave start with space to swim directly A to B, I'm certain I could have gone faster and expended less energy. I tend to swim best with a long smooth stroke, something that is not possible in a crowded swim. In the end, though, logella, for the conditions of the race, I did the best I could and could not have gone faster in the situation...unless I started from the front and was able to keep out in front till the pace settled in. As it was, the front line of guys was going over the line...and with 1 or 2 minutes to the gun, the announcer, who was telling them to get back, said "C'mon guys, don't make us start writing numbers." In terms of my performance, 59 put me at 17th in my AG (M40) on the swim...so yes...not complaining about that!

Like I said..Kona newbie! Other mass starts I've done have been from the beach where the self-seeding is more organized or wave starts with 6 swimmers going off every 5 seconds.

nice write up, always interested in how people manage nutrition and power numbers on the bike if you don't mind sharing? Good job!

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

Great report and pictures. My head would have exploded if I had gotten a blocking penalty only to be passed by groups on the way back.

In terms of power numbers, how I manage them is...I don't. I had a PM for a while and found I focused on it too much to the detriment of using my senses that I've always relied on. This is not a slam on PMs at all; I just need more time to practice and train with power to get the balance between data and sensation right.

For nutrition, my plan was to keep things very simple and it worked out fairly well I think.
Breakfast: 1.5 bagels, a piece of chocolate chip french bread from my favourite bakery near where I live in Taipei. (I almost always eat this pre-morning trainings...it's not about the calories...it's about telling my body what's about to happen!)
40 minutes or so pre-swim I had half an energy bar.

Bike: I had 3 Hammer Oatmeal/Apple bars and 2 GU Salted Caramel Gels in my Xlab bento box at the start. So...yes...I am fine with sweet things. Had a gel as soon as I hit the short out and back loop in town to get the stomach moving and get rid of the taste of ocean that lingered in my mouth.
By the turn around in Hawi, I had eaten 1.5 of the bars, both gels, taken a gel at an aid station, and drank approximately 600ml of Gatorade Endurance, and a mouthful or two of Coke at the aid station.
Coming back on the bike, my remaining hammer gels had melted into the packaging, making getting at them harder. (I pre-opened the bars in the morning, but they were firmly stuck inside the wrappers!) Never had this problem before as in the past I carried food in the back pockets of my old tri suit, something the LG Course does not have. When my speed began to flag, I increased my consumption of Coke on the course; Coke was serve in bottles that were about half-full, and I drank about half of that. Also took on about 800ML of Gatorade. Debated on the cans of Red Bull as I knew the caffeine would help me over the bump I was in, but decided not to push things too far with caffeine with 42.2km to run. Came off the bike feeling much better than I did about 75% of the way through the bike.

Run: Each aid station I took the sponges and one drink, alternating between coke, red bull, and water, basically depending on the flow of people through the aid station. I tried to eat a gel which turned out to be Root Beer flavor, and made it through only 20% of that before the body said know. In total I would say I ate 6 packs of GU chomps. (I think 4 cubes in each pack if I'm not mistaken.) I'm a huge fan of chomps for the run...they don't upset my stomach the way a gel can and I'm flavor agnostic. I also took 4 salt tablets during the run. I found my sweat rate was quite low for the heat/humidity...I train in similar conditions. Initially I was worried I must be so dehydrated I had nothing to sweat out, but I did have to urinate several times throughout the run...LG Course tri wicks pee as good as anything...and timing is everything...making sure the upcoming aid station had sponges remaining to keep things reasonably civil. Tried a banana to get some solid food, but that wasn't feeling great either, so relied on the electrolytes in the tablets.

I think many people can help me by pointing out all the mistakes I made in nutrition. But I felt like I never hit the wall, never hungry or thirsty and so I might have just stumbled into what works for me and then build in ongoing improvements from there. Like I said, this was only my 2nd Ironman, and you only know how you feel based on what you did that day; not sure if I did something different I'd feel better or worse. No bonk, no walking, my kidneys still talk to me and I felt SWEEEEEET after the race so I will call that a good day nutrition wise.

Thanks for reading if you've made it this far...it's like another RR after the initial fairly long RR! One day I'll be looking back on this thread through the eyes of my future experiences laughing at all the dumbass things I did without knowing how silly they were.

As for the penalty and then getting passed by the drafters...strangely...in Kona, it just didn't matter to me at all. I wasn't competing for AG honors; I just wanted to do the best race I could. I hope I can always carry this attitude in every event I do....it is sooooo much better to only worry about what I'm doing, let others do what they do, and if the officials step in great, if not, that's fine too.

I also thought 6-8min was a little too generous. Often when we race, it's hard to tell how much time actually passes.

Perhaps Darren can share the time he swam & course for his KQ?

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Thoughts on being an Urban Triathlete

First let me say - So jealous! Like a lot of AGers Kona is the dream for me.

Second - awesome race report. Loved the pics the and details! Thanks for taking the time to write it, and congrats on the achievement.

Is it just me or did you forget to unzip your Tri suit a little? It just looks so uncomfortably hot, especially black, but maybe it was ok. Also, black cycling shoes, phew, also, looks uncomfortable. Other than that, nice effort on a tough day and with the mishap. Penalties are never fair in the eyes of the beholder, but you do have reason to be troubled by the mass draft fest at the end. It never plays out evenly for the AGers.

Hey there...I swam 52 and small change, wetsuit legal swim at IM Taiwan; two loop course with a struggle up a sandy beach for 10metres to the timing matt. In the pool, my wetsuit only gives me about 2 minutes free speed over the Roka swim skin I wore Saturday, and like I said, I had been killing it in the pool leading up to Kona...52 non-wetsuit would have been hard for me...but the conditions were awesome for a fast swim aside from the crowds....coming back in I was able to get some good rhythm coming down the rollers that were coming from the left giving me some extra momentum..so I really think do-able...but irrelevant now...and get it done in the future for real!

As for the heat and not unzipping....the LG Course-2 is the shizz...felt soooooo good in that thing all day. I kept it zipped up because I honestly felt cooler with it zipped up and it kept the cool sponges in place for the minute or so they stayed cool. Heat certainly slows me down, but as I live in Taiwan, I'm totally used to heat and humidity so it doesn't make me feel uncomfortable. Even if the LG Course were not faster for me, I'd still wear it for pure comfort. I will try out using the chest pockets for energy bars before my next race (Nov 1 IM 70.3 Taiwan...only no recovery batman!) I think they would be comfortable on the bike, but I doubt they'd be comfortable for the run...in which case I use my fuel belt anyhow.