Part 2 of 3

The unspoken part of Ultraman is trying to get in as many calories as possible as soon as the day is done. I normally enjoy eating and am not picky, but after racing I generally loose my appetite for a while. I ate a burger after getting off the bike, we checked into the hotel, and then we headed to the group dinner with the rest of the athletes. I was a little worries about getting hungry in the middle of the night, so I took some food back to the room. It was so cold up at the top of Volcano that I didn't end up eating my hot potato but put it in my pocket and slept with it.

Race morning came early and I didn't want to climb out of my warm bed. I was relieved after a quick peek out the window to see stars. No rain. It was chilly outside and the roads weren't wet, but I felt very lucky to be mostly dry on the first descent.

Still trying to squeeze in a little sleep. When I planned for this trip I didn't think to bring arm warmers, so these beauties I picked up at Target. They started out as argyle socks, but made great arm warmers.

Day 2 bike start is on the top of Volcano with about a 20 mile descent to start. Lucky us with clear skies, but there was a bit of spray off the road. We were allowed to stay grouped up until the turn down to red road. I normally enjoy riding in groups, but it was a bit high speed and twitchy at moments which meant keeping focus.
Keeping with the front pack. Right behind me are the ladies putting the pressure on. Hillary Biscay and Shanna Armstrong. Photo by Rick Kent, Josh Baker

After making the turn down to red road the group split up and I was on my own.... kind of. I knew the Hillary and Shanna were close behind as I could see their crew vehicles preparing their drink hand offs as I went by. The leapfrogging of crew vehicles continued. My plan was to up the pace when I got to red road. No crew support is allowed on that section of road and I wanted to get out of sight. Despite it being a coastal road it has a lot of rolling hills and my legs felt great. I dropped the hammer and mission accomplished! Once I turned off red road I saw their crew vehicles for the last time that day. Around this time I started to have shifting issues. Not sure if it was all the vibration from the old section of road we crossed or not. Shifting slowly went from bad to worse, but I tried to stay relaxed.

This is along the red road section. That's my hocus pocus focus expression. Photo by Rick Kent, Josh Baker

Another shot of red road. I was really bummed my crew didn't get to see the view along here.

All forward momentum seemed to stop when I hit Hilo. At race briefing they said there are 8 traffic lights. I stopped at 7 of the longest lights I've ever seen. I kept turning around to see if I was the only unlucky one. Christian was riding through the lights at the same time as he had went off course a little earlier and had to backtrack. Because of my shifting issues he'd have a good gap on me coming through the intersection, but then the light in front of us would turn red as I'd slowly spin up. We'd chat a bit at the light and then repeat.

Somewhere after Hawi

After Hawi there are about 40 miles of rolling terrain. My legs were feeling great, but my bike was not. I couldn't talk her into shifting into the big ring any longer. I tried to deal with it for a while as I hadn't seen bike tech in a while, but kept finding myself spinning out. After 10 miles of this I gave up and asked my crew to call for bike support. They were there fairly quickly and we both pulled over. I stayed as relaxed as possible when you're standing on the side of a road during a race. I used the opportunity to pee behind the tech vehicle, eat a banana (not at the same time), and finish off my bottle.

Thanks bike tech for getting me rolling again so quickly. Shifting wasn't perfect, but it was so much better than before the stop. Woohooo, I had my big ring back and felt ready to fly!

This is where the Spam Musubi rocket fuel came in handy. My crew had handed me one sometime after Hilo and every chance I got I'd eat another bite. Tastiest thing I'd eaten all day. So nice to get in some real food after taking gel most of the day. I polished it off just before the climb to Waimea started.

The final climb over the Kohalas before descending to Hawi.
photo by Timothy Carlson

I had no idea I was going to break the bike course record by over 40 minutes, but I was stoked. The best part was that Hillary and Shanna also broke it. I love how tough competition brings out the best in all of us. New bike course day 2 record of 7:57:58.


photo by Rick Kenk, Josh Baker

Overall it was a great day. With racing at this distance you have to take the bad with the good. Unexpected things are going to happen. What is important is how you deal with them. The same goes for energy level, it goes up and down and then back up again. I always remember that good moments will follow the bad and often it just means I need to eat more. :)

I couldn't have done it without my crew. Thanks Siri, Darian, and Taylor for everything. photo by Rick Kent, Josh Baker.

The fourth event followed the bike ride. Ice bath and eating and eating and eating. From last years experience at Ultraman Canada I knew that I would have tummy trouble on day 3, so my goal for day 2 night was to get in as many calories as possible. Mission accomplished again. Huge Chinese takeout with some local fried doughnut like things. I ate until stuffed and took the rest with me and finished it off 2 hours later.