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Racing PagesRocky and I arrived in Honolulu on the 3 rd October at around 8pm. The first thing I noticed was the humidity and of course the heat. We were welcomed by the Nirvana team who we had traveled with and a lady who placed a lei around our necks – what a nice gesture! Our hotel was about an hour away and after waiting around for the luggage and everyone to board the bus it was getting dark and began to rain ferociously as we drove along the highway. They drive on the right hand side I noted for when we go cycling.
The hotel itself was big, the luggage was taken to our rooms by the bell men which was fantastic after lugging bikes as well as our cases around train stations, airports and buses for the last 24 hours. Although dark, we had a clear view from our balcony of the beautiful beach of Waikiki. When we’d arrived I took a sneaky look at the GB notice board in the main lobby where I noticed that people were meeting for a swim at 7am the next morning. I wondered if the jet lag would allow me to do this but thought it might be a good opportunity to meet a few of the fellow athletes.
6am – PING! Wide awake, no lie in for me then. I ventured down to the front of the hotel, which lay on the beach. The sun was bright and it was already very warm. The beach was extremely busy even at 7am, people already surfing and sunbathing. I got talking to a group of swimmers who had already been for the swim and were actually finishing, they had met earlier due to the fact that everyone is up so early here. I decided to go for a swim on my own anyway. The sea was lovely and warm; it was like getting into a bath – heaven! The water was crystal clear particularly the deeper and further away from the shore I got. This worried me slightly as I began to see coral and knew that I would soon see fish – with fear in my mind I made a quick turn and headed for land – that’ll do me for today!!
Later, I signed in to the team manager, Ian Pettit, who gave me a snickers marathon energy bar in return! Whilst there, I met a girl called Pam, who said that we should meet up later after the lecture on the 4 H’s to go and register for the event.
The lecture was on at 2pm led by a guy called John Dargie, recently selected to be the next Scottish team coach. The 4 H’s actually stood for Heat, Humidity, Hydration and Hawaii. A very interesting lecture that basically stopped half the British team from wearing deodorant (perhaps he thought we could scare off the competition through smell alone!). He also informed us about the types of sun tan lotion to wear and recommended a cycling/ triathlon shop to get it from in Hawaii. Hydration, obviously a very important subject to all in such a hot place, particularly to me as I did not want a repeat of Chester where I collapsed with dehydration. Following the lecture, we had two things to do, register and visit the bike shop. We met a lad called Andy, a pilot in the RAF. He volunteered to take us to the bike shop, which was very kind since we had just met him. We registered in a nearby hotel and collected our goody bag, which came in the form of a back sack – very handy. Then it was off to the bike store, with a quick nip into the Jamba Juice for a smoothie, already on our mission to hydrate properly!
The bike shop was about a half hour walk; a trip that rocky and I would take many times during the week. I bought an electrolyte drink powder, mandarin (foul stuff but recommended), Ironman sun block (factor 44 and no aluminium), a small bottle for the run and a white cap. The shop was FULL of British triathletes whom had just been to the lecture!!! (I think John should have had commission). On the way home, we stopped in at Andy’s apartment for a cold drink and who should walk in but John Dargie – fantastic we seemed to have teamed up the right crowd! John was actually coaching a number of triathletes here, one of which was Andy of course.
That night included a light tea (as light as you can get in America, their portion size is massive!) a couple of soft drinks for me and an early night.
The next few days entailed a visit to Pearl Harbour, a cycle of the bike course, a few light runs and swimming in the sea everyday. One day, I decided that I would like to go a view the swim course and fancied a swim there. We had awoken particularly early this day and were down on the course by 6 am, along with approximately another 300 athletes!! All from other countries, the Americans had obviously arrived by now as they were out in force, as had the Ozzies and the evergreen Mexicans, who were obviously delighted to be here. It was amazing to see so many athletes from all over the world all in one place.
The waves were high that morning, and there was apprehension amongst the weak swimmers. Then, we were unsure as to whether or not the start would be on the beach side or from in the water, so I watched John perform the crab exit. This was the funniest thing I had seen, his arms were quick and short, he kept himself moving till he was completely out of the water, head high. It looked easy – how hard can it be!? I decided to have a go myself, I ran into the water and plunged into it, just as the water retreated and I almost landed on the sand – ouch! I swam out a little and waited looking at the waves (not really sure why, everyone else was). I made my move, as I could feel the sand under my hands, I felt for sure that I could exit elegantly now. I tried to stand up but got dragged down by the ebbing wave. I got sucked in and couldn’t breathe. It took me what seemed like several minutes to stand up, by which time the group I had been watching were now watching and laughing at my first attempt of exiting the water – hmph! More practice needed.
The parade of the nations. This was an amazing part of the trip. There were 32 countries, all dressed in their kit and colours, flags flying high and faces gleaming with pride. The people of Waikiki had flocked to the streets to watch us. It was an amazing feeling that these people had come to watch us. Cameras were flashing, people were clapping and cheering, drums could be heard in the distance and got closer as we neared the Waikiki shell where we would have a few speeches and our pasta party. There were four speeches in total each unique but each making the event that we were here to perform in feel very prestigious and important. Finally, at the end of the night the New Zealanders performed the Hacker very emotionally. It was a great night.
