What a strange week in Hawaii leading up to the race. I got to the island on Thurs the week before the race. The temperatures where in the 80s, and it was raining every day. We did our last workouts hoping not to get wet and trying to find the hottest time of the day, to get the body used to “normal” Hawaii temperatures. The island always holds surprises for race day, but there is one thing you can count on and that’s the heat. It might be cool on the bike, but by 1pm, when you come off the bike in Kona it’s always hot and humid.

On Monday morning I sit in my apartment having a coffee watching the morning news and talking to my friend on the phone, the earth crake hit the islands. I have never been in an earth crake before, it was one of the scariest moments in my life. The ground is moving, the pool outside my window spilled over, pictures are falling off the wall. At first I didn’t know what do. My friend told me later I was screaming, she thought a murder had entered my room, or something like that. She mentioned a possibility of a Tsunami, I thought of the volcano breaking out.
Well the decision what do, had to be made quick. I decided to head for higher land. I got a gallon of water, put it in my scooter, which I had rented for the week and drove up. That’s what every Hawaiian did too, it seamed like, and the highway was full of cars speeding up the road. Hawaiians don’t speed, the motto is: Hang Loose. Not on that morning. Everybody was tense and scared.

Being up on the hill I finally got a hold of my friend Paul. Paula and he stayed out of town in a house that was at high land, it was also one story and new, so it seamed pretty save, that it would withstand a Tsunami and the aftershocks. I turned my scooter and drove the 15 miles out, hoping the fuel would last and I wouldn’t get stuck there on the highway. Because no gas station or store was open, there was no electricity on the island. I got to the house save and it seamed like there was a party. Everybody had had the same idea: Heather (Fuhr) and Rock, Michelle (Johns) and Pete, Lorrie (Bowden) with her baby and parents, Gram Fraser and his wife, they all where there. We spend the day together. It was still a strange situation, no stores where open, we didn’t know, if they might stay closed for days and we would run out of food, no electricity and only sometimes cell phone connection. But it felt good and comforting to be around friends. By the late afternoon, the electricity came back on, we knew, no Tsunami had been created and the resort served us free food. We started to feel saver. What a crazy way to spend one of the days leading up to the biggest race of the year. Every athlete comes early to get used to the conditions on the island, relax and charge up the batteries for race day. Monday before Kona 2006 was not one of those relaxing days. People where scared, being evacuated, leaving everything behind, all of a sudden the focus shifted, from being here to compete to being with our friends and comforting each other.

A few days’ later things got back to normal, swimmers where back in the water in the morning at dig me beach, cyclist out on the highway and athletes doing their last race preparations. Some of the traffic lights still where hanging sideways, but people cleaned up everything pretty quick, I hung the pictures back up. I checked the apartment for cracks in the wall and water leaks; everything was fine and the race became the focus again, thought the earth crake was still subject no.1 for a couple of days.

The training is done and all there is left to do is rest, conserve energy and get everything ready for race day. I felt well prepared, everything was in place. I had had a two good massages and an ART treatment. But I still wasn’t all sure how well my body had recovered from the cold, long Ironman in Wisconsin 5 weeks ago. I had a couple of good workouts, but there had been not enough time to really test myself, so I just had to trust, that I had done everything possible to be prepared as best as possible.

Race day:
Getting up at 4am I had my pre Ironman meal, rode the scooter to start, got my bike ready, stretched and felt ready to race. Like always in Hawaii the air was boiling of anticipation and energy.
The professional women and men where starting at 6:45am, with the age groupers 15min behind at 7am. I got in the water at about 6:30am, like always at Ironman races it was a very warm, nice atmosphere between the athletes; we all got to know each other throughout the years. Also it’s Ironman and that means not only a race, but also a big challenge. You don’t just go out trying to beat all the other pro’s, it’s a long hard day for everybody and there is that mutual feeling of respect for each other, the distance, the island and challenges it might have out there for us on the day. So, there are a lot of hugs, good luck wishes and nervous smiles amongst the athletes. Lining up on the start line, I hang on a kayak with Michelle, Joanna (Lawn), Belinda, Joanna (Zeiger) Belinda makes a joke, everybody laughs, I do not recall what it was about, because then the gun goes off. I am happy with my starting position, I know, that I probably wouldn’t be able to swim with Michelle and Joanna (Zeiger), but it’s always good to start around fast swimmers. With the first few strokes I felt, that I would have power in the water today, I felt strong and fast, you never know, where you are in the swim, but nobody swam over the top of me and that’s a good sign. After about 1km the swimmers around me stretched out and we swam in one long line using each others feet for draft and direction. I started getting comfortable and settled on some pro man’s feet. He swam nice and straight and gave me a good draft. Like always I try to make sure I stay in good position, so I look up once in a while. Then I saw a gap, the guy in front of me had lost the feet and we where getting dropped. Getting dropped from a group on the way out to the turn around could mean a minute or more at the end of the swim, so I started hammering, I made it around the guy and just tried to pace myself so I wouldn’t blow up, but still swimming very, very hard trying to catch the group in front, they were not too far away, and by the turn around I had made it, we where back on. Again I settled on some feet and tried to recover from the effort. It was fine until half way back I felt my arms getting tired, by then there where girls next to me and all over me. It was very, very uncomfortable, people where swimming al over me, passing me, fighting for position. I stayed in the middle of the group, but it was hard. My swim cap also kept slipping, so I had to stop and pull it back down. With about 400m to go I finally lost it. Well coming out of the water I saw Joanna Lawn right in front of me and new I have had a good swim.

