Kona Blog Post #3

This week in Kona has gone by in a paradise infused blur.  I was able to put in the last bit of my training here on the Big Island before pulling the pin earlier in the week.  The remainder of my days have been spent relaxing with short, sharp training sessions in the morning followed by coffee and catching up with friends. 

I was thinking today while I was swimming in the ocean what this race means to me.  I first came to notice this race when I was still in high school.  I remember watching Dave Scott and a Navy SEAL by the name of Chuck Newman battling it out on ABC's Wide World of Sports in one of the earliest Hawaii Ironmans.  I was instantly captivated by the event.  Ironman was always a sport I thought I would love to do.  I remember having pictures cut out of a Sports Illustrated magazine of Dave Scott, Mark Allen and a few others and having them taped in my navy locker while I was still a teenager.  The story on how I went from being a youth with these guys as my heroes to not even doing an ironman until I was 37 years old is a story to be told on a different day, but this morning I was thinking about how strange it is that I would admire those dudes from afar so long ago and now here I am getting ready to roll in my sixth Hawaii Ironman.  I am a big believer in the saying that if you can dream it you can do it. 

I was asked this morning by a friend on Facebook if I was nervous.  Nervous isn’t the word, but it is a word close to that.  Right now I am not sure what that word would be.  It is a mix of fear, anxiety, anticipation, excitement and a feeling of triumph. 

I think anyone who doesn’t experience a little tinge of fear coming into this race doesn’t know what is coming.  I respect this course and the difficulty of the day to come.  I fear the potential  what if’s out there.  What if I get a broken nose from an unlucky heel strike in the swim?  Broken orbital bone?  Broken goggles?  What if I get a front tire flat coming down off Hawi at high speed?  My response is-what if my sister had balls?  Well, she’d be my brother!  So I can intellectually move through the fear component.

I feel a bit of anxiety.  I think this is very normal for all triathletes coming into a big race.  We just want things to go smoothly and get it rolling.  I go to a “flat mind” and I can handle that one as well.  Anticipation and excitement are the emotions I am feeling the most intensely.  I am ready to roll and want to get in the water and hear the cannon go off.  I spoke a little in my first Kona blog this year on the triumph part.  I am literally just glad to be here.

Having done this race 5 times before, I know that this race cracks you wide open at some point and you get to look at a part of yourself you rarely get to see.  I have never completed an ironman here where at some point I didn’t genuinely wonder if I was going to finish.  I know there is pain coming.  I know there will be issues out there I will have to deal with in real time, be it mechanical, physical, mental, or all three.  At some point I am going to reach a level of genuine difficulty and get cracked wide open and get a real look deep inside and see what I am made of.   My hope is when I get to that point tomorrow and I have to go inside for a look, I am not disappointed.

There is a lot of chatter about the military boys this year.  This is by far the most talented field of dudes we have brought to the lava.  Cam Loos, Brad Williams and Rob Hilton are all the real deal and I would imagine all three are shooting for a sub nine hour effort.  I had a pro cyclist tell me one time that the first key to your own success is “to know how good you are not” and from that basis you can start building yourself into the athlete you could like to become.  That is where I am.  You will never hear me confused with a sub nine hour guy in Kona.  My PR here is 9:38 or so and I am realistic of my capabilities.  I cheer those younger guys on and I hope they all race out of their skulls and have the day they would like.  For me, it is not necessarily tied to time, but in full disclosure; I would love to go my fastest ever.  This island and the conditions can make this course completely different on any given day.  The wind and the heat one day can make the brutality of the course exponentially harder than a calmer, cooler day that could follow the very next day.  I am not that fussed about the predictions of tomorrow being an extremely difficult day with regard to heat and wind.  I have been able to summon up the toughness and strength to be successful on the brutal days in the past.  I am cautiously and respectfully confident that I will be able to do the same tomorrow. 

The whole race changes for me when I put on a navy race uniform.  I know that I am here to go fast, but I am here, more importantly, to be an ambassador for our service, our presence in the sport, my leadership with the other service members, and to continue to show how we military athletes race with honor and dignity.

So those are my goals for tomorrow- go as big as I can, be ready for what I find inside when it gets painful and hard, and above all- to race with honor and dignity.  You can look forward to me crossing that finish line happy with what I found on my day long journey and look for that sharp salute!

Shaka,
Jonser