The day before the actual event, we had to put our bikes into transition. There would be police on guard from 8pm ‘til 4am the next morning, when transition would open for the athletes. This is when it began to hit home what I was actually doing. Seeing 2500 athletes setting up their bikes for the big race was both exciting and daunting.
The BIG day.I woke at 5am to give myself enough time to eat breakfast. We got down to transition before 6am and already half the athletes were there. I was nervous by now but kept saying to myself its good to get some nerves. I collected my chip, which I needed to tie around my ankle so that my split times would be picked up and headed to check out the transitions in and out. I did my warm-up, all the while sipping from this electrolyte drink in the hope that I would stay hydrated all throughout the race. It was hot, the hottest day since we’d been there and I kept going to the toilet. I swam in the sea to get warmed up and was called to enter the corral before we went to the start line. There were approximately 100 girls in my age group 30-34 years and they looked fit. We were directed to the start line where we had to stay behind the two buoys until the horn went. Some girls were already cheating by moving ahead of them. The horn went and we were off, I started off well, getting into the lead pack, the pace was fast but I thought it would die off a little after the first length. As we went onto the second length, we had already caught up some of the stragglers of the age group before us who went five minutes ahead of us. Some were getting in the way and as I went round the buoy, I had gotten caught between a pack of them, they were slow and I resorted to breastroke. This annoyed me slightly as the group I was with moved ahead of me leaving me on my own. There were about 4 or 5 in that group and I needed to catch them. Along the way on the next two lengths, I caught up plenty of other swimmers , even lapping some from my age group. This had it advantages, keeping my head strong and giving me confidence but slowed me down when I had to swim through them, this pulled me further away from that lead group, although I did keep them in my sights. I left the water in 6 th position, with a large group of the other age groupers (I could tell by the colour of their hats). The run to the transition area was long and I was worried about getting the sand off my feet although this did not worry me then. Straight into transition, helmet on, shoes on and bike off the railings, out onto the bike course. The bike leg began with a hill, steady and not too steep but you knew it was there! I passed a few people on the way up and then onto the flat and myself a Canadian in my age and an American were battling it out. First the American would pass me, I’d pass her, the Canadian would give it a go, then I pull up and past. This went on for several miles, until we met the hill that would lead to a downhill and a dead turn ready for the hill again on the way home. I decided to push it hard, to get rid of them once and for all, I did, I didn’t see them until the run. On the way home, I’d caught another girl in my age group she wasn’t wearing a country kit so I didn’t know where she was from. We pushed each other all the way, first me in the lead then her, I thought I had lost her until she passed me again on the hill that meant we were nearly home, I couldn’t have this and overtook her on the down hill. Coming back from the bike I was in fourth place, I good position to be in. I had drank half of my water bottle and half of my electrolyte drink – was this enough?
Going into the run I felt pretty strong but my game plan was to take it steady for the first half and then push on the second. I did the first 5k in 21minutes, I felt strong and I drank my bottle of drink. Because I had this I didn’t touch any of the water or Gatorade on the way round, this would be my downfall. Going into the second 5k and all of a sudden I felt awful, my energy had been sapped, I felt like lead I couldn’t move, it was such a struggle to get round, my mind had gone and everyone was passing me. I tried to hold on but just didn’t have it in me. It was torture, the heat was really taking its toll now. I drank water from every station but it didn’t seem to help. On the last station I grabbed a Gatorade, this picked me up, I felt like I had legs again and picked up the pace slightly. Only to go onto a third lap and not realizing that I had actually passed the turn off for the finish. Once I’d realized I kept asking the spectators where the finish was. They asked me repeatedly how many laps I’d done, ‘two, I’ve done two’ I was yelling and getting slightly frustrated. I turned back on myself and could see that in actual fact I had passed the finish but on the wrong road. I needed to find the entrance into the finish area, but it was all partitioned off, I couldn’t see where I needed to go, or couldn’t understand it so I jumped the barrier and eventually finished!!! The medic rushed to me and asked me how I felt, my reply ‘hot, very hot’. He threw a bottle of ice-cold water over me and shoved one in my hand to drink. I downed three bottles of water in less than five minutes!
I had seen Rocky on the way round and knew that he would roughly know when I should be coming in to the finish. I looked around for him thinking he’d be there, minutes went by and still no sign. After about twenty minutes I decided to go look for him, it suddenly dawned on me that he could be waiting for me to go down the final stretch. I caught sight of him with a look of grave concern on his face, he obviously thought that something had happened to me and was actually on his way to the medical tent!!
I was actually very lucky as a few of my team mates had collapsed and one in particular, my team leader was in the medical tent on a drip, she was later sent to hospital but returned soon afterwards.
Overall, this was a great experience, which I will treasure and be able to keep with me forever, as a nice kind tramp said to me ‘no-one can take this day away from you.’ There were many triathlon teams from Great Britain there, Bath Amphibians had a good turn out with six of them qualifying and competing, this meant that they had a lot of camaraderie amongst them. The next one is in Luasanne, Switzerland and it would be great to try and get more of our team members out for that. However, if you would prefer any of the other locations, perhaps one of these could be your aims for the following years:
2006 – Luasanne
2007 – Hamburg, Germany
2008 – Vancouver, Canada
2009 – Gold Coast, Australia
2010 – Salford, Great Britain