I had a very good, solid Hawaii (Honu) Half Ironman on Saturday. The conditions were pretty good as the water was calm, the wind wasn't too strong, and there was enough breeze to make the run bearable. This Half IM is a very difficult race course, particularly, with the wind, heat, and humidity. It reaches over 100 degrees on the run course. Both the bike and run course are very hilly and really test your patience....
The swim started off with 1,600 people in the water in a mass start. I started way inside and had pretty clean water all the way to the first buoy. The traffic was heavy there and backed us up a little bit, so I had to stop swimming to make my way around the buoy. It's a hard course to sight on, but I took a pretty good line and had a decent swim. I got caught up in some other traffic, but it wasn't too bad. My swim time was 38 minutes.
The bike started great, but about 7 minutes in I heard a hissing noise and knew that I had a flat. The bike start is really congested, so I quickly pulled my bike off the road and started to go to work on the flat. Unfortunately, it was my rear wheel, so it was a more involved change. I was standing on the side of the road at an angle on the lava rock and had trouble getting the bike tire back on. I must of heard "Oh that sucks" about a 100 times as about 500 people passed me while I was changing the flat. I tried to stay composed, but it still took me 10 minutes to change the flat...All in all, I lost somewhere between 13 - 15 minutes...I was worried that I might flat again as I had a pretty good sized gash in the tire, so that was on my mind the majority of the ride!!
I got back on the bike and was careful to merge back onto the crowded road. I paced myself really well, and that's the main take-away for me from this race. Mentally, I held it together and was able to keep a good pace without blowing myself up as there are many hills on this course. I pedaled my way up to the turnaround at Hawi (town on the Big Island) and the wind started howling. It was right in our face, but I knew those 30 - 40 mph gusts would be at my back on the return. I finished in the bike in 2:58. Not my best time and I really could've pushed harder on the way back, but I'm happy with it given the issues I had with the flat!!!
My plan was to run my Ironman pace of 8 minutes per mile if that felt alright. I didn't want to push hard on the run as I've had some minor leg issues and wanted to make sure it wouldn't carry over into the full Ironman. I just didn't want to jeopardize my big race in 3 weeks. The pace felt great and it was 8 minutes on the dot at the first mile. I really had a great time on this run, even though the course is brutal. I smiled, talked to everyone, cheesed it up for the pictures, and just felt like I was floating over the course. Next thing I know, and its mile 5 and I'm feeling really good. I ran into some friends and threw out some words of encouragement and kept going. I was passing alot of people, so that helped too!! I finished the run with a little airplane maneuver at the finish line in 1:44. I ended up passing 230 people on the run!!
All in all a great warmup and confidence builder for the real-deal in just over 2 weeks!!!
