I left our house at 5am to get to the transition area. The roads were already quite busy with athletes and volunteers and thus parking in the greater vicinity required a bit of creativity. The transition area was quite busy and hectic, and I felt a bit bad for those athletes who had their bikes next to Ryan Sutter’s, because there was a throng of camera people and groupies crowding that area. But security and volunteers did a good job trying to keep “traffic” flowing. After wishing some of our athletes good luck and “fun”, I settled into a nice spot on the pier to watch the two swim starts. At 6:45 am the pros were up, and it was amazing to see that the whole line of them had crept up almost 100 yards by the time the gun went off. It also looked like they veered a bit of course, so I guess that balanced the distance back out. 
At 7am it was time for the age groupers to start. This time the paddlers were much more aggressive in terms of holding the swimmers back, even the announcers sounded a bit excited when they were saying “PADDLERS HOLD THOSE SWIMMERS BACK” and “SWIMMERS STAY BACK.” Some other age groupers waited about 200 yards behind the starting line on solid ground for the start. Once the whole race went off, I made my way up to spot where I was to meet the other people who were like i in one of the men’s race spotter vans.
We immediately noticed how the race was much more fragmented without the age groupers filling up the gaps between the pros. We also noticed that the referees were quite aggressive with penalties, and some people had already received penalties before they left town.
On certain sections of the bike course it was so windy that the van was “moving and shaking” but in other areas it seemed quite calm. Very early on it was clear that Norman was riding very strong and was fastest out there. Bjorn never looked comfortable, and neither did Cam Brown, but Norman seemed relaxed and even stuck his tongue out each time he passed by us. Other guys who looked very strong were Alex Taubert and Faris Al Sultan.
As we were heading out to Hawi, we also realized that Simon was not going to have a good day as he was getting dropped by the faster guys. Luc Van Lierde on the other hand along with Thomas Hellriegel never seemed in contention.
By the time they got off the bike, only disaster or a melt down would have prevented Norman from winning the race. It was almost a bit boring. But other placings were still to be decided, and others had moved themselves into such a position including Tjorborn Sindballe and Timo Bracht. Cam Widoff on the other head was in good position from the get go.
I did my last long run before IM Florida as everyone started to start their run. I run out to the airport and back, and as I was coming back, I saw the lead men heading towards the energy lab. It was very hot and I felt like crap, and was glad that I did not have to run a marathon, or as a matter of fact do a whole Ironman on this day.
After a quick shower I headed down the to finish area and I was among a huge throng of spectators and finishers who cheered on all the finishers who were still coming through. The last hours of the Ironman seem especially magical in Kona and it is hard not to be touched by the sights and sounds. There were all kinds of pros hanging out in the finish area all the way to the end and that is also very neat to see.
More tomorrow.
Herbert
Litespeed/QR
Thanks again Herbert. As usual your men had a fine day, as did many athletes on ABG products.
I was also noticing over the Ironmanlive streaming netcast that the Timex uniforms showed up better than any other uniform. The names of the sponsors were clearly visible- at least “Timex” was. That wasn;t the case with a lot of uniforms coming across the line where I could barely read the logos.
Good job on uniform design. It was fun to watch Heather Gollnick, Michael Lovato (he looked great) and other Timex crew finish. Way to go!
“At 6:45 am the pros were up, and it was amazing to see that the whole line of them had crept up almost 100 yards by the time the gun went off.”
Did any of the pro’s stay back on the real start line?
Tom,
I can’t take credit for these uniforms, they were completely handled/designed by Timex and Christine Johnson. They also have very cool accessories such as travelbags and backpacks that match the uniforms, but again I had nothing to do with them.
As for the athletes on our bikes, they did quite good indeed, but of course not quite as good as when they were going one-two in the race.
Timo Bracht finished 8th (Blade) and Raynard Tissink 10th (Tiphoon) and in the women’s race, Lisbeth Christensen finished 8th (Blade) plus we had several age group athletes such as Sabine Bildstein(Austin, TX) who did awesome.
But since the conditions were so tough yesterday, I have utmost respect for all athletes who finished.
Herbert
Litespeed/QR
It looked like all of the pros and the paddlers slowly drifted away.
So no particular disadvantage for anyone.
Herbert
Litespeed/QR