For 2024, The IRONMAN World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, was the ultimate goal for Dylan. Countless hours of training and races, just to prepare for this brutal challenge. Here’s the race report, written by Dylan!
“It took a while to put pen to paper about the Kona recap post. The result in Kona was a bitter pill to swallow. I went in with good fitness and an ambitious race plan. I executed the plan close to perfect on the swim & bike but crumbled in the run due to cramps. Dropping all the way from first place to 26th place 🫠
I was disappointed for a couple of days, but after some reflection I can be nothing but proud about the way I raced in Kona!
My race
The swim
It went well! I lost some feet at 750m and had to go balls out for 5min to close the gap but after that comfortably swam in a fast group. Unfortunately, around 3k in, I got a jelly fish to the face, luckily I could spit it out before it became a saltwaterjellycocktail. I did get a foot cramp as a result. But after some breast/back stroke I could swim again and swam the remaining 800m comfortably. Still happy with my swimtime under the 58 minutes and a top 30 in my AG!
The Bike 🤩
I got on the bike and figured I’d do the initial 10k technical part by race ‘feeling’ knowing that I could win time here. Once on the Queen K I glanced at my power and saw 300NP for the first 20minutes. It felt easy! It was a good sign and I settled in getting aero and rolling through the lava fields passing some small groups every couple of minutes.
My heartrate settled to the desired range (146-151) very quickly and I felt fantastic! At around 50k, right before the descent to the gas station, there was a big draft pack with about 20 guys sitting in, definitely not at 12m 🤷♂️ I passed them in the descent and put in a small surge to get a gap and then pushed on towards Havi. Between Havi & T2 I picked up the AG18-24 & AG25-29 leaders and pulled them along for the remaining 85km, the times I looked back they appeared at a legal 12m distance. It would’ve been great if they took some turns up front but unfortunately that was not the case. But hey, that’s racing..!
Over the bike ride I had drank just shy of 11L with 440g carbs and a ton of sodium. But still with 20km to go I started to feel a bit dehydrated and warm so slowed the pace. Power dropped a bit & core temp started to climb… but I still felt comfortable and was stoked to enter T1 as first AGer 🤩
Time: 4:23:15
Fastest in AG 🤙
On to the run:
I was confident in my run. The plan was to start out easy and not worry about people passing me, having the confidence that I could run a steady marathon and pick them up in the second half 😶🌫️
That was not the case lol. Already on Ali’i Drive I wasn’t feeling the way I should have. I focussed on cooling and drinking as best I could. My legs felt good, but cramps in my diaphragm and eventually also my stomach made it impossible to run faster than a shuffle 🫠 I gritted my teeth and pushed as best I could towards the finish. The Energy Lab and Queen K lived up to their brutal reputation and spat me out a broken man on Palani road.
Run 3hr49🪓
I’m glad I chose to race this way. Playing it safe might have given a better result in this case but that’s not the way I want to race, and that’s not the way I think I can deliver my best race performance! When you race to win you have to be prepared to lose 🤷♂️
Finishing time 9hr18
26th in AG25-29
Big changes are coming for 2025! Stay tuned 😉
