What a day

Well there you go, that was certainly one amazing day on the Big Island.

By all accounts the conditions at Kona today were some of the friendliest there have been in years. I think the idea of friendly weather at Kona is relative, because the conditions were still pretty hot for the run, but apparently in the morning it rather pleasant, not too hot for the bike, light winds on the way out of town and a tail wind on the way back. Lovely. Sort of.

It looks like people took full advantage of the conditions to produce some absolutely scorching times. I suspect the times this year were a mixture of great weather and an indication of where the sport is going, ie getting pretty darn quick. I think the only records not to fall today were the run records, the men's swim record was claimed by an AG athlete, the bike record by Cam Wurf, the women's swim record by Lucy Charles and the bike record smashed by Ryf. Not to mention both race records being claimed, the men's by Lange and the women's by Ryf. All those records falling makes for a pretty special day. I would like to say that I think those records will stand for quite some time, but with the improvements we are seeing at the moment, who knows how quick people will be going next year. It was an amazing day though.

I would claim that I sort of called it on Friday too. Okay, my prediction about Sander's was pretty wrong. Okay I also didn't get Bart Aernouts or Dave McNamee, but I did say that the men's field was full of guys who could be in the mix if they had a good day, so that was kind of correct. I will claim that I called Lange, Ryf and Charles though. Perhaps not rocket science making those predictions, but I am claiming it all the same.

From a personal point of view it was also a very fulfilling day. All my mates finished and seemed to all have good days. It seems to have been one of those years. Lot's of smiles at the finish line.

My athlete Laurent also had a good day, although perhaps not the time he was hoping for. His swim and bike legs went pretty well, both better than his previous effort in Cairns, which is great as his bike lead up has been a bit limited. However, once he was on the run, usually his best leg, he says he just felt a lack of go. Not a physical lack, more of a mental one. As a result he had quite a cruisy run by his standards, very low intensity. Chatting to Laurent he said he definitely could have gone harder, and he knew that he could, but he just struggled to make himself go.

While this sounds sort of surprising, I think this sort of lack of drive happens more than people think at races like Kona. I think sometimes, once you are on the run and you know you will finish the motivation to push harder can be a bit lacking. When the difference between going hard or not is the difference between 150th or 200th, it can be easy to just slip into autopilot and kind of dial it in. I am not saying Laurent took the easy option, just that sometimes it can be hard to gather the will to push. I am sure in the coming weeks Laurent will have plenty of time to think about the run leg and decide how he feels about it and what occurred, but for me I don't view the run as a disappointment, just the reality of racing sometimes.

I don't think Laurent will be disappointed with his day either. We were chatting earlier and this was part of his message"

I didn't break anything, didn't crash, didn't injure myself, didn't dnf, and finish with an overall rank of 1407. (Out of 2500 I think). I am happy with that, it was a great day, I had fun, saw great people in action, and I am very grateful for having been here.

I was so happy to see that message and I think it is great that this is his attitude. I think if you can leave a race with these kinds of thoughts then you can put that race down as a success, no matter what the results were. In the end we race for a sense of fulfillment and enjoyment. If racing isn't providing those things then you have to ask yourself why you are doing it. Laurent seems to have come away from Kona satisfied with his day and with a smile on his face (and blisters on his toes) and you can't ask for much more than that.

To say Laurent had a poor lead up would be an understatement. There were numerous times in the build up where I thought it was never going to happen. Watching him tough it out today, get to the finish line and have an enjoyable day was a great moment. Very proud.

Yep, pretty great day on the Big Island.