As I was selecting the pictures for this post I came across the sunset I finally caught Monday before the race. I figured this was an appropriate picture to lead this post. The sun has finally set at Ironman 2005. By now most of the athletes are back home or on vacations reflecting on how the Ironman journey went. Some are very happy and some are somewhat disappointed. But for the most part many will plan to come back and improve on their performances. Maybe not today but they will eventually. The pain of the race will pass and our resolve to reach our potential will get bigger and bigger.
When my wife had our first baby she did not think she will have another because of her long painful labor. But after a few months the pain was forgotten and we had a second baby 15 months later. This is called ‘labor amnesia’. I think Ironman is a little like that. I coached an athlete for about a year to qualify for Kona at Ironman Canada. I asked him to call me from the finish line. He did qualify and called me. I was following the race online and already knew he had the spot. His first words on the phone were ‘this was the hardest thing I have done in my life’. I wish I had taped that because a month later he said that qualifying was kind of easy. I am going to call this ‘Ironman amnesia’. Many of this year Ironman finishers will start making their plans and getting excited about the new season real soon. Just a few minutes ago I got an email from one or our members that was one spot away from the podium. She is real mad at her swim and is determined to improve it for next year. As she said ‘I have unfinished business’. I better get to work eh?
Ironman week goes by very fast when busy all the time. Or first big function was the team breakfasts were I met most of our athletes competing. Mark talked and I got a few words also. After that, the Ironman Exposition opens and that is were we meet many people from the industry and many athletes. That is also were I met Faris Al-Sultan and told him that he was my pick for the win. That is when he said “don’t put money on it’. I should have not listened to him.
During the week, I got to train with some of our team and helped a few of them with their swim stroke. That is about the only thing you can do that late in the game. I did help one of our member’s Mindy with her bike position after the race. In fact I got Mark to check it out also. If she gets a new bike and improves her position with our tips, she will be unstoppable next year. She is really good as it is.
Before we knew it, race day was here. I got together with NBC and I help one of the camera men with spotting athletes on race day. Prior to the race start I had to take another picture of my top pick working on his bike. You can see it here. Helping NBC was fun as I was on the course watching it live. However we had to go back and forth between men and woman and without internet I was a bit lost on what was going on. The camera that my NBC guy was using costs about 80 thousand dollars. He can focus on an athlete about 100 to 200 yards in front and catch every muscle and drop of sweat flying in the air. So when you see the telecast next month and you see a shot of a rider going 30 MPH from the front as if he was in slow motion. That was my guy. He shoots all over the world at many sporting events.
The race was very fast. The winds were very calm and it was hot but not terribly hot. It is Kona so it is never going to be cool. That is for sure. Our team did very well. We had 2 finishers in 9 hours something, and 14 finishers in 10 hours something. We had one athlete make the podium and three place sixth place just one step from the podium. There was another three athletes with top ten finishes for a total for seven top ten finishes. Not bad at all. We did have one DNF. He will come back another day and earn his medal I am sure. One thing that I should mention is that this athlete is perhaps the most talented we have and was finishing first in all the training. There has to be a lesson in there somewhere. This will be a topic for another day.
In the end I hope that we all learned something from the race. Even I learned something by just watching. I hope that I can use these lessons and all the ones I learned over the years toward my own journey to Ironman 2006. This way when the sun sets on the 2006 Ironman I can look back at a great journey. I am only racing one year. My kids will be three and two years old next year and I want to spend more time with them. I am thinking of coaching my son in soccer or swimming. He loves both right now. Actually he loves basketball too. I better learn how to coach that just in case. My daughter is too little to tell what she likes but she is huge. She is almost 100 percentile for her age. Olympic swimmers are huge aren’t they?
I hope you enjoyed reading about our Kona experience. I’ll be posting frequently when I think there is something good to write about or to update you on my training, weight control and general triathlon life.