Post 206 - Kona day 10 - The day after...

Day 10 - Sunday 13th October 2019

Needless to say, the day after the Ironman, we all had a bit of a lie-in. We got up at our leisure. I didn’t feel terrible. I could still move. We ambled to swimming pool number 1. Very picturesque, but a little bit chilly. Then we ambled down to swimming pool number 2, down by the oceanfront. It was warmer and we splashed about. It was good to do something to get the blood flowing, flushing out all the muscles and helping the recovery.

Then we headed into town for some fodder. We got a great ocean-front table at the Kona Canoe Club. It didn’t matter what I did or ate now. We polished off Mai Tai and Margarita cocktails – yes, it was only lunch time! This was followed by a pile of tacos. Great stuff. We certainly didn’t rush it. There were no obligations or deadlines today, apart from the Banquet of Champions later that night. There was no reason to hurry, with a pod of spinner dolphins playing and putting on a show, just offshore from where we were sitting. Awesome.

After our food, we wandered around Kona, looking in the various little independent shops. They were all really cool. Kona seems to attract a certain kind of person to live there – independent, resilient, free-spirited, quirky, creative. The shops reflected this. There were some really good, non-official souvenirs on offer, at much better prices than the branded official stuff. Some of the shops had really interesting displays of the histories of the various races here.

And there were also the high-end stuff. Ironman branded jewellery. Solid gold and diamond. Tens of thousands of dollars. Sunglasses for a thousand dollars. Sadly, you need a certain level of income to be able to even contemplate doing an Ironman, and you need a level above that to try to qualify for Kona as you need a certain level of equipment, and then to actually go to Kona you need a level above that again. So in that sense, I think running is a much purer sport as it is available to everyone. I’m glad I have qualified for Kona now, because in years to come the “arms race” of ever-improving equipment and technology and the ever-increasing price of the top-end equipment needed to compete at this level, will become prohibitive.

Regardless, I enjoyed wandering around the little independent shops. I had seen a really cool piece of Ironman-themed artwork in a different shop earlier in the week, but when I went to see about buying it, there were none of this particular design left. 

However, in secret, the others bought me an Ironman tile. A what?! One of the shops allowed you to design a tile, personalise it, add on the swim, bike, run and finishing times. I think they hoped to pick it up later in the day and present it to me. They must have gone back to the shop and found that they weren't able to make it in time. So they told me about it, and said that the shop had promised that they would ship it to me, free of charge. I went to the shop to give them my address. The sample tiles on display looked fantastic. Really unique mementos. I looked forward to getting mine. It would arrive some day in the middle of the Edinburgh winter and give me something to smile about. Way cooler than the artwork I'd seen that had sold out.

We headed further down towards the finishing area. Already everything was already half-dismantled. It’s a big job to put everything together and pack it all away again. I bought a couple of official bits and pieces from the main expo. Already some of the stuff had discounts as they sought to get rid of it. I bought a few fridge magnets and stickers and a half-price mug. I was fairly confident that in a month or so, everything for sale in the expo, all the Ironman world championship 2019 merchandise, would be half-price online. We picked up some desserts for later. I could eat desserts now that it was all over...!

We had a look around the outdoor market and then headed back to Casa de Emdeko. Just in time for another spectacular sunset from the oceanside pool. It had been a really good, chilled out day. More like a conventional “holiday” day. Then it was time to get ready for the post-race banquet. The “Banquet of Champions”.

A super shirt from Matt, one of my oldest cycling/triathlon buddies

As an athlete I was entitled to free entry, but I’d bought tickets for the others at $55 each. I hoped it would be good. The welcome banquet had been good, so the same again would do nicely. Hopefully Ironman would realise that their athletes would be up for a bit of post-race junk food and dessert as well…

We headed down. It was really busy. All the prime seats were taken. There was a VIP area fenced off at the front. They will squeeze as much money out of it as they can. On race day you could buy a VIP viewing experience for $1000. For that you got to watch the swim start on a boat and you get a balcony view of the finish line at Ali’i drive, and a bit of food and drink. Good value? Evidently some think so…

The food was reasonable if you weren’t vegetarian. If you were vegetarian, you could get yourself a plateful of leaves. It was so disappointing for Natalie. They hadn’t catered for vegetarians at all. At the welcome banquet, there had been a great spread of vegetarian food. But here, there was literally nothing but leaves. I was gutted for Natalie. And pretty annoyed that for $55, there weren’t any vegetarian options. Such a shame, to put such a downer on it. I’m sure a lot of people were in the same boat. And the race was sponsored by a vegetarian food company!

