2007 Hawaii Ironman World Championship Video

So, We want to give a HUGE thanks to Pinky for putting this movie together for us. She is AMAZING! It is exactly the way we felt while we were in Hawaii, While Matt raced, while we enjoyed the island, and while we mourned Brent's death. She helped us capture every emotion perfectly. I must have watched this DVD 10 times already. I love it and I hope you will enjoy it, too. Below the movie I am attaching M's own run down of the race which I said I would post at some point and I think this is the perfect time to do it...He sent it in an email and I am going to post it exactly the way he sent it. Thanks Again Pinky! You are the best!



---- Matt's Account of the Hawaii Ironman From October 2007----
All,

Well both Erin and myself are back from a great trip to the big island of Hawaii and a successful first Ironman World Championships. Below is a recap of the event more for myself so I can reflect on it in future years, so if your interested please read on and if not you can stop now and delete.

Let me start by thanking all of you for your encouragement and support in the days leading up to the race and on race day. I'm amazed at how many of you tracked me on race day.. I apologize now for making it a slightly longer day than Ironman Arizona, but I was enjoying myself so much I just wanted to be out there longer. ;o)

It's a little long but here we go...

PRE RACE

Brent Guess: As many of you know Brent Guess was a very good friend of mine, he was my office mate for the last three years at Sandia National Labs and one of the main people who got me into Triathlons and he himself had done several half ironmans and had hopes of doing an Ironman one day. I was devastated when I received the call from his wife Edi on the morning of Oct 7th telling me that Brent had passed away in his sleep that night while on vacation with his family in Florida. At 36 years old he was an amazing father of three (12, 10 & 7), loving husband and one of the most genuinely nice people I had the honor of knowing. My immediate reaction was that I would need to skip the race to stay and support Edie and the kids but almost immediately I had the overwhelming feeling that Brent would want me to do this race. So I met with Edie and the kids when they returned Sunday afternoon and we decided that I should go. As a side note as many of you on this email can relate to Brent and his young age the autopsy found absolutely nothing wrong with him, no stroke, no heart attack, no aneurysm.... Nothing.... The ME said he died peacefully in his sleep. To some this may anger but to me and my family and to Edie it was a testimony that Brent was needed else where and called to serve in another place where his special spirit was needed more. This doesn't make the pain any less or definitely answer the question 'why' but it does comfort me and I know it to be true. So I dedicate this race to Brent and I can only say his presence was felt as I swam, road, ran and sometimes struggled across the big island of Hawaii.

Kona: The minute I stepped off the plane I knew this was going to be a great but challenging week in more ways than one. The island is beautiful and while driving and riding portions of the course I knew this event was going to be significantly harder then IMAZ. My first ocean swim ever was two days prior to this event and it was nice to feel the extra bouncy of the salt but the constant up and down of the swells and the taste of the salt water took some getting used to. But it's not everyday that you get to watch schools of fish and sea turtles on your training swims. . The bike course runs to the north end of the island, it is hilly and windy, the wind patterns on the big island are such that you can have a head wind on the way out in the morning, the famous cross winds of Hawi that can blow you off your bike on the north end and then when you come back into town you have steady head wind due to the heated lava fields.. So yes head winds in both directions (kind of like up hill both ways).. But it's a beautiful course and I couldn't wait to get on it. The run course is hilly and runs through the town of Kona and North to the a famous sections of the course called the Energy lab... Though there is an actual State Energy lab at the end of this section for the IM it is also known as the human energy lab because if the sun is out it is incredible hot and with a climb out of it you can enter this area doing ok but leave totally devoid of energy faced with over 6miles to go... But again I was excited and ready for the challenge. More on this later. My final observation was on the caliber of the competition. Somewhere along the way I missed the fact that this was the World Championships, only the top 3% of Ironman finishers in the world (55,000 try and 1800 get in), and it truly is an international event, I met more people from other countries then I did from the US. And all of them were skinnier (3% body fat), fitter looking, and much more intense then I was, I truly felt under prepared but reassurances from Erin and my friend Lon kept me grounded and assured me I would be fine... All I could do was trust them.

