I was positioned in the middle of the start and once the gun went off there was a frenzy of arms and legs trying to clear some space. I was very aggressive at the beginning. It was actually kind of fun swimming over people and getting swam over myself. The entire swim I was in traffic. Every minute I would either run into someone’s feet or get hit by a flailing arm. I never really got to the point where I felt I needed to slow down but about three quarters into it I was thinking, is this ever going to end? When I finally hit the beach I was pleasantly surprised with my time. Swimming is not my thing. I saw my brother-in-law gave him a thumbs up and asked if my sister was out yet. She was just a couple minutes behind me.

I was pretty happy with this performance. I have a lot to work on here but considering this was a 1st at this distance and my second tri overall I don't have much to say. I would love to take about 10 minutes off this time in the future.

I ran up the beach shoot, through the hoses they had set up as modified showers and headed up the hill to the Transition Area. Put my gear on taking my time. Quick shot of CarboPro and 2 sodium pills and I was off. The transition area was pretty long and my bike was racked at the beginning of it. This meant I needed to walk the entire length of the transition area to the mount point, which was at the other end. As I was passing the rows of bikes or should I say lack of bikes, most people where already on the course I thought for a second I was in trouble. My overall position exiting the water was 567 out of 800+. I also saw Sarah Reinertsen, the 30-year-old single leg amputee from California who was featured in the 2004 NBC Ironman show. She ended up finishing the race 7:49:46 (swim 45:34, bike 4:00:08, run 2:57:18) despite her prosthetic leg breaking a stabilizing part at 10k into the run. Pretty awesome girl and what story. She will be doing Ironman in November. That fired me up and off I went.

Nothing maybe be a little faster

I had an issue getting started on the bike but some guy gave me a push and off I went. I was pretty happy with my bike. I drank a ton and had a gulp of Carbo Pro every 15 minutes and tried to enjoy the views. What views they were, I'm not as poetic as some and won’t do them their just other to say they were incredible. The entire time up to Hawi whenever I was getting tired I just thought how lucky I was to be doing this race in such an environment and that seemed to push me through. Everybody was very friendly on the way up giving encouragement and rooting each other on. I saw the leaders about 3/4 of the way between Kawaihae and Hawi on there way down and found myself watching in awe as they cruised down the hill. Every time one went by I had to resist the temptation to stand up and pick up the pace (not sure why, they were so far ahead I would need to jump on a motorcycle to catch them).

There was this one guy that would keep passing me on the few down hills on the way up to Hawi but every time we hit a hill I would catch him. When we got to Hawi he took off and I did not see him till the end of the ride. But he became another motivational tool on the way up. Coming back from Hawi I just stayed in my aero bars and tried to go as fast as the hills and wind would take me without pushing to hard. At some point the wind shifted from a tail wind to a head wind and then a cross wind. I was ready for the cross wind but didn't think I would get hit with a head wind coming down. When I got back to Kawaihae there is one last hard up hill before you turn back onto the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway. I rode this three times in the prior week but for some reason I completely forgot about it on race day and when I hit it kicked my but. I think it is about a mile up maybe less but it was hot hot hot and I went from cruising to a crawl in a matter of seconds. Once I got to the Queen K I cruised to T2, which was not at Hapuna Beach State Park but up the rode 4 miles at the Mauna Lani Resort. I pulled in gave my bike to the volunteer and ran to get my bag and into the changing tent.

I had a goal for this race of 6:45 over all that is written in my training logs but in March I thought there was a chance that if my running held up I might be able to break 6:15. When I came to the bike finish I was pretty happy. I was on track to beat my goal of 6:15. All I needed to do was run 10 minute miles and I would have it. I had moved my overall position up to 440th place passing over 120 people on the bike.


Again I was pretty happy with this part as well. I did not ride with a HR monitor, forgot to pack it. But other than that again I was happy. My nutrition was good maybe even to much. I will get into that during the run. I need some work on down hill handling skills don’t think I took full advantage of the down hills.

