|
|
 |
|
|
 |
||
|
I must say I was not feeling strong. I had the impression that I was overheating and could not get into any kind of decent rhythm. So I decided to try and cool down, even tried the trick to put ice in my cap, but that was no great success. It feels good at first, but after a (short) while it starts getting very, very cold indeed. So I threw that away again. I passed Kristien and told her it was going to be hard. My legs really didn't want to cooperate - especially when the roads were going uphill. After about 8 or 10km I felt like it was getting better, but that feeling didn't come back to me after climbing Palani road. I think it would have been better if I walked there, but I think I was still top 100, so I didn't want to do that. Of course the leading ladies had already passed me. In fact, Natasha Badman passed me very quickly. I had passed her earlier on, close to Hawi, and she got off her bike just a bit after me. Wow, can she ride, I only topped her cycle time by about five minutes, incredible. Her lead on the runner was pretty impressive as a result of this stellar ride. Anyway, my running was not getting any better so I just wanted to get it over with as fast as possible.
I was very glad to reach the finish line, were we had some pretty nice pictures taken (see to the right) after a bit of eating and drinking. I then had a wonderful massage from one of the volunteers and later in the evening we had dinner at the Pizza Hut with some other Belgian competitors. All in all a great day and one that just has to be repeated. Another note on the volunteers. Ironman Hawaii may not be the race with the most scenic race, but there are two things which make it stand out. First is the incredible strength of the field. There are no excuses in Hawaii, everybody has made this a peak race, everybody has attempted to be at their strongest. The other thing is the organization, it is one of the best organized races in the world, and what really makes it so good is the extreme quality of the volunteers, the really are the best. They do everything they can to make this race easier for us. A very big thank you for that. The strange thing though, is that they seem to thank me if I try to make their work a little easier once in a whill, like by giving a cup back instead of throwing it on the ground. Really, the volunteers are the best. |
||
After a while on the Queen K I started
crossing the leaders again. Peter Reid first and a lot later Jean Moureau. I think he still gained a few places after that to finish 20th. Before reaching the turnoff to Energy Lab, I already
crossed a guy who got off the bike after me. I must be going slow... One difference between this year and last year is that I still enjoyed the run more. Last year I was so disappointed for
having stomach cramps, but this year, my legs just weren't interested. The result was that I ran ten minutes slower. Pretty disappointing, especially as I have actually walked a lot less,
but apparently once running I was going much faster last year. Ah well, can't be helped any more, so I will just have to train well this winter and coming summer and do this race properly,
from start to finish in 2001. The date is already marked in my calendar.