Ironman World Championship : Official Thread

I'll be there, in 10 years! I just need to do 11 more Ironman races.

Alright! Good luck...

Actually you may get in sooner if you keep entering the lottery!!

Well, there are at least three more of us that got in via the lottery.

I still need to do a qualifier...

And...the other boys should be here soon....I had to point them in the right direction.

Alrighty... finally found this thread.

I'm one of the lucky three BTers who won the lottery.  So this thread might be a little slower than others, unless veterans chime in here and there.

Here goes!

Just saw in the IMFL thread that there's another BTer with a lottery spot...that makes FOUR lottery winners from the site!  Crazy!  Can you believe, WTC let them defer their IMFL spot to next year so they can do Kona?  That's crazy too!  It's the right thing for WTC to DO, but it's not LIKE them!

I will be there. Got a lottery pick! So excited and 2011 Fl.IM (11:27:53) counts to validate entry. Can't wait!!!

Okay, I officially have a condo reserved.  I can now stop freaking out about that part.

Next...finish the HIM!  Which is probably harder than reserving a condo.  But if I didn't reserve the condo now by the time I finish a HIM all the good places would be taken!

I did a lot of e-mailing to vrbo places and I still have a small partial list of ones that are available (or were yesterday).  If anyone wants me to give them the numbers I can...

Hello other Kevin (dukedrury)!  And congrats on being the second Kevin and fourth BT-er lucky enough to win a lottery spot.

You guys mentioned your 70.3.  I just made a post about how to handle our validating half Iron when training for Kona.  LINK

I'd love your advice.  Or anyone else who might be reading this!

Thanks all!

Ooo...a little jealous of your 1/10 mile from the start.  My condo is on Ali'i drive, probably just over a mile from the start/finish.  But it's right on the run course!  Most of the condos the size I needed and right IN town were already taken.  I really wanted a condo so I could cook and such.  Eating out doesn't go well for me!

As for the bike, I need to talk to my coach but I'm really leaning towards Tri Bike Transport.  I've never used them.  I will probably be flying American and American used to charge "only" $100 per leg.  That price seems to have gone up to $150.  So, I kinda planned to hop from Kona to Oahu for at least a few days before I go home...which would mean three legs and that comes out to $450.  TBT is $375, but I have to drive 7 hours roundtrip to Dallas TWICE (once to drop off the bike and once to pick it up).  That adds. $125 in gas bringing the TBT total to $500.  Option 3 is to fly out there with the bike then ship it home from Kona via Fed EX.  That would be $150 on the way out and probably about $200-$250 to ship it.  So, around $400.  And SOMETIMES I can talk airports into taking my bike for free if I write my leave orders a certain way (it's worked twice that I know of).

Definitely torn.  The other downside of TBT is how far in advance they need the bike.  It has to be in Dallas by 26 Sept, which is a week day.  So that REALLY means it has to be in Dallas the weekend before...23 Sept.  Which means that my last 2.5 weeks of riding would be on an older bike.  And I can't really make that decision without talking to my coach.

I also have a stupid integrated seat post.  Which makes packing the bike in the case much harder.  So, I'm really torn.

TBT eliminates a bunch of logistics...no worrying about transporting the case to/from the airport and shipping location, just simple pick up and drop off.  NO worrying about packing the bike in the case with the integrated seat post.  BUT, on the downside, without the bike for a REALLY long time.

I wonder what TBT's refund policy is...I might go ahead and reserve a spot just in case....

AA charges $150 per TRIP.  So, I am flying from Abilene to Dallas to Honolulu to Kona on the way out...that's $150.  On the way BACK my plan was to fly to Honolulu and STAY FOR  A FEW DAYS, then fly from Honolulu to Dallas to Abilene.  They would charge me $150 for the Kona to Honolulu leg, then again for the Honolulu to Dallas to Abilene...making my total $300 on the way back...because of my STOPOVER (vice layover) in Honolulu.

Make sense?  If you fly American and do all your traveling as a continuous trip I would assume you would get charged $150 each way for a total of $300.

I just checked and United appears to charge $100 each way for the "US".  My big fear would be that a trip to Hawaii would not be considered "US" and they would want to charge for "international" or something.

