Cheryl and I did the Lavaman Triathlon on Sunday on the Big Island in Hawaii. This was Cheryl's 2nd crack at the race and my first race ever on the islands. Good golly....I can't imagine a more beautiful place to race.
We rolled into transition with plenty of time to spare. There were quite a few pros wandering around - including Chris McCormack who would be be eventual men's winner and Lisa Mensink, an Olympian from Canada who won the women's race.
The swim is shaped like a very narrow "M". 900 athletes, 5 waves, 3 minutes apart. Cheryl and I were in the last wave of women 40 and older. It didn't take long to start catching swimmers from earlier waves and we both realized there really isn't any way to get around to the outside - so we swam through little gaps and kept our heads up looking for errant swimmers who were off-course on another segment of the "M" heading right for us. One of my favorite moments of the race was swimming under a kayak that was in the path of some very clear water. I'm positive it was faster than going around and felt v
ery adventurous for a 44 year old mom. I was happy with my swim - Cheryl took a minute off her swim time from last year so she was happy too....
It's been windy here for the few days leading up to the race - lawn-chairs-blowing-into-the-ocean kind of windy! That morning, though, thankfully - the wind eased up and it was present but not daunting most of the ride - it didn't start to blow chairs until the last few miles for us.The bike course is on the Queen K highway, which is the course of the World Championships. It's BARREN. I'm not sure how Brian and Nancy got through it for 112 miles. Never have I seen more monotonous and dark, hot terrain. (and the heat is much worse in October, I'm told) I saw Cheryl shortly after the turnaround as she was passing some poor unsuspecting young men....ha
I'm not sure what happened to me on the bike - but somewhere along the way my hamstrings or sitbones or something got very tight. I noticed that something was up when i stood to stretch at the turnaround, but didn't want to think about it again until I got off my bike and then couldn't walk or run for a few moments. I ended up bent over at the waist and bent at the knees shuffling to my rack. Quite dignified. I appreciated the few moans of pity I heard...maybe that was me moaning in self-pity now that i think about it.
There was no way i could reach the ground to pick up my running shoes, so I stuck my toes in them and found a nice older couple who were volunteering in transition that put them on my feet and tied them for me. Again...dignified. :) I started running shortly after I exited transition and ended up having a fine run after i've fought an injury all winter. Hawaii sunshine doing wonders, I suppose.
We rolled into transition with plenty of time to spare. There were quite a few pros wandering around - including Chris McCormack who would be be eventual men's winner and Lisa Mensink, an Olympian from Canada who won the women's race.
The swim is shaped like a very narrow "M". 900 athletes, 5 waves, 3 minutes apart. Cheryl and I were in the last wave of women 40 and older. It didn't take long to start catching swimmers from earlier waves and we both realized there really isn't any way to get around to the outside - so we swam through little gaps and kept our heads up looking for errant swimmers who were off-course on another segment of the "M" heading right for us. One of my favorite moments of the race was swimming under a kayak that was in the path of some very clear water. I'm positive it was faster than going around and felt v
ery adventurous for a 44 year old mom. I was happy with my swim - Cheryl took a minute off her swim time from last year so she was happy too....It's been windy here for the few days leading up to the race - lawn-chairs-blowing-into-the-ocean kind of windy! That morning, though, thankfully - the wind eased up and it was present but not daunting most of the ride - it didn't start to blow chairs until the last few miles for us.The bike course is on the Queen K highway, which is the course of the World Championships. It's BARREN. I'm not sure how Brian and Nancy got through it for 112 miles. Never have I seen more monotonous and dark, hot terrain. (and the heat is much worse in October, I'm told) I saw Cheryl shortly after the turnaround as she was passing some poor unsuspecting young men....ha
I'm not sure what happened to me on the bike - but somewhere along the way my hamstrings or sitbones or something got very tight. I noticed that something was up when i stood to stretch at the turnaround, but didn't want to think about it again until I got off my bike and then couldn't walk or run for a few moments. I ended up bent over at the waist and bent at the knees shuffling to my rack. Quite dignified. I appreciated the few moans of pity I heard...maybe that was me moaning in self-pity now that i think about it.
There was no way i could reach the ground to pick up my running shoes, so I stuck my toes in them and found a nice older couple who were volunteering in transition that put them on my feet and tied them for me. Again...dignified. :) I started running shortly after I exited transition and ended up having a fine run after i've fought an injury all winter. Hawaii sunshine doing wonders, I suppose.Cheryl bested her time from last year with conditions that were much windier, so kudos to her!! I envy her ability to train in Maui through the fall and winter. It pays off - every time i meet up with her to train she is stronger and faster (and tanner and cuter). She'll be coming back home in a couple of weeks and will have to slog it out with the rest of us for awhile.
A FUN meeting happened at the end of the day for us - we had a great conversation with the 5th place male finisher, Luis de la Torre. Some mainlanders may not know of him, but he's pretty much the finest triathlete on the Big Island as far as I can tell. He's consistently been the fastest Hawaiian finisher at the Kona Ironman (9:28 in 2008) and can race well at every distance. At 40, he's a mighty impressive athlete and a very nice guy. Cheryl had given me an earful of Luis information and we googlestalked him before the race. I had no doubt who he was when I saw him exit the bathroom and about tackled him to get this picture. I told him it would make Cheryl extremely jealous - which it did..... serves her right.We went back later to check on the results and managed to tackle him again and got a picture with her. It's shameless, really....
but was too polite to send us packing. We're concocting a terrific plan to have him coach for Raise the Bar this summer. How fun would THAT be??!!! If you're into that idea, go ahead and shoot him an email!
but was too polite to send us packing. We're concocting a terrific plan to have him coach for Raise the Bar this summer. How fun would THAT be??!!! If you're into that idea, go ahead and shoot him an email! Luis@luisdelatorre.com His email is clearly posted on his webpage - so i'm sure he won't mind the correspondence!
That's it from Lavaman.....
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