Kona Day 8 - Tuesday October 13th

Matias and I after the race on Saturday. I was not sure how I was going to get him home. Thanks to Shelly and Slake we made it. And now, Thursday, back in the continental US...waiting to board in DFW...final flight back to BWI.

Last full day. Woke up again past 6:00am (getting up between 4:30am and 5:00am eastern time was going to be difficult when we got back!). Headed to another hot yoga class. Matias met me after and we rode over to the aquatic center for a swim. After swimming rode back, stopped on the way to meet Mike, Shelly, and Slake at Lava Java. After some coffee and eats the guys decided to go snorkeling, while Shelly and I made spritzers and lounged by the pool for a few hours. Then it was time for Mike, Shelly, and Slake to go. We drove them to the airport, returned the PT cruiser, and then Matias and I picked up a rental for the last day (guess what kind?!...freakin PT cruiser). Sad to see them go….it had been an awesome week! Matias and I then continued heading south to drive the bike course. I was interested to see it. A bit hillier than I had expected…especially going into Hawi. Looked like great roads for riding. Headed back to the condo for the night.

Up early the next day for a run/bike/swim/bike…it has been fun just swimming, biking, running, and yogaing every morning. Headed downtown Kona for some last minute shopping and Shave Ice and then we were off to the port. It has been a tremendous vacation…sad to see it end…but ots of good times and memories.

Kona Day 7 - Monday October 12th

Well…finally felt like I am used to the time difference now…slept until 6:00am! Great…just in time to leave in 2 days. Matias and I headed out on our bikes over to the aquatic center. I love that pool. Matias swam about 45min an hoped out to meet the others for more Splashers action. I stayed in for another hour and rode back to the condo to meet up with everyone. We were heading to see some sites today. Shelly, Slake, Mike, Matias, and I headed out in the PT crusier for a little adventure (can I just say that I have counted at LEAST 60 PT cruisers in the last few days…must be a Hawiai thing). Our destination was Volcano (this is actually a town on Hawaii). First we drove out to some cliffs (the plan being to do some cliff jumping). We arrived to find a a lot of strong wind (made the trees all warped and slanted in one direction…made you feel like you were in a scary movie) and bunch of dudes fishing…no signs of any jumping. Not being sure how deep the water was, how cold the water was, how to climb back up…we made the decision that jumping in would be pretty random and decided against it. Although I could see it in Matias’s eyes that he was itching to jump. I would not let him. We walked around on the rocks for awhile. Matias taunted the fish. The scene was Amazing. Headed back on the rode towards the Volcano National Park. Temp was dropping. We left 90 degrees in Kona and it was now in the 60s. Good thing I had on a bathing suit. We entered the park. First stop was the Volcano Winery. This was great…I had now been to the only bikram yoga studio and the only winery on the big island (two of my most favorite things)! The wine was all very sweet. Several whites, one red, and a dessert wine. I love wine. The lady told us that this winery and one on Maui are the only 2 on the Hawaiin Islands…this was due to the need for cooler temperatures. Next went to the Welcome Center. Got some maps and headed out to check it out. Stopped at a few points where we could see a crater. It looked like Mars. I felt a little agoraphobic. It was freakin cold…so we wrapped towels around us. Saw a lava tube that we could walk through. Slake was hugely loving all of this. He was an awesome tour guide. Everyone began to get pretty tired, cold, wind blown. We wanted eats. We headed out of the park and toward the town of Volcano. Went to Thai Thai to check out one of the best thai joints of the area. After food and a few drinks we were all pretty spent. Headed into the car for the trek home. Everyone pretty much passed out. Thanks to Slake for making the push home. Got home and crashed around 10:00pm.

Kona Day 6 - Sunday October 11th

Up at 5:00am. I missed Sarah…headed out to the balcony to call her…we chatted for about an hour. Can’t go a week without seeing my lil sister…what a sissy! Headed back in to find everyone up and about. Matias seemed to be feeling pretty good. I felt relieved…poor guy did a number on himself. I decided I needed some Katie-time. Headed out on Bananas for a bike/swim. Instead of riding right to the pool I decided to do some mountain climbing for a bit. Headed up Palini. After about 45 minutes of climbing I decided I had enough and headed back down to the pool. Did an hour swim and then rode back to the condo. Solid workout. Shelly and Slake decided they needed an adventure so headed out for the day to do some site-seeing. Matias and I decided to chill for the day…headed over to the Sheraton pool. It was not nearly as hot today as race day. What a bust. After the pool we walked up to get dinner at Drysdale’s. Came home and checked out the beach behind our condos…black and white rocks are pretty cool. Lots of crabs and strange sucker things all over the rocks. This was a really great day…got to spend lots of quality time with my buddy.

