The amount of triathlon experience displayed each Sunday morning during Mere Mortals on Pensacola Beach is staggering. While the goal is to help, teach, mentor, and encourage new athletes, MANY experienced athletes also use the time to push themselves to new distances, speeds, and overall achievements. Ironman is often at the top of this list. From a TGC leadership perspective it’s extremely gratifying to see an athlete continue past his/her original goals. Each of the athletes in this blog series participated in the same race, but each of the athletes had a completely different experience. I hope these race reports inspire other athletes to take a chance, set a goal, and do something outside of his/her comfort zone.
From Kim White…
Ironman Hawai’i 70.3 (aka Honu 70.3)
Hawai’I was incredible! It was a tough race with the scariest bike I’ve done, but it was such a beautiful venue, a bucket list race for sure!
Preparation for this race was stressful and intensive, particularly with COVID-19 testing requirements within 72 hours of each island departure. We are hopping among 3 islands, so lots of testing time and money. Shane couldn’t come due to issues with our house, so that was also added stress, and I needed to find sitting service for Heidi during the race. I actually didn’t feel like going in the days leading up to departure, but it was already a deferred race from 2020, and I had committed to doing it in 2021. For the first COVID-19 test, I nearly missed the timing, forgetting about the time difference between home and our last mainland departure city, Phoenix. I was sweating, waiting for the cabin doors to close. Departure time listed as 10:56 AM, COVID-19 test as 11:04 AM, 8 minutes to spare!! Thanks, Kimberlee Gardner, for hanging with me real-time and helping determine how departure time is determined (cabin door closure, not wheels up). The airlines, by the way, don’t want anything to do with the travel requirements and will tell you they know nothing except that your fate will be determined upon arrival at your destination (i.e. no chance to fix any errors; they just want you to complete their flight). I then proceeded to lose my wallet at the Kona airport (located in lost-and-found, thank goodness!!)During my first practice swim, I saw a Honu (green sea turtle) floating at the surface right next to me within 3 minutes of getting in the water. I see why the race is nicknamed, “Honu 70.3”! I saw pufferfish, angelfish, triggerfish, trumpetfish, beautiful corals, giant orange pencil urchins, black spiny urchins, etc. I was good to get all of that incredible viewing out of my system, so I could focus on the swimming on race day. I tried to keep a good balance between race preparation and making sure Heidi had a good time. We went swimming in the ocean and pools, did Resort activities (making orchid leis, Ukulele lessons, etc.). And we got lucky with a fellow Ironman athlete responding to our inquiry for watching after Heidi. Thank you, Faith Ann Morrell!!
The Race:
Our age group started 3rd from last (not sure why, but that was the latest start (7:42 AM) I’ve experienced. It cracked me up when someone commented, “Yep, Put us old menopausal women in the heat and wind.” Going out was fantastic, with the current, great water clarity, and sighting easy. I almost missed the 2nd turn buoy, because I forgot about it and couldn’t see it, but a man on a SUP caught me before I had to back-track. Oddly, my Strava map doesn’t show that near miss. The return was tough, because no one could see well enough to sight. I just hoped the bulk of the group was heading in the right direction. I did catch up to congested clumps on the return leg.The bike was hilly and windy! I could handle the wind OK heading up to Hawi, because it was mainly uphill and slow, but the return is where it got scary, at times going 30+ mph with strong gusty cross-winds. The first strong gust nearly knocked me over! I was torn between slowing down and feeling safe vs. wanting to go fast to make up for lost time (slow first half). I decided to adopt a half-in/half-out of aero position, where I had my left arm in the aero bar, and my right hand on the handle bar to help steady the bike against the gusts. The scariest moment came when I passed a guy on the road, where his area was narrow due to foliage reaching out onto his path, rumple strips, then me, than a school bus that saddled up next to me during the pass. The bus didn’t move over, and there were only inches between me and the bus and me and the guy I was passing. I tried to remain calm, but it was seriously terrifying! My hand muscles are still sore from gripping the bars so tight!!
The run was hot, hilly, and windy! I was glad about the wind though, because someone on the race page said that it would be in a valley with dead air (no wind), and that sounded dreadful. Some didn’t like the wind on the run, but I looked at the bright side of it – one section was out in a hot lava field and a long gradual incline. One could finally get into a run rhythm, and the wind was against you on the downhill (cooling effect) and behind you on the uphill (pushing effect) – worked for me!. The rest of the course was tough, because it was literally on a golf course with tight winding turns, and lots up ups and downs, runs through dark tunnels (hoped to not trip), over bridges, on grass/path intermittently. There were some super steep grades, where I decided to run down as fast as I could with longer strides and then let the momentum carry me back up the best I could. I’d then walk briefly until the steepness subsided, then get running again.
I’m super proud of this race, because I straight up qualified for 70.3 Worlds for the first time in my race history (not sure if I’ll go yet, because it’s so close to Augusta). They offered my AG 9 slots for 70.3 Worlds (I was 9th) and 3 slots for Kona Worlds. They offered native Hawaiians 9 slots for Kona Worlds (too bad I’m not Hawaiian). With that, I was only 3 slots away from Kona Worlds!! Yes, There was a huge time gap between 8th and me, but that’s OK. I heard that 54 started, 40 finished, and 14 didn’t finish in my AG.1. Mainlander
2. Mainlander
3. Hawaiian
4. Mainlander
5. Hawaiian – these top 5 qualified for Kona Worlds
6. Mainlander
7. Hawaiian – qualified
8. Mainlander
9. Kim White – 3 slots from Kona Worlds
While this is awesome, it likely won’t repeat again. Because there was very limited racing last year, Ironman is offering more qualfiying slots at all races this year. I think one normally has to win their AG to get a Kona slot. With 70.3 Worlds, One normally has to place higher too. 9th can sometimes get a roll-down slot for 70.3 Worlds, but normally 9th wouldn’t qualify straight up.That all said, I’m still pumped about it!!
Thank you, TriPossibilities Coaching LLC, for your great coaching and support! And thanks to the Triposse athletes for being wonderful and cheering! Also, Big thanks to Truly Spokin’ and Mark Woolson for getting my bike in smooth running shape and doing a great job packing it in the hard case for travel to Hawai’i!
