Hawaii Ironman 2013 preparation and the race

Just another beach by the park

The usual morning exercises in the park. By Jane's agitation we are increasing the repetitions - gotta get those muscles a good workout. Considering the amount of food we haul down every day all those workouts are much needed. Back to the food part - at some point for some reason I volunteered to make pancakes, so everybody was waiting for this morning :) Pancakes with peanut butter, jam and butter... yumm!

Just like every other day - another round at the expo and swim practice in the pool for a bit over an hour. I can really feel the push-ups while swimming :)

As this is a little town there are not many places available for shopping. After inquiring the best place to go, we were suggested this store called ROSS. It is a warehouse type store that at the first sight gives you shivers. Once you look around for a bit you start to get the idea as all the clothes are sorted by type - dresses/shirts/shoes etc. There is no sorting by brand or anything so one just has to go through all the hangers to see what is on there. Just lots of work. The other Estonians are spending hours after hours every other day in the store :) It took us about 2 hours of looking around and our shopping limit was reached. Walked out with 6 dresses, 2 pairs of flip-flops and some shorts :)

Rest of the evening was spent preparing for the race tomorrow - making sandwiches, getting communications working (local SIM card for Internet access on the road) and packing the bags.
Let the race day begin - we are ready!

3 Estonians are racing today

We woke up well before sunrise on the race day. PRO start was at 6:30, made our way to the swim start by 5:30 to get good seats. We got warned about having trouble finding seats if we get there any later than that - we barely made it and fought for our seats by the water. As expected the crowd gathered here for watching the race is quite extensive. They got their chairs ready in the dark, camping out and enjoying their breakfast with morning coffee.

Few minutes before PRO start

Age groupers start was exactly at 7 in the morning. Once they were on their way we rushed to Palani road to see the PRO athletes out of the water. Our schedule is quite tight and it took some time to get all the stops and viewing spots figured out.

Waiting for the first bikers to start the bike course

Next stop was at the middle of the biking course, driving through Waimea to Kawaihae crossing. We were rushing all we could but we missed the first bunch of PRO athletes.

Our cheering stop at Kawaihae crossing

Already at ca 65km of the biking course you could see athletes having trouble with the heat. Meanwhile the age groupers arrived in big packs - giving a lot of cheering opportunities for us. After an hour or so the PRO's started returning and then the age groupers as well. On the way back it was 130km mark, every once in a while we'd see some athlete walking by who has quit the race. Once all the Estonians have passed the second time we move on.

Waiting for Indrek (either one)

Next we rushed to Palani road to see the running course. Oh the heat is getting bad, it is difficult to even just stand around by the road. At the refreshment points the athletes try to gather as much ice as possible to cool themselves down. Ice goes everywhere - inside the suit, pants and on top of the head under the cap. Apparently this time the weather is cooler than usual, the sun is not blazing and it is cloudy. I could not imagine what it would be like if the sun would be out.

Marko is nicely moving towards Energy Lab

Many athletes are walking, many have cramps, many have foggy eyes, many are struggling. We are so relieved to see all the Estonians moving on nicely. Indrek T just keeps smiling and waving at every spot we see him.

Indrek K running towards Energy Lab

It is difficult to get updates when standing by the road. Local SIM card helped only up to the point while my phone battery lasted. Once the athletes were running there were no more updates for us.

Indrek T coming from refreshment area

I bought many Estonian flags with me, it was agreed that I'd find a spot to hand them out before the finish line. What a great fun it was to cheer all the finishers on and spotting the Estonians passing by. Later we found out that they were all doing a nice dance at the finish line :) What a relief to see Marko and both Indrek's happily finishing the race!

Here are race day photos taken by Aho - Google+
Finish line videos Ironman Kona Live (Marko at 25:45, Indrek T at 1:38:04 and Indrek K at 1:54:02)
More photos here: Variety of images - GoPro Ironman World Championships

All in all the day was very tiring, in the evening my legs were hurting, back was hurting. Tried to get enough water in during the day to avoid the head ache from the sun, I guess managed good with that. Got home dead tired and fell asleep around 9 in the evening already. No energy to go to town for seeing the last finishers.