Journey to Kona Day 239: 10 Days to Kona & IMNZ #5

I started the "Legacy Program" journey in 2014.  With 10 days to go, I'm reflecting on Ironman New Zealand, in 2014.  It was the first of three Ironman races I did that year.  In many ways it turned out to be my most successful year doing Ironman.  Since IMNZ was in March, and I had a solid result, I started the year with a pretty good "All World Athlete" ranking.  But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Looking back on 2014 is a great mental exercise with 10 days left.  I leave for Kona in three days, and while I'm excited, I have achieved some semblance of understanding the importance of living in the moment, so I just want to enjoy each day as it comes.

If you'd like to read my full race report, here it is: http://wassdoc.blogspot.com/2014/03/ironman-new-zealand-giving-it.html.  Since New Zealand was my 5th Ironman, I felt that I should be able to utilize everything that I'd learned in my first four.  My swim was the first indication that I'd done that, coming out of the water in what is still my Ironman swim PR (without a current, of course), 1:08:55.  The most remarkable, and exciting, part of my swim was the fact that I went out hard and didn't let anyone swim over me.  I remember that like it was yesterday.  In fact, there was a point that I had swimmers on both sides of me trying to swim over me, and I put my hands on their respective shoulders and used them as leverage to push myself forward!

The bike was on chip seal, and there were more headwinds than I'd expected, but I had a solid bike that resulted in my bike PR at the time of 6:15.  I didn't realize for a couple of days the impact of the chip seal on my low back, which might have ultimately impacted my run.  With that said, to date, the run is still my 2nd fastest run for an Ironman, 4:34.  When I hit the finish line, I felt like I'd given it everything that I had.  It was also my best placement in my age group for an Ironman at the time.  Little did I realize that would keep improving throughout the year!

Completing Ironman New Zealand invigorated me in many ways, although my race report notes that I suffered enough during the run to have second thoughts about doing more!  I suppose that you really can't have it both ways.  If you push yourself to your limits, you're probably going to have momentary doubts creep into your mind.  Nevertheless, I'd already signed up for Boulder and Lake Tahoe, so I didn't really have any choice.  The effort I put forth in this race and the others in 2014 is the effort I will call upon in ten days.  I'm not going to Kona to just finish, I'm going to give it everything I have!