Photo by Nils Nilsen
What a day! I still can´t believe it. After the disappointment in Kona I wasn´t so confident in myself, I was expecting to do well, have a decent race and get the Hawaiian Double, but as soon as I saw myself leading the race my confidence came back to me, where it should had always stayed, I felt stronger as the race went by and everything went so smoothly.
I swam in the leading pack, we were some time in front of the strongest bikers, wich was good to take it a little bit easier on the first miles of the bike. I was riding well, knowing that sooner or later I was going to be caught by fast bikers. When Conrad, Olivier and Batelier caught me I was holding their peace quite well on the climbs, so I rode with them feeling good and taking care on the downhills, trying not to hurt neither my bike and myself. Having raced an Ironman two weeks ago you could expect to feel tired and lost power as the race goes longer but this wasn’t the case for me today, with each mile, each climb of this amazing bike course I was becoming stronger, gaining confidence and feeling better and better. I was third after the bike, but Conrad and Josiah were mere seconds in front of me; just as soon as I left T2 I took the lead, I knew that even if it didn´t show up in Kona my running shape was better than ever; keeping a nice rhythm I got to the top of the big climb, I took a look back and saw Nico Lebrun very close, I had to increse my peace, no problem, my legs were strong and I was feeling good. I didn´t want to be second again in a mayor event… I wanted to win… so I run Makena Beach as fast as I could and when I left the beach I took another glimpse back, Nico was still there but he was not closing the gap, I only had to keep the good rhythm, keep the focus to not hit a tree at Spooky Forest or crash in the lava rocks and the victory would be mine, great!! I enjoyed that last mile like never before, I felt so sad after Kona that I needed something like this, I needed to feel good again, to regain the lost confidence on myself… I crossed the finishline and I kissed Ruth, and I saw the cries in her face but this time her cries were sweat, those were cries of happiness, and I joined her and cried…
This victory doesn´t make me forget about Kona, but confirms me that it was just a bad day and that I’m doing things ok. We will leave Hawai soon, we will be sad for leaving this amazing islands, but happy to flight back home after more than three weeks here. Things turned upside down, I was supposed to do well at the Ironman and not that well at Xterra, but I did my best in both events, and I am very happy and proud of myself for that. I am already looking forward to be back next year and do my best again!
Big Mahalo to everybody for your support, I couldn´t do it without you!
