But let’s start from the beginning:
In order to address my weakness of not being able to cope with the hot & humid conditions in Kona, I had taken to San Diego San Diego California Big Island
Ali’i Drive
for the first time since I came there first in 2004. The practice swims by the pier were just awesome and my bike rides on the Queen K highway a lot of fun.
After the usual two week taper came race day. Nervous as always I tried to find a spot a little to the right of the center of the starting line. When the gun went off at I had a blast. I missed out on the infamous Kona Pier Brawl but was not the least sorry for that. I decided to just go with the flow and the only time it got a little congested was at the turn around where I headed a little too far to the left. I had mistaken a media boat for the turn around and thus had to swim back a few extra meters to the right and into a tight pack of swimmers. Nonetheless I found some space on the way back to the pier and even witnessed some dolphins checking out what the heck those strange humans were doing in the ocean in the masses. Curious creatures, those dolphins! When I climbed the stairs to Kona pier I was clocked at 1:04:52h. Everything was fine.
In order to keep as cool as possible already on the bike I took my time in transition. I donned my long sleeve bike jersey and headed out. I took the loop through town up and down
Kuakini Highway
easy and was going up Palani road towards
Once on the
Queen K Highway
I began looking at my watts more closely and tried to push towards my target wattage of 250.
It felt easy and why should it not, I was in great shape. That worked out quite well and I was passing a lot of guys. And yes, a lot of groups that were not abiding to the drafting rules. To my great satisfaction a saw a lot of guys in the penalty tents by the roadside when I went by. So the marshals were doing some work. If it was enough that would turn out later. At every aid station I went through the routine I had practiced especially for this race. Grab two bottles. One bottle of energy drink and one bottle of water to pour over me and keep the jersey wet at all times to help cooling down. At the first few aid stations though I missed a lot of bottles as the volunteers had not yet figured out to run with the athletes when passing on the bottles.
The first hour saw an average speed of 25.4 miles; the second hour was just less than 25 miles. Right there I noticed that something was amiss with my left aerobar extension. The extension is fixed to the base bar with two screws that secure the extension from the back side of the base bar. One of these screws had somehow come lose and so that left extension was waggling like the tail of a certain black crossbreed dog from La Mesa
So when I reached Kawaihae again and turned right onto
Queen Kaahumanu Highway
I was a little angry. And from here onwards – so went the race plan – I would give the bike a little push. Struggling with the aerobar on the way up to Hawi I had not been able to keep up the wattage as I had planned. But in the rather flat sections here I could interlock both my hands to keep the bar stable and was quite ok. And for some 20 minutes this plan worked: At roughly 240 Watts I was passing lot of guys again. At 130 kilometers though cramps hit me in my right musculus vastus medialis – the muscle on the inside of the thigh. So I cut down on the watts and at under 200 watts I was fine. Every time though I pushed harder, the cramps were back. Luckily the next aid station had ice cold water to pour over the muscle and the cramps subsided. Still I was not daring to push harder than approximately 230
The cramp though was my first hint at the fact that even with all the cooling and all the salt in the energy drinks, bars and gels I was losing more electrolytes than I could substitute. To make a long story short: I was getting dehydrated. So I increased the fluid & salt intake even more and at the end of the bike had consumed some 5.5-6 liters of energy drink, three energy bars and about 10 energy gels.
The last 45 kilometers of the bike went by quite uneventful. Uneventful except for the fact that my friend Alex finally caught up to me and passed me with about 20km to go. He was encouraging me to keep up but I decided to go at my own pace and save something for the run. A very good plan I thought while I ate the last half of an energy bar I had grabbed at the last aid station on the bike. What I saw weather wise when I approached downtown Kona reminded me of my last two races already. Every day during race week a layer of clouds had come in over Kona about lunch time but not on race day. Just like in 07 and 08 when I had last been here. It was going to be a hot run again. But I had saved some energy due not being able to push really hard because of the lose aerobar. So I was actually looking forward to the run when I turned right from
Kuakini Highway
onto Palani Raod and thus T2 after 4:49h on the bike. About 5-6 minutes slower than in an ideal world but still good enough for a solid race if I could hold up on the run. 
