Race day recap

I figured I better put this together while it is still fresh in my mind.
I slept very well on race night and was relaxed.
Brian, my coach, and I got up at 3:30am.
We got things ready and headed down to the Hotel Resatarunt for a bagel.
We just sat in the lobby area overlooking the dark ocean and relaxing for about 45 minutes.
Brian drove me down close to the start and dropped me off with my gear.
I went into the Bike area, checked my tire pressure, and prepared my gear for transition.
I met Brian and my parents just outside of the athlete area and sat on some stairs for nearly an hour and half, waiting and relaxing. It was very calm and I stayed relaxed as I prepared mentally.
As 7:00am approached, I made my way back into the athlete area with my swim cap and goggles. I went down onto the beach and stayed at the very back waiting for all of the other athletes to get into the water. It was about 6:58 when I decided to start my swim towards the start line. I was just about to the massive pack of athletes when the canon went off. Perfect timing.
I was very relaxed on the swim and never had any panic issues, I passed a lot of swimmers as I made my way to the half way marker, which I passed at about 43:00. After I rounded the halfway mark, I decided to step it up, but I was also now by myself. The problem with this is that I'm not a very good spotter, so I wound up off course on 3 different occasions. Fairly sure I put in about 2.6 miles instead of 2.4 :-) Funny stuff.
As I approached shore, I stretched my calves out in the water a few times and that worked out very well. I exited on the stairs and came up the stairs very slow to make sure I had no cramping.
Made my way through the showers and grabbed my Bike bag. Made my way into the change tent and got my bike clothes on quickly. Unfortunately, I had to use the port a potty real quick. Glad they have these in the change tent. I ran out and around the perimeter and made my way to my bike. Helmet and sunglasses on and run it out of T1. Mounted up and on my way.
The bike started out kind of interesting. We headed actually went through some city streets and made some sharp turns, putting in around 6 to 8 miles before making our way onto the Queen K for our main ride.
This is it, on the Queen K highway headed towards Hawi. Ride started out real well. Nice little tail wind and my average speed was higher that expected at this point. I was very thirsty after spending an hour and 33 minutes in the sea water. I quickly went through my 48oz of Perform within the first 10 miles, which luckily is where the first aid station is. I grabbed a Perform and a bottle of water. Both 20oz. I continued to get at least 1 and sometimes 2 bottles of fluid from each aid station, which was every 5 miles. Doing some quick math, I estimate I took in more than 5 gallons of fluid on this 112 mile bike ride with no potty breaks. You think it was hot? In addition to the fluids, I also took in 1 gel at every other aid station for additional calories needed for the ride.
The ride out the Queen K went fairly well, but I knew what I was in for. That last 20 miles to Hawi are intense to say the least. With head and cross winds gusting to 60mph, this 20 mile stretch breaks even the heartiest of bike riders. I buckled down and held on. The winds were as expected and there were times I thought I might wreck because the cross winds were so strong. There were times I peddled hard down a hill and topped 11mph. I knew once I got to the top and made the turn, that it was a quick ride back down. Still scary with the cross winds, but much easier.
I finally crested the mother of Kona kills and made my way into Hawi for the turn. It was the greatest feeling to make that turn I've seen on TV so many times and start my decent back into town. 20 miles later, I was back on the Queen K and had managed to not get blown off the road.
So, now that I'm back on the Queen K and headed back to town, I really expected the ride to be much easier. What I hadn't planned on was the surface temperatures rising to over 120 degrees. It was like riding through and oven. You could feel the heat radiating from the lava surrounding you. I tried to stay in aero and continued to stay hydrated. My only real problem came from my feet actually swelling from the heat and feeling like I crammed them into shoes that were 2 sizes too small. Toes hurt and feet felt like they were on fire.
All things considered, I had a great ride. No real pain anywhere other than feet and I stayed well hydrated.
I made my way into T2 with about a 6:51 bike time. Not as fast as I wanted, but still within my planned window.
T2 went well with 2 exceptions. I had to pee again (This is good though) and I lost my bib number on the bike ride. I had a second bib in my run bag, but didn't notice I was missing mine until after they took the bag from me. They had to go chase it down and bring it back and then I had to pin the bib number to my run belt. May have lost 2 or 3 minutes here in transition.
Off to do a marathon after being out for about 8 hours and 45 minutes. Woohoo.
I head out of T2 in full stride feeling great. Big smile and energized.
Honestly, the run is not as bad as they make it look on TV. At least in my time range. This is because the first 7 miles takes place on Alii drive and at this time of the day, Alii drive is mostly shaded. It was very nice. Then there is this "killer" hill on Palini Drive to climb to the Queen K. Okay, it's a steep hill, but it's only 3 blocks long. You can walk this bad boy in less than 5 minutes. I ran it, slowly. Now, onec you're on the Queen K, this is where you see desert and lava rock for the run. Well, for me, the sun was just about down, so the temperatures were actually kind of nice and by the time I got to the dreaded Energy Lab, the sun had been down for at least 30 minutes and I could barely see. It was pitch black. They handed out these glow bands, but even those were hard to see. I should mention I was lucky enough to meet up with 2 great people about 7 miles into the run and we ran the next 19 miles together. It was great and probably helped me a lot in my pace. The run went fairly good. I continued to stay hydrated at every aid station, which in turn meant I had to stop 3 times at port a potties, but thats better than getting dehydrated.
Now, here's that part that "Sucks". We head down the Queen K to Palini dr and turn onto Palini, we go down 2 blocks and hang a left. The problem, we can see the finish line and heat Mike Riley announcing just a block away, yet we have a little more than a mile still to go. I guess it really isn;t that big of a problem, because your adreneline starts to kick in and you begin to get pulled to the finish line. We make another turn towards Alii, go one block, and then another turn onto Alii. Can't see the finish because Alii curves a little, but you can here the crowd. It's intense. Here it is, the dream, the climax, the end of the worlds greatest single day endurance event. I'm probably less than a minnute from the finish line at this point. I'm fairly sure I'm smiling so big that the edges of my mouth are now touching my ear lobes. My feet are moving so fast I'm not sure my body can keep up. I'm sprinting towards the finish line like I'm Craig Alexander with Macca 3 feet behind me, chasing me down. I run up the carpeted ramp as I hear Mike Riley announce my name followed by "You are an Ironman". It was absolutely amazing. Here I am, at the Ironman World Championships fulfilling a life long dream.
Next to my wedding and the birth of my children, this is the greatest moment in my life. This is a day I will never forget and I'm fairly sure, I'll never be able to top.

After finishing in 13:21:21, I went back to the hotel, grabbed a shower and got changed into some clothes that smelled a lot better, and went back down to the finsih line to cheer on the other finishers. How great it was to bring it the very last person with less than a minute left on the clock. 79 people did not finish the race and 1849 started the race. Kyle did not finish. He took 20 minutes off his swim, but the medical team had to pull him during the bike because of low blood pressure. Kyle is fine and will hopefully be back to fulfill his dream.

There is a lot more to write about my week here, so keep coming back if you want to hear more about my time out here in Kona...