The Kona trip started in true Ellie style: very last-minute packing, absolutely zero sleep and picnic lunch forgotten in the fridge. After an expensive airport lunch and even more expensive oversized luggage charges, we got our flight to San Francisco. Brief stopover there (a trip to Big Wendy’s and a much needed horizontal sleep) then the flight to Hawaii. Didn’t realise quite how far away it is – it was another 5hr flight off the west coast; it is literally an island in the Pacific, halfway around the world!
Landing in Kona was awesome. So much black lava. We arrived in Waikoloa on the Tuesday afternoon, horrendously jetlagged but ridiculously excited. I built my bike and went for a wander along the beach. First of many stunning sunsets!
The plan was to do a 90 minute ride and a brick run on the Wednesday, long ride Thursday, swim and run Friday before my mum arrived for some touristy things at the weekend. I set off with Alfie on a ride on Weds, but he had a bit of a disaster with his bike so we turned around, I waited while he got it fixed at the bike shop, then we rode up towards the volcano (which was stunning!!), saving the long Queen K stretch for Thursday.
I did a solid brick run off that, legs felt great, but I could feel a sore throat coming. I put it down to the travel tiredness and thought I’d sleep it off. Alas I did not; I woke up with a fever, a cough, a snuffly nose and legs that felt like actual lead. Somehow, after avoiding it for more than two whole years, covid got me. I spent the day in bed either sleeping / bawling my eyes out / writing the rest of my lit review. So that was my training written off.
Thankfully I felt well enough to go exploring a bit by Saturday but was too scared to exercise just in case it got worse, and at this point I was still testing positive. I did on the Sunday manage a ride from the top of Hawi; only 20km downhill, just to assess the wind situation there as I’d heard it was bad. Excellent speed for the minimal watts! On Monday I tested negative so I decided the race was definitely on. I still felt rubbish but at least I’d be safe to do it.
Monday was the Parade of Nations = lots of athletes walking around the town waving flags. A bizarre experience but lovely to meet fellow Brits! The next two days were filled with all the usual pre-race faff, bike tuning up, athlete registration (and the all-important bag collection!!), racking etc etc.
I woke up on race day morning with absolutely no desire to get out of bed, never mind a 3.8km swim, a 180km bike and then a hilly marathon. I normally get nerves before a race but there’s always an excitement about it… this was not even butterflies; it was an anxious / fearful feeling that I simply didn’t want and didn’t feel I could do it. Fiona came round and was immediately on hype duty, so by the time we all wandered down to the pier I was in a better mood.
I went through the body marking tent and was greeted by applause that was totally overwhelming – the tear ducts were open and I was streaming a mix of happy tears because I was actually there and sad tears because I still felt pretty pants. We had the usual pre-race portaloo stress, I said my goodbyes to my support crew and hopped into the start pen. So nice to be lining up with so many familiar faces!
SWIM
We swam about a hundred metres out to the start line (line being a loose term; a congregation of people behind a string of paddleboarders) and were hanging around there for about 5 minutes. The nerves were building! BOOM there went the start gun, off we goooo. The start was messy with lots of dunking and kicks to the face. The harbour looked beautiful and to be fair the water was crystal clear. Shame the coral is all bleached and polluted. I got into a bit of a rhythm but maybe 15 mins out it got super choppy. I kept swallowing loads of water that was so salty it burned. Confirmation that I really don't like the sea 🙄. I was gagging loads and had to pause countless times to cough it all back up. The out swim went on forever! We turned around past the marker boat at about 1.9km and it only got worse. Very stop-starty with pausing to nearly chunder. A big group that must have been the wave behind us or even the wave after that went past and at this point I realised I must be going horrendously slowly. Didn't think I could physically swim as slow as I did so mega disappointed with a 1:27. I thought a bad day might be 1:15! 😭 But I didn't want a bad start to ruin the enjoyment of my day so I composed myself in the T1 tent, necked a gel and a swig of nice unsalty water, slapped on some suncream (badly, although grateful to all the volunteers helping out there) and set off for the fun part...