THE RACE OCTOBER 13th 2007 7:00AM

SWIM: The swim portion of this Ironman is off the Kona Coast, you swim south 1.2 miles turn around and swim back, several 100 yards off the shoreline.

As I treaded water 3min before the cannon went off all I could think about was the fact that everyone around looked like they had gills, were born in the water and lived in it when they weren't on the bike or running. At 2min the announcer called out 2min but 15sec later the cannon went off and all 1900 of us were off.. Needless to say it caught all of off guard. The first 10 strokes of the swim went great then I got an elbow in the left eye that made it feel like my goggle had been pushed into my eye socket. It did not feel good and kind of through my stroke off for a while.. For some reason the swim was way more violent then IMAZ and I had a hard time getting any rhythm with people constantly swimming over and through me. I also ingested quite a bit of salt water, not be choice, and at about a 3/4 of a mile I had to regroup and force myself not to throw up. By the turn around things had gotten a little better and on the way back I was finally able to relax and enjoy the scenery below (no sharks) but I knew my time was going to be slow... My goal was 1:05 so when I came out at 1:13 I was a little bummed. And the emptiness of the transition bag racks and bike racks was evident that I had some ground to make up...

BIKE: I was grateful to be out of the water and onto the bike for 112mile ride. The bike starts out with a little 8mile out and back before you climb up to the Queen K highway and head north to turn around at Hawi. For the past two years the Hawaii winds had been absent on the bike course so everyone was calling for things to return to normal... And they did.. As I made my way out on the Queen K I noticed there was a steady wind out of the north so which was usually a fast rolling hills section of the course was going to be more of a grind. This hit me mentally a little because I had planned for it but I settled down and just started peddling, drinking and eating. Not much else to do. But I could see my pace was going to be slower then I had hoped, but at this point I was just happy to be on my way and enjoying myself. About 7miles from the turn around the road turns up for a long climb into a the town of Hawi, the climb itself is not that bad but the 30-40MPH side and head gusts buffeted you all over road making it a little nerve racking at times... Didn't see anyone get blown off there bike but it was funny to see all the people in front of me leaned over into the wind ride through a wind break and almost fall over because they didn't have the wind supporting them up anymore. Finally the turn around and a little tail wind to push me back down the hill.. This was a little nerve racking in itself, cruising down the hill at +35MPH while side gust buffet you all over the road, but I sure wasn't going to let a little wind stop me from enjoying my downhill that I worked so hard to get, so I hung on and made it down safely. Things are OK for about 20miles then you take the right turn back onto the Queen K for the final 32miles, 80down 32 to go. This is the same section of course that in the morning I grinded north through a head wind but now heading south I was greeted by a hot (blow dryer like) head wind from the South. But I had listened to the advice of my friend Lon and had purposely held back until this point so I felt really good and mentally, I was expecting these winds so I attacked them with a new found energy and was able to power my way home passing several hundred people as I went smiling the whole way. Again I was off pace. I had hoped for 5:00-5:15 and ended coming in 5:34:34... Just above 20MPH.

