Post 194 - Kona day 2 - Arrival

Day 2: Saturday 5th October 2019

I slept pretty well and woke up for breakfast. For such a cheap motel, it was surprisingly good. Porridge (or oatmeal as they call it), waffles, fruit, cereal, juices, toast, pastries. I ate well and pilfered a few bits and pieces to help get me to Kona. I had a quick shower and jumped on the shuttle bus back to the airport. The driver decided to discuss my breakfast in detail. He approved. He knew his stuff. “You gotcha fibres, you gotcha proteins, you gotcha carbs, you gotcha fats, you gotcha fruits, you gotcha good diet…”

Check-in with the bike was easy (apart from paying up the $100 bike fee), but waiting for the plane, despite it being only mid-morning, I was tired and stale. I needed to go for a run or a swim or something. But I had a 6-hour flight to endure. I sat beside a vacationing family. There weren’t as many Ironman people on board as I thought there might be. There was nothing to see. Just blue ocean. Again I had 3 meals and plenty of water and walks around the cabin.

We approached Hawaii. The Big Island. Not unlike Tenerife. Volcanic. The highest volcano sticking above the clouds, most of the island covered by cloud, then the coastal areas clear again. We swooped down with the Queen K highway (the main north-south west-coastal road on the island along which the Ironman bike and run routes go), we flew low over the lava fields, the lava flows obvious, over some white sandy beaches, and down until the black/brown lava gave way to runway and we were down. Kona!

Spot the difference between the business-class toilet...

...and the standard-class toilet...? All that extra money for a flower...

I got told off for using the flower toilet

We got off the plane on to the tarmac. I was hit by a fairly fierce blast of humid heat and wind. I couldn’t help it – “woooo hoooooooo!” I were here! It was so hot. Pretty windy too. An open-air airport meant there was no respite from the heat. Everyone was soon sweating. I was pleased to note I wasn’t (yet). The bike arrived. Another wooo-hooo moment. Then off to pick up the rental car.

I had booked a mid-sized standard car. $300 for 10 days. The guy saw my luggage, and I told him I’d soon have 3 others arriving with luggage. So he said he would try to find me a bigger car. His name was Patrick. Maybe he had Irish connections. He offered me a massive wagon. I had to ask: “How much?” “$900…” I told him I literally couldn’t be paying that much, and he again said he’d see what he could do. He came back. “$300. No extra charge.” Sweeeeet, thanks! It was covered in scratches but he said my insurance meant I had zero liability.

"Aloha" is a word used a lot in Hawaii. The short, easy translation is "hello."

For a more detailed description, here is a video 6-time Ironman world champion

Mark Allen giving a speech at an Ironman banquet, on what Aloha really means:

So I loaded up the car, got the air conditioning going full blast, and hit the road for Kona and Casa de Emdeko, where we’d be staying. I didn’t need any sat-nav or directions. I already knew the way inside out and back to front from all my years of watching Kona videos and race highlights. Out of the airport, turn right along the Queen K highway, 5-6 miles towards Kailua-Kona, turn right down Palani hill, get to the waterfront and the pier and the King K hotel, turn left along the famous Ali’i drive (pronounced “a-LEE-hee”), where the race finishes, drive south along Ali’i for a few miles along the marathon course, and Casa de Emdeko would be on the right by the ocean.

It was as easy as that. It was surprisingly emotional. I wondered if I’d get emotional at the race start or finish, but I didn’t expect to be emotional on the drive to the accommodation. The sun was out, the air conditioning was on, everything was here in one piece – myself, my luggage, my bike, the car was good, a big automatic, easy to drive, the tunes were good on the radio. Finally I was here in Kona. Driving along the Queen K. The volcano up to the left. The Pacific ocean to the right. Lava fields all around. I’d seen it all a million times before on a TV screen or laptop screen or mobile phone screen, I’d read about it a million times, thought about it basically non-stop for 10 years, how can I qualify for Kona, and now finally I was here. The Queen K! I was nearly in tears.

