This past weekend I ventured way out west to participate in the Koolina Sprint Tri out at the Koolina resort. Apparently this is the last triathlon on the island for the year so I was hoping for a good finish before switching over to biathlons. If you've been following from the beginning I had great aspirations for racing this year. After running the Xterra off road trail race with 8 min something pace, I was looking forward to finally having decent run times for this season. Unfortunately, pushing too hard and improper running form led to me injuring both Achilles tendons. Despite these setbacks, I still managed to finish the Honu (1/2 Ironman) with me power walking the last 10 miles. Fast forward to this past weekend. Feeling 90% again, no Achilles problems and feeling good to finally race a hopefully pain free race.
So little about this race which makes it different from other races is that the swim isn't a straight swim. It's more of a swim/run.
Illustration of the swim course.
Panoramic of the first lagoon. Hideous Disney Hotels on the right.
One of the running sections on the swim.
Arrived early in transition, got the first spot on the rack. Setup swim to bike and bike to run gear. It's amazing what you see in the transition areas. I saw things from chairs, buckets to people with way to much liquids for the the bike. Finally got to meet
Doug of Dirtbag Fitness . Took the long walk over to the start area to get ready for the swim. Got to the area, no one was warming up in the lagoon. Was thinking "Damm the water must be cold", got in and remembered that the majority of triathletes don't like to swim. While waiting around for the start, briefly saw
Kepa the Tri-n-Hawaiian running to the start line.
The swim started off pretty good, I decided to go easy on the first lagoon being that I've never done a swim/run race before. I guess I got lucky, I didn't get punched or kicked in the start. Kinda wished that I wore my speed suit since the I could feel my tri top flapping in the back. Anyways, finished the first lagoon, felt pretty good. Got to the second lagoon and wow, seemed like guys were paying the price. Saw a few people backstroking it, one was just stopped and few were just resting. Guess doing those 100m x 6 with 5sec rest really pays off. I finished the swim feeling pretty good, probably a little to conservative on the swim.
Swim 16:29
For the bike segment, my plan was to take it conservative for the first 1/2 and at the turn around push it on the way back. In the beginning I got passed by a bunch of people, played bike tag with a few and got crushed by a few. At the turn around, sucked down a gel, took a drink and picked up the pace. Finished strong and ready for my least favorite part of the race. The run.
Bike 46:33
The run segment has always been my weakest segment of the race. The first mile seemed to suck, as expected got passed by a few people, surprisingly I passed a few. By the end of mile 1, I seemed to get into the rhythm and picked it up. The last mile felt awesome, pushed it pretty hard and had a great finish.
Run. 26:30
Overall time 1:32:08
Overall, I feel that I should have pushed a little harder on the swim since it was a little slow for me. I guess next year I shall if I do this one again. However, I'm pretty happy with my results. I'll definitely miss biking but I'm looking forward to participating in the upcoming biathlons.
With that said, I'd like to thank the guys at the McCully Bike repair shop for fixing my bike and being awesome. Big thank you to Sebastian, Sylvie and Roy at SLS3 for making awesome compression gear and race suits. Without a doubt, their compression gear provided great usefulness when training for a 1/2 Ironman. Also, I can't say enough how awesome their fobic speed suit and race tops are. I am really thankful to be associated with their team. 2012 will be a great year for them. Lastly, thank you to all you readers of this blog.
