kona Archives | CHANTHONY

Tag: kona

IRONMAN World Championship Race Report [October 8, 2016]

Posted on October 19, 2016October 19, 2016 by Anthony

2016-10-08-06-22-07

A total of 11 days have passed since racing the IRONMAN World Championships in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and I’m finally ready to reflect how my race-day unfolded.

This was my second time to the island and I really wanted to do much better than my 2014 result. But more importantly, I was looking to have a strong performance – something that I have been building up to for almost a year. Unfortunately, just a couple days before the race, I came down with a fever and chills that lasted nearly 24 hours. I knew something was wrong when the water in Dig Me beach felt cold…not even the delicious coffee from the coffee boat helped warm me up. This sudden turn of events left me with one option – to rest as much as I can and to head into race day knowing that I will try my best.

And so I did just that. It wasn’t pretty but in the end, I got myself to the finish line in 10 hours and 47 minutes.

Swim – 1:11:34

If you have been following my progression throughout the year, you might already know that my weakest part of a triathlon is the swim. With half ironman swims ranging from 34 minutes to 39 minutes this season, I had predicted that I would swim close to 1:16 in Kona. So imagine the surprise when I exited the water nearly 5 minutes under my expected goal! I drafted off the swimmers in front of me for the majority of the swim and exited the water feeling good; pumped that I had taken 11 minutes off my 2014 Kona swim. I took my time in transition to put on sunscreen before heading off to grab my bike.

Bike – 5:19:06 (21.06 mph avg)

Anything can happen on the Kona bike course. The first two hours were fine; power was a little lower than expected and I was passing lots of faster swimmers along the way. It wasn’t until about 50 miles into the ride that I realized that the nutrition was not going down (or staying down) so I made the switch to try and take in more liquid nutrition at the subsequent aid stations. The approach to Hawi and the climb to the turnaround was met with a cross-wind coming over the right shoulder so I sat up during the climb to gain some more power.

I hit the turnaround, ditched my bottles and grabbed two new ones before the descent. Things were heating up and my nutrition plan had been compromised, either by the heat or the residual effects of my fever earlier in the week (or a combination of both).

Nonetheless, I hammered away as best as I could, knowing that I can still overcome a bad day by playing it smart. After descending from Hawi, I made sure that I would fuel up at each aid station since none of the solid foods were going down. At one of the last aid stations, I saw a volunteer hold up a bottle of Coke and I couldn’t resist. Coke never tasted so good after four and a half hours of drinking orange flavored Gatorade and water. With about 15 miles left, it was all headwind, a pretty steady one that forced me to stay tucked into aero-position in an effort to minimize drag.

I rolled into T2 feeling very hot, a little overcooked and ready to tackle the marathon run.

Marathon – 4:06:13

The original plan for the run was to negative split it by running the first half very easy. That plan went out the door at the very first aid station on the run when I felt light-headed and out of energy. My stomach was not having it today and I tried to nibble on some pretzels and bananas. At that point, I was hoping that this feeling would pass and that I would feel better. I decided to run between aid stations and walk through aid stations to grab enough water and nutrition.

Around mile 4, a guy ran up to me and told me to run with him. He introduced himself as Craig, wearing a Team Timex kit. We ran together for a couple of miles before he had to stop to take care of nature’s calling. But before we split up, he reassured me that “We will get to the finish line”. I used his words to motivate me at times when I wanted to just quit.

After walking up Palani Road towards Mile 11, lots of clouds rolled in providing some relief from the sun and heat. By this point of the marathon, some pretty nasty blisters had formed in under the balls of my feet. To remedy it, I took off my socks – which worked briefly but the pain from the blisters came back every time I ran longer than a couple of minutes.

There wasn’t much I could do to get rid of the blister pain and there was no medical tent along the Queen K. Along the highway, I saw some familiar faces…first Hugh and then Talbot, both of whom where not racing and were out cheering and taking photos.

2016-10-08-17-53-56 — photo credit: Hugh W.

After passing the point where spectators were not allowed on the Queen K, I made my best effort to not stop running until the aid stations. I hit the energy lab and grabbed an entire can of Red Bull, chugged it and maintained a slow but steady shuffle. For the first time during the marathon, I did not stop to walk at an aid station. Exiting the energy lab meant I had about an hour left on the run (at my current pace). The blisters were killing my feet and I tried to focus on the runners ahead of me to take my mind off the pain. Eventually, I got to Palani Road and it was all downhill to the finishing line.

With all I had left, I ran as fast as I could down Alii Drive and across the finish.

2016-10-08-18-11-27 — celebrating with Kristin on her 4th place Age group!

Ironman Kona was yet another humbling experience that heavily tested my mental ability to keep going forward when all seems to go wrong. I certainly did not materialize my training on race day, but was able to dig deep mentally and not give up.

Thank you to my family and friends that helped make this endeavor possible.

