{"id":17514,"date":"2016-10-13T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/10\/13\/kona-diaries-4-the-pre-and-post-race-experience-r5678\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T07:34:56","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T07:34:56","slug":"kona-diaries-4-the-pre-and-post-race-experience-r5678","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/kona-diaries-4-the-pre-and-post-race-experience-r5678\/","title":{"rendered":"Kona Diaries #4: The pre and post race experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m on a plane somewhere above the Rockies at the moment, and I\u2019m slowly trying to pull the pieces of my race together. For now, I\u2019d like to let you know what the experience is like before and after the race. I\u2019ll get to the experience of the race in the next post.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-40914900-1476348629.jpeg\"<\/a>The night before. Ali’i Drive with our condo just behind the beach.<\/span><\/p>\n

The World Championships have been coming to Kona since 1980 (the first two were held on the more populous and smaller island of at O\u2019ahu). This means that the operation is slick. The impressive transition area is housed on a very small pier \u2013 less than half a rugby field in size, and the finish line is on the main beachfront road \u2013 Ali\u2019i Drive. The whole setup is undertaken on Thursday, and by Friday morning, the bike check-in opens.<\/p>\n

\n\"ccs-62657-0-16799600-1476348637.jpeg\"<\/a>Bike racking and check in done… Now just an Ironman tomorrow.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

Registration was on Wednesday, and our bike check in was on Friday. I went down to transition with my housemate, Iainbio, and the check in was seamless. There are approximately 5,000 volunteers who fly in from all over the world to come and help out on the day. Many came from the States, some came from Europe, and the pregnant wife of one our fellow Saffa guys also volunteered. At check in, you are assigned a volunteer who walks with you to rack your bike, explains what route to run around the pier, where to change, walks you to your bag racking and then takes you back out to the exit.<\/p>\n

All through race weekend there are volunteers at check-in, at registration, on the swim course, around town, on race day etc\u2026 it really is fantastic to see what these people do to make this race possible.<\/p>\n

On the morning of the race, you arrive earlier than most Ironman races, as you have to get body marked with a temporary number sticker and then be weighed. The weighing is partly to determine if you\u2019re too fat to race (I just snuck in). It actually serves as a useful measure to determine your level of hydration or hyponatremia should you collapse during or after the race, or if you are submitted to the medical tent for any reason. Tim Noakes used some of this data when writing his book Waterlogged on the effects of over-hydration in endurance racing. I would suggest anyone coming to Kona reads this book as one source of information when planning your race and travel.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-97919400-1476348634.jpeg\"<\/a>At check-in with Paul Kaye from South Africa – the first non-American to welcome people home on Ali’i Drive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The non-wetsuit swim and mass floating start (you\u2019re in the water \u2013 not off the beach) both add a different element to the advent of proceedings. The swimsuit that I picked up at the expo (soooo much cheaper than in SA, and you\u2019re going to have a lot of choice) was well worth it. I won\u2019t get into the specifics of the race here, but if you are racing in Kona either borrow a swimsuit or take a few extra dollars along and buy one at the expo beforehand. They are not like wetsuits which may restrict arm movement but more like a very tight fitting tri suit made with water repelling and non-flexible material.<\/p>\n

Leaving my race out of the story for now, we move onto the finish line party. A unique part of this race is that there are very few slow people. And I mean this with all due respect to those for whom finishing an Ironman is a challenge in itself. The race dynamic is that 40 odd male pros arrive in under 9 hours. Then about 25 females around the 9-hour mark, and then there is a steady stream of age groupers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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