Well here we go, the blog series I always wanted to write but never really thought I would get to do. The Ironman World Championship Kona blog series!!

Kona has been that ultimate goal / bucket list event for me, like most triathletes. When I set out on my triathlon journey 5 years ago I didn’t think I would have this opportunity but here I am.

I was fortunate in a way, I qualified in 2021 at Ironman UK which was one of the later qualifying events for the 2021 World Champs, I dropped on in two ways. Firstly, due to COVID-19 travel bans, there were no international athletes and secondly as Ironman UK was one of the last events to earn a slot for Kona and due to so many races being cancelled they allocated more slots at Bolton. I finished 14th in my age group and got the invite.

I was in two minds about whether to accept, well three minds actually. 1. I came 14th, does it feel right to take a slot? 2. there was a lot less competition and 3. it’s damn expensive! In the end, I figured this was likely my one and only shot at Kona so let’s roll the dice.

Then 2021 got cancelled and here we are, 12 months on.

Day one of my Kona trip began in the Premier Inn in High Wycombe after a 3 hour drive down on Sunday night. I had an old cancelled reservation here from one of the many race cancellations over the past 2 years so I decided to cash that in. I was flying out of Heathrow at 10:25am which isn’t super early but staying 30mins from the airport meant I just had to get up at a more normal time, 6am.

Travel:

My usual weekday alarm goes off at 6am so today started just like any other but ended like no other.

The first stop was the T2/T3 Long Stay car park at Heathrow and I was greeted to a stunning sunrise whilst waiting for the bus.

I had a feeling that there was going to be some issues at check-in which was why I arrived at the airport 3 hours 45mins before my flight.

Over the weekend I had tried to check in online and via the United app but it wasn’t letting me confirm my passport and ESTA details as well as not allowing me to pay for my second checked bag (the bike box).

At the airport, the check in was fairly smooth but then we hit a snag paying for the second checked bag, the agents mobile payment machine wouldn’t sync up. So off I went to the bag drop to pay there, after 15mins of scrambling around the lady got the second bag paid for and my suitcase was on its way.

Next up I had to go to the oversized luggage area to check the bike box. As per the United instructions, I had packed in a hard case, my Bike Box Allen. When I got to the oversized baggage area the lady said that the machine can’t scan a hard shell box because it is unstable on the belt. I had to wait 30mins for another agent to come and hand search the box.

Finally, I got through that and the bike was on its way. I was through security in time to grab a coffee before boarding my flight.

I had booked the United flight from Heathrow to San Francisco with a 3 hour layover before flying direct into Kona. I wanted to fly direct into Kona to hopefully avoid any issues with the luggage getting out there rather than fly into Honolulu and take one of the smaller inter-island planes to Kona.

So best laid plans and all that! The bike didn’t make it to Kona, when I was on the plane in San Francisco I could see that the bike hadn’t moved from the luggage re-check as I had put an AirTag in the box. When I arrived in Kona I could still see the bike in the same place in San Francisco.

The United app said that it was coming on a different flight. After I traced the flight number and looked on flight scanner I could see that flight leaves San Francisco at 8:55am tomorrow arriving in Kona at 11:18am. At that, I decided to get my suitcase, pick up the rental car and head to the apartment.

The car rental went smoothly, I got a Chevy Malibu which is certainly big enough to fit the bike box in the back.

By now it was dark and I had been travelling for just under 25 hours. The drive to Waikoloa Beach Resort where my Hilton Grand Vacations apartment is was pretty boring. One long straight road with the only turn-off being into the resort. With it being so dark all I could see was a trail of red tail lights going off into the distance.

Check-in for the apartment went well the only issue was driving passed my building twice, again, it was totally dark out there and I was suffering jet lag and just tired.

It’s fair to say the trip hasn’t totally gone to plan thus far. No bike on arrival and then to top it all off, when I unpacked my suitcase the air pressure in the hold must have forced the lid off my Science in Sport electrolyte powder tub! so all my clothes were covered in a white powder. On the funny side, just imagine the security agents’ face if they had opened my case and seen all that white powder.

At that point I had given up, I will finish the unpacking/clean up tomorrow and went to bed.