Nick Brown

First Off - Special Thanks to Marty, Linda, Dave and Lalita. I’m so glad you were all in Hawaii with me.

So I know this is very late. Let me try to offer up an excuse. I missed my second week of graduate school to race at Hawaii and PAID FOR IT when I returned. Life wasn’t much more then eating, sleeping, and scholarly deadlines.

On the plane home from Hawaii, I pecked in these notes. If you want to know what I thought about the race, try to decipher what is below.

Getting to Kona was what makes 2009 a success. I’ve cut my teeth and next year I want to be competitive. I’ve already mentally moved on to 2010 so I don’t feel like cleaning this up.

Congrats to my Breakaway Training friends who Kicked Ass at Clearwater Today!

POST RACE NOTES

Pre

Triathletes on the plane. Nick from Specialized. Tuesday run (bad), Wednesday ride (good) . Thursday off. Southern point Friday morning. Navy. Dave and Lalita. Andy Potts, Carl Cringle. Underpants run. Interviewed. Bike and gear bag check in. Finish Line.

Race morning.

Granola. Navy Parachute Team. National Anthem.

Swim.

Speedzoot. Green Sweedes. One piece Zoot below. Aggressive. Not in the first few seconds, but definitely in the first 400 meters. Pack swimming for the whole thing. Chicks are the worst. Got dunked - whished flat wheels and cramps on him. Leg cramps. Currents (Started left, pushed right up against the buoys before I expected. Pushed inside buoys on way back). Felt really good after feeling bad from 65% to 100%. Caps in the water.

Bike. LOTS OF AGE GROUPERS IN FRONT OF ME. Solid line of cyclists on Queen K. Way out wind was negligible, let average wattage creep upwards of 216ish. Calmed down by Captain (sel) Jones. Not to hot at first. High speed kept spirits up into climb at Hawi. Wind increased during the climb but wasn’t too bad. Getting hotter. Special needs after turn around. FAST decent. Buffeted by the increasing wind. Back on Queen K. WIND and HEAT. Flags at top of climb. Average wattage dropped, but continued to make passes and bridge BIG gaps alone. Good aero position. Comfortable. Got better at airport. It was there I realized how taxing the course had been.

Run. Hurt from the beginning. Walking and running, but still took some time to run slow. Lots of pain in entire lower body. Kept spirits up on Ali’i drive. Out on the Queen K - stomach turned against me. Porta-poty. Carnage. Running aid station to aid station proved difficult, at times resorted to walking. Captain (sel) Jones. Focused on just getting to Energy Lab. Energy Lab: Small hill! But so painful! Not so much hill and heat, but location on the course. Miles 16 to 20 are tough enough without the added challenge. Back on the Queen K my difficulties continued and I lost site of a sub-10 hour finish. HOT! At one point running two cones walking one cone. So happy to make it back to town. Ran last mile (everybody is a hero for the last mile!).

What happened? Not enough recovery? Nutrition? Head not in the game? Pacing? (thought my numbers were good?) Elements? (strong possibility). I didn’t respect how easy I had to go to perform in the heat.

Need to figure out the Nausea thing.

Post.

Nausea continued until next morning. Worthless until awards ceremony. Chrissy Wellington. Great speech. Crowie - Classy character. Great to meet them both, if only for an instant. Props to Andy Potts for sticking out a tough race.

HARDEST IRONMAN yet. Not satisfied with finish time, but glad I stuck it out. Still only about 45 minutes off what I thought I was capable of (8%?) Finished in top 50 AG. Icing on the cake for the year. Cut my teeth. Have some business to finish on the big island next year. Want to race cut and lean at 160 lbs and finish in under 9:30. Will be my focus all year. Race IM St. George,- registering for a late year IM only if necessary.

Month off. Then it’s time to get settled in and get some work done.