Maccas view on his Hawaiian Race: lively debated thereafter, Part I

Chris McCormack
http://chrismccormack.com is not sponsored by biestmilch.com. He is a very dear and close friend. We know each other since 2003, since the unforgettable duel between him and Lothar Leder www.lothar-leder.de. Things grew together over the years, and we are not only friends today, we are also business partners. We founded a »Biestmilch Australia« to promote biestmilch down under.

Chris wrote down his impressions on the race for us, his memories almost 4 weeks later. We publish it in 3 parts. Chris is good writer, and I hope you love to read his very personal report.

Well this is the first blog I have ever written but when my friends at Biestmilch asked if I would tell them how my day went in Hawaii I thought why not. Hawaii is a special race for me. The Ironman has always been a fascination for me and the Hawaii event has always been the race that has kept me involved in Triathlon. This was my 5th attempt at the race and after many years failing here in the heat and humidity I had often asked myself whether I had what it takes to put together a solid race in the heat, wind and humidity of the big Island.

Last year I had a break through race for myself. Although I did not win the event I managed to silence that voice in my head that often spoke to me asking whether I was ever going to be able to manage the heat of this race. I have always struggled in humid hot conditions for my entire career and last year I broke through for a solid race and a fast marathon to salvage a 6th place finish after a disastrous swim bike combination. I walked away from that event disappointed to not have won the race but happy that I had finally managed to find a solution to my problems of the past and develop a training system that worked for this event. Going into this years event I was much more confident and really looking forward to racing again in the Ironman.

What I have learned over the 10 years of my career is that self doubt is the most difficult obstacle an athlete will face in their career.

This year I had put together another solid year of racing and was mentally fresh and physically very strong. I think the biggest positive about this year was my mind was healthy and my desire and self belief was strong. I drew strength from my performance in 2005 and was growing with confidence as I continued through the season to replicate my performances of previous years on less workload. I arrived in Kona for the World Championships ready to race.

The day started well for me. I woke up in the morning and felt great. I had a great nights sleep the evening before and my family was supportive and open to my needs in the days leading up to the event. I arrived in the transition area 1 hour before the gun was to go off and set about organizing my equipment. It all went so well. Sometimes you have those mornings when everything just goes wrong. I was determined to turn everything into a positive in the morning and not allow anything to disrupt my positive energy. It was like a snowball and everything just ran smoothly. I was in and out of transition and ready to warm up within 15 minutes. This was the quickest I had ever done this. I warmed up on my own at the back of the pier in Kona and just sat with my thoughts. I felt very calm and very much at ease with myself.

There were no nerves, no apprehension just a surprising calmness that comes with conquering self doubt. I was ready to race.

Part II follows tomorrow