Then Palani! When you’re leaving town, Palani is uphill to the Queen K. I drove down Palani. It was far steeper than I thought it would be. Then “Hot Corner” – the intersection of Palani and the Kuakini highway, where the bike and run routes pass several times. Then the ocean. The pier. The swim start. The King K hotel. Ali’i drive. F*ck me I am here and this is real. It looked amazing on TV and it looked a million times better in real life. Blue flat calm ocean. Palm trees. Oceanfront bars and restaurants. Athletes already in town running and cycling. The big Banyan tree. The sea wall. Incredible. I was in tears by this point, wondering if I should stop the car.

Not even two miles along Ali’i Drive and I came to Casa de Emdeko. The gate passcode didn’t work but an Aussie ironman told me the new code and I was soon unloading gear into Condo 111, thankfully on the ground floor. It was superb accommodation. Two big bedrooms, with ensuite, with bodyboards, with a massive living/kitchen area, a massive “lanai” (Hawaiian for balcony), and with the air conditioning going full blast.

I was excited. I didn’t know what to do. I had to go back to the airport later than evening to pick Deirdre up. Steve and Natalie would arrive a couple of days later. At this point, properly unpacking and then properly eating would have been sensible. The sensible instincts lasted long enough to open my suitcase and make a mess with all the contents. I had a message from June (also from N.Ireland, who I met in South Africa, who had arrived to Kona a few days earlier). She said “welcome, take it easy, rest and relax for a few days, break yourself in gently!” Good advice. I messaged her back: “I’m away for a run!” “You’re mad!” “Only a short one…”

I had to get out. Had to do some exercise. Had to see this place! I’d figure out food and unpacking and where the accommodation swimming pool was and all the rest of it later. I ran back along Ali’i drive to the pier. Stopped to take photographs. It was class. Hot. With it only being Saturday, and race day still being a week away, I got the sense that things hadn’t yet really hit top gear in and around Kona. That would come next week. The ocean looked amazing. Everything looked amazing. All the iconic restaurants and bars: Huggo’s, Lava Java, Splasher’s. Palm trees. Heat. Waves. Heat. Runners. Heat. Cyclists. Heat. A massive cruise ship. I ran up onto the pier. Saw the little bit of sand underneath known as “Dig Me Beach”, and the steps down to the swim course. Plenty of swimmers. Saw the beach and luau grounds on the far side of the pier.

The water changed colour depending on the time of day. This was just before sunset

"Official swim start and run finish, Ironman triathlon world championship"

I ran past the big sign that everyone can sign...

...and of course I stopped to sign it

I decided to run round the far side of town to the old airport recreation ground to watch the sunset. This was turning into a long enough run… The sunset was great, then I headed for home, maybe 3-4 miles away. It got dark very quickly. 80 minutes later and I was back (albeit with plenty of photo stops). Casa de Emdeko was a little bit beyond all the action on the main bit of Ali’i drive, and there were no restaurants nearby. There was a little shop and I cobbled together a dinner of toast, tuna, peppers and Korean seaweed. It all did the job really well, then I tried to get as much unpacked and put away as possible. The bike could wait for another day or two yet.

It was the last big boat I'd see in the vicinity of the pier. 

They must have been banned during Ironman week.

Hulihe'e palace, an old colonial building.

The Hawaiian state flag features the union jack. 

There's a monument to Captain Cook who was murdered 

not far away by a native.

One of the pools at the accommodation...

Unpacking done, it was off to the airport again to pick Deirdre up, give her a lei, followed by an early night. What was 10pm in Kona felt much, much later. With the way the jetlag is, most people travelling from Europe to Kona end up going to bed early and waking up early. That works, because the sun sets just after 6pm, and rises just after 6am. So if you can get up early, you can get a swim (or a run) done before the serious heat of the day arrives. And getting up early means you’re used to getting up early, which is helpful on race day when you have to get up very early…

Post 193 - Kona day 1 - Packing and departing

Day 1: Friday 4th October 2019 (and Thursday evening...!)

