The Kona Race Report 2018

Kona, Hawaii and the IRONMAN – what an awesome adventure! Having qualified above one year prior, I had a lot of built up anticipation. Qualifying early is both good and bad. One – you don’t have the stress of trying to get a Kona slot throughout the year and last minute booking/travel arrangements, etc. and two – you have 365 DAYS of mental and physical training to prepare yourself for THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. But in the end, I wouldn’t have done things any differently. My name is Klodian Mitri, I am an SUGAR & PAIN Athlete and this my Kona Story …

 
 

It has been a very busy year for our family with the international move and the many, many side trips that we’ve taken. My vacation days became quite limited in the end so we decided that we would dedicate about 1 week total to visit Kona. First I thought it would be enough to get there three days before to acclimate to the weather conditions of the island of Hawaii, then race and spend another three days relaxing, recovering and sightseeing before traveling back to Germany.
 

 

WAKE-UP CALL TO RECOVER

Then I spoke to my Coach Stefan some weeks left before the Ironman Hawaii, who definitely gave me a wake-up call: I would need more time to beforehand to get used to the island. So frantically last minute I decided to extend out vacation by a week which was a great idea. I didn’t have any last minute stress or need to hurry like I would have been only arriving three days before the race. Therefore we got the chance to recover as a family of three before my parents and my wife Chantelle’s family all came to enjoy Hawaii and support me in the World Championships. Well, they said it was to support me, but I am pretty sure they all came just to see our baby, Adeline.
 

 

KONA PRE RACE TREMULOUSNESS

The week leading up to the race I had a relaxed taper: I got through my swim, bike and run sessions: THIS WAS GOING TO BE HARD. All these easy workouts, felt so torturous. “How was I going to race on what felt like the planet Mars?”, I just thought. Swimming: The never ending motion of the ocean was giving me seasickness! Biking: There were certain moments where I felt like cycling in place – even when going downhill because of the powerful headwind. Running: It felt like the sun was 2 inches away from my face the entire time! No, it would definitely be a great day. Remember: I am doing this out of my own free will, I have taken great physical effort to qualify myself and to come so far. And besides, it did cost me a bunch of money to get here!
 

KONA WITHOUT THE IRONMAN

Nevertheless, it were just the nerves and the excitement of being in Kona now. I’ll be honest: If you take the IRONMAN out of the Island of Hawaii, especially out of Kona, there is absolutely nothing to do here. Out of all the islands, Big Island was our least favorite to travel. With very small beaches, volcanic rocks everywhere, and anything “cool” to see or do was close to a 2 hour drive in each direction. So we were able to spend a lot of time in the car or just relaxing an recovering in the air conditioning and taking in the scenic views.
 

 

STRESSED OUT IN PREPARATION

Race morning came fast—I made my way to the bike to set everything up and I realized my huge mistake. I had forgotten my aero front hydration system at the hotel. Immediately stressed I ran everywhere trying to find another one to buy. Fun fact: Everything at the expo is closed at 6 am in the morning. Luckily I found an old man on a mountain bike who gave me his bottle cage so I was able to use that for my race. Better than nothing I guess.
 

THE COOLEST THING – NO MATTER HOW THE DAY GOES

I finally made my way to the water literally four minutes before the cannon went off. Even though four minutes is nothing, it felt like an eternity. I spent those 4 minutes just looking around watching an amazing sunrise, beautiful fish underneath me and hundreds of people floating around me waiting for THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS to start. The only thing going through my mind was ”Wow, how lucky am I to be here right now, this is definitely the coolest thing I ever did.” It finally hit me that I was about to race among the best in the world. No matter how my day went, I earned my spot on that starting line.
 

 

A CHAOS WHICH MAKES SENSE

The cannon went off and suddenly everyone is climbing over each other and doing whatever it takes to get good position in the first 100 meters. I was just chilling and thinking to myself, ”calm down, we have to swim 100 meters about 38 more times. The race is just starting.” I figured things would calm down about two kilometers into the swim. Another fun fact, it definitely does not. It felt like chaos the entire swim part which makes sense: This are THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS with the best athletes in the world. So I should not expect anything less.
 

THE SWIM: A FASCINATING PERFORMANCE INCREASE

Notwithstanding the swim felt so comfortable this time. I felt strong and powerful with every stroke I made which had been very rare for me until now. I got out of the water and saw a 01:04 H on the clock, one hour and four minutes, and I immediately chuckled thinking this has to be a mistake. Nope, it wasn’t, I actually swam a 1 hour and 4 Minutes over 3800 Meters! ”I am the best in the world and quit triathlon now, I am ready to be accepted into the Olympics as a swimmer,” had been my thoughts while running through transition one.
 

