Kona Aftermath

What a day yesterday! I started off with a 5 mile trail run on a pretty popular mt. bike trail called the North Shore trail on lake grapevine. I was hoping to get off the concrete for a day, but I find after running on trails that everything below my knee kills as a result. Sore feet and shins, still I enjoyed the change of scenery.

My daughter Reagan had her 2nd birthday party yesterday, which was a success. The best part of little kid birthday parties besides seeing them play together, is that they only last about an hour and a half.

And the fund raising dinner was really cool, although I was on my feet for nearly 7 hours. The trail run and the dinner pretty much tore my feet apart.

So I don't quite know what to make of the race yesterday. I guess that race is humbling in so many ways, including trying to predict the outcome.

I find it somewhat humorous that for the month or so leading up to the race, you hear how everyone's training was on, all of their markers indicate improvement over last year, etc. Then the gun goes off and the IM Live team spends 20 mins of the swim giving you all of the off the record things they know about health problems. Michellie Jones and her buster ear drum, Norman and Faris sick all week, Beke with a sore knee. It makes handicapping the race pretty much impossible.

I was glad to see Chris McCormack finally get his win, but I have to be honest and say that I am not sure what the outcome would have been with the Germans at full health. Macca's 2:42 marathon is legendary, but there was no one of concern pushing him on the bike, so he was able to sit in the pack and wait for the run. His bike split was 19 mins slower than Norman's from last year.

Craig Alexander's effort was inspiring. A 2:45 marathon from him is sick. It will be interesting to see what direction he goes with his racing. Will he switch back to focussing on 70.3, or will he continue to do fulls? In listening to interviews from Crowie, he has made it clear that he is a family guy, and doing what will pay the bills is typically the direction he goes. A $60K payday and a lot of sponsors re-inking or partnering with him might get him to focus solely on full IMs. We'll see.

I was glad to see the American men in the mix. Lieto and Deboom were there all day, and out of no where, Lovato ended up in the top 10 by being Mr. Consistent.

The women's race was equally unique. I really wanted to see the Natascha v. Michelle show down, but it wasn't to be. Instead, we were introduced to (let me look her name up again) Chrissie Wellington. I'd consider myself pretty up on the IM racing scene, but I'd never heard of her before. With a 2:59 marathon, I'll never forget her. My fault for not giving IM Korea any attention. Apparently she trains with Hillary on Brett Sutton's team, so the team fulfilled it's goal of having an IM World Champion doing it in the first year of the 3-4 years they gave themselves to accomplish this goal.

Jo Lawn was there all day, but never rode away from the field, and apparently she was sick all day too. My sleeper Sam McGlone delivered on the women's side. She ran a 3:00 marathon which was impressive. All of my Alexander thoughts above apply to McGlone now too.

From what I can tell, Hillary had an okay day. She ended up 20th, and by her split, had a tough run with a 3:30, but its certainly no shock given her recent race schedule. We'll have to read her race report for the details.

My friend Brian Dunn from Triscoop had a great day with a 9:40. He said he ran past Des Ficker on the Queen K Hwy and she was in tears. He also passed Jo Zieger at mile 4 while she was booting in an aid station. That race is so tough and people go for it as opposed to playing it safe like other IMs.

The IM Live coverage had potential. Lots of good footage out on the course. They even introduced picture in picture on several occassions. The feed outage due to a power outage on the island was a distraction, and the race updates giving "fatal error" messages for about an hour were very frustrating, but all in all, I was pleased when it was working. I left for the dinner about half way through the bike, so I can't comment on coverage while out on the run.

So we are off to Puerto Rico for a week tomorrow. We're hoping for smooth travels, good weather, and well behaved kids. I might drop in during the week if I can get an internet connection.

Have a good week.