KONA 2014 RACE REPORT

At long long last I have finally got/found some energy-mojo to sit down and write a race report for this years Kona. Normally I jot some words down soon after the race, I always like to do this as you still have the emotions and feelings, good or bad that come with a race. This year post Kona I was deflated..Not with my result, As any day you cross a finish line is a good day! But disappointed in me! Not my performance, but how I dealt with things that was thrown at me that I could do nothing about.

As I sit here now writing this I have raced again and qualified for Kona 2015.. That I am happy about, but it now gives me two pieces to write about, two races with completely different outcomes. I had planned to write this one on the plane to AZ.. but with the discovery of wifi on the plane I spent the time looking at FB and twitter! :)  Just being honest!

My objective of my next two blogs will be to show how one simple thing either can help you have a great race...Or ruin everything! I am not going to go into it but hopefully when you read both you will get what I am saying. So for now I am going to step back in time and AZ has not even happened yet.

KONA PRE- RACE:

I started of this season Jan 1st after a long break from what was a long 2013... I changed coaches this year from Mark White...... a good friend who I will be forever grateful. I felt I needed to challenge myself more this season and was happy when Alan Couzens said he would take me under his wing. After a long talk with Alan i told him I believed I could go top 10 in Kona.. It was decided that my build would be a long long one with not so much racing in between. The weeks and months flew by and I think/hope I surprised Alan with what I could handle.. There is no doubt that leading into Kona I was at Pro level fitness. Alan loves those numbers and everything he was telling me, and what I could see for myself was pointing more Top 5 than 10.

I left for the Big Island 2 days earlier than before as to give myself more time to adjust to the heat..and also to try and get my body clock back to normal. But alas I had not even got out of LA and that's where things (In my head) started to go down hill. In short British Airways lost my bike and they had no idea where it was. This put my head in a complete spin... There I was in the best shape of my life and no bike..no nothing as most of my stuff was in the box! I did take swim and run gear in my carry on as 4 out of the 5 years my box has gone missing. The only difference this time was they had no idea where it was.. I cannot explain how much this affected me mentally! I have never being so negative and defeated leading into a race. I did hire a bike and done a 2-3 hour ride.. all this done was tweak nearly every muscle I had from the waste down. ( shows the importance of a good bike fit) This took me down mentally even more. To add to all this Kona was the hottest I have experienced.. I normally love the heat and seem to thrive in it.. Ashling spent 2 days solid on the phone and she tracked my bike. It arrived 5 days late but at least now in my mind I was back on track.. ( Or at least I thought I was) On the rides I did I noticed my Power/HR numbers where not as they would be at home..I had no problem with this as I knew the heat was taking longer to adjust to.. On my running I was way slower than normal..Again I was confident all would be good before the race. But still in the back of my damm mind was those 5 days of the missing bike!

RACE MORNING:

As mentioned in previous blogs I have come up with a strategy for the night before big races and this helps me get a decent amount of sleep.. I woke feeling rested..but not excited!! Here I was with the honour of racing in the biggest race of them all and when you feel you HAVE to race..that is not good! That simply is not good enough when you bust your ass all year in all types of shite weather And here I was not giving a shit!

Into T1 to get bike ready.. And that took about 10 min, then it would be wait for the helicopter time.. This is when normally the butterflies start for me.. My plan this year was to start way left to try and avoid the macho man crap that always takes place.. BOOM the cannon went and it was just a great relief to be finally started... A bit of biff boff bosh but nothing to bad and quickly I was into a steady controlled pace.. I knew pre race the surf would be up but whilst i was not getting thrown around to much, looking down I just got the sense that someone was picking me up and dropping me down 20 foot to the left of right.. This was making me feel a bit sick..and I was thinking about swimming with my eyes closed as to take that weird sideways motions away! In keeping wide left though I swam most of the swim solo..this suited me fine! That was until I stood up and seen 1.13.. I wont write down my exact words here, but you can guess! Right there and then my plans of a top 5 went completely out the window.. I was deflated!

