All about the Ironman World Championship in Kona

Detailed show notes

A fifth Kona trip, a fourth race on the island

George counts Kona 2018, St. George 2021, and Kona 2022, 2023 and 2025. Jenny adds 2024, when she supported Sotiris in the men’s race. This year, she arrived around ten days early without doing the island’s big long sessions. Jet lag hit from day three. Her coach is Thodoris Kazis, with two other women in the same race.

She stayed in a quieter area, approximately 45–50 km from Kona. She woke around 02:30, ate rice and left at 03:30. She started in the 35–39 wave, ten minutes after the pros, alongside Christina Krachtoudi.

Wind, heat and the swim

Crosswinds prompted her to change both wheels and remove the front bottles, sacrificing speed for safety. Average race temperature was around 32 degrees, with humidity. She expected over 1:10 in the water and saw approximately 1:06. George reads out 1:44/100 and 18th in her swim category, her second-best Kona swim.

There was current and swell at the turnaround; she swam a long section alone before rejoining a group. She slipped on the wet carpet in T1. George reads T1 as 3:16 and T2 as 3:10; she put on aero socks in both.

Cycling to Hawi, a marathon from kilometre zero

She left Kona in 13th and reached Hawi in fourth. Fuelling included gels and a carbohydrate mix, with Coca-Cola on the return. She could not recall the sodium milligrams at the time.

From her first running step, she knew the marathon would not go to plan. She did not walk; she divided it into four 10K sections. She finished 13th in her age group. George reads 97th overall out of 1,568, her best overall placing, compared with 686th in 2018 with 9:56. She fought to the end on Palani. She said “never again” and has already entered Africa.