I left Hawaii last week with a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth, and it wasn't the chocolate coated Macadamia nuts! It had been an amazing adventure and a life changing experience, full of tension, stress, excitement, elation and massive doses of endorphins. I had finished the race, got that coveted t-shirt and medal (and a photo or 10) but was I satisfied?

As you fly into Kona, you see the deep blues of the ocean and then the black of the lava fields and the Queen K highway snaking through them. When you embark from the plane down the stairs onto the tarmac, you are hit with a sun that has limited rivals in its strength and the famed winds of the western coast of the island of Hawaii. This is a reminder that preparation is only a part of how your day will go.

The race build up was huge. As the construction on the finishing chute started and the scaffolding went up, so did the pre-race nerves. Kona was buzzing on more than the coffee, speaking of which the best place to go is Island Lava Java (which also happened to be where I met up with Peter Reid). The expo is worth checking out especially just to sit under a coconut palm, drinking free Gatorade and listening to the likes of Mark Allen talk about the race, training and nutrition. Oh, and some of the freebies are pretty decent as well.

At dawn each day, there was a large gathering at the swim start for a good paddle out towards the turnaround buoys. The waters were rough and cloudy as there were decent swells and strong currents. The earthquake on the Sunday before the race had stirred the sea floor up as well.

There are plenty of signs out on the roads saying beware of Ironman athletes training. You never forget where you are. Training rides and runs out on the Queen K are a crowded affair, which means its all quite safe as the traffic races past. They know you are there.

I made my trip out to the lava and left an offering to Pele. I hope she likes rum! I also remembered to not take home any lava.

The night before the race was quiet. Sleep got hold of me early, but at about 2am I was awake but luckily I had my ipod close at hand. I stayed like this until 4am when it was time to get ready and head down to registration and body marking.

There is a scale of things at Kona that must be almost impossible to beat anywhere else. There were 1,700 athletes, thousands of volunteers and even more thousands of supporters. In amongst all of this, trying to keep a small circle of calm is hard but not impossible.

Dawn broke, tires were pumped, swimsuits were on and the waters beckoned….. 6:45am saw the pro field star, 7am was our turn.

The cannon went off and it was the human washing machine. The swim was glorious, water that was clean and quite clear by now and for the first time all week I got a view of the top of the volcano, peering out through the clouds with the rising sun behind it. Perhaps this was a little reminder as to who is really in charge here in Hawaii...

It was a bun fight at some points, and I avoided most contact by giving way to those that had no real etiquette in the water. After all, this was Hawaii and it did not seem necessary to get kicked in the head in the swim... I was going for that finisher's shirt.

Getting to the half way turn was a great feeling and I made it there in just on 30 minutes, but I had heard about and had felt the currents on the way back and so it was bound to be a little slower heading back into shore. It was, but it still felt great to be able to get some clear water and really stretch it out. I felt that my swimming had finally come good and what a place for it to do so. No dolphins or Mano (sharks) sighted on the swim, but a lot of reef fish.

Transition was fast and furious, although it was not so fast for me as I wanted to make sure that I had everything. Sunscreen, shoes (those damn bike shoes!), gels, bars, vaseline... Oh no, I forgot the vaseline!

Out on the bike course the day turned into a real race. There was a lot of bike traffic and the course initially has hills and bends around Kona. On some of the hills we had the Europeans and their cow bells and megaphones... A dose of hilarity. Oompah! Oompah! sounds so funny yet motivating in a strange way when you have this blasting at you from a guy on the side of the hill with a megaphone!

Once we left town, it was nose down and straight into the winds on the Queen K on the run up to the bottom of the hill to Hawi. The headwinds were pretty decent, not awful but enough to be felt. The occasional cross wind made for some angular riding at certain points. The weather favored us as there was good cloud cover which stopped the sun from burning down on the lava fields and cooking us all.

My feet started playing up before the big climb, and as it turns out my saddle was a little low on the bike. It was not to be a good run on the bike. I have had the 'hot feet' problem before but this time it went up to 11 (if this means nothing to you, then please watch 'Spinal Tap').

As I was climbing up to Hawi, the pros came past in a blur. Then the female pros and then the top men age-groupers. I was struggling, but not yet going backwards. Ah, the medical van which had vaseline... The Europeans had hired school buses and were out here as well..
Oompah, oompah!

After the Hawi turn-around, it was downhill for a bit which provided some relief but the foot problem and the dwindling strength issue were starting to dominate the day for me. Four weeks out from Kona I nearly went to hospital due to food poisoning after a business function. The second bout of this in two weeks!! The strength that this took out of me was amazing, plus losing over two weeks of training, and we did not have enough time to gain this back if I was to have a taper ahead of Hawaii. That is as it is and decided the way the bike was going to go for me. Go for the shirt...

So the bike was going from bad to worse, but there was that finisher's shirt still to get. I was being passed by quite a few people and we all had been marked with our ages on our left calf in the morning. This did not help my confidence as men in their 50's and 60's started to take me out! Oh well, get the t-shirt....

I nursed my feet back to transition and sat down to regroup and take some of the pressure off. This was not a fast transition, but after cooling down with an ice-cold towel and drying off a bit it was time to start the long march. It is an interesting mental conversation that takes place when you have just done 180k on a bike at a decent speed and still have a marathon to run!

The run loops around Kona town and then out on Ali'i Drive heading south before turning back to wards town and then taking us once more out on the Queen K to the Natural Energy Lab. The run actually became quite uneventful. It was not pretty, but I kept a steady pace. At the halfway point I saw a friend coming back into town, who had done an amazing bike leg but was suffering with an internal collapse - he ended up being watched in hospital overnight. He was going for the t-shirt... Richard collected his t-shirt...

It was dark coming out of the NEL and we were given glow sticks to run with, and the aid stations were flogging chicken soup by now. There was rain at this point as well that helped to cool things down a bit, but I was not having heat issues luckily. As the hills started rolling back towards Kona, the lights of the finish were bouncing off the clouds and the target was in sight. There was no walking except to get enough fluid. The pace stayed steady and it was a marathon that was run from start to end. I was happy about this after the bike.

The run course takes you back into Kona town, looping past the finish then drops you down a hill onto Ali’i Drive. The last mile is not a run, rather it is an experience. I think I flew. There are crowds urging you on, clapping, yelling... Even the cow bells were there.

I held back to let the person I was running with go over the line first and get her photo and announcement and emotional wave. I wanted my little solo appearance as well! Gin got her t-shirt...

The last 100m or so is a chute that is lined with noisy supporters, lots of lights and music. The finish line was a ramp this year and having thought of a million different ways I was going to go over the line, I actually forgot all of them. Anyway, the floor was too messy to kiss! In the end I marched across with a shout and a feeling that nobody will be able to take from me. Like my finisher's t-shirt..... I got the shirt!

After finishing I caught up with another friend who had cracked through 10 hours, probably the fastest man in Asia at the moment and at the top end of his age group globally on his finishing time. What an amazing result. Mark got his t-shirt as well!

On the way to the airport, I instructed the taxi to take me out to the lava fields where I left my lei of flowers we got at the finish line on a small pile of lava rocks for Pele. I asked her if she'd have me back...

“Christopher Day, you are an Ironman”

I will hear that again on Ali'i Drive as I have some unfinished business to deal with....

Chris Day