$175 is a lot to save (United v. TBT), but...it comes with a cost.  I think your bike is far more likely to be damaged by the airline than TBT and of course there is all the added fun of packing/unpacking and not to mention LUGGING of the bike case.

I think my conclusion is that there really aren't any GOOD options and if my coach is okay with me being without the bike for 2.5 weeks I'm leaning TBT.  Second choice will be to fly the bike out to Kona with me and then ship it back (because I'm doing the two leg trip home).

I'm with you guys- probably going the TBT route.  But my problem is that I don't have a back-up road bike.  Just a SUPER old mountain bike.  So I'll either have to rent or borrow a road bike for those final two weeks.

I just asked the question on the General Talk board (LINK)... are you guys using a wetsuit and/or aerobars for Kona?  I know that sounds like a complete rookie question, but I've never had either... and I've always been fine racing (including IM distance).  But I know the conditions in Kona are much more difficult.  As you guys know, this experience will cost $5,000+ easy.  If I can save buying a wetsuit and aeros, that'd be great.

Thoughts?

Hey guys,  I'm nowhere near running an Ironman, but just thought I'd chime-in with what I saw when I was in Kona for work recently.  By no means am I knowledgeable about Hawaii compared with some of the folks who live there or have traveled there a bit, but I wanted to pass-on things that I noticed while I was out there as 1st time visitor.

1) Most motivational place on earth.  They have tri magazines and gu at the counter in the local gas stations.  If you sit at the restaurants along Ali'i Way there's a constant stream of runners, cyclists, and there are swimmers in the water swimming the bouys constantly.  On Queen K highway, there's a constant stream of cyclists too.  I was there in March and still there was constant rythym.  It's what got me back into training.

2) Kona airport is an open-air facility.  You should probably put all your suitcase stuff in a trash-bag in-case that once per year rainstorm comes-down.  It really doesn't rain on the Kona side much, but the one time it does, your stuff gets soaked.

3) Bring something to do on the flight-over and some food for the flight over.  I was on an LA-Kona flight that had a broken TV system, the food was miniscule, and there were 2 stations on the headsets.  I travel all the time so I did some work and then broke out my Ipad and watched "The Wire"  but the lady next to me was pulling her hair out because she didn't bring anything.

4) If you love sushi, try the Ahi Poke!

5) I stayed one night at the Sheraton which was being rennovated.  Still a nice hotel, but it was a little discombobulated at the time.  I left my window open all night at the sheraton so I could hear the pacific.  Hotels on the islands charge the room rate and then a big "resort fee" of between $40 and $90.  Not sure what the fee gets you really. 

6) Second night, I stayed at the Courtyard that is at the big tree where the start/finish/transition line is.  The rooms at the Courtyard are small and the windows didn't open to air-out my stuff. 

7) I paid an obscene amount of money for goggles on the island.  Highly recommend you don't forget those. Duh...

8) Traffic on all the islands is notoriously bad.  I hate to even imagine the traffic during IM week.  Plan plenty of time to get to the start. I honestly didn't even notice where you'd park because in an off-season time, there was little-to-no parking near the transition area.

9) If your time permits, don't race off to Oahu.  I saw all of Oahu and would rather spend 3 weeks driving around the Big Island.  At one point, I was looking around and said "there's a cactus there, to the right, we can see pine trees and then snow, to the left we can see palm trees and the ocean."  It's an amazing place.  Hawaii has something like 20 of 27 climate zones found on earth and I'm pretty sure all of those are on the big island.

10) I did see several people with bag-cases that were clearly rented from home to take to the island and the TSA folks are used to them and the baggage handlers know they're your baby.  I don't speak for the baggage handlers in your hometown...

11) Aerobars- Just my $.02 on this one.  Kona is one of the windiest places on earth.  The wind blows continuously from the southwest all the time.  I guess you could use the drops in the wind if that's ok with you, but part of aero is to be comfortable.

12) Aloha means Hello, Mahalo means thanks.  Haole (pronounced "Howli") means non-native and is a derrogatory term.   Humuhumunukunukuapua'a is the state fish and I saw one on the swim course.  Sorry, just had to throw that one in there. 

Good luck guys.  I'll be praying for you all in your training and your race.  Maybe one day I can be there too.