2009 Ironman World Championship


On October 10th, 2009 I raced the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. As many of you know I can talk triathlon till the end of time and bore you all with endless times, numers, statistic and other geeky tri stuff. This race report is not about how I finished, to me it is about why I finished.


Few years ago before GPS watches, carbon anything, aero helmets and most HR monitors I ran the Chicago Marathon. Since fancy pacing and distance gadgets did not exist I ran around a park that was almost exactly 1 mile around (Portage Park in Chicago). Every Sunday morning I would get out of bed and run 20 times around. These runs plus some running during the week was my training. In 1999 I completed the Chicago Marathon in 3.28.08. In the grandstands that day were my uncle and my dad to watch me finish the race. As I crossed the finish line my dad happeded to look away and never saw me cross the finish line.

Few months later dad and I were channel surfing and we stumbled upon the Ironman broadcast. I talked about how amazing it is to watch these athletes complete the marathon after swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles. Dad however, being raised in communist Poland had little different thoughts on the race. He thought it was a hoax. It was American propaganda, made for TV reality show(way before MTV's Real World). We argued and argued but he refused to believe it.

Unfortunately we never setteld the argument and he never got a chance to watch me finish a marathon as a few months later pancreatic cancer too his life.

It wasn't until a couple of years later and a year into my newly discovered sport of triathlon that I decided to renew the argument with my old man. I decided to try and race Kona once. Knowing that if I completed that race he would have no choice but to believe what he saw on tv that day. I also made a decision to finish that race carrying the shirt from that '99 marathon just so he would not miss me finishing again.

The Race.

I am not going to forge into a detailed account here because to me it is insignificant. If you want to know details you can ask me sometime. The only significance for me was to finish strong with that shirt.

As all Iroman events go the cannon went off at 7 am. I was already a little tired from treading water for 20 minutes but the race was on. As soon as I started to swim I did not feel comfortable, could never find any open water and I was rather passive to the other athletes around me. Had a hell of a time sighting and judging my my swim split of 1.21 I could have not swam in a straight line, at least not freestyle. Honetly, there is not much to talk about here as describing the Ironman swim is about as interesting as swimming 4K straight in a pool while starring at that damn black line for an hour or so.

Out of the water into T1. Smooth and slow through here as usual. Took off my SpeedSuit :), grabbed my sunglasses and race number and jogged out in a record setting 5.34.

Having swam to within an hour of the cut off time, whatever race pressure was there before was now gone. First portion of this bike ride took me through town and was realitevelly easy. Aside from a minor mechanical mishap all was golden. After about 10 miles I hit the fameous Queen K highway. It is a perfectly flat, rolling road. Since I was in 1399th place after the swim I had a good amout of people to pass. Thank god because there is nothing, nothing else on either side of this road aside from endless miles of lava. To keep myself enertained I would occasinaly yell out "Nice ass!" to anyone wearing one those ridiculous white tri suits. Yes I was trying to have an enjouyable Kona experience and not much could ruin it.

Little more than half way we reached the town of Hawi, this is where the bike turn around is at. I was averaging 21.5 miles per hour and was pretty damn happy about it. You see the air temperature was now about 105 degrees with dampening effeect of 85% humidity. However I pretty much convinced myself that the temperature would not bother me at all and while I notched the bike effort down I did not let the quick bake over condtition bother me.

About 75 miles into the ride things started to change a bit. I was still flying at my steady pace that was reduced to about 17 mph, it was up wind, but I was not comfortable anymore. I have sort of gotten bored with passing people and there were still endless miles of lava fields left to ride through. I thought about my wonderful

family. It did not make me feel any better. Sorry. Thought about my dad. That did not work either. Thought about those silly white tri suits. Nothing not even a chuckle. I was drained not so much phisically as I was still riding strong as no one was passing me, but mentally. I thought maybe my old man was right, maybe this is a reality show that is filmed over three days?

Then at about mile 80 I heard a faint clicking sound coming from my front wheel. Click, cick, click..... on and on. As I looked down I notied a small piece of electrical tape stuck to my brand new tire.(see picture, I saved it) WTF, now I have to deal with this! Should I stop, is it worth it? The more i gave it thought the more I became comfortable with the noise, click, click....

Crap after a few miles I learned to enjoy it. This little piece of tape, or Tapie became my new best friend. For the next 25 miles back to town it kept me company. We talked, sang and clicked the miles away together. It was hot ok, I was delirious.

Before I knew it I was back to town in 5 hours and 12 miutes of a solid and steady bike effort. Just like the first bike section I again averaged about 21.5 mph.

In and out of T2 after a quick shoe, sock and sunglasses change. Once again smotth and slow, 4.42 minutes.

Let the death march begin. It was a cool 90 in town. I felt ok, not great but ok. Like the bike ride the first portion of this run is thorough town. 5 miles down and 5 miles back. I was running about a 7.30 pace. And just like the ride I made some quick pacing adjustments. 7.15s were out of the question. 7.30 pace became bearable but my precieved exersion (PE) was high and I would start breahting as if I was at mile 20. Thus I nothched it down to 7.45.

Mile 11 is whre this race really starts. This is the bottom of Palani Road hill before we again hit the Queen K highway and the lava fields. I ran up the hill, I dont like to walk since this is a marathon not a walkathon, in a blistering 8.45 pace! Then it was the longest 5.5 miles strech of barren road to the famous Energy Lab. At about mile 14 I was starting feel like crap again. This time however it was definatelly physical not mental. I ran by aid stations picking up anything they had. Icy cold sponges, ice, water, gels, coke, water and ice. I eat and drink everything besides the sponges, stuffed

ice down my suit and into my arm coolers and trekked on. It freakin' hurt like hell. I saw Chrissie Wellington (woman's champ) running in the opposide direction. Yelled "Hey baby", she smiled back and I thought damn I am getting chicked big time today. Bitch, :) as I smiled back. That got my motor moving a bit.

The Energy Lab was next. Not sure what they do here, I am sure you can Google it but I am pretty sure that those solar panels don't mean that it will be cooler in there that it was on the road. The first mile in there was not all that bad as I was running downhill(faster) and upwind (cooler). The next chunk of the run was fine to, I mean I was jogging and not walking and I was happy with that. However the mile running out was hellish. See now it was up hill(slow) and down wind(hot) and did I mention that the temperature had climbed to 108 and the humidity to 90%. I did make it out however without walking and was now running the home stretch down the Queen K highway toward Kona, Ali'i Drive and the finishing chute. My pace had picked up to a blistering 7.45 again. It was hot, I was tired and sore but I was almost done. At mile 24.75 I was running down Palani hill as I saw a wheel chair athlete strugging to get up the hill. I turned around and ran up the hill with him for about 20-30 years cheering him on. It was an amazing experince for me that put the suffering of the day into prespective. I did not have it tough, he did. As I turned back around I crossed the 25 mile timing mat. In another .5 miles I ran by my friend and race update reporter Russell who promptly handed the marathon T shirt to me. I was now running down Ali'i Dr. whit a huge sunburned grin on my face. I took it all in and loved every step and breath of it. I had done it. I crossed the finishline having won the argument with my dad, with my arms extended into the early evening sky showing him that I can be completed in one day.

I crossed the finish line in 10 hours 9 minutes and 9 seconds after a 3.24 marathon. There I saw Dora and Alex gave them both huge hugs, thanked them both and preocedded to cry for the next few minutes clinching to both of them.

Thank you. All you guys know who you are. This race was not to set a PR, it was not to prove anything, it was simply to put my heart at peace. THANK YOU!

Paul