Mark M's Alohaman Race Report

Hi All,

Here's my race report from the Alohaman.

The Alohaman starts at Hapuna Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii goes up and over the Saddle Road towards Hilo and returns to the Westin Hapuna Bay resort. The run starts with a loop in the resort and then heads north on the Queen K and Road 270 towards Hawi to a turn around about 8 miles north of Kawaihae. 59 people registered for the inaugural race, 34 showed up, but only 27 started. It is a self-supported race and Susan was my support person. The scariest part of the race for me was the bike at 112 miles and 10,300 feet of climbing. The cut off for the bike was 6 PM and making that was the limiting factor for this race. The run cut off was 2 AM so if I made the bike cut off I figured I could easily walk the marathon with time to spare if I had too.  

The swim in Hapuna Bay was shortened to 3,600 yards due to dangerous currents and manta rays, so instead of 2 loops out into the bay it was 3 loops parallel to the shore. Compared to the Alaskaman the swim was luxurious. I didn’t need a spec of neoprene but I did wear my Roka swimsuit. The swim started with a running beach start and we had to exit the water between each lap and run around the life guard tower. The first time out I ran but running on the loose sand spiked my heart rate so I walked the second lap and then off the beach for the finish. We had to climb up a steep lava trail to T2 so I took it easy on the climb.  

Swim time: 1:12  

T2 was out of the back of our car and was fairly relaxed. I wore my Desoto cool skin sleeves for sun protection along with a tight fitting bike jersey. Sunscreen, nutrition, shoes, helmet on and I was ready to head out when I discovered the back tire was flat. It had held air all night so I must have hit one of the thorns on the plants next to the parking lot. If I had to get a flat that was the best place for it. I was not on the side of the road and I had a spare tube and floor pump. My goal was to be out on the bike by 8:45 or 9 at the latest, but even with the flat I was out of T2 at 8:30. So far so good.  

The bike course went south on the Queen K, left at Wiakoloa Road and then to the Saddle Road. It starts a little above sea level and climbs to 6,600 feet in 44 miles. There are a few downhill sections in the first 44 miles so I had climbed over 7,000 feet by the time I got to the high point. Then the course dropped down about 1,600 feet in 9 miles to the turn around.  

The climb is steady with false flats punctuated by long steep sections. I was able to stay in the 150-170 watt range for most of the climb but there were some short punchy sections where I had to go higher, sometimes way higher, than I wanted. Susan was leapfrogging me and keeping me supplied with food and drinks. My job was to keep moving forward and manage the day.  

Since the race was so late in the year, I had to do a bulk of the bike training indoors on the trainer. I logged several 6 hour trainer rides with only a small fan set on low to cool me. It felt pretty brutal when I was doing that but in hindsight it was very beneficial for the race. The long climbs without downhill sections felt familiar after such long trainer sessions. I had a slight tailwind on the way out so when I was climbing it was dead air and the temp was in the upper 80’s. It certainly didn’t feel like December.  

By the time I got to the high point I had already had a few instances with minor cramping in my legs. That concerned me a little since I had to descend 9 miles, turn around and climb 1,600 feet to get back. The good thing was that I was an hour ahead of where I needed to be to make the cut off when I started heading down. Surprisingly I cramped more going downhill than I had going up. I think that was because I was spinning so much faster going down than I was when I was going up. I got to the turn around and headed back. One last stop at the lone aid station and then the fun began. I had 6,600’ of elevation to shed and pretty much all I had to do was keep the bike under me and hang on.  

I love descending fast on a bike. To me there’s nothing liking getting into a good tuck and letting the bike fly. I can hear the commentators saying, “Don’t try this at home.” Yeah right. Unfortunately, I couldn’t let it fly as much as I’d like because I had to stay on the shoulder (or risk getting DQ’ed or pulled over by the cops) and there was enough of a side wind that even with shallow wheels I was getting blown around a bit. I mostly rode on the horns of my tribike and tucked in when I could and sat up when I needed to slow down a little. It was a blast. The last 7 miles on the Queen K brought me back to reality since I had to work some to get over the rollers, but I was heading to T2 soit was OK.   

Bike Stats 8:13:22, 107 miles, 371 TSS, NP 147, Elevation gain 9,275 (I wanted the 10k the race promised!) 

T2 

Susan was at T2 with cow bells to welcome me in. I had asked her to bring me some poke, seaweed salad and rice with soy sauce because I was sick of sweet stuff. I changed clothes and sat down to eat before heading out. The rice and poke was so good! Highly recommended in a long race where speed is not your main concern.  

The first two miles of the run head straight up from the parking lot with 600’ of elevation gain. After the bike I knew I wasn’t going to be running that so Susan and I headed out walking. We started running once we got to the top and it started heading down. At mile 3 we were back at the entrance road to the resort and Susan went back to the car and I headed out to the Queen K. I ran with short walk breaks every mile for the next 6 miles. I had a bottle with Skratch Labs Hydration and sipped on it during the walk breaks. It was a beautiful evening. The moon was just past first quarter and it was very clear. I could turn off my headlamp and see well enough to walk with moonlight. Occasionally I’d see another runner heading the other way and we’d cheer each other on. It was pretty sweet.  

Susan, Cassie (my daughter), and her boyfriend Mike met me around mile 9. I changed the bottle our for some Body Armor drink, got more nutrition and Mike started running with me. By then my legs were pretty toasted and there wasn’t much running left in them. We walked up hill and ran downhill until even that got to be too much. Mike was a good sport about it and it was good to have him there to chat with. Susan and Cassie met us one last time with about 4 miles to go and then we were on our own. We rolled into the resort and down to the finish line. Susan, Cassie, Marissa (my other daughter), and her boyfriend Matt were there to welcome us across the finish line. I finished around 11:30 with a 16:32:51 final time. 59 people registered, 34 people started and 27 finished. I finished 18th overall and was the oldest person to finish. The next oldest finisher was 4 years younger than me.  

Run stats: Time 6:26:53, 27.0 miles, 187 TSS, elevation gain 1,562’ 

At the race meeting, Aaron Palian said that they were putting the Alaskaman, Island Extreme Tri, and the Alohaman on hiatus for at least a year. He had told himself that if he couldn’t make a living putting them on then it wasn’t worth the time away from his family. So I may remain the oldest person to ever finish the Alaskaman and the Alohaman. I’m glad I got to do them but I don’t know if I’d do them again. Aaron also runs the Odyssey Swim Run races and he said they’re thinking about adding a gravel triathlon to the event they do in the San Juan Islands in Washington State. I told him I’d sign up for that and so would Susan. Perhaps that, and gravel biking in general, is the next adventure to explore.