My Road Back to Kona: On Deck for 2010

When I raced at the Ironman World Championship in Kona in 2002, I suffered like a dog. I left with no immediate desire to come back.

Just a few weeks prior to the race, I had broken the 9-hour mark in an Ironman for the first time at the inaugural Blue Devil Triathlon in Durham, NC.  I put everything I had into that race and it left my physically, mentally and emotionally drained.  At the time, Kona was a simply line item on my bucket list.  Something I wanted to do just so I could “check the box” and say that I had race at Kona.  My motivation was low and my body, after coming off my euphoric high at the Blue Devil, felt broken and spent.

For the first time in the race’s history, it had rained that morning in Kona.  When the sun came out later that morning, the black lava radiated heat and the course turned into a steam bath.  I felt my brain being cooked.  I finished in a respectable time just under 10:30 that day but I felt shattered and it would take me several months to bounce back and regain my excitement for triathlon again.

Now, as I sit here looking out at a golf course and the mountains at Waikoloa Beach Resort on Kona enjoying the warm weather and clear ocean, I feel the itch to race in Kona again.

My plan is to qualify at a late season Ironman in 2010 to race at Kona in 2011 with the goal to line up next to Lance Armstrong (assuming races) on the starting line.

In the meantime, here’s my schedule for 2010:

My two “A” races for the year will be Vineman and Ironman Arizona. I would also like to do really well at the new Rev3 Cedar Point (Ironman-distance), but since it’s only 5 weeks after Vineman, I need to take that into consideration.  All of my early races are designed to get me ready for Vineman….with the exception of the Death Race, which I’m doing for fun.

Truthfully, I’m not taking a direct path to qualifying as I’m doing mostly non-qualifying races plus I’m putting all my eggs in one basket.  I’m also taking a risk by choosing a late season race to qualify.  The challenge will be to pace myself and not burnout by October.  Since I’m self-employed, I do have the advantage of doing my bike rides in the middle of the day in October and November so fewer hours of daylight is not an issue.

At the end of the day, I want to experience something new. I want to take my body and my mind to a whole new level.  At the end of the day, qualifying for Kona or breaking the Vineman course record, really don’t matter; what matters is that I strive for the seemingly impossible and experience the journey along the way.

Live life richly and boldly!

David

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David B. Glover
Triathlon Coach and Writer
Author of Full Time and Sub-Nine: Fitting Iron Distance Training into Every Day Life

© 2009 David B. Glover