On the bike Belinda and her team maid Elizabeth Christiansen started hammering very hard, they where in a distance before I had put my shoes on. It was like a short course race. Joanna and Melissa Ashton tried keeping up. My legs where burning hard, I was getting a little concerned, but 2 miles into Ironman Hawaii on the bike is a little early to decide a race. So I stayed calm, got my rhythm on the bike, started hydrating. Belinda and Elizabeth, where out of sight by the first turn around but I was caching Joanna and started to get a gap, until two male pro’s passed me and a car pulled out into the road in front of us, all 3 of us had to break with me behind the 2 guy, after the car had pulled out the road, and we where able to paddle again a marshal was next to me, telling me: I had gone into the passing zone and dropped back again. If you go into the zone you have to pass. So I was supposed to pass the guys back, that had just passed me and we all had to break because of the car, causing us to get closer that 7m together.
It was NO drafting call, I got a yellow card for dropping in and out of the pass zone. I think passing the guys back, who had to almost come to a stop because of a car, causing them having to drop back behind me before passing me again would have been very unsportsmanship like, as they where clearly riding faster, than me. So I didn’t do it. I wish sometimes Marshals would take a little more time judging the situation before making a call, especially in town only a few miles into a 112 mile bike ride. But what can you do, I had to just move on, I wasn’t that going to affect my race, I thought. “Just keep racing”. Upset I rode hard, and had made up 40 sec on the girls, that I had come out of the water, when I had to stop at the penalty tent 35miles into the bike. I signed in, did what I was supposed to do and got back on my bike.
I saw a group in front of me; it looked like a lot of pink numbers, which meant most of them where pro women. I rode very hard in an effort to catch the group. It took me a long time, I had dropped them before made up 40sec in about 30miles and now I couldn’t catch them. It took me until the start of the climb to Hawii, about 12-15 miles to catch the group. After that effort I just kept my pace up the climb, we dropped two girls, out of the group: Heather Gollnick and Kim Loeffler. On the turn around and special needs station I took my food and drinks and started the decent. From here on we would start getting caught by age groupers, who had started behind us, some of them would bring more pro women with them. So coming of the bike was a big group of a lot of the contenders, except for Michelle Johns, who was about 9min ahead. I felt good about my race until that point, I was one of the strongest bikers, had been in front pushing the pace for most of the way and still felt better, than last year.

Well…… it ended up not working out that way. After a quick transition I got out on the run and soon my legs felt heavy. I couldn’t keep the turnover I usually do and started dropping back, I still was hoping to find my stride and was in good position at mile 10, within sight of the girls, who would run their way to the podium on that day, but going up Palany Rd. I know it wasn’t going to be my day. My legs just didn’t want to run another marathon, 5 weeks had not been enough time for me to recover from the hard and long race in Wisconsin.

I was and am pretty disappointed, I had improved my bike this year coming of the bike with contention to a podium finish. Had I been able to run like last year, I would have finished in 2nd or 3rd place at the Ironman World Championships.

Well, I always try to learn and get a positive feedback from a race. Next year I will do an early Ironman and then focus a long training period on Kona. I have the confidence now, that I am capable of finishing on the podium. I have the tools, I know what it takes and I am ready and exited to start the challenge.

Thank you so much for your support and I am looking forward to the next exiting triathlon racing season!!!


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