Transition times

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Heat, Humidity, and Hills (Oh yeah and wind too).

By Rusty DeBlassie

2004 Keauhou-Kona Triathlon

This was my first year doing the Keauhou-Kona Triathlon.  Aside from the difficulty, the scene was astoundingly beautiful.  To try and give a perspective of how difficult this race was there were 850+ starters in the water at the beginning.  By the end of the day there were only 521 people who actually crossed the finish line.  Of those 521 finishers, 34 were outside the 8 hour mark.  Only 16 people went under five hours.  The event was won by Chad Hawker in 4:23:42 and Paula Newby-Fraser in 4:49:42. Hawker even made the comment after the race that this was by far the most difficult Half IM he has ever done.  I finished the race in 6:53:18.

The days leading up to the race were pretty nice.  Not too hot, overcast by around 10 or 11 AM.  Race Day came and saw a whole different set of conditions.  Race Day started out nice enough.  The same nervous tensions in the transition area were present.  The water temp was around 80 degrees.  I’d be racing in my new DeSoto Triteam SW skinsuit.  In Kailua bay the surf was calm.  Out past the pier the ocean swelled to about 2 feet, though it was gentle, not choppy.  It made sighting kinda neat.  You had to sight at the top of the swell in order to see where you were going.  Pretty cool actually.  I got to draft quite few other swimmers since you could actually see them in front of you.  The taste of the salt water was different for me. During the swim, you get to see all kinds of tropical fish.  Some people claimed to have seen dolphins around the fringes.  I didn’t see any.  Other than the ocean swells, it was pretty uneventful.  I did it in 43:20.  Right around where I expected.

Coming out of the water I ran through the shower to wash the salt water from me.  Jumped on my bike and off I went.  Very cool bike leg.  The bike leg covered approximately half of the full IM course (hence, the reason it is a Half IM).  Got onto the Queen K highway and conserved as much as I could for the run.  I got to the turn around in 1:25.  Fairly quick pace but my legs felt real good.  I figured that I could probably go under 3 hours for the bike.  As soon as I turned, I discovered why I felt good.  I had a tailwind all of the way out.  It was slight, but it was still there.  The road temp was 110 degrees and the humidity was hovering around 75% out here in this desert portion of the island.  The last aid station was 12 miles north of the town of Kona.  I got a bottle of Gatorade (I should have got 2). And kept my pace steady.  10 miles from the finish of the bike leg is where the headwind hit me full force.  50+ mph straight into your face.  I slowed to a crawl.  My speed dropped to around 10-11 mph.  I was in my 39-23 and still struggling.  I kept thinking to myself something MG said to me the day before.  “Save yourself for the run, don’t hammer the bike.”  I tried.  The last 10 miles on the bike wiped me out.  I could feel the lactic acid building in my legs and I could taste that nasty metallic taste in my mouth.  Crap that was hard! 3:12 for the bike leg.  A little slower than I wanted but not bad considering how the wind was blowing.

I finally made it to T2, albeit with very wasted legs.  I jumped off of my guy and the transition guy grabbed it from me and put it on the rack with my helmet.  He pointed me to my chair where another transition volunteer called me by my race number…”755 right here, sit down 755.  Do you need water? Here are your shoes (handed them to me left to right).  Here’s your gells.  755, your bike shoes are in the transition bag.  Have a good run!”  Very cool.  Pointed me out to the run and off I went.  This is where the race was going to happen.

I got out on the run course and felt pretty good.  The run went south on Ali’i drive through Kona and all of the little shops.  There were many, many, many spectators on the course cheering and clapping as you went by.  Running south was not bad, except for running right by the finish line hotel at the Ohana Keauhou Beach Resort hotel.  I passed it and this is the section where the race became sinister.  At mile 5.5 Ali’i drive goes up.  This section climbed only about a hundred feet or so.  Ran past the intersection at Kamehameha III road and continued south on Ali’i drive This section was generally uphill.  At mile 6.5 the road went up a very nasty steep climb.  I don’t know what the name of this hill was.  It climbed for a full mile straight up.  The seven mile aid station was right in the middle of the climb.  This climb was around 1000 feet (that is a 19% climb).  The top of the climb was not really the top, it just looked that way, it was a false flat.  It continued to climb, just more gradually.  The road wound through to the next aid station (going up the entire time) at mile 8.  At mile 8.5 the road once again turned up gradually and the last ¼ mile of the climb to the turnaround just past the 9 mile mark was climbing at a blistering 26%.  This climb was so steep, that I had to walk down the climb.  It actually hurt to run down the hill.  The total elevation gain on the run was 1750 feet (all of it between miles 5.5 and 9.05).  By the time I finished the race I was completely wasted and sunburned.  My Boston Bill sunglasses helped keep the bright sun out of my eyes the whole race.  All of the sunscreen washed off very early in the race.  I was definitely doing the infamous “Triathlete shuffle”.  But so was everybody else, including the winners. 

Later that evening, Hawker was sitting with a few friends poolside and I overheard him say that was the most insanely difficult ½ IM he has ever done.

Next year I would like to do it again.  Sign up for the race is on Wednesday June 16 at noon HST (4 PM mountain time).  I highly recommend this race for somebody who wants a tough, very well run, and beautiful race.  I would like top have a few other triteamers out there next year.  The race site link is below.

 http://www.keauhoutriathlon.com/2005info.shtml

Keep the rubber side down

Rusty DeBlassie (In Texas now)