Then again this time I was prepared for it, I thought. And yes, when I got off my bike coming into transition my legs felt quite ok. Not great, but ok. Which is usually very good for the start of a marathon in an Ironman. Again I donned my anti overheating gear. For the run this consisted of compression socks, a long sleeve top, a cap I had equipped with a cloth to keep my neck covered and wet and some surgical gloves to put ice into at every aid station. In short I was looking really, really ridiculous - ugly as hell. But it was not looks that I was after. At the exit of transition I used all the water I could get hold of and poured it over me. So starting the run up
Palani Road
I felt good and even smiled at my girl friend who stood at the hot corner. 
Along
Kuakini Highway
and also down on
Each aid station from then on had me pour two cups of ice into my pants as well as the front and back of my shirt. At mile 4 by that beautiful stretch of coastline the race photographers use to take their trademark run shot of the athletes I made my now trademark move from back in 2008.
On the way back from the turnaround at the Blue Chapel all the ice had cooled me down so much that I was able to start trotting again. On the way back into downtown Kona that trot went up to a speed of roughly eight minutes per mile which I was able to maintain from then on. I had promised Michelle to finally run up
Down on the road to the lab it was not as hot as in previous years. Good for me and good for my third mile in under 7min. Only there did dare to roughly calculate my projected finishing time. If I were able to keep up the 8-minute-miles I was running now I could still break 10 hours. So I tried to give this race one last push. At about this time I met Uli and he was so kind as to do a quick in race interview. I was doing good, but still slowing down quite a bit. With about five miles to go I realized that sub 10 hours would not be possible anymore and thus took it as easy as one can take the last 5k of an Ironman. Down
Palani Road
was painful nonetheless, a kiss from Michelle with about 300 yards to go lifted my spirits again. 
And in the finish chute I had one last moment of real fun. Flo, my host in
In the end I came in 475th overall in a total time of h. My crappy run was clocked at barely under four hours (h) even though according to my Garmin the course was short by roughly half a kilometer. Except for the Time Warp at the finish line there was no excitement at all after crossing the finish line. Nothing. Just disappointment. Not even the fact that I had dragged myself out of this really deep hole at run mile three and had come back to negative split the marathon by some 30min was able to lift my spirits. IT was rather that I had posted the 999th run split of the day that dominated my state of mind.
To sum it all up I am just not made for this race. When I met Paula Newby-Fraser after the race and asked her about what else one could do to do well in the conditions in the Big Island Scandinavia or Antarctica ? Perhaps. Still there is some strange allure to this race that I am not really able to explain. Sure it’s the fact that it’s the race that started it all. It’s the race that made the sport what it is today. It’s a living part of triathlon history. WTC calls it the World Championships and it gets more difficult by the year to qualify. So it’s a privilege to be at the starting line at all. No question. But the race also moves away from the mythos it has become. The course is way too overcrowded. In the water as well as on the bike. If you swim anywhere between 58min and 1:10h you are in the middle of one large pack that sets sails for Hawi at about 25 miles per hour. After about 60 miles of the bike I had finally squeezed through and blasted by too many packs of riders to count. But that necessitated a bike time of h. Could I still post such a bike split at age 45? Highly unlikely! And to go with the peloton like so many people do these days? For them it’s part of the game in 2011. Nope, that’s not going to happen for me!
So either it has to be in the near future. I age up in 2013. And in 2014 the Olympic Distance Triathlon Worlds is said to be held in San Diego
So perhaps: Until then!
Tim
p.s. As Kona was my last triathlon of this season, it’s time to say some thank you for 2011. A big thank you goes to Heather Sweet and Mac McEneaney from QR. They put me on the noble steed that is my CD 0.1. This beast propelled me to an average of 28,5 miles for the bike part of the TCSD Club September Race. It also made me beat Macca’s 2010 bike time at the San Diego Tri Classic on it. And they say their new Illicito frame is even faster. I’d very much like to try! A second big thank you goes out to the whole Triathlon Club of San Diego! I came back after four and a half years in Germany Thomas Johnson for the awesome new race kit:
To my flat mates of
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