Catriona Morrison

We just spent the last 2 weeks touring Kona and visiting with relatives in Vancouver. A wonderful break – eating all the great local food, some walking, snorkling, wine tasting, kayacking and general relaxing.

We had such a culinary tour on the Big Island, what a fantastic place for fresh fruit, steaks and homemade goodies from the farmers’ markets. We certainly had our fill.

It’s now time for some 2010 planning and to at least contmeplate training again.

I’ve put a few holiday snaps into the gallery – look under racing 2009.

Firstly a huge thank you to everyone who helped me get here to Kona – friends, family, sponsors. Special mention to Richard for always believing in me and to Coach Phil for guiding, advising and putting up with more shit than he deserves!! Extra special mention to the other pro girls and supporters who shouted and gave me encouragement.Yesterday was a lesson in survival and determination. I would and could not come to this Island and not finish and I am proud (but obviously disappointed) to have finished and officially become an Ironman. Although I came here for a result I also came for the experiences, and they have been wide and varied and they are in the bag for next time. I swam well exiting with Belinda and Rebekah I was a happy bunny! The out portion of the bike seemed pretty relaxed and on turning at Hawi I felt as if I could push a little harder. However, this proved not to be the case and as I biked along the Queen K into the headwind I felt as if I was swimming upstream – the effort level was surpassing the speed generated! When I jumped off the bike I kinda knew that things were not right – usually my legs are heavy but yesterday they were made of lead and had anchors attached :-). Out and back along Alli Drive was really messy. This was one of the worst parts of the course as the buildings shade any air movement and it was darned toasty. I gimped my way back into town and stopped to get some sympathy from Richard and Phil and promptly nearly fell over. I think we all though that I was going to stop (in fact by that point I had stopped, quit triathlon, E-bayed all my gear and run into the boonies for a sustainable, self sufficient life growing potatoes and eating the eggs from my chickens). Anyway I owed it to myself and everyone else to finish this race and off I plodded (yes, that was the locomotion of the day, with jolly walks through all the aid stations). I swear I could not believe how far it was to the Energy Lab turn around, miles of cones as far as the eye could see. I was beginning to think that I should have swallowed my pride and stopped in town… but hey hoo, I was committed and eventually got into a rhythm of sorts and ticked the miles off. The last 4 miles were the longest and most painful ever. My legs, back and glutes were screaming – I swear I could hear the muscles shouting for mercy. I finished in 17th place, tired and beaten. I have first degree sunburn and I am finding it hard to walk as I am soo sore. This is a novelty as I usually don’t get too bad after a race and could provide comedy value as the day goes on as I randomly collapse.Two Ironman races done, a huge amount learnt. Things may have been different if I had been healthy over the past month and indeed the past week.  A lot of my energy was obviously going into fighting the chest infection that I picked up last week – but that’s in the realm of shoulda, woulda, coulda and I don’t live there. I did the best with what I had on race day and I have to be satisfied.Most of all I am humbled by the extra special performances that we witnessed out there yesterday: Chrissie and Crowie showing us the way, Mirinda smashing the run and Belinda for encouraging everyone whilst she was in a world of pain of her own and Leanda for showing guts and determination. Congratulations also to Rachel Joyce for a fantastic performance.Now sporting that sunburn which will be but one of the souvenirs that I take home from this Island!! Aloha 

Put it this way, if I didn’t laugh right now I’d be a sobbing mess. Still, it’s hard to be miserable in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and I’m bottling my energy and frustrations and putting them in the right place for race day.

Kona certainly is a different kettle of fish (lots of very bright ones actually, and the odd turtle). It’s true what they say about the winds and the heat – pretty intense. I think I have now experienced the extremes so shouldn’t get too surprised on race day. There’s a lot of preening and prancing, strutting and swaggering. You know me, I’m great at that (haha). I really should have invested in that fake tan.  Some things live up to expectations – the climate for example and the wonders of the volcanic landscape (but that’s the geologist in me) other things are a little more ordinary. Take the infamous Energy Lab. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it’s just a few wee huts with some solar panels on the top (apologies to the renewable scientists out there, I suspect there is more to it than that!). Right enough, it is a wee bit toasty out there.

(more photos in the gallery)

As for the race, I’ve come so far this season and even doing my first ironman distance race was a real acheivement for me. Kona is Kona, Cat is Cat. I’m here for the experience and the challenge and I’ll race as hard as I can and we’ll see the results next weekend. Until then, I’ll work on that tan. Or at least at becoming a darker shade of pale…..