{"id":1891,"date":"2015-10-25T15:31:13","date_gmt":"2015-10-25T04:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/?p=1891"},"modified":"2015-11-07T15:09:38","modified_gmt":"2015-11-07T04:09:38","slug":"this-time-the-island-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/this-time-the-island-won\/","title":{"rendered":"This time the Island won"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apologies for this race report taking a while to get to you. As you probably guessed, I\u2019ve needed a little bit of time to let the dust settle, return home to Australia and have a chance to get some perspective on what was a very disappointing outing for me at the World Championships in Kona. The short version is\u2026 the race didn\u2019t go according to plan. As always, there are no excuses, just lessons learned. And this time around they were definitely learned the hard way.<\/p>\n

Pre-race at Kona<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had a very busy week leading up to the World Champs – sponsor stuff with Giant, including launching the new bike, some work with Newton Running and of course some light training to keep the body moving. As far as that was concerned, it was a matter of doing a little bit of something every day. My prep in the week before the race was pretty similar to last year, just with heaps more commitments. Fortunately, I was able to bring a team to assist where needed and keep me grounded.<\/p>\n

Overall though, that pre-race lead-up wasn\u2019t as relaxed as last year. I thought it would be easier second time around, but actually I felt more pressure rather than less. I felt like I was in a good headspace, but the night before the race I slept really badly – something I haven\u2019t done for a long time. That probably gave a better indication of where my head was at.<\/p>\n

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Race Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny, race morning is a bit of a blur. Your alarm goes off, you get up, have breakfast, get your stuff together, warm up and next minute you\u2019re in that warm Hawaiian water. The cannon goes off and you\u2019re racing. I\u2019m not going to go into too much detail, but I had a great swim. I stayed with the front group, did much better than last year and actually felt pretty comfy in the water. That\u2019s a big shift from Kona 2014.<\/p>\n

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I got out of the water and onto the bike and the pace was on right from the start. The speed got quicker and quicker as the group got smaller and smaller. I knew it was going to be like that with Jan (Frodeno) and Kienle (Sebastian Kienle) in the group. I thought, I\u2019m going to stay with this group as long as possible, because this is going to be where the winner comes from.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, I stayed with them for 140km. When I got dropped, there were 12 of us. At that point my back and hip were caning and I couldn\u2019t keep pushing the power. I lost 8 minutes in 40 km and I knew that my chances for a podium or top 5 finish were gone. At that stage I still thought I might still be able to sneak into the top 10.<\/p>\n

But, as soon as I started the run I knew I was in trouble and there was nothing I could do about it. I wasn\u2019t right in the stomach and I was all over the place. That was game over for me. Except, I still had 40km to run.<\/p>\n

Keeping on keeping on<\/strong><\/p>\n

Someone asked me the other day why I decided to finish the race. Given the challenges, why didn\u2019t I just cruise into T2 and call it a day. The short answer is, because I think it\u2019s a big deal. This was the race I had been working towards all year\u2026 I had to finish it. And I reckon if you start to DNF at Kona you can get into a bad habit.<\/p>\n

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I thought about it as I was finishing the run – it\u2019s happened to all the greats, Macca, Jacobs, Raelert. They\u2019ve all had slower, crappy races before they\u2019ve cracked it at Kona. I reckon it\u2019s part of your apprenticeship for the world\u2019s toughest race. Everyone has gone there and had good days and everyone (apart from Crowie!) has gone there and had bad days. It was the hottest day in 9 years, the conditions were brutal and pros were dropping out all over the place. That\u2019s not an excuse for a poor result though, it\u2019s just the way it was.<\/p>\n

So why finish? For me, it\u2019s a mental thing. I\u2019m not doing it for anyone else – it\u2019s not about other people\u2019s expectations of me. It\u2019s about my expectations of myself. On that mental checklist I want to be able to say\u2026 well, I still haven\u2019t DNFed at Kona.<\/p>\n

Lessons learned<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the plus side I learned some valuable lessons from Kona 2015. Here\u2019s a quick rundown:<\/p>\n