Tag: ironmankona

So you want to qualify for Kona? Consider these 5 key principles

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For many triathletes, the Ironman World Championship race in Kailua-Kona represents the crown jewel, the mecca, the peak, the main event, the…–oh let’s face it, it’s perceived as the ultimate set of bee’s knees for long course triathletes. While not everyone wants to race there, most long-course athletes will speak wistfully of what it would be like (or what it was like) to race K. O. N. A. Several years ago, I announced on this blog that I wanted to qualify for Kona. At that time, I had a very vague (and quite naive) idea of what it would take to find …

On Role Models, Possibilities, and Equality

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Outside of my endurance sport life, I’m a professor of Communication Studies at Rowan University, in Glassboro, NJ. (Read: Nerd.) In my research and teaching, I examine how communication creates meaning about “things” – people, places, objects, events, ideas. I know what you are probably thinking: things exist, that can’t be changed no matter how we communicate or think about them. Of course people, places, and objects exist, and events happen. But, how we communicate about these things affects our interpretation of them–regardless of their tangible properties. So, let’s say we’ve got this thing that is a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. How we think …

Persist, Persevere, Ho’omau: Ironman World Championship Race Report

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“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”                                                                                           ~Zig Ziglar The Journey is the Reward Now that the big day is a memory, I am struck by what seems like a (now) obvious truth: racing the Ironman World Championships in Kona has never been about the race …

The Click

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You know the moment during a run when you feel the click? Your body smooths into the stride, the rhythm of your footfalls feels effortless, and your mind is focused only on the present. Yup – that moment. It’s absolutely delicious, right? Those are the moments that give us the grit for the tough days because we know that we carry inside of us the potential of the click. The body may shift into gear at any moment. Even if you think the workout or the race won’t get better, just hold on. Wait for it. Stay focused. Stay positive. It just might come. That’s the promise of the …

Shifting into Beast Mode

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The Intimidator half iron was a wake up call. While the race turned out fine, I never found “my gear”. You know the one that gets you to the point where you are in BEAST MODE.  During the bike especially, I found that I had limited mental will to push my edge. And my performance shows it. That is not the way to start the season. But, it did remind me that if I wanted my body to go all-in, then I would need to go head first. I came home from the race, and I knew it was time: X-day is here. I’ve written …

What’s Next? The Hail Mary Pass, Of Course

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So, what’s next? After my close call with a Kona qualifying slot at Ironman Lake Placid (race report here), I’ve asked myself this question quite a bit, as have my family and friends. I didn’t make any plans for races after Lake Placid. I poured every ounce of mental energy I had into that race, so when I came up short, I had no idea what the answer would be to this question. The day of the roll down at IMLP, our friend Eric texted John to find out if I nabbed a slot. When he got the news, he …

Conquering Pain: Accept it. Don’t Ignore it.

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When John was training for Ironman Cozumel, where he went on to qualify for Kona, he had a piece of paper that read: Pain cannot be ignored: It has to be conquered, and when it inevitably returns, it has to be conquered again. Find what you have and handle it.  Physical Mental Emotional Spiritual Now, I have this same piece of paper, hanging from a clip in front of my desk. It is a reminder of what is different about my training this year. It is a reminder that I have to learn how to conquer pain. Again. And again. …

Making Dreams Real: Kona Report – part 2

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This is the second part of my husband John’s experience at the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona, on October 13, 2013. Part 1 can be found here.  Into T2, and it was time to flip the switch and go do what has always been my best event of the three. My target heart rate for the run was 145 beats per minute (bpm). At the first aid station, I was way through the ceiling at 165. On the bike I was able to offset the heat with the wind and by consuming over 12 water bottles. No, I’m not kidding. …

Chasing Dreams: Kona Report – part 1

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It has been a few months since my husband John finished the Ironman World Championships in Kailua-Kona on October 13, 2012. While it is a little late for a race report, I wanted him to share what he learned with the Running A Life Community. And, I know several of you have asked as well. What follows is his response to our request. Enjoy!   As I exited the water at Dig Me Beach, and shook off the salty Pacific, pieces of my dream fell to the ground and gave way to the reality. In the water, you could see …

Anything Is Possible

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Standing on Ali’i Drive, after watching the swim start of the Ironman World Championships, I saw their purple shirts, a shade of purple I recognized immediately as belonging to pancreatic cancer awareness. The front of the t-shirts read, “Molli is doing the Ironman with Pancreatic Cancer.” That must be a typo, right? They must mean ‘for’ pancreatic cancer. There’s no way she could be doing it with pancreatic cancer. Having witnessed the pain and torment my mother went through in the past year, I couldn’t imagine anyone surviving that horrible disease, let alone completing an Ironman with it. I didn’t …