Well not all of it, but I swam part the Iron Man Race here in Kona Hawaii as a warm up with my brother. Apparently the day before the race, the athletes do a little fine tuning with a little swim. We swam about 1/5 of the way to the turnaround and stopped (treaded water) at a coffee bar on a catamaran anchored just off the 3rd buoy.
Chad, Liam & Darin at the Iron Man Swim Start
I’m in pretty good shape, but I didn’t even scratch the surface of 1/3 of the race and I was huffing and puffing. I have new respect for these turbo boosted athletes with hearts the size of coconuts. I can’t even imagine finishing the swim much less the bike and run. It looked as if the final turnaround buoy was in the middle of the Pacific somewhere. Of course I would rather just take my time and swim under water with the fish, which you really can’t do if your swimming freestyle coming up for air every 2 seconds.
So it is with this crazy sport .. go go go, but I did enjoy the coffee bar in the middle of the ocean. It was sort of surreal treading water drinking coffee in the deep blue pacific and I don’t really drink coffee. I just wanted the jolt to get me back to shore, which really worked.
So if your stuck out in the middle of the ocean with no energy, look for the coffee bar on a catamaran, even if its an illusion, if you could imagine taking a shot, your brain doesn’t know the difference between what you imagine and reality… boost would soon ensue.
Next up… the results.