What a roller coaster of emotions. I went to the awards ceremony only to look at the official results up on the wall and I was now down as fifth place. A girl from nowhere appeared as the winner with no swim time, no bike time and no run time. Just an overall finish time. I queried it with the race director and he said she lost her chip in the swim and they had a finish time for her so that was that. We’ve always been told that if you lose your chip in the swim you have to go to transition, report it and get another one. No chip, no time. Also they had a new style here and if I may put my neck on the line I can’t imagine it coming off. It is elasticated and doesn’t just wrap around. You have to put your leg through the elastic band and then close the two Velcro sides. It’s very secure. Anyway there went my chance of Kona now in fifth place but still I got up on the podium for a nice trophy as they award five places here.
Then on to Kona slots. My age group. Three slots cos it’s so big. First name, the ‘winner’ with no chip, no time went up and took the first slot. Two left now. The second girl’s name was called out and she passed on the slot. Ooh, I started to get excited now. Still two slots left. Third place girl was called and there was a shout from the back of the room. (When you accept the Kona place you have to stand up and shout ‘YES’). So, One place left, the girl who finished 40 seconds ahead of me. My heart was beating and I was on the edge of my seat. She shouted out YES, took the slot and went up. My heart sank now. But wait, the previous girl still hadn’t gone up. A few mins went past when I realised that actually she had called out that she wasn;t taking it. Oh. My. God, that meant one slot was still left, he went to the list and then he called out Linda Blakely, well I jumped out of the chair like I hadn’t done an ironman race and forgetting all blisters and sore legs I totally ran across the stage. To be presented with my Kona coin and passport. By the same race director I’d queried the results with. I think he was pleased for me lol.
I called my blog ‘My quest for Kona’ when I set it up two years ago. Now I have achieved my dream, the desire that kept me pushing every day for years and I am over the moon.
I did my first ironman race in 2010 and finished in 25th place in my age group in a time of 13 hour 45 mins. It certainly hasn’t been overnight but my results have steadily crept up over the 7 years. It has been a long road and now I will be after a sub 10 hour ironman race and working towards standing on the top of the podium instead of being on the edge.