We took this up with one of the managers on site. He worked for the catering side of the King K hotel (in whose grounds the banquet was held). He sympathised, but said they were simply following the contract  that Ironman have in place. He said they have the same issue every year. No vegetarian food. They give this feedback to Ironman every year, and nothing changes. He said I should take it up with them. He took my email address and said he would follow up and get back to me. 2 months later and I’m still waiting. I took this up with Ironman. 2 months later and I’m still waiting…

We couldn’t change it, and as much as we might have wanted to walk out and go somewhere else, we had $165 spent on tickets, so we would make the best of it. I loaded my plate up and we found seats with an obscured view of the stage, behind the spotlights and sound gantry. We ran into June and Stephen (I really should have contacted them before the banquet) and we ate and chatted about the race. I asked her finish time. “123456,” she said. “Eh?!” 12 hours, 34 minutes, and 56 seconds. She hadn’t worn socks on the bike and the heat and friction had caused major problems with her feet, and she had spent ages in the second transition being treated. If not for this, she’d have been winning a prize tonight.

We talked about "what next?" June and Stephen were off to the west coast of the USA for a few weeks of holiday (being retired must have its benefits), but the "what next" question was more in reference to triathlon/sport. June said, "What DO you do next? Where DO you go from here? I mean, this is the pinnacle of triathlon, of sport..." Where indeed would I go next? Or June? I'd have to come down from this trip and race and think about that question...

I wasn’t really up for drinking, I just didn’t feel like it. I knocked back a few desserts. The speeches were going on and on. Mike Reilly was the master of ceremonies, but his voice had been reduced to a croak after nearly 20 hours on the microphone yesterday.

They present awards to the top 5 finishers in each male and female age group, in 5-year bands, from 18 up to 80+. It takes a long time to get through it all. Some of the amateur finishing times were obscene. Most of the age groupers under 45 years old who finish on the podium are probably good enough to be professionals. But there’s not enough money in it for it to be a viable career. Or rather, there’s not enough prize money. The pros should get more. Ironman must make a fortune every year.

Alexandre Vinokourov – former pro cyclist and convicted doper – won the male 45-49 age group with the fastest non-pro bike split of the day. He was roundly booed getting his prize. The effects of doping apparently provide benefits for years and years. Laurent Jalabert – another former pro cyclist with doping clouds over him – also won an age group prize. A photo went round on social media of the Ironman CEO hugging Vinokourov. Then they announced the latest Ironman race addition to the calendar – Ironman Kazakhstan, where Vinokourov is from. Draw your own conclusions.

Race videos were shown, speeches went on and on, and it was difficult to chat over the noise. We watched the pros being presented with their awards and then everyone felt that we had had enough. It had been a bit of an anti-climax. I should have enjoyed it more than I did. Maybe I was just too tired. And the vegetarian food issue had been a bit of a sour note. And it was a bit noisy and difficult to chat. But whatever. I was glad we had gone along to it. I wanted to experience everything, and I’m sure the others, even Natalie, wouldn’t change it.

Female top 10

Male top 10. Course record winning time. Fast...

We headed back to Casa de Emdeko and lounged around, chilling out. We made a vague plan for tomorrow, which would be our last full day on the Big Island. We all wanted to go and do some last-minute shopping. I really wanted to eat Loco Moco for breakfast. And now that the race was over, I could. It’s a traditional Hawaiian dish of rice, steak, gravy and fried eggs. I wasn’t going to leave Hawaii without having had it. We thought going back to our bodyboarding beach would be good, and we were also keen to try to do the short trek over a lava field to the isolated Makalawena beach. On the way to this beach, we would pass Mahai’ula beach.

It could be a busy day. Like most of our days had been…