Playing Catch Up Part 1: Big Island Surprise

This is one of two race reports that I have been putting off.  Why put them up now?  I'm a little too OCD and these need to be posted prior to me putting up my Ironman write-up.

70.3 Hawaii
I flew over to the Big Island in June to race 70.3 Hawaii.  For those not familiar with the race, it's held about 20 minutes north of downtown Kailua-Kona (where the Ironman World Championship takes place).  The whole reason I signed up for this race was to get a little relaxation on the island before my big build up for Ironman Wisconsin.

Highlights
Swim  33:22
Bike  2:29 (PR)
Run  1:44
Overall  4:51

Coming into the race I was extremely relaxed and had some good friends flying in for the weekend. My body was in good shape, but you never know what is going to happen with the weather out there.

Swim
This is a non-pro race, so I was fortunate to be in the first wave of the non-wetsuit (ugh) swim start.  I say fortunate because this is the first race I actually ended up counting people to know where I stood in the mix.  The water was warm, smooth, and unbelievably clear.  While swimming, you were able to look down about 50 ft and see beautiful reef and marine life.  I came out of the swim feeling pretty fresh and charged up the hill to transition passing a bunch of people along the way.

Who wouldn't want to swim in that?

Bike
I jumped on the bike and immediately got into a comfortable rhythm.  After about 10 miles in there is a turnaround where I was able to see that I was in 30th position overall.  This definitely boosted my spirits as I knew I could make up time from my slower swim.  The bike course follows the norther half of the WC course, so it was cool to know that you're riding where history happens. The bike was really uneventful other than a short downpour on the climb to Hawi.  I didn't realize it at the time, but I put up my fastest bike split of the year on what can be a difficult course.  I rolled into T2 to find very sparse bike racks which was a good sign of things to come.

Showing off the deep V

Run
As I was getting off the bike, the sun had already come out and was baking down on the course. About 8 miles of the run course is on the grass at a nice golf course.  This sounds nice in theory, soft grass, no huge hills; however, the heat and humidity are nearly suffocating when you were on the grass.  I had been told by several people that this would be a tough run and the course didn't disappoint there.  While I never felt dominant on the run, I was able to manage my pace and nutrition. As MJ said, this race was all about "management".

Final trot to the finish line

As I came across the finish line into the chute my buddy commented that there weren't a whole lot of people that had finished before me.  He pulled out his phone and lo and behold I had just earned my first M-dot podium.  I finished 5th in my Age Group which was good enough for 42nd Overall.

Shoes are overrated