Tag: Race Report

The Ironman World Championship, Kona, HI 2007 What follows below is my attempt to document my experiences surrounding the Hawaii Ironman. It probably makes the most sense if read straight through, but I’ve broken it up into several sections to make the reading easier (or easier to skim, whatever your preference). Yes, it’s long but…

Getting In (Fifth Time’s the Charm) The Hawaii Ironman. Even if only considering its history and sheer spectacle, this is the mother of all long distance triathlons—the Super-World-Series-Cup-Bowl-all-wrapped-into-one of long course racing—and as its title of World Championship would imply, there is a rather select group of athletes talented enough to qualify to compete on the big…

The Best Laid Plans To start this properly, there’s a little backstory that needs to be set first. For many lottery winners their road towards becoming Ironmen begins the day they win the lottery. This, however, was not going to be my first attempt at Ironman. In fact, I had already completed two Ironman races:…

The Taper I’d slotted three weeks for my taper, which also came at a good time for me personally as I needed every extra hour I’d get from less time spent training. I was moving apartments, the school year was just beginning in earnest (I work for a University) and several key projects were nearing…

Karma, Heat Waves and the Delaminated Wheel I quite like the concept of karma, or at least my interpretation of it. Wrapped up somewhere in this interpretation is the idea of good and bad, negativity and positivity seeking out a sort of balance, that is, if you reap what you sow, plant enough good seeds…

First Class in Coach Fortunately the rest of my packing up and shipping out went without issue. Though I was not looking forward to 14 hours of travel time, I was looking forward to finally getting out to the big island and starting my race countdown. My doubts and nervousness still lingered and I’d hoped…

Check Out My Underpants, the Bachelor and My Speedsuit The Hawaii IM was the first time I had entered an IM with any kind of defined expectations of how I was hoping to perform. Of course any pressure associated with these expectations was of my own creation, but I had trained hard and wanted to…

A Mystic Named Autumn After the race I tried to find my mom and sister but couldn’t. They’d actually signed up to be volunteers at the finish when I was meant to cross much earlier in the day (we’d all actually been picturing a better scripted ending), but that time had passed a couple hours…

More Karma? The morning after the race, I examined the front wheel that had given me so much difficulty during the race. I was curious as to how well it had actually been secured to the rim, and wondered whether I had just simply been having a bad day or was the tire truly an…