Ride with Dave Zabriskie

The Hawaiian Double

What’s “the Hawaiian Double”? The Ironman Hawaii World Championships and the Xterra World Championships (off-road triathlon) take place on consecutive weekends in Kona, Big Island and Makena, Maui respectively. A friend, Brent, introduced me to the concept of “doing the double” sometime last year and ever since I qualified for the 2005 Ironman Hawaii, I was intrigued about doing the Xterra race as well. A few hours ago, myself and two friends, Sandy and Scott, just completed “the double”. For me, the double has been added to my life category of “things to do once… but which don’t need to be repeated!”

Ironman Hawaii 2005

Top ten memorable moments of Ironman Hawaii 2005

10. The inexorably slow 2.4 mile swim. 1 hour and 24 minutes of memories
9. Visiting the church at the run turnaround on Ali’i Drive the evening before the race
8. Sitting next to Kiki in T2… we might as well have been enjoying a glass of wine at Harry’s
7. The Hawaiian winds on the Kohala coast… they didn’t show up this year!
6. Celebrating Tyler and Frank’s wins… fastest female amateur and fastest CEO, respectively
5. My Elite bike… who knew it could travel at 20+ mph for 112 miles
4. Megan’s comment of “about time” when I passed her on the bike… and her smile and words of encouragement when she passed me back at mile 23 of the run
3. Celebrating Scott’s marriage proposal to Kiki over coffee and muffins at Lava Java post-race
2. The view of the (almost) full moon over the ocean the morning of the race.
1. Wondering whether I want to come back and do it all over again in 2006 or 2007 or beyond…


Xterra Maui 2005

Top ten memorable moments of Xterra Maui 2005

10. Eating and drinking myself 7lbs heavier in the week between the 2 races!
9. Swimming with turtles when I did a practice loop of the swim on Saturday
8. The 3-5ft swells that greeted us at the beach on race morning… a rough water swim!
7. A flat tire just half a mile out of T1… and a face full of slime when I changed it
6. My plunge into the red sand after I lost control of my bike in the deep sand ruts
5. The cute, 20something German guy (Fricke on his shorts) that I gave my tube and pump
4. Waiting for Fricke to catch up to me when I got my second flat… he had my pump!
3. My Trek bike and my average speed of 6mph… what a difference a week makes!
2. Mis-timing a wave during the beach run section and getting a shoe-full of ocean water
1. Knowing that I will never come back and do it all over again in 2006 or 2007 or beyond…

Total time – 4 hours 40 minutes
Swim – 0:30
Bike – 3:03
Run – 1:07

Above were the *atmospheric* race recaps… below is the *soup to nuts* version of Ironman Hawaii, if that wasn’t already enough. As for Xterra: “check”, that’s all I have to say.

Ironman Hawaii 2005

I was fortunate to spend the few days prior to Ironman Hawaii in Kona with friends and fellow racers in a condo, located several miles outside of town. While the goal was to relax and acclimate to the heat and humidity, the days prior to the race seemed action-packed with *small* workouts, previews of the course, race preparation errands and catching up with other friends that were racing. Time was evaporating and Saturday October 15th arrived all too quickly. Suddenly, it was 3:30am on Saturday morning and my alarm was beeping, signaling me to get up and eat breakfast. As I digested the 1,000 calorie meal, I studiously went through my *race morning* checklist, then loaded into the tiny jeep with coach Chris, his wife, Dixie and our driver for the morning and medical tent volunteer, Erica.

Once at the King Kamehameha hotel, I had about 90 minutes to attend to the *pre-race routine* of body-marking, sunscreen and bodyglide application, checking tire pressure, handing in my special needs bags, visiting the bathroom (multiple times), taking pictures with friends, and slowly getting nervous. Would the swim be choppy? Will the winds pick up on the bike ride? Just how hot and humid would it be during the run? I could control none of these things so I tried to push them to the back of my mind.

The professional athletes started at 6:45am and immediately afterwards I swam the 100 yards or so to the start line and treaded water with the hundreds of other athletes. Boom!!! In spite of the 10 second warning to 7am, the start canon took me by surprise. The water was suddenly awash with swimmers kicking and flapping their way to the turnaround yacht some 1.2 miles from the Kailua-Kona pier. It seemed to take forever to get to that little boat…when I finally reached the boat I refused to look at my watch, not wanting to be demoralized by the slowness of my swim. Instead, on each breath, I listened to the cheers of the crowds packed on the boat and smiled to myself that I was headed back to shore. The way back seemed to go more quickly. I followed a guy’s feet to shore and soon I was taking those first, unsteady steps, back on dry land. 1:24 was slower than my two prior races but not outside my expectations for the non-wetsuit Ironman Hawaii swim.

As I rolled my bike out of its rack, I heard Matt Dixon’s English accent yelling: “Go have fun out there, Jordan!” I love riding my bike, but could the next 112 miles be fun?!?!? On the plus side, few people who swim as slow as I do, can ride a bike as fast as I can… this translates to “passing hundreds of people on the bike… in fact, I passed more than 400 people”. Besides yelling ‘on yer left’, those 112 miles were fairly uneventful; I narrowly avoided the *spray* of a girl peeing on her bike, locating my special needs bag took more time than I would have liked but the infamous Kohala coast winds were non-existent. In contrast to the Half-Ironman I raced here in June, I was feeling great on the bike, riding easily at 200 watts or so and keeping my heart rate in a reasonable range. I was back in transition 5hrs 30mins after I left, having averaged over 20mph.

At T2, I joyously handed off my bike to Charlie (friend who was volunteering) in exchange for a kiss on the cheek and ran into the change tent only to sit down next to my friend and training partner, Kiki! Small world . We exchanged words of encouragement while *gently barking* orders at the change tent volunteers: “lots of sunscreen, please!”

On to the marathon… my legs felt a little wobbly and my stomach was even more wobbly but I heard several people cheer my name as I exited transition so I told myself that the 10 mile out and back along Ali’i Drive was just a *scenic warm-up run*. In contrast to the views, those first few miles were UGLY from a running and nutrition perspective. But by the 5mile turnaround, I had pulled myself together and was running pretty well, catching the people who had passed me (usually while I was in the porta-pottie) in those early miles. The skies were clear blue and the sun was burning down… hot, hot, HOT. I was grateful for the cups of ice and water being handed out at each aid station. In fact, my bra top became the repository for at least 5-6 ice cubes at each mile marker, as I struggled to keep my body as cool as possible. The solid run pace continued until mile 16 or so, when the stomach issues returned. The remaining 10 miles into the Energy Lab and back along the Queen K into town were a string of mile repeats, interrupted by trips to the porta-pottie. Not the best running scenario but at least I was getting closer to the finish. Well, almost… at one point, I ran backwards for several hundred yards because my stomach lurched and I needed the bathroom… who runs backwards in an ironman?!?!? Finally I returned to town and was on the last half mile of Ali’i Drive. I got a high-five from my coach, Chris Hauth (big thanks!), before entering the tunnel of cheering fans and bright lights of the finishing chute. The announcer called my name and confirmed: “Jordan Cantwell, you are an Ironman…” and then I mentally reminded myself that I was a “Hawaii Ironman”.

Thanks to my fellow competitors and all the friends and supporters in Hawaii… your cheers and smiles were appreciated. Also, a big thanks to those who *watched online*.

What's my Hawaiian name?

Since I'm about to leave on a 2 week trip to Hawaii... I figured I should use this blogthing to figure out my Hawaiian name... and it will perhaps embue me with a different personality?

Your Hawaiian Name is:

Okelani Leilani

What's your Hawaiian Name?