The Kona trip started with a rotten cold. I’d had a tough 3-week training block, as temperatures were starting to dip down into autumn. I’d created a lot of artificial heat in training, with saunas, hot baths, 5-6 hour indoor turbo trainer sessions with the heat going full blast, running with 3 coats on. Lots of sweat, lot of stress on the body, and just as the training block was coming to an end, the body said “enough” and came down with a cold. I had a week of tapering to shift it before travelling to Kona. And, just about in time, I did manage to shift it, with the help of inordinate amounts of garlic, ginger, chillis, lemsips, paracetamol, hot lemon water, anything I could think of.

Flu buster

With all the heat training, I was also putting a lot of stress on my boiler. As I was doing my last indoor turbo trainer session, the boiler/thermostat packed in. I shrugged. There was nothing I could do about it before the trip. I’d deal with it when I got back, and hope it wasn’t too cold…

Everything else was in place. All the travel arrangements. All the bits and pieces I’d need. All the food I’d need for the journey. All the new “tech” I’d bought – new phone and underwater camera and accessories. I’d even set up an Instagram account for people to see a few of my photos. Then all too soon the thinking and planning was over, departure day was looming, and I had to pack. I had a 25kg suitcase allowance, a 23kg bike allowance, and a 10kg hand luggage allowance. I followed my usual routine of piling everything on the bed and then getting it into cases.

My physio had lent me a bike box (“Bike Box Alan”, in my opinion the best bike box available), and I packed that first. I set it on the bed so I wouldn’t have to kneel and stretch over it. This worked really well. It took literally hours to dismantle the bike, secure it in place, pack things around it, weigh it, realise it was overweight, re-pack, re-weigh, re-pack and so on. Finally it weighed 23kg. Beyond the bike, a pump and my helmet, there was nothing else in the bike box, despite there being loads of room. The rest would have to squeeze into a suitcase and into hand luggage.

Eventually, after a 6-hour packing marathon, it was all done. 23kg plus 25kg plus 12kg plus another few kilos in a duty-free bag (a good trick to get some extra luggage is to carry a duty-free bag, as everyone is allowed a duty-free bag in addition to hand luggage). I wouldn’t be getting stung for any excess baggage charges. My luggage was heavier than me. I had to stretch out my back when it was all done. Then I went to bed, for an early start for the trip to Hawaii.

It looks so simple. It took so long...

I was ready to go. Plenty of people were already there in Hawaii, I was seeing plenty of photographs and chat online about all the goings-on, it looked fantastic, and I just wanted to be there. Forget the 2 days it would take to actually get there!

I'm not even a coffee drinker, but when you see pictures like these 

on social media from people already there, you just want to be there too

I had to call in a friend to give me a hand down the stairs with all of it. It turned out that the taxi driver had always wanted to do a triathlon. The gist of my message was, “What’s stopping you?!” He agreed he would sign up for a race in the new year, and asked me to put a reminder on his phone as we were driving.

Check-in was busy but went fine. Hopefully I’d see the bike again in Los Angeles… Getting onto the small plane for the first flight to Dublin, I saw my bike being loaded. Great. I had been worried there might not be room. I had chosen to take an earlier flight to Dublin, which I was glad about when I arrived to USA immigration pre-clearance at Dublin airport. Crazy queues. 

The orange thing is the bike box...

Pre-clearance took ages. Once you’re in the queue, you can’t leave it, especially as a solo traveller. So by the time I got to the front of the queue, I was bursting for the toilet. I noticed a sign. No fruit, no vegetables, no nuts allowed beyond this point. You weren’t allowed to bring any of those things into the USA. Once I passed immigration pre-clearance, I was effectively in the USA.

And guess what, my hand luggage was full of fruit and nuts for the journey, perfectly packed into Tupperware boxes to protect it. Should I just say nothing? I remembered travelling to New Zealand from Sydney and seeing similar warnings. On arrival, a sniffer dog went mad at my hand luggage. There was no food in it, but this particular bag had contained my lunch every day for something like 6 months in Sydney.