Thank you…

CEEPO Bikes, Marc-Andre, Gilles, Steve, and Joe for the bike support. The CEEPO Viper held up to those crazy crosswinds!
Team Chocolate Milk for the post-race recovery
ISM Seat, Brickwell Cycling, Headsweats, Honey Stinger and Rudy Project

The next blog post will include more about Kona, some more take-aways, and what is up next.

Thanks for reading!

Ironman Maryland – Champion’s Sherpa Report

Posted on October 24, 2015October 24, 2015 by Anthony

a perfect weekend.

Last year, 3 weeks before Ironman World Championships, I was convinced to participate in Ironman Maryland…for fun. The race features a two loop swim in the Choptank River, a two loop pancake flat bike and a completely flat run, making it ideal conditions for a fast race for most athletes. At this year’s event, the race got pushed back by two weeks due to residual effects of Hurricane Joaquin that caused major flooding and high winds. Little did I know, the date change was a blessing in disguise!

This was the first time that Ironman successfully postponed a race. They were very accommodating, allowing athletes to check in until the late hours on Friday (Saturday race). After racing Maryland last year, it definitely made things more streamlined, especially knowing where to park, the location of registration and course conditions.

On Friday, Christina [the racer] and I [sherpa] made our way down to registration. We quickly checked in by 10am and even had a nice chat with one of the volunteers who was also racing – thanks Beth!

I gave the bike a wheel change and some final touches before we headed out for a quick spin around Cambridge. We followed up the ride with a short shakeout jog on part of the run course, which also happens to be the first portion of the bike course! With the bike checked in, run done, our pre race activities were nearly complete, sans swim.

Race Day – October 17, 2015

Our alarm went off at 4am, followed by breakfast and tons of coffee! Temps were in the low 40’s and were expected to go up to the 60’s throughout the day. We made our way into transition around 5:30am. Nutrition was prepped, tire pressures were topped off, transition bags were double checked and nerves were at their all time high!

Due to gusty winds near the swim start, the swim was shortened from a 3.8km two loop swim to a 3km swim two loop swim. The front pack of swimmers easily lapped the slower swimmers when going onto their second loop of the swim. Christina swam a 45:36, placing her 5th out of the water in her age group. She made it quickly through T1 and was on the bike in just a few minutes. While everyone else was getting overdressed for the bike race portion, Christina did not bother with wearing gloves or arm warmers – such a good call!

My job was done for now, so I went for a quick 10 mile easy run to check out the entire run course. Drew had spotted while running so I made a quick change before heading out to lunch at the High Spot with his crew from Ohio. While waiting for our food, we were all glued to our phones, constantly updating the tracker. My friend Kevin was out on the bike course and had spotted Christina passing 1st place around mile 58. The tracker was not updating so I headed back to transition for updates and confirmation that Christina had taken the lead!!!

Tim Smith, from Brooklyn NY was first off the bike and the eventual winner. Christina got off the bike with a personal best split of 5:10:11 [2nd fastest overall]. I spotted her on the final turn towards transition with a 3-4 minute lead on 2nd [Kristin White]. She looked super fresh coming out of transition and was running 7:30 min/mile pace!

I spent the next 3-4 hours calculating the gap from 1st to 2nd place, bouncing around the run course on my road bike and cheering like a lunatic! Thanks to the 2.5 loop run course, I was able to see the runners come by about ~15 times before rushing over to the finishing line.

Christina won Ironman Maryland with a time of 9:42:56.

What I witnessed throughout the day was not only the accumulation of hard work over months of training. No, I got to witness something even greater.

Much like an oyster turns a grain of sand into a pearl, I had the privilege of seeing Christina’s race unfold, revealing the pearl that has been growing and improving with each race and workout.

A very well deserved overall win + punching her ticket to Kona 2016.

+ Sherpa [a.k.a. Race Support] is fun and exhausting, but there’s really no better feeling than to see someone succeed amongst adversity. Those who have done it can relate (Thanks Mom & Dad!)

My next race (and last of 2015) is Ironman Arizona on November 15th. As things lighten up, I will be posting my Louisville race report promptly.

Thanks for reading!

2014 IRONMAN World Championship Recap

Posted on October 24, 2014October 24, 2014 by Anthony

The long awaited IRONMAN Kona blog post…Sorry for the delay. Business school midterms and projects, along with work took priority immediately after Kona, leaving me virtually no time to write up my experiences in Hawaii. I promise that will be my only excuse in this recap of IRONMAN Kona.

Our journey to Kona began on October 6th. JFK>PHX>KOA. The 13 hour travel time didn’t even phase me, knowing that the Big Island would be filled with the best triathletes from all over the world.

Race week was super busy!

