Honolulu Triathlon 2024: twenty-five minutes, mostly on the bike

This was the same course as 2014 and 2023 and my third time at Ala Moana, and I'll admit it was the first time I came off that course without feeling like I needed to apologize to somebody for something.

I took 25 minutes off my 2023 time and Jay took 26 off his, and while a little of that came in the swim and some of it came on the run, most of it was the bike. I rode the 40K in 1:15:48 and Jay rode it in 1:05:31, and the difference between this year and last year was Jay's tri bike, my bike fit, and a winter of rides on the trainers. I was still on my road bike, and I'd stay on it through Honu. Put the same two people on the same course twelve months later with a winter like that behind them and this is what you get, and the whole thing was homework, which is the part I'm actually good at.

The swims were 26 minutes for me and 23 for Jay, both quicker than the year before, and I honestly don't know why. I'd like to have a reason for it but I don't, so I'll leave it at quicker.

Race mornings at Ala Moana are a lot of people in a small space at an early hour, and I am not a lot-of-people person. I get through it by doing everything in the same order I always do and not talking much until the swim is over, and then the swim is over and it's a bike ride, and a bike ride I can handle.

Two weeks later was Honu, my first 70.3, so this was the rehearsal, the same as it had been for Jay the year before. My transitions were 5:15 and 3:47, which is a long time to spend putting on shoes, and I had fourteen days to get better at it.