Better not to risk it here then, and so I told the USA immigration officer that I had a few bits of fruit and some nuts. “Put it on the desk,” he said. I was already very shifty from trying not to wet myself.  Now I had to declare what was basically illegal hazardous contraband. His face was quite a picture as I tipped out about 14 pieces of fruit and 10 bags of nuts. I hoped he would just laugh and wave me through. I needed this stuff. A 12-hour flight to Los Angeles, a night at the airport motel, and a 6-hour flight to Hawaii. I was going to be hungry. “You gotta bin ‘em all, now…” He meant business. No arguments.

What a waste. Worse, on the far side of pre-clearance, facilities were minimal so I couldn’t really replace any of it. I spent about 20 euros on a couple of sandwiches and pastries and then boarded for LA. I asked the cabin crew what chance there was of an upgrade (smile smile nod nod wink wink). Answer: no chance, sorry. But, to pass the time, I had a great book: “Iron War”, about the 1989 Ironman world championship, when Dave Scott and Mark Allen did the entire race side-by-side, neither giving an inch, until the final mile or two, when Mark Allen finally broke away and took the win. A great read. A great story. A great way to learn about the race and its history. Maybe I’d meet the two protagonists in Kona and get them to sign the book…

Great reading

Almost 400 pages later and I was in LA. In addition to 400 pages, I also consumed 3 in-flight meals, a load of water, walked loads of laps of the cabin, did plenty of stretching, and watched zero in-flight TV. I had a very understanding German-American lady beside me. So understanding was she, that she actually asked for my second in-flight meal on my behalf. She also advised me on the best way to get to my airport motel (via the free car-rental shuttle bus).

With the jet-lag, early evening in LA felt like late at night to me, and I was very tired. My bike arrived unscathed. Had it not arrived, Aer Lingus’ liability for it would have ended with simply getting it to LA on a following flight. Because my LA to Kona ticket was a separate ticket, they would have had no liability for getting it to Hawaii, so if it hadn’t arrived to LA, I’d have had to miss my Hawaii flight to wait for it. Or try to get Steve and Natalie to pick it up and bring it with them a couple of days later (two of my best friends, travelling out for a belated honeymoon to watch me at the Ironman world championships, as you do…)

Sure enough, the shuttle bus got me to within a 5-minute walk of the motel. It was right under the flight path, but I had my earplugs and I went straight to bed. I’d be up early enough the next day for the final flight to Kona…

Post 192 - Kona race summary

It is all over. Kona 2019. What a trip. What a race. Worth everything over the last ten years.

I had hoped to get under 10 hours. The swim was very salty. I swam 62 minutes. It felt like a lot longer, but was actually slightly quicker than I'd hoped to do. I didn't have a great first transition - it was bedlam in the changing tent.

I biked 5:24. Around 10 minutes slower than I'd hoped. The first 20 miles were great, then the winds got up and they were ferocious. I got off the bike knowing I'd need a 3:20 run to break 10. I went for it. Held on until about 20 miles. It was so hot.

Then after exiting the Energy Lab section, there was a headwind for 5 miles on the run for home, and my pace dropped. I ran 3:27. Fractionally faster than I'd thought I would run, but not quite fast enough.

I finished in 10:05. I couldn't have done more. It was a tough day. You go to Hawaii to be tested. To get it tough. We were certainly tested on race day and we certainly got it tough.

It will take me ages to write proper blog posts to justify the whole trip. But I'll do it...

For now, aloha and mahalo.

Post 191 - Kona training part 3 - a week too far?

I had a 3-week training block before Kona. I didn't know if I should do a full three weeks, or do one week hard, one week easier, and the final week hard. I wanted to do three hard weeks because I didn't think two weeks was enough after Lausanne to properly get back into the long-course endurance swing of things. I'd been doing a lot of heat training during the three weeks. The actual heat training seemed fine. The depletion and recovery afterwards was tough.

With hindsight, I wouldn't have trained so intensely and so often with heat for the full three weeks. Towards the end of the final week, I felt like I was coming down with a cold. And sure enough, now it's a full-on, sore head, snotty nose, sore throat, can't-sleep, horrible, messy cold. I also have a bit of a sore Achilles. I fly out to Kona in 3 days... I hope they will both be OK...

