Kona Karen

There are times in everyone's life when you set a goal and are scared to commit to it. Making your goal public can be the hardest thing but often the best thing to make sure you don't forget it and never forget it's purpose. For you to openly state that you want to do needs believability and credibility, so when someone says they are going to qualify for Kona then you know that they will have thought long and hard about the sacrifices and reality of achieving such a dream. If I remember correctly that was her dream and she achieved it. She probably wanted more but being there and seeing what she saw from the start line is, as I said already, only something many of us can dream of. It is a road that takes years of dedication and sacrifice, and getting there is the battle. So well done for being brave enough to state your goal and congratulations for achieving it. Next time you will get more back from the race!

As for the race, the weather conditions for the 31st anniversary of Ironman were hot, with temperatures reaching well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit during the bike and run portions. The pros Craig Alexander and Great Britain's Chrissie Wellington defended their titles. Alexander added a second consecutive World Championship title to his resume, while Wellington added a third. Wellington's overall time of 8:54:02 broke the course record set in 1992 by Ironman icon, Paula Newby-Fraser.

As a final thought there were 1,770 athletes on the start line in the race in an attempt to conquer the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run on the Big Island of Hawaii, so if the world population is approaching 6.7 billion people that makes Kona Karen in the top 0.00002639% of potential triathletes in the WORLD! Read my lips "WORLD"! Well done you.