Onto the bike and in my mind everyone who I would be challenging was so far up the road that I would need to be Tony Martin..not Owen Martin to catch them. I knew coming into the race that I would be down time getting onto the bike..but if numbers were to be believed I would catch ALL before the end of the bike. I settled my mind by the time the out and back section was done and started to climb Palini before heading out onto the Queen K. And then thats were some idiot decided to go up the inside of me and the guy to my right.. There was contact and both me and the guy to the right let him have it with both barrels.. Firstly Palani is a no pass zone and its a pity the refs didn't see as as he would have got DQd.. Secondly if the refs had of seen it they probably would have DQd me for the language I used!  There he was going up a hill as if he was Froome himself.. This dude was going to win the race I thought...And all in the 1st 10 mile of the race... By the time I reached the top.. All of 1 min later I felt bad.. I was thinking I was putting out bad karma..and we all know when karma bites back its a bitch. Another 2-3 mile passed and low and behold here is Chris froome himself blowing smoke out of his arse going backwards!!! I guess he should of went up the hill at a pace he could actually do ( F**king plonker) But I decided I would clear the air and bring back good karma and get on with the race.. As i passed him i said sorry for the language and wished him luck... That made me feel good.. Onwards I went and a short time later that's were everything went pear shaped! Chained slipped when changing gears and jammed between the frame and crank.. Before this I was making good ground as usual on the bike.. had to stop and fix it and the 1st time it didnt take to long.. I can tell you watching all those people pass you that you just passed is not nice.. after the 3rd time you can only imagine what was going through my mind.. As far as i was corcerned all my training and efforts would be ruined.. all from an idiot trying to be a hero in front of crowds of people. After I fixed it the 3rd time i decided just not to change gears and ride fixie style.. Around this time I passed Paul Deen and he told me everyone had a crap swim and he and Martin swam 1.08.. And despite me stopping 3 times i was gaining time.. The wind was savage to put it nicely.. but this was playing into my hands i though.. my power was very good, Hr also.. I started to climb to Hawi and shortly before the turn I seen my old buddy going in the other direction.. this filled me with confidence as the gap was not that big and I still had nearly half the ride to go.. The tailwind on the way back down was great.. I am flying i thought.. The tailwind turned to head as expected and then the fatal blow came... On one of the uphills I changed gears and of the chain came for the 4th time.. this time i was pissed... I stepped of the bike and the wind just blew it out of my hands.. It took ages this time to fix and by the time i got going i had gone from being in a positive mood to completely disheartened.. All the thoughts of the missing bike box came back..everything that went wrong in the build up filled my mind.. I was hoping a race car would come so i could put my bike in and get a ride back to town.. For me my race was over! but in my mind i kept picturing a photo my brother sent me pre race of a poster my nephew and niece made for me.. plus thinking there was no way i wanted to let Ash down.. for I knew she would be more gutted for me than i would be..for me! That was enough to get back on a keep riding.. At this stage i was not riding easy but neither was i racing..My bike broke twice again after this but at that stage i didn't give a shit.. I was never as glad to be getting back to town.. I pulled up to the dismount line in a very casual manner.. I took my time getting of, kept my feet in the shoes..none of that fancy dismount stuff you see on the videos.. I walked though T2 having a chat here and there.. I was actually finding amusement at the strange looks I was getting from the helpers.. They were all looking at me having a nice stroll whilst everyone round me was in full flight to get out onto the run..I was in no hurry... My mind had switched to AZ.. And to be honest i even though about not even doing the run.. There was nothing wrong with me except for a extremely negative mindset!! I ran out of T2 and stopped to have a quick chat with Ash and tell her my plan of just running to every aid station and saving my legs for AZ.. Well I can not write down here her response to that idea... It went something like ( You will and you're F**k..You will run) Gota love Ash x

Still even at that my head was elsewhere... I was in complete feel sorry for myself mode! The run this year was not as hot because of allot of cloud cover.. But I found a pace around 7.15/20 felt comfortable at that and just decided to hold that..I did however get a great mental boost when running down into the energy lab.. Una ( Irish girl who lives there) had tricolors everywhere.. It was a sight to behold and did make me feel proud.. I decided to up the pace, but cramped in my belly when my HR went to 146/7 when HR was at 144/5 all was good.. So again i just settled and ran steady back to the finish line. Regardless of how crap i was feeling in the head the sound of Mike Reilly does give you a boost.. I made sure to enjoy the final mile..Because right there and then this was going to be my last Kona for sure.. 26 mile is a long time and gives you loads of time to think.. In my mind I was thinking all my years work was for nothing.. Wasted!! All because of 2 things I could do nothing about.. Idiots loosing my bike.. and a plonker who thought he was froome!! I crossed the line gutted but happy to finish.. It was why me time!! I enjoyed the banter in the athletes area..but still in my mind i was done with Kona! For me I was extremely grateful to have completed a race 5 times that most would give their left arm for.. The next few days over a few beers and lots of bad food my mindset changed.. My thinking was if I had of prepared badly for the race through lack of training, bad diet etc and got a bad race..Well so be it.. That i could take and would deserve.. But I trained great.. and all that fitness was still there.. The only thing that let me down was my head..feeling sorry for myself over stuff i had zero control over..

You can be as fit and strong as you like.. but if you're most powerful tool is weak don't bother even doing the training. This was a harsh way for me to learn a very valuable lesson.. But I have learned

Onwards to AZ i went!!

To be continued........