On Monday I felt fine. I went for the usual massage. All good. On Tuesday I got on the turbo. 2 x 20 minutes of effort. Top effort would see both sets over 300 watts. I was happy enough to tone it down to around 290 watts. No point in risking damage or injury or illness. Little did I know...

On Wednesday I went out for a tempo run. 45 minutes would be enough. Usually I'd do at least an hour. 45 minutes would do. No point in risking damage or injury or illness... Little did I know... I got into a hot bath straight away for 30 minutes. Went to bed. No problem. I woke up in the night feeling my Achilles was a little bit sore. Not bad, but definitely not right.

On Thursday I limped around work telling myself it was fine, that I wouldn't be running again until Sunday, that would be enough time for it to recover. I got on the turbo trainer that night with the heat on full blast, and no fan on. It was sweaty. I got through 2 hours. The fitness is good. The heat adaption is working. The Achilles still felt a bit iffy.

On Friday I swam 4000m and then sat in the sauna for 30 minutes. The first 15 minutes are fine, the second 15 are agony. So uncomfortable. Time drags so slowly. You could just step out of the sauna. But you can't. You endure it. For Kona. 

You hope at mile 20 of the marathon when it's 34 degrees, all the heat adaption will have been of some use. I got a haircut. It was raining. Then I went for another massage, was told there isn't much wrong my Achilles (I don't believe that, it's definitely not right), and picked up a bike box for Kona. I went to bed that night feeling like I had a cold coming on.

I got up. I didn't feel like I had a full-on cold. I had two more days of Ironman training to do. Just two more days. 5 and a half hours on the turbo, in heat. It got up to 33 degrees in the flat with the heat from the radiators being rivalled by the heat I was generating, pedalling away. Thank goodness for Peaky Blinders - I've watched every single episode - good turbo fodder. I played around with my new camera while on the go, getting it all working and linked to my new phone.

Before I took my top off...!

I felt like I had decent fitness on the turbo. A good session. I was going well in the high temperatures. I wondered would I follow it with a run. Should I? I decided I would. Only 20 minutes. If the Achilles was bad, I would stop. I got through 20 minutes, at a much faster pace than I intend to run the Ironman marathon. The fitness is not bad at all, I have to admit. The Achilles isn't too bad. The big test for it would be the long Sunday run.

Hot and sweaty

Turbo nutrition

I preceded this Sunday run with the single-leg drills I hadn't had time to do on Friday. Then I ran for 2 hours and 10 minutes. It was cold. I had loads of layers on. "Heat training." There was nothing enjoyable about this. I was soaking in sweat, worried about my Achilles, had a cold coming on. One of my least enjoyable runs. Afterwards I got straight into a hot bath for half an hour. 

The Achilles had been OK. I assume if it was going to go wrong, it would have gone wrong during this long run. It's uncomfortable, but I hope it will be OK. No more tough tests for it until the Ironman marathon anyway. And if it happens to be so bad afterwards that I can't walk, well, who cares? As long as it gets me through 26.2 miles on Hawaii...

I didn't sleep that night. The cold got worse. So many things combined: the changing seasons, lower temperatures, a depleted, dehydrated body, heat training adding to the stress, the haircut meant my head was cold. I got sick at pretty much exactly the same time last year. I probably asked too much of myself over the last 3 weeks. 

So over the past few days I have been drinking lemsips, necking neat alcohol to try to kill any germs, increasing my intake of chillis and tumeric and ginger and garlic. But I don't think anything I can do will make a difference. It will run its course. Better this week than next week. I hope it'll be better before Friday, when I fly out. I hope the Achilles will be OK.

For now, I'll train very lightly until I travel. I've still got quite a bit to get ready. I've seem some photos and reports from people who are already out there in Kona. It looks good. I can't wait. I just wish I was in top condition. I'm sure I will be by the time it comes around.

Kona start and finish

Training done was as follows:

Swim 4km, Bike 185 miles, Run 28  miles

(The "2 x 2 mins" below should read "2 x 20mins".)