Took my time again changing shoes, put a hat on and grabbed my Fuelbelt. Hit the head, stretched the hamstrings and off I went. I felt pretty good. Legs were strong, and mentally I was thinking this is going to be a great run. Although, my stomach did start to feel a little strange.

I did not need the fuel belt with my CarboPro. My stomach was done with that stuff I would later relise this.

Well something happened in the transition from bike to run. All of the sudden my stomach was not feeling to good. My legs felt good and my mind was up for the challenge. Maybe it was something I ate but about 1/8 of a mile into it I was stopped dead in my tracks. I had to go to the bathroom again, well the next aide station was a mile away and there was no way I was going to head back to the transition area (looking back that might not have been the smartest choice by not turning back) so I walked to the first aide stations. It took me a while to cover the distance out of fear of having an accident. I will save you the details of my bathroom issues other than to say I made it but this process repeated itself over the next 4 miles or what I thought was 4 miles they had no mile markers just a marker every 5k. Fortunately I was able to run between stops after that first one and made it to each aide station. But out went the 6:15 goal and now it was all about just finishing. At some point between the 5k and 10k marker I felt much better and was able to run the rest of the way. But at this point I was feeling beaten down and my pace was pretty slow.

Besides the stated issues above this course was very hot and hilly. They ended up extending the cut off time to 8 hours and 30 minutes because of it. The course was broken up into three sections. The first was relatively flat with a few ups and downs out through the streets of the resort. We actually ran around the pool, which was nice, there was a lot of people cheering us on with very little clothing. The second part was through the golf course and it sucked. Up and down, up and down, and some of these were very steep but never that long. You could never get into a rhythm. We were also running on a mixture of fairways, rough and cart paths. The last part was not that hard physically but mentally a pain in the ass. It was a long out in back on some dead end road that was hotter than hell and surrounded by lava. The out part was actually down hill but there was a headwind, coming back felt easier not sure if this was in my head because I knew I was on the home stretch or the wind was pushing me up. I never stopped running (other than the aide station) but there where points on that road that it crossed my mind to walk a little but I sucked it up. Despite the heat I think I did a good job of staying cool. At each aide station I grabbed a cup of ice and a cup of water. The ice went down my shirt and under the hat. I drank most of the water and poured the rest over my head. I remember splashing one of the cups directly into my face but with my glasses on all I did was impair my vision. I made a comment which I thought was to myself "boy that was stupid" but evidently I said it out load and one of the volunteers heard me and said "believe me we have seen a lot worse today". We both laughed and that carried me to the finish.

Between the heat and the hills this course kicked my but. Some how despite all my issues on the run I ended up moving 12 positions to 428 overall but I was a little down about my run but what can you do. Talking to people after the race everybody said the run ate them up as well. Not sure I would have beat 6:15 with those conditions but I got to think my time would have been at least 10 minutes faster minus the reststops.

I am really looking forward to Timberman NH in August. It will be interesting to compare the races. One race from one side of the country and one from the other.


I need to figure out my nutrition a little better hopefully the issues I had were a one time event. During training and my bricks nothing like that ever happened however I did use more CarboPro in the race than I did in training because of the difference in temperatures from Hawaii and Boston.

Nothing really. Just streched a little as I waited for my sister to finish. Then went to the awards banquet and ate a ton of food.


1. My run was the big limiter. For my next 1/2 in August I will try to concentrate on brick training. I kind of slacked in this area.
2. Need to figure out nutrition.
3. Wouldn't mind taking off a couple minutes in my swim as well. Most of my pool training was just getting in the water and swimming 2100 yards and getting out. I will try to add some drills to that in the next two months.
4. Experience, I have a lot to learn about this sport. Sunday’s race was only the second time I have run a Triathlon. I did my first in March an it was an Olympic distance. So there is a ton for me to learn about the sport itself as well as each of the distances. This was certainly a lot different than the Olympic. It really made me respect the long courses.



This was a great race and I hope to get to run it again next year. The only thing I wish they did differently was to have mile markers on the run. I guess it was hard to watch as a spectator as well but what are you going to do