Kona Day 5 - Saturday October 10th - Ironman World Championships

Up at 4:00am…as we had been up by 4 everyday this was not too bad at all. Matias seemed really awake and excited and ready to go. I felt nervous for him. You would have thought I was racing. Shelly, Mike, and I decided to get our workout in before the craziness began so ran to the race start (~10K). My longest run had been about 2 miles in the last few months…so would be a good test. Felt pretty good. Thinking the laying low on the bike for a few months is going to really help my running. Shelly and I arrived around 5:45am and met up with Mike. The place was starting to really fill of people. The scene was really something…I don’t even know how to describe it but the hugest tri party I had ever seen. All of the local restaurants and stores were starting to open up for customers. Then went to find Slake, who had drove the rental over with Matias. Said our final good lucks to Matias who was preparing in the hotel. Then went to find a good spot to watch the swim start. The sea wall was jam packed full of people…we had to walk a bit down to even get a spot to see. Finally found an opening and waited for the go. I looked out to the masses of people starting to tread out (swim started about 200 yards or so from the shore…they had to tread about 10 minutes). I thought about Matias out there in that mess and really felt nervous. Mass swim start…about 1,500 people all at the same time…cripes! They were off. It looked pretty wild from where we were standing. Hung there a bit and then headed to a location where we would be able to see about mile 2 and mile 12 on the bike. The pros were starting to come by. Freakin fast. So fast it made me dizzy to watch. Then we started watching for Matias. Shortly we spotted him…he was smiling and looking happy. We stayed in our spot because we should see him again on the way back around mile 12. Again looking really strong and solid. After that we would not see him again until the end of the bike. We had some time to kill. Shelly and I wanted to try and swim but it did not look like they would be opening up the swim course for awhile….so we just got in for a quick rinse. So the 4 of us decided to go to Lava Java for some eats. Hung there and then headed to transition to start looking for people finishing the bike. Pros would start showing up soon…maybe had 30 minutes. It was nearly 11:30am…it was bloody mary time! Shelly and I hit up a local bar, got some bloodys, and talked to some local volunteers. Pretty salty tasty. Headed out to watch into T2. Lieto was 1st… with a huge lead. Wellington soon followed as lead female…also with a huge lead. Matias came in still looking really strong and happy. He was CRUSHING it. Went a 5:02 on the bike…if he could pull off a 3 hourish marathon he would be close to a 9 hour Ironman. We headed out onto the run course…found a spot where we would see him at mile 10 and again at mile 25.2 (with one mile to go). Waited for awhile…then it was time to start spotting for him. We saw him coming…headed to the other side of the road to get a closer look. He came closer…visor was low…he looked sad. ehh uh oh. He high fived us. He just did not seem to have the same energy he had before. Slake got the update that he had been running 6:50min miles. That is some serious crushing. I was a little worried but stayed positive. It was HOT. I even felt nauseas and I was not doing anything. It was a hot beater day for everyone. Started getting updates from Betsy and Sarah at home online that he had hit mile 17 but had been averaging 9min miles. geez that did not sound good. Some of the pros came back through at mile 25.2. Shelly and Slake ran down to the finish area to see them finish. I hung at our place…I was too worried to shuttle around. They came back up and we all waited and waited…he should be coming any second now. My eyes began to hurt from looking. Finally I saw the Snapple blue. There he was. I yelled as loud as I could for him…you are almost there!!! Poor lil guy looked sad and hurtin bad news. I felt so sad for him. We ran down to the finish to see him finish. Matias had given me some family pases to get into the finish area. Shelly and I went in. He came across the line…Mathias Palavecino…Airplane Pilot from DC! I ran up to hug him and he could barely stand up. I felt kinda sick. He really looked and acted delerious…maybe even drunk…it was crazy. I held one arm and a volunteer held the other. He started grabbing for coke and gatorade and spilling it all over. This was a disaster. He was having a lot of trouble walking. The volunteer and I led him into the med tent…they would not let me in. ARGGGG. I ran around looking through the gate to see where they were putting him. This place was a freakin war zone. This was awful. All these tough guys looking so miserable…it was quite nauseating. He laid down for awhile and then he just got up and started to leave…I lost him. Then a few minutes later found him sitting in a chair throwing up in a bag. oh god. I stayed with him till he was done and then we found a bathroom. Shelly and Slake started gathering up his stuff (change of clothes, swim stuff, bike stuff, etc). While Matias laid on me and a bench for awhile. He fell asleep for a bit. Finally we had everything (except for his running shoes, which he had left somewhere…Slake tried to track them down but no luck). Then we had to figure out how to get him to the car. It was decided that Slake would ride his bike home and Shelly and I would help him to the car (which was kindof a rough walk…all uphill). Matias started staggering away. We ran after him with all the stuff. We did not make it far…outside of the hotel he sat down like he was going to throw up again. I felt we needed to get him back in the med tent. How did these people let him out of there anyways?! He said no…lets keep going. So we did. Started up the hill…he seemed to be doing better. We made it to the car. I felt a HUGE relief. Now it was just home, shower, food, and sleep for him. Once we got back to the condo he showered, ate a pizza, laid down, looked and talked like he was feeling much better. He quickly started to doze off. I was EXHAUSTED. Took a lot out of me seeing him like that. Even tough guys learn their lesson. GEEZ.

Matias's Race Report