Kona Weekend

Chrissie Wellington
2007 Ironman World Champ

Macca - 2007 Mens Champ
Sloppy post race hydration, but he gets a pass.

pics credit: faz.net

Sat. 10-13 B & S
Work in the morn.
Bike 3hrs (3-6p) Potomac rollers.
~68F, noticeable wind from west, ~8-12mph, sunny. Just warm enough to go without long sleeves, knickers. Riding legs okay, not so strong (duh- little biking for nearly a month). Pleased to be out riding tho. It could have been raining with a head wind and uphill all the way and I'd still have been smilin'. Knee cooperating well, merely whispered 'hello' a couple times in last half hr.

Swim 30mins (7-7:30p) drills, 3x100 (~2:08-:10), cool.

Sun. 10-14 R & S
Work in the morn.
Run 1hr20mins, ~10.75mi; Swim 30mins

Ironman ("IM") Hawaii - It was largely a day of new faces. (Top 10 men and women's splits below.)

Internet streaming is perfect for this kind of all day event, and the 6hr time difference works out well - Work or whatever in the morning, tune in for the pro swim finish/bike start around 2pm EST, get outdoors for a few hrs, watch the bike finish/run start for a bit, step away to do whatever, return to watch the leaders over the last hr of the marathon.

Conditions: No cloud cover but not unusually hot or windy, just the standard Hades.
'06 winners Normann and Michellie (Mick-ay-lee) dropped out, illness and injury.
Norm's rival Chris McCormack from Aus won. "Macca" was 2nd last year by 71 secs, here he won by 3mins over fellow Aussie, Craig Alexander who was in his second IM distance race, hist first being a win at IM Australia. Big Torbjorn (thunder bear in danish) Sindballe forged off the front solo on the bike, established a cushion, and held on in the run for 3rd.

Story of the day was Chrissie Wellington, 33, from Great Britain. Last year she raced Hawaii as an AGer. Four weeks ago she won her first IM race at IM Korea. C-Dub took the lead during the bike and ran very well, looking smooth and smiling all the way to a sub 3hr mary even as she lingered over the last half mile to grab a Union Jack from the crowd, high-five spectators, etc. 2nd place went to Samantha McGlone in her first ever IM distance race.

Craig "Crowie" Alexander
Running to a 2nd place finish.
Previously known for his dominance at the Half IM and shorter distances

Thunder Bear crossing in 3rd. Roar!
He was sportin' knee high white compression socks and long white shorts
as a defense to the sun and heat. It's not how you look baby.

WOMEN

Place - finish time - bib# - name, residence - Swim - T1 - Bike - T2 - Run
1 9:08:45 107 Wellington, Chrissie Feltwell GBR 58:09 2:22 5:06:15 2:03 2:59:58
2 9:14:04 5:20 62 McGlone, Samantha Colorado S CO USA 58:07 2:15 5:10:31 2:20 3:00:52
3 9:19:13 10:28 56 Major, Kate Solana Bea CA USA 58:08 2:22 5:10:16 1:54 3:06:35
4 9:26:47 18:02 57 Lawn, Joanna Auckland NZL 58:15 2:09 5:10:18 2:22 3:13:45
5 9:26:55 18:10 104 Preston, Rebecca Buderim AUS 58:08 2:05 5:17:23 2:07 3:07:14
6 9:27:19 18:34 101 Keat, Rebekah Burleigh H AUS 58:13 2:06 5:16:03 2:43 3:08:17
7 9:33:34 24:50 110 Griesbauer, Dede Boston MA USA 53:27 2:10 5:13:06 2:51 3:22:03
8 9:36:10 27:26 116 Cave, Leanda Trowbridge GBR 53:13 2:19 5:13:46 2:32 3:24:22
9 9:37:54 29:10 58 Granger, Belinda Peregian B AUS 58:07 2:20 5:10:18 2:53 3:24:19
10 9:39:47 31:03 118 Csomor, Erika Szazhalomb HUN 1:03:18 2:31 5:29:10 3:25 3:01:25

Tara Norton finished 12th. Tara won the women's race at Savageman 4 weeks ago.
78 year old Sister Madonna Buder, a Hawaii and all around tri legend, just missed the bike cutoff time. She came into the race after recently breaking a toe. She'll be back, plans to be the oldest Kona finisher ever. She's raced Hawaii 20+ times already.

MEN
1 8:15:34 2 McCormack, Chris San Diego CA USA 51:48 2:23 4:37:23 2:00 2:42:02
2 8:19:04 3:30 17 Alexander, Craig Sydney AUS 51:40 1:58 4:38:03 2:12 2:45:13
3 8:21:30 5:56 37 Sindballe, Torbjorn Horsholm DNK 53:25 1:50 4:25:18 3:34 2:57:25
4 8:22:33 6:59 12 DeBoom, Timothy Boulder CO USA 51:39 1:53 4:38:12 2:23 2:48:29
5 8:23:31 7:58 6 Vanhoenacker, Marino Brugge BEL 53:21 1:59 4:32:58 2:15 2:53:00
6 8:25:49 10:15 9 Lieto, Chris Danville CA USA 51:37 2:11 4:28:10 3:37 3:00:16
7 8:26:00 10:26 5 Llanos, Eneko Vitoria-Ga ESP 51:47 2:01 4:38:04 2:25 2:51:43
8 8:30:01 14:27 16 Van Lierde, Luc Brugge BEL 51:42 1:46 4:38:11 2:56 2:55:28
9 8:33:28 17:55 18 Lovato, Michael Boulder CO USA 53:27 1:50 4:41:24 2:46 2:54:03
10 8:35:10 19:37 10 Vernay, Patrick Noumea NCL 53:24 1:59 4:49:10 2:26 2:48:13

Course Records:
1996 Luc Van Lierde (BEL) 8:04:08
1992 Paula Newby-Fraser (ZIM) 8:55:28

Proper post race hydration form.