RUN: This is my passion and part of the day I look forward to. Into transition 2 (T2) I was grateful to see that there were more transition bags still left hanging and the bike racks were less full then they were empty from the swim.. So I had made up some ground. Through T2 I noticed that my arms had gone from a pasty white (standard color) to a bright red, apparently the sun block applicators in T1 missed a few spots.. Luckily they had a guy with a back pack mounted bug sprayer filled with sun block and he hosed me down so I knew the damage would be minimized to the bike. OK let me start by stating the three days leading up to the race the clouds in Kona would roll in about 1:00 and block out the sun making for a warm but pleasant afternoon.. Now this was the three days leading up to the race so one would expect that pattern to hold. NOT. At 2:00, the time I started the run, there was not a cloud in the sky and it was Hot. The first ten miles of the course are down on Alii drive that follows right along the shoreline but a constant line of condos (wind breaks) lay between it and the ocean breeze so it gets hot. I would have to say this was easily the hottest most humid 10miles I have ever run. fortunately Lon had warned me of this so I was ready for it, sort of, with a water bottle that I carried with me and constantly filled up with ice water to pour on myself as I went... Let's just say I was drenched 400 meters into the run. So a away I went running very cautiously, my legs felt great but the heat and humidity beating down on me felt like someone had opened up a facet to my energy stores and they were just draining away. The first five miles were south along Alii drive were steady (my first time split on ironmanlive.com) then I turned around and headed back and at this point the heat just ate me up, I was heading north so what little breeze there was at my back and the little rolling hills just seemed a whole lot steeper. I maintained through 8 miles no one had passed me but I finally broke and had to slow down if I wanted to finish, my Heart Rate was way down in the 130s but I just felt whipped. At 11miles you climb up off Alii drive and up onto the Queen K, there is one hill that is very short but very steep that they call Pay'N'Save hill, again there used to be a Pay N Save grocery store at the top of it giving it's name but again it has meaning to the course because it pays to save and go slow up this hill because the energy lab is not to far away, as I struggled up the hill and people started to pass I could only tell myself that if I was patient it would get better... Onto the Queen K you are out in the wide open and the sun has an unobstructed path straight to you but you can feel the ocean breeze so it's hot but bearable. As I headed out I could only smile as I could see the heat waves radiating off the lava fields, several more people passed me by. At mile 13 I finally had to stop due to some serious GI issues and hit the bathroom. Once out of the bathroom and back on the course it was like a switch went off in my head and things started turning in the right direction. My pace went from a shuffle to a run and things just started to click and I knew at that point the rest of my day was going to be GREAT!! I quickly caught and passed all those that had passed me earlier and then some. At mile 16 you enter the 3.5mile section they call the energy lab and this is were carnage really starts to pile up. By this point I was blowing by people like they were walking, because most of them were walking, it was so hot the road looked wavy due to the heat and humidity but I didn't care because I was going to power through this and get to the finish and back to Erin. At the bottom of the energy lab the north bound turn around and the second run check point and the start of the 1.5 mile climb out of the energy lab. It was a grind but I wasn't slowing down for anyone, people were looking at me like I was crazy but all I could do was smile... Out of the energy lab and back onto the Queen K, 10K to go only 6.2Miles left in my 140.6 mile journey. Mile 8 - 13 were probably some of the toughest miles I have ever run and I would have to say miles 20-26.2 were some of the best even with 9.5hrs of effort already in my body. I felt like I was floating along passing hundreds of people and just smiling the whole way. The last quarter mile of the Ironman World Championships is along Alii drive and it is famous for one of the best race finishes, watch the NBC coverage of this event on Dec 1st (I think) and they will talk about how special it is. I didn't think much of it until I turned the corner onto Alii and was met with thousands of fans 4 and 5 deep cheering you home and it only gets better the closer you get and then there it is the finish line. At this point I slowed down and just enjoyed the moment and reflected on my family and how much I love them, the loss of Brent, and the hundred of early morning hours I spent alone training for this moment. I raise my arms as I cross and stumble into the volunteers and then there's my beautiful Erin smiling and giving stinky old me a hug.. It was the best and something I will never forget! 3:23:51..

FINISH: 10 hours 20 minutes 14 seconds I'm done about 30min slower then I had hoped but I have no regrets the course was challenging in so many ways and was true test of everything I had. As I've stated before Ironman is so much more then just the race it's an event that stretches and touches you well before the actual event and stays with you long after it is over. I want to thank my wife Erin and the kids for all of their support and encouragement through this whole process w/o them I wouldn't be able to achieve what I have been able to do. Erin's mom and my Mom for watching the kids while we were away and Lon for coaching me and bestowing all your knowledge of this event that you earned over several races here. I finished this one stronger and in better shape then IMAZ and was able to enjoy our remaining time in Hawaii with out to much pain, the sunburn was the worst of it. I plan to do Hawaii again, on this day I didn't leave a lot out there but there are several areas to improve on...but it won't be for a few years, hopefully 09.

Thanks again for all of your thoughts, encouragement and support on race day.

Brent, this one was for you. Thank you for being with me through out the day especially through the tough spots on the bike and run and at the end when I was flying to the finish line. I will miss you always but the memory of this day will always include you and make me smile. Thanks man... Until we meet again.