Well, we are now into my fourth day on this trip already and today is the first of the two Ironman World Championship races.

This year due to a large number of deferrals from 2020 and 2021 (including me) they have split the race into two to allow for a greater number of athletes. This meant that they could split out the women’s race to give more focus on the female athletes which I think is a good idea, although I am not sure putting the race on a Thursday gives equal exposure to the male race on a Saturday but it is a step in the right direction.

I had planned on going down into Kona to watch the swim and bike start but this would have meant leaving the apartment before 5am to avoid the road closures and then getting back would have been a hassle as the bike course is the road I would have taken to get back. In the end, I decided to stay put.

I was awake at 4:30am again but I had a much better sleep. I am hoping the early nights and early wake-ups will put me in a good space for Saturday’s very early start, I am almost living on a slightly different time zone to Kona time.

Being up early I finished off my Kona Day 3 blog post and then headed out to catch the sunrise again and grab a coffee.

Unlike Kona Day 2 where I went to Starbucks, this time I went to Island Vintage Coffee to get a more local brew.

Fuelled up on the £7 coffee I decided to make the most of that coffee high and went out for a run. In the build-up to Challenge Roth, I didn’t do many runs at pace, it was all slow easy runs. I had already done one easy run out here to shake out the legs so today I ran at a bit more pace, nothing too crazy but 5k at around 7:40/mi, it felt good giving the legs a nice little taste of pace. Back home I would run my long runs a bit faster than that pace and average a heart rate in the low to mid 140’s, today’s run averaged 143bpm which was a pleasant surprise.

Having said I was going to stay put and not go into Kona to watch the race, I decided to walk down to the end of our road and watch the bikes coming passed. I ended up staying out there for 2 hours.

After the pros went back past for a second time I headed back to the room to cool down, it was damn hot standing out there in the lava fields.

Just before lunch, I went down to the beach to do my final swim of this triathlon training block. Just a 1km easy swim. This photo doesn’t really show it but it was quite breezy and the water was really choppy. Hopefully an earlier start on Saturday will skip the wind for the swim at least.

With no more plans for the day, I went over to the Kings Land by Hilton Grand Vacations Clubhouse to grab some lunch and just sit around the pool for the afternoon. Just spend some time lying around relaxing off my feet. They have a big day coming up in just two days’ time.

I ended up staying by the pool for about an hour and a half, I got bored and went back to the room. I thought I might as well spend a bit of time getting my gear ready for Friday’s check in so I put all the race numbers on and sorted the stuff out into the bags.

Had some more pasta for dinner in the room, this was one of the main reasons I picked an apartment (condo). Having the ability to cook food that I know and having that control of my diet will help ensure I feel as good as I can come race day. I brought some food with me to be sure I know my stomach will be fine. Things like pasta and porridge. Nothing too crazy but gives me some control and also saves money buying them out here or saves loads compared to eating out.

No more plans for the rest of today so I typed up this post instead of doing it tomorrow morning.