Geoff Steffens - Ironman World Championship - Kona, Hawaii - Race Report!
Congratulations to Geoff Steffens on his 2nd Ironman World Championship in Kona Hawaii (3rd world championship overall)
The Kona Report
Race Day October 6, 2022
As I write this Kona report I realize how much emotion goes into the journey to race on the “Big Island”. Likely, for most of you reading this you understand what I am talking about from the emotional aspect of striving for, training for, sacrificing for etc…to get to that damn rock in the middle of the ocean. In addition, the sacrifice of our families to help support us on our journey.
This was my Third Ironman World Championship and second trip to Kona as the 2021 Ironman WC was held in St. George, Utah (very hard race) in May of this year. As a side note, St. George in my opinion is one of the best courses to race on, 70.3 or 140.6.
The Race:
My build to the Kona this year was “good”. Some distractions and family commitments but blessed with no injuries and we arrived on the big island full of hope and anticipation for a great race. I arrived 5 days prior to the race and felt incredibly strong and fit for the race as I continued the taper going into race day. On the Tuesday before the race, I had a headache and chalked it off to hydration although it continued to Wednesday and I figured I might be getting a bit of a “bug” but no worries, I was here…
The Swim:
The swim was group starts with treading water waiting for the horn and we had a group of 618 for the 50-54 men. The largest group of the race. I went out strong and felt pretty good with the group that I ended up with of about 6-8 guys smashing each other. At the turnaround, I felt conservative and broke away from the group to attempt to bridge up to the group in front of me to increase my pace. All this did was string the group out behind me as we bridged up and work me into lactate threshold. At that point, I sat up and meshed into the group for an easier swim. I came out in decent shape around the top 30 and had a good transition onto the bike.
The Bike:
As I rode the first 30 miles, I felt pretty good and then my power started dropping, my body started to fail. I hit the nutrition hard and tried to recover but it was surreal in that I just had no “juice”. I quickly went from riding a 5:15 bike to somewhere around a 5:43 bike split. I was for sure feeling the heat and the later winds that sparked up for us. I came off the bike hopeful that my run would pull me back into the hunt to try and be in the race.
Geoff proudly standing with his trusty steed in Kona, Hawaii
The Run:
My nutrition was pretty good, and I felt I had a chance after a terrible day on the bike. I hit the first 5 miles on pace and was looking and feeling pretty good. Then I hit Palani and turned onto the Queen K. Poof…. all those good feelings just went out to sea. I was hot, tired and my legs felt so tired. It was a run of survival for me as I usually can run people down. As I gingerly ran down Palani for the home stretch to Alli drive, I was able to thank God, my family and my friends for helping support me to get back to this place again. I enjoyed and soaked up the final mile and crossed the finish line with a humble respect for the course, gratitude for being able to be there and not surprisingly a little burn to get better and come back again to prove to myself that I can put all three disciplines of the race together coupled with nutrition to have a successful race. The quest continues. And I age up. Look out old guys.
Video of Geoff starting the run!
Geoff crossing the finish line!!
Conclusion:
The following day, I developed a sore throat and general malaise after the race and found out 6 of 8 people I spent the week with tested positive for Covid. Big surprise, super spreader party on the island. I never tested as I felt okay but not great and had more of mild cold symptoms.
In summary, Kona has always been special to Ironman athletes as the cherry on top for achievements. I am hopeful it will recapture the essence of the World Championship. What do I mean? I still want to compete on the World stage and hope that Ironman realizes that the current format of 5000 racers is not a World Championship, it is a make money race.
