Wednesday, October 11, 2006

MONDAY: RUN
So after the morning swim, I pause to reflect: I swam about 2.2 miles, at a leisurely pace, with a few short stops, at 1 hour and 10 minutes. This tells me two things. First, I have both the strength and endurance to easily swim the first leg of this Ironman. Second, I can expect to meet my expected time of 1 hour and 12 minutes. Since I do wet suit Ironman swims in 66-68 minutes; since this start will be more measured (I'll be farther back, the swimmers will be mainly very experienced, it's an in water start); and since I'll be in salt water, not fresh (more buoyant), I shouldn't lose more than 10% from my wetsuit time in this non-wet suit swim. Under 72 minutes, I'll be satisfied. Under 70, I'll be amazed.

Back to shopping. I still haven't gotten any butter, and I need a bike lock, and maybe a book to read would be nice. So I park under a tree at Safeway, and walk down the hill to Wal-Mart (lock), then further down to Borders, and back up to Safeway (hamburger, Gatorade, butter, onions, etc.) The lines aren't any shorter, though. There is a SERIOUS retail clerk shortage here on the Big Island.

This afternoon, the coaches call for a long run ("Not overly long, only 70-80min but steady at Hr#2. Don't turn it into a race. Remember what you are training for.") I decide to go out to the Queen K Highway, where I feel the crux of the run will be.

Hawaii's Ironman marathon starts at the pier. A short trip up Palani to Kuakini, right onto this thorough fare, then back downhill on Hualalai and left onto Ali'i drive, away from the pier and the finish line. During this portion, there will be spots of shade, and a sea breeze. Out to the blue church, turn around, and retrace the route to Palani, where you head up hill, the steepest part of the run, up to the Queen K Highway. That's just about the 10 mile mark - the warm-up portion of an Ironman marathon. Up to now, the route has been in town; the shade, ocean and bustle of Kona Town have all been distractions to keep your mind off of the torture to come. But once on the Queen K, all that is left behind.

The Queen K is the only route in or out of town, and it is way too small for the traffic it carries. Most days, it's filled with rental cars from the airport, pick-up trucks of tradesmen, and trucks bound for the port at Kawaihae. It's a crowded, noisy, sooty mess, plopped right down in paradise. But on Ironman Saturday, the traffic is gone, and you're all alone out there save for the plop, plop of your fellow runners, the Kokua Crew every mile at the aid stations, and the sun or cloud or haze or whatever weather is happening on that day.

It's about six miles of rollers to the Energy Lab, where the route heads downhill to the sea, along the shore a ways, then back up again for about 2.5 miles. Then back down the Queen K towards town. At Palani, then, it's all down hill to glory. Getting to Palani is the trick.

The closest thing to shade out here are the metal telephone poles on the mountain side. There's a steady breeze, and the smell, but not the cool of the ocean. And at my pace, the sun will set somewhere along this route. I'm hoping it will still be up as I leave the Energy Lab, but for sure I don't want to see it set on my way down that hill. In any event, once the sun goes down, it will be DARK. Especially so this year, as Oct 21 is a new moon. It used to be that Hawaii was held the Saturday closest to the full moon, for just this reason. But now, it's all they can do just to work around the cruise ships, which want ready access to the pier for their thousands of passengers every day. That, plus the increasingly urban environment around Kona, leads me to believe that some day soon, the Ironman Triathlon World Championships (the official name of this race I'm doing) will head out of Kona, onto a new, or even a rotating venue. Hard to believe, like Disneyland being loaded onto a circus train and going traveling off to see the world, instead of the world coming to it.

I also know that one of the evil traps of this timing for the race, the sunset happening about 2/3rds to 3/4ths thru my run, is that one hopes the sun set brings relief from the weather. It does not. It will still be warm, and even muggier. A little drop off, but not enough to break the sweaty vise gently smothering me for over 4 hours. I've got to acclimate, and soldier on.

So I drive out to the edge of town, park in the shade next to a pool and spa outlet, cinch up my Fuel Belt, lock in my GPS, turn on my  heart rate monitor, and start my plod along the Queen K.

76 minutes later, I've covered 8.2 miles, for a pretty sorry 9:18 min/mile pace - which, if I held for the race, would be a PR for the marathon leg. I'm hoping for more like a 10:20 average, coming in under 4 hours and 30 minutes. The run, like the swim, faces a relatively predictable environment - the course is fixed, with few real hills (only Palani, really, has any bite to it), the weather is stable, being so close to the ocean, and the wind is a non-factor, compared to the bike. So the only real risk is arriving at the start of the run unprepared to finish it. Bike effort, nutrition, and hydration are the most important variables impacting the run time. Once again, as with the swim, I think I'm ready. I've just got to keep doing a few runs during the time of the day when I will be racing. Acclimitization is the only task left for me at this point.

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