Craig Alexander
En route to his final stop of the year in Hawaii, Alexander also won St.Croix 70.3 in the Virgin Islands and the Australian Long Course Championship. Not bad for a guy who is only into his first season of Ironman racing.
After such a long racing season, it must be quite a relief to be home and to have the year finished.
It was definitely a long year for me at around 7 months, about 2 months longer than usual, but it was a good season so I can’t complain.
What’s it like when you’re at Hawaii and you’re one of the people being talking about?
It was fun because it was a race I’ve always wanted to do and it took me a while in my career to get there. I always wanted to go there and to be a contender; I didn’t want to make up the numbers. I knew how hard it was going to be but it’s the holy grail of our sport, so as much as there was pressure, it was still a lot of fun! Hawaii was my first introduction into the sport seeing Welchy (Greg Welch) win in ’94, so it was kind of like going full circle for me.
When you get there [Hawaii], is there a vibe about the place when you first fly in and start to look around?
Definitely, particularly during race week. Kona’s got an atmosphere and vibe like no other. I’ve raced pretty much of all the big races in our sport, and this race stands alone, kind of like the Tour de France of Triathlon. Certainly the media hype and the buzz around Alii Drive (the site of the last 200 metres of Ironman Hawaii) in race week is something I’ve never experienced.
If you weren’t a professional triathlete, what would you be?
I don’t know ... I always wanted to be a professional sports person. I played soccer for 12 years and dabbled in all sports really. I'm a qualified physiotherapist so I've got the little piece of paper somewhere that says if you sprain your ankle or hurt your back then I am the man to see! Actually, I don’t know if I am the man to see! (laughs)
When you went to Kona this year, obviously your form was good but did you feel it was perfect?
Its funny because obviously I had never raced in Kona. I did the Australian Ironman this year but it was well known that I wasn’t in the best shape in April. I was just watching and being a student of the sport. Watching how the sport has unfolded at that (Ironman) distance, the guys who were going well in October weren’t really winning races in April. That being said, I didn't want to embarrass myself in April at Port Macquarie (Ironman Australia). I still got a podium finish and I think I learnt a lot and laid down a bit of a blueprint for my training later in the year. You know when you're going to do something that you have never done before there is always a little apprehension and fear, but my form going in (to Kona) was good. Before Kona I had done 11 races and won 7 of them, so I guess I had a bit of momentum there and a lot of confidence even though it was a different distance. The media and everyone kept reminding me that Kona was a different kettle of fish and I totally expected it to be that. So with that in mind, I sought the advice of a lot of people, did a lot of homework, watched a lot of the coverage of the race in years past to watch how the race played out. I sought as much advice from people who had won the race or who had been competitive there as I could and then tried to prepare as best I could.
Who was your major source of information about the race? Did you look to someone who had actually won before or who had done well at Hawaii?
I spoke a lot to Greg Welch, to Michellie (Jones) and I was in Boulder (Colorado) so I would talk with Dave Scott pretty much on a daily basis at the pool. I'd probably fire 5 or 10 questions at him everyday or every week at least, and you know they were all very generous with their time. Obviously not everyone trains the same, but a lot of things they had done and a lot of their nutrition was similar. There was a lot of crossover between what they had all done I think. From that I gained a little bit of confidence in that I had got their 'blueprint' as to what had been successful for them. I super-imposed that on what I had planned to do which gave me confidence. I had prepared as best as I could. No one could control what would happen on race day or how things were going to play out. I had trained hard and prepared as well as I could. That being said, I had what you could call the necessary level of fear going into a race.
Gold medal at the next Olympics at Beijing or Hawaiian Ironman victory ... which would you prefer?
Ahh that’s tough for me personally … that’s a tough question - probably Kona (Hawaiian Ironman). I mean, I dabbled with the ITU stuff, but as I said before I never really did any more than 10 – 15 World Cup races. I never spent long enough in that style of racing to really appreciate what a gold medal would mean, whereas I've spent most of my career doing the longer distance races or just the non-drafting races. I guess if you go down that path, then Kona (or the Hawaiian Ironman) is the Holy Grail. I guess that's the thing I've been chasing the longest. That being said, I wouldn't say no to either of them. I think either one is an amazing achievement.