BIKE
I started feeling pretty good. Probably the relief to be out of the swim! I rode the first 5km through Kona town quite conservatively because it was a bit crowded and I did not want a drafting penalty! I distinctly remember there was a guy dressed in an inflatable dragon waving a Welsh flag, and I yelled YEAH WAAYYYELLSSS at him and got a big boost of hype just before the climb out of the town. Palani hill was fun with all the crowds, then it was up onto the Queen K Highway for 175km. The first couple of hours were the most enjoyable of my day, pinching myself I was on that iconic road. It's amazing to see the road just going on for endless miles with bikes dotted along the way like ants. At the top of Scenic Point, I had a moment of thinking wow this is unreal, it literally looks like it does on the TV (lol because it was!!). I passed the first pros at 10:38am - I'd guessed I'd see them at 10:40am so to be two minutes off my guess was a little win of the day 🤣 couldn’t miss Lucy Charles on her new pink Cube! I screamed some encouragement at them and that spurred me on. But I tell you what, those lava fields get boring. The long climb up to Hawī was a bit of a drag. Crowds at the turnaround point picked me up again and I flew down the next 10km, happily unphased by the wobbly crosswinds but glad I’d ridden that bit before at least. Sometime after that it started to get hard... we turned towards a headwind and the breeze was not the slightest bit refreshing; it was like the oven door opening in your face. I really noticed the sparse aid stations and my power started to drop. SO disheartening to watch my average pace falling. The bike leg was meant to be my strong leg! 😭 Quite annoyed that I stuck with my nutrition plan and kept to target heart rate yet still faded in the last 50km. I had a minor mechanical dropping my chain very close to the end, and although it was less than probably 30 seconds it knocked my mental energy. As I rolled into T2 I could feel my legs worryingly heavy, had absolutely no desire to run a mile never mind 26, and I knew I was in for a sufferfest...
RUN
AKA walk. Didn't think it could get worse than Austria, but I was wrong. I took my time in transition to try and revive myself, forget about the slow swim and slow bike and think I still had a chance to somewhat redeem myself. But as I headed out all I could think was how seriously I did not want to do it. I felt rubbish from the first km, my legs were so tired I knew it was going to be tough. The heat wasn't actually too bad; I'd prepared well for it, and it was hot yes but that wasn't killing me. I did however run through a lot of hosepipes and that got my feet soaked which very quickly started to cause me problems - got the worst blisters I've ever had not only on my heels but on the souls of my feet which I've never had before! From about 10km it was painful to put any pressure my feet... bit of a problem with 32k to go 🙃 I walked up Palani hill and started running again on the Queen K, motivated by Alfie calculating that if I pulled it together I could still claw back some time and finish respectably. But I was suffering hard: my sunburn was excruciating, and the feet were only getting worse. The sun went down as I went towards the energy lab and a part of my soul died at that point. It was SO FAR AWAY 😭 the pain was almost unbearable and I literally lay down on the side of the road looking at the stars and questioning everything I was doing. The worst thing? I actually lay down TWICE during that marathon because it was so painful to put my feet on the ground. Who the heck *lies down* during the world champs omg wtf was I doing there. The medical crew kindly came to check on me and I said thanks but no thanks I'm carrying on. I got into a bit of a rhythm counting my paces, running 80 and walking 20, but that didn't last long. It was dark and lonely and utterly miserable along that highway. Although it was a wide road I was shuffling along at the edge and about 30km I slipped off the road and rolled my ankle. I briefly cried then thought what's a bit more pain and stumbled on. I was in such a hole I didn't notice how much it hurt at the time but it caused me a lot of grief for a week after. Somewhere near the end I started imagining seeing my friends and lo and behold at 38k there was Alfie!! He's seen me in some bad ways but that was baaad. What an embarrassment. I picked it up down the last mile and wow that finish line was special!
Running through the flags with roaring crowds reminded me where I was and that was such an emotional moment. It's funny how you can forget the 15 hours of hell you've just been through when you see that finish arch 😂 and so special to have been welcomed home by the original Ironman voice Mike Reilly on his last world champs!
The finish line / post-race volunteers were amazing. Two people carried me stumbling over to the tent to collect my finisher bag of souvenirs, then I hobbled over to the food tent (then quickly realised I wasn’t ready for a burger yet!), sat with my thoughts for a bit then went out to find my family. I lay on the grass there soaking up the pain / relief / exhaustion / everything else for a good 45 minutes.
I may have said I was going into the race with no expectations, and I tried to tell myself I meant it, but it's hard to shake off the actual expectations I had of myself deep down. I went for redemption, to prove that I deserved to be there, and I really did want to enjoy my day. I'd done the hard work and heat training went really well so I thought I'd be able to do it in a somewhat respectable time. I also thought you're supposed to get better the more you do things, not worse!
Going down with covid with less than a week til the race threw me off and from then I was just extra glad to be at the start. I have no idea really how much of an effect it had… I guess it can't have been good for me but I don't want to find excuses for me having a bad day. Bad across all three. I'm truthfully really gutted with my time but I don't want to be negative because it was an all-round incredible experience that I am massively grateful for and super lucky to have had.
More thoughts on my Kona reflections blog!
Mahalo Hawai'i 🌺 🏊♀️🚴♀️🏃♀️
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