Here are my predictions for the men’s race. With the absence of Peter Reid and Tim Deboom there is not a dominant runner. I always like dominant runners. But wait a minute. Chris McCormack last year had the fastest run after a disaster bike. And we all know he can bike and swim just as well. So my prediction is for Chris McCormack to run away with the men’s title. He will have to run down some cyclists including Faris and a few others but that is the prediction.
I like to divide the race between a windy difficult year and a fast year. On a fast year the fast runners are very hard to beat. But on a windy difficult year the fast cyclist have a chance to get away as the wind just basically makes the bike ride longer. But I am predicting it will not matter. The runners have learned that they can not give the cyclist too much room because like two years ago, Norman Stadler got too far away and no one caught him.
Chris McCormack like our own Mark Allen had to learn the Kona ropes the hard way. I think he is due. Here is my list.
1. Chris McCormack
2. Cameron Brown
3. Faris Al Sultan
4. Cameron Widoff
5. Jan Van Rooyen
Today was a really mellow day for me. I hung out at the condo all morning getting ready and organizing all my stuff. I pinned my numbers on my run and bike clothes and attached numbers to my bike and helmet, all really boring stuff. I later got a massage and went back to the booth to close up shop.
Tonight I attended the carbo-loading dinner. I really enjoy going to it every year. They have a great Hawaiian and Polynesian music show. I hope you enjoy the movie above. They make all Ironman Hawaii finishers stand up. Then if you finished Hawaii five times or more you stay up otherwise you sit down. I made that cut. Then they keep upping the number until only a few athletes are standing. Some people have done Hawaii more than 20 times amazingly enough. As part of MarkAllenOnline I get to sit in the VIP area, good thing because there are so many people at this thing that you end up in another zip code if you are not there early. The carbo-loading dinner has a lot of presentations and it included a soldier who lost a foot in Iraq and is doing Ironman. That was very moving. He got on stage and said, 'If Saturday you are out there and start feeling sorry for yourself you are missing the whole point of this. You are alive.' I have to keep that in mind Saturday.