Quest for Kona: by Jay Watson

Quest For Kona, an Ironman Arizona Race Report
by J.A. Watson

As many of you have probably done, I started watching the Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona on T.V. a couple of years ago. I was captivated by the Hoyts, Blazeman, the parade of nations, the underpants run,etc. and thought Kona would be a pretty cool thing to do. I've been doing Tri's for 3-4 years, did the bike portion of Silverman the first two years, and have been somewhat successful in OLy-1/2IM races. But I've never done a full ironman or even a marathon. So I figured I had an outside shot of qualifying for Kona when I aged up in 2009. My plan was to volunteer for the spring 2008 IMAZ and register for spring 2009. When they changed the date to fall 2009 and I could register online, I went ahead and signed up for this years fall race.

Looking at past results, I figured I would have to go 10:30 in M45-49 to have an outside shot. OK, that's doable: Swim 1:15, Bike 5:15, then run my first marathon in$;00 with transitions thrown in there somewhere! I've had issues with pulling calf and hamstring muscles when I run, and I only run with compression sleeves on my calves now.(even though they look hideously ugly!) I'm an Ob/Gyn doctor and have a 10yr old daughter and 8yr old son, so my training schedule is usually 2-3 swims, runs, and bike rides per week. Masters swimming at 5:30am for the past 2 years, longest run 16 miles, and longest bike 81 miles.

I tapered for 2-3 weeks and drove down to Tempe on Thursday night. Friday morning I did the Gatorade warm-up swim at Town Lake. 65 degrees, choppy, murky and swam for 35 minutes. I was surprised at how many foreigners were there and there wasn't a lot of body fat to be seen, so I was a little bit intimidated. I took advantage of the free massage and told the masseuse that I had problems with my calves and hamstrings. So he proceeded to give me an A.R.T.(active release technique?) massage, which left me feeling like I had charley horses in my calves! I spent all day icing and compressing my calves, and the next day heating and trying to massage and roll out the knots in my calves. NEVER try anything new on race day, or 2 days prior to race day for that matter! I felt much better by race day though.

Race Day: My day started at 3:30 with my typical pre-race banana and oatmeal breakfast, then drove from my sisters house in east Mesa to the race sight. Calf sleeves and trisuit, lots of chamois cream, got body marked, checked out my bike, loaded up aerobottle with accelerade and velcred 2 flasks of powergel and accelgel to my bike. Suntan lotion and then tried to relax till wetsuit time. Surprisingly I fely pretty relaxed at that time. I spoke with a guy who was doing hios 16th IM of the year!Don Hennesy? I want his job!!! I jumped in the water 14 minutes before the start, and set up about 2/3rd the way over to the bouys-away from shore. I started my watch when the pro's started 10 minutes before us and positioned myself about 5 people back from the front and waited for the cannon to go off. My swim going out was very uncrowded and I got bumped more coming back in, but also caught a good draft on the inward leg. I felt good the whole swim and checked my watch after my wetsuit was pealed off and was pleasantly surprised with a 1:05:35. (37/247 in AG) WOOHOO 10 minutes ahead of schedule!

I put on a TT suit over my trisuit for the bike and had a decent T1 of 5:49. I headed out on the bike and started reeling in the faster swimmers. I tried to keep my pace steady and not get overly excited, but I know the adrenalin was running high. I got passed by the first and only pack I saw about 10 miles into the bike, but they thinned out going up the hill to the turn around. I didn't see any penalties get handed out, but I did see a few people in the penalty tents. The marshalls did seem to be ever present on Beeline Hwy, but nowhere else that I saw. I was surprised there was a headwind going out on the first 2 loops, then it shifted to a tailwind for the 3rd loop. First loop
22.19MPH, 2nd 21.64MPH, and the last loop 22.09MPH. I didn't bother to pick up my special needs bag, since the volunteers were AWESOME! Every high speed handoff was like they'd been practicing all week long! The only glitch I had was when my TT suit zipper broke as I was trying to zip it down in the last mile. I ended up just tearing it open. I'm glad I started zipping it down well before T2. Bike:5:05:50.....SWEEEET! T2 1:14 and headed out to do my first marathon at
6:18:27.
I put on Desoto arm coolers on the fly and tried to take in water and
gatorade at each aid station. I kept telling myself to run the whole marathon-NO WALKING! First 2 miles I did at 7:30pace, but it felt like 8:30 and I thought the markers might be wrong. Probably oxygen debt! I knew I had a long way to go. I didn't know where I stood, but saw 1 guy pass me on the bike in my AG and 5 on the run. No muscle cramps or pulled muscles, maybe that ART was a good thing?! My pace started to drop on the second loop. I had to stop to use the facilities twice, so maybe I was drinking too much. I bonked slightly at 20-21 until I got
a gel at the next aid station. I kept pushing it and caught back up with 3 guys in my AG in the last 3-4 miles and pushed hard the last 2 miles as I was still unsure how I stood for Kona slots and didn't want anyone passing me coming in.

Finished at 10:12:43(run: 3:54:17). My race couldn't have gone better, but I knew qualifying times would be lower on such a perfect day. Turns out I was 13th in AG and only 7 Kona slots. I still had to go to the rolldown the next morning just to make sure. I felt bad for the guy who finished 8th in under 10 hours and still didn't get a spot. YOu actually had to be faster in M45-49 than M40-44.(9:53 vs 9:54) My time would have put me in 3rd M50-54 which would get me to Kona, but I've decided not to pursue that next year as family and finances take priority.(Maybe!) Maybe Silverman will be my Kona. No Kona spot for me this year, but I had fun trying! I'll just have to experience it vicariously through Michael Sullivan for now!