JH on a hot day

Well another one down…on a v hot day but mild wind to usual standards…no cloud cover this year which always stops people in their tracks and plays havoc with their nutrition.

With my race I established very early that there wasn,t much in the tank after my food poisoning..my tum wasn,t rite even before the race and even during the swim...

i decided to start on the left side this year which made for the nicest swim I,ve ever had,hmm maybe too nice,I guess I didn,t get too much drag effect as I stayed way left to avoid people,I just wasn,t in the mood for getting clobbered….coming out in 1:18 which is the slowest ironman swim in my life didn,t make me feel too great,especially when I learnt others times were fairly normal…not a good start.

Onto the bike and it seemed that all I did was see girls or over 55,s lol..wow makes u realise how important it is for the best race to have someone to work with….so a lonely day there but by half way I,d caught up people my level..on the brighter side the wind wasn,t too bad.energywise I just felt flat but tum felt pregnant..just didn,t feel rite but wanted to see it through

Onto the run and boy its hot running with the wind behind u,I,d caught firthy in the transition who got out the swim 11 mins before me I think,at last someone I knew which is really unusual….well my tum wasn,t handling it and after 7 no2 toilet stops and somehow putting 1 foot in front of the other I got home a wreck..

bloody hell that hurt,it was pure survival for me which doesn,t happen too often thankfully,but those of u who do ironman will understand that everything must be rite or the run turns ugly..its a cruel sport in that regard….

i,ve ran this race sick twice before,oh how u forget so easily,it all came back as I thought of anything to get home…I was even trying to think about lance armstrongs cancer victims that I,d been watching recently..phew what a nightmare of a day !!!.....

i ended up 10:31 I think,doesn,t actually sound too bad,but on a day where all records were broken it was a chance of an easy hawaii day missed for me…that’s ironman!!!...but as I always say,its not just the race it’s the journey !!

As far as others are concerned I saw tesse a few times,she finished and got the demons out yayyyyy…I havn,t had a chance to talk to her yet but I suspect the heat played havoc with her nutrition as it did most people,

I saw steff somewhere on the run and teresa was catching me fast on the run..ot

oh…..i,ve been helping macca with his nutrition and understand he had some probs on the bike,again I suspect a few things there in the heat but sounds like he got it together on the run,I missed him running home as I was running up the queen k coz poo stop number god knows what….i bring this up because those that think nutrition in the heat is simple its not,its got to be exact but at the same time u need to adjust on how your feeling within the basic principles of your calorie/fluid reqts…this is not easy and takes experience,that’s why it takes people a while to win hawaii,

I think macca was 6th with the quickest run, I hope that’s given him the confidence to keep refining his nutrition system…and same goes to anyone in my group,with sloppy nutrition u have no energy and it becomes a nightmare.

On a different note thursday ironman officially announced powerbar would be covering the nutrition for every race around the world,I guess they paid for it but have the dollars to do it…I,m meeting dallas today to discuss the drinks situation in oz as powerbar don’t have one globally in the shops “yet”….

i,ve known about this for over a year….so its good and bad for me in a way,good because the cost of sponsoring these races without help from high5 just puts me in the red every year,but I never intended to do it for ever,just to get high5 name out there then self support which hopefully this has been achieved….but bad because sales will drop altho I don’t think too much with gels and bars.plus theres a few great anti cramp h5 drinks out now and most people only buy the month before ironman anyway…..just thought I,d share that with u as its on the ironmanlive website.

I,ll be back late wednesday,with a crazy weekend ahead of looking after the bicycle show at homebush and port maqurie half…hope your all well

john