 
But really, that was a huge accomplishment for me. Even though I’ve been putting in tremendous work and swimming up to five times a week since the IRONMAN 70.3 WC South Africa. I never thought I would be able to swim that fast in a non-wetsuit, very chaotic and hard 3,8 k swim. Stefan is an integral part of my swimming journey, teaching me the correct way to swim. It’s not about power. It’s all about the process and the technique. I was just so excited.
 

HEAD DOWN AND GETTING TO WORK

Now moving onto the bike I felt that I would have a clear opening since I swam a 01:04 and still saw lots of people in the ocean. Another fun fact that is impossible in Kona and in a mass start race. The first 10 miles you’re pretty much in a straight line coasting through town and there is no room to make a fight for position, so you are just basically coasting. Once on the Queen K, it was time to put my head down and get to work. My goal was a sub five hour bike ride.
 

SAD TO SAY, DRAFTING IS UNAVOIDABLE!

A big controversial topic with Kona is the crazy drafting that goes on. I had heard a lot about it, but didn’t really know what to expect. Man, were they right. The was draft packs that stretched to over 2km long. I was not sure what to do, it wasn’t just making a push to pass 2-3 people. If I made a push, it would have to be an extended push to try to pass like 30 people. Sad to say, drafting is unavoidable. I surely wasn’t going to burn all my matches trying to pass hundreds of people. At one point after pushing an passing a group of 20 athletes I snuck back into a line and still had another group of 20-30 in front of me.
 

 

I had a referee next to me and asked for guidance on what to do in this situation and I got yelled at with a response, ”you worry about your race and I’ll do my job. Keep talking and you’ll get a penalty.” I immediately shut up and just drafted as she instructed till I had enough energy to make another push over the group. So, I ended up riding 04:54 hours and had been a little disappointed as I purposely under-biked because I wanted to make sure I felt comfortable on the run. I knew that the run in Kona can literally kill people – mentally and physically. It might have been mistake that I last minute decided to switch my nutrition / hydration strategy and incorporate only Gatorade and no water whatsoever as I should have known it better. This ended up biting me in the butt in the end.
 

SOMETIMES SHIT HAPPENS TO CHANGE STRATEGY

Luckily I got off the bike feeling so comfortable. It honestly felt like I just got off the couch and my legs felt so fresh. ”I was about to have the best run of my life,” I just thought at this time of the Kona Race. My goal was a 03:02 hours marathon. I know, this is ambitious but I also knew I was capable of it, especially since I had crushed the swim and bike which I guess were my “weaknesses” compared to my run. I felt amazing for the first 10km. I was hitting my goal and didn’t feel like I was overexerting myself. But then, then my stomach dropped and I almost crapped my pants. I immediately ran to a porta potty and relieved myself. Okay, that was somehow weird. I’ve never had to stop on a toilet in a race.
 

 

NEVER CHANGE A RUNNING SYSTEM

Whatever, I found my stride again and started passing people once more. However five kilometers later on the run shit happens again, my intestines started devouring themselves and I had to stop on the toilet again. After four more stops my previous goal was out of reach. My nutrition and hydration on the bike must have been a poor choice. By skipping water every other aid station, I allowed the gels / Gatorade combination to form a very strong, hyperglycemic concentration in my stomach ultimately causing me to get gastric disorders. It is crazy how something simple as that can derail your whole race from an about three hours marathon to 3:30 h. I just heard my coach saying, ”no experiments in the race, never not!”
 

A PERFECT EXPERIENCE, BUT NOT DONE WITH KONA

After a long day on the run, I finally made it to the finish line in about 09:40 hours. I knew that it was unrealistic to have a “perfect” race in Kona for a first-timer, but in my eyes it was still a perfect experience. I got to race among the best athletes in the world and the most special part was having my family at the finish line and seeing Adeline clapping.
 

 

I am not done with Kona. This is just the start. I am racing Cozumel in about 5 weeks days in hopes of getting another chance to execute my ”perfect” race in Hawaii.
Until next time, Kona!
 

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Only five weeks later, Klodian Mitri did race IRONMAN Cozumel 2018, November 18th and swam once again faster than in Kona. He finished 2nd in his age group in 09:20 and has consequently qualified for the IRONMAN Hawaii WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2019. Kona here we come again!
 

 

RESULTS IRONMAN Hawaii World Championships 2018

SEE ALL RESULTS …
 

RESULTS IRONMAN Cozumel 2018

SEE ALL RESULTS …
 

INFO

HOMEPAGE IRONMAN Hawaii World Championships
HOMEPAGE IRONMAN Cozumel
 

READABLE

IRONMAN 70.3 SOUTH AFRICA WC Klodian Mitri back on track
INTERVIEW PATRICK LANGE Triathlon bis ich Hawaii gewinne
HONOLULU MARATHON Mit Aloha Durch das Blaue Paradies
 

AUTHOR

Klodian Mitri
 

PHOTOCREDITS

Klodian Mitri