Not soon after landing, I found myself going to the CEEPO Launch party. Going to Kona with a bike sponsor was an honor, and I am proud to ride CEEPO Venom, developed by Tanaka Nobuyuki. Tim Russell, of Thoroughbred Triathlon Coach, joined in on the action.

The rest of the week, included: (excluding all other touristy events)

Slowtwitch Forum gathering party presented by Cannondale
Kona Underpants Run
Practice riding on the Queen K highway
Swimming out to the ,Coffees of Hawaii, coffee boat
Meeting 8 time olympian medalist, and Team Chocolate Milk teammate, Apolo Ohno

Some more pics!

Finishing is a memory that will never be forgotten

CEEPO well represented at the Slowtwitch party

The week flew by. Splitting time between Family and pre race activities left me no time to rest, which would have been a priority if Kona was going to my IRONMAN race. This week was focused on the experiences, the sights, the atmosphere – just everything that makes IRONMAN and Kona ever so magical leading up to the big day. Like pineapples…I did not miss any opportunity to consume an immense amount of pineapples. No matter where I ate them, they were succulent and super tasty. And while I’m on the topic of food – I’ve learned to appreciate the deliciousness of adding Macadamian nuts to my food, especially on top of my pancakes! Island Lava Java on Alii Drive served the best pancakes with chopped up macadamian nuts on top.

Friday before the race was the mandatory bike and gear bag check in. I checked in around 2:30pm. The IRONMAN Kona bike check in process is like no other IRONMAN check in. Why? Because you get to have a volunteer escort you through the entire process, from bike check in, to run bag check in and then to bike bag check in. It was really cool to have a volunteer walk me through the Kona Pier and show me the direction of where I would be running during T1 and T2 on race day.

My CEEPO Venom was parked early.

Alright, let’s get onto RACE DAY!

Pre-Race – woke up at 4am, checked in to transition by 5am, body marked (temporary tattoos). I ditched my parents to get body marked and weighed in. My race morning weight was unusually high at 142lbs; it must have been all the pineapples and macadamian nuts 😉

I met up with my parents in from the King Kam hotel. They watched me body glide myself and put on the swim skin (no wetsuits for Kona!) By 6:30am, the Pro’s have already started and it was time for all the Age Groupers to enter the water. I got into the water 15 minutes before the start and found myself treading water for a while. That must have sucked a good amount of energy from me, which I will get into later.

Swim – 1:22:30 – for me, that was a bit faster than what I expected. Not having done an IRONMAN distance swim (2.4 miles) without a wetsuit, I was expecting a 1:25 swim split, which would be about 10 minutes slower than my Lake Placid split. The coolest part of the swim was that the water was always clear, so drafting was relatively easier than say…a lake swim. Conditions were choppy but nothing crazy enough to break my stroke.

T1 was super fast. A little too fast – I forgot to apply sunscreen. Bad decision. Always reapply sunscreen in transition.

Bike – 5:42:27 – This is where things got ugly. And after giving it some thought, I finally realized why I felt so sluggish on the bike; I had not eaten a big enough breakfast! So I ended up riding the first 40-50 miles feeling like I had bonked. And trust me when I say this, it feels like a death march. What was supposed to be a 5:10-5:15 bike split turned into a dismal 5:42, which put me in a bad position for the start of the marathon. Without really getting into much detail, I wasn’t able to generate my target wattage until I reached the 7-mile climb up to Hawi. After the turn-around, I tried my best to stay tucked in during the descent. Focusing on not getting blown off the bike was also a challenge…but it was also exhilarating! I found a good rhythm coming back into town but the deficit I suffered on the first half of the bike would inevitably catch up with me on the run.

Run – 3:53:23 – Leaving T2 has always felt as if I were shot out of a cannon, but in this case, I felt more sluggish than ever when starting the marathon. I knew that pushing hard on the second half of the bike would hurt, and it did. It hurt a lot. The first 10 miles, out and back on Alii was a constant effort. By the time I reached the climb up Palani Road where I saw Mom and Dad, I had started to lose it. That is where I decided to walk; running or shuffling up Palani wouldn’t have been any quicker. I knew that the longer I stayed out on the course, the more I’d hurt. So after a few walk/run efforts, I mentally topped off and ran the last 13 miles without stopping. My legs ran on cruise control at around 8:45 to 9:00 mile pace. What surprised me the most was that I was able to run in and out of the Natural Energy Lab without stopping. The stretch in the lab is nearly 3 miles long, where no spectators are allowed, only volunteers and racers. The last 10 kilometers hurt, but I knew that if I stopped and walked, it would hurt even more…so I kept on running. At mile 25, I saw my parents one more time coming down Palani Road. Mom was so excited that she ran down Palani next to me!

The moment I turned onto Alii Drive, I knew that I had made it. And in a blink of an eye, I found myself finally crossing the finish line, at 11 hours 4 minutes and 13 seconds.

Finishing IRONMAN Kona. Another stepping stone fulfilled.