Kona 09

my friend's Polar watch said it was 105 degrees today at teh bottom of Hawi, and it did not get below 100 until we finally reached the airport at mile 100ish.

Everyone,

Thanks for all the support. I really never write race reports, but Ill give you the down and dirty.


Swim-
Very hard swim. Got knocked around a ton. Saw a girl about 20 yards ahead of our group should out to catch her, took me several min. I finally did, followed her blindly, but for some reason half way back she swam off course, and by the time we got back on course we were back with the group. 

Bike-
I went pretty well the entire way. Went through half way in like 2:27ish. It was so windy and hot coming back I just chose to shut it down and save it for the run. I gave back 15 min on the back half, but it paid off.

Run

Just ran steady. Ran first 10 miles conservative, walked Palani Hill which is like almost half mile steep hill, then tried to run harder. Was able to get it down to 7:15-7:30 pace several times, but then would hit one of the never ending up hills. The hills here are like Campton hills, over and over. Not steep but always on one and they go FOREVER. So I kept getting relegated to 8:30ish pace.

Walked a couple aide stations, and a couple really steep sections, but all in all ran consistent.

10:04, PR for here, by far the hardest Ironman I have ever done with heat and wind. Crowie (male winner ran 2:48! 6 min slower then last year, Macca ran 2:55 and several of the top pros were around 3 hours) It was a very hard day today.