Well it was quite a day on Saturday in Kona. No I wasn't there but I was glued to my computer watching the streaming coverage of the race, I was going to go and watch but decided to save my money for my trip to Kona in May for the Ironman 70.3 race and hopefully a trip to Kona next October. Here are my thoughts on the race.
First they are amazing both on the Men's and Women's side. There was something like 140 pro's starting the race, that's quite a few very fast humans and there was endless evidence on the day that they are human. The pro's aren't the only fast ones my time at IM CDA this year (10:45) would have placed me 650th in Kona.
Macca finally got his win which was great. I've been a fan of his for a few years now and it was great that he finally won. I wish that some of the pre race favorites had been able to start or not be knocked out due to illness, but even with Faris Al-Satan and Normann Stadler out of the race with illness I don't know that they could have beaten Chris on Saturday. His bike wasn't amazing but I think it was a carefully measured effort knowing that the big pre race threats were out. What can you say about a 2:42 marathon after the swim and the bike in all of that heat and humidity. Simply amazing. I loved the fact that he looked back with 100 meters to go as if to say "seriously no ones going to pass me, I'm really going to win."
Chrissie Wellington was simply awe inspiring. Only her second Ironman (the first was just 8 weeks before in Korea where the temps were stifling hot and humid). She literally looked like she was out for a training run during the marathon. Taking the lead on the bike and never looking back on the run. Posting a sub 3:00 marathon. I think it was a bit of nothing fear but fear itself and she didn't know what fear is. I loved the high fives with some of the age groupers at about mile 20..... c'mon that just not fair I could barely crack a smile at mile 20.
The pro's are human. Yep.... pros get sick like everyone else (Normann Stadler, Faris Al-Satan, Michellie Jones). Yep.... pros crash like everyone else (Natasha Badman). Finally and thankfully pros blow up like everyone else (highlights.... Desiree Ficker, Rutger Beke). Desiree dropped a 4+ hr marathon to finish in 10:40 after finishing 2nd last year and Rutger suffered home to a 5:35 marathon to finish in 11:13 and I think he was 6th last year.
This last category leads to another topic.....spirit of the race. Despite absolutely self destructing in the marathon the pro's that didn't have a great day truly embodied the race by continuing on to the finish despite imploding. They could have just as easily said I'm out of contention and things are not going well but they continued on to the finish and that is cool. It's a demoralizing and mentally difficult thing to have people passing you that you should handily finish ahead of but they didn't quit. I highlighted the pros but there were probably hundreds of these stories out there on Saturday.
I first saw Scott Rigsby in Coeur d'Alene this year a couple days before the race walking around town and thought that was nice that this guy is out here supporting a friend or family member competing. It was only at the Welcome Banquet that I really felt like a jackass. You see Scott Rigsby is a double amputee. Scott didn't finish the race in Coeur D'Alene but he did finish on Saturday in 16:42. Enough said.
Watching the race got me excited at the potential of getting a chance to race at Kona next year. I have a much better idea of what it takes to get there now. For now I'm going to just keep focus on my training through the fall and winter. Beginning to work with my coach has already been good my swim workouts are already harder than I did all of last year and I'm starting to get some more consistent run mileage in. It's good to have someone watching to keep me honest.
On to Coeur d'Alene and then hopefully on to Kona!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment