Dawn Henry catches up with Luke McKenzie and Linsey Corbin
Published Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Linsey Corbin took fifth at the 2008 Ford Ironman World Championship, the first woman from the United States to cross the line here in Kailua-Kona. Australian Luke McKenzie has garnered three Ironman wins in the last year and a half, missing a fourth just weeks ago in Louisville by only 30 seconds, and has an Ironman World Championship best placing of 19th in 2007.
Q: So, how long have you been in Kona?
Corbin: I got here on September 4th.
McKenzie: I got here on September 11th.
Q: How has training gone so far?
McKenzie: I'm in my hardest training weeks of the year right now and I'm definitely feeling it. That means a lot of massage, a lot of daytime naps between training sessions. The weather's turned it on. There's lots of wind, which always makes it hard. But it's preparing us well for the race.
Corbin: The first few days here are always a shock to the system, getting used to the heat and the winds and the conditions. But after a couple of days, I've gotten into a good routine. There've been a lot more professional athletes training out here this time around, so it's nice. You always have people to train with. For me, I've been training predominantly with men, so it gets me out of my comfort zone. They've been nice enough to let me draft off them on the bike or tow me around in the water.
McKenzie: It's not that we were letting you, it's just that we can’t drop you, that's all.
Corbin: They can't get rid of me! I feel healthy and strong, and the sessions have been going well.
Q: You've both been training in the Pacific Northwest before coming to Kona. Since you've both been to Kona several times in the past few years, can you anticipate what it'll feel like here when you're training elsewhere?
Corbin: You can mentally prepare to a certain extent that it's going to be really hot and really hard, but experiencing it is something different. That's a lot of the reason that I come out early. You can't really simulate the conditions anywhere but here. People ask all the time, "How can you ride the Queen K every day?" But you never know what you're going to get out there, where the tailwinds or the headwinds or the crosswinds will be. I never get bored with it. It's always something different.
McKenzie: I've actually found myself enjoying riding into the wind this month, and I really started to relax in it. And I think that's the advantage of coming out here early – you get to be one with the wind. You know, not letting it bother you, getting used to it.
Corbin: By race day, when it's windy, it's like, this is no big deal. I'll have ridden the course so many times. It's really advantageous. But don't tell everyone.
Q: It'll be our little secret. Linsey, you crossed the line in fifth last year. Tell us about your day.
Corbin: It was definitely one of my career highs. It was a great day. But there's always things you feel you can improve on and things you wish you had done differently. I had a goal last year of coming in in the top 10, maybe 7th, 8th, or 9th, so 5th was awesome. My coach has told me, "It's Kona. You can come here and have the best race of your life and come 9th, or have an average day and come 3rd." You never know what you're going to get. That's sort of the mystique of this race, and why we keep coming back year after year to improve upon past performances.
Q: Was there anything you learned last year that made the difference for you?
Corbin: Last year was the first year I came out to the island early to train and that proved advantageous for me. Coming in 5th, I wasn't quite as prepared for that. Like I said, I thought I may be 7th or 8th, so I've learned that I can come in with higher expectations. I know it's okay to shoot for really high goals and not be afraid to fail.
Q: What are your expectations for this year?
Corbin: To have the best day that I can on race day, based on the circumstances and the situation. I want to focus on myself. I know what I'm capable of. Hopefully I can improve upon my performance from last year. I'm more of a time-oriented person. I have a time goal I'd like to meet. Hopefully, that can come together. You never know what the winds are going to be, how the bike course is going to play out.
Q: You haven't done an Ironman since last year's Kona, focusing instead on the 70.3 distance.
Corbin: This year I decided I would race a lot of 70.3s to get more speed. I'm still quite young. But I found myself missing the Ironman, so maybe next year I'll do a couple more.
Q: Whereas, Luke, you've had three Ironmans already in 2009, winning the Lotto Ironman Langkawi Malaysia Triathlon, Ironman Japan, and narrowly missing the win in Ironman Louisville. Tell us about those races.
McKenzie: The main goal was to defend my title at Ironman Japan and I did that. I went into Malaysia a little bit underdone and was able to get a win there on a hot day. I wanted to simulate some Kona conditions by racing there, so that was a satisfying win.
The main reason I've been racing so many Ironmans is to improve my marathon. By racing and putting myself in that position more often this year, I have really improved my time, and I've learned a lot. Coming off Louisville, even though I didn't win that race, that was probably the best Ironman I've ever done.
Q: Your marathon time in Louisville was 2:51. In the last miles, you were caught by the Ukraine's Viktor Zyemstev, then ran with him side-by-side for a couple of miles until he slipped ahead in mile 25. Tell us about the run.
McKenzie: Yeah, I started off the bike six minutes up on a group of four guys. I just raced my own race. I was confident that even though there were some really good runners coming off the bike behind me, I had what it took to win the race. I raced without fear.
The biggest thing I took away from that was, when Zyemstev caught me, I didn't want to let go of that win. I'd worked so hard for it all day, and I kept thinking about that when we were running side by side. I thought if I put some pressure on him, I could still get him. It was a great learning experience. It has given me a lot of confidence coming into this race.
Q: Do you have expectations for your marathon this year in Kona?
McKenzie: Definitely. The worst three marathons I've ever had have all been in Hawaii. I want to race here and be competitive. If I can put something together like I did in Louisville on the run in Kona, with my swim-bike combination, I know I can be competitive. I've come out of Louisville feeling fresh and feel like my training's going better than it ever has.
Q: Luke and Linsey, you're both 28. You both are experiencing great success at the Ironman level already. Does that put pressure on you coming into Kona this year?
McKenzie: I still feel like I don't have any pressure on me. I can go into the race with excitement. I love racing this race, and I love trying to get amongst the guys who are winning at the moment and try to take some of them down. That's my goal.
Corbin: The only pressure I feel is the pressure I put upon myself. In general, as professional athletes, we're Type-A, hard on ourselves, trying to perfect our performance. I think it's exciting that we have so many opportunities ahead of us. And I think it's great that so many athletes who I view as role models, like Chris McCormack and Lisa Bentley, are still involved in racing and at the same time they're so helpful and encouraging to the younger athletes like Luke and me. Hopefully, down the road, we can be doing the same thing for younger athletes.
Q: What kind of conditions are you hoping for on race day?
McKenzie: I want it to be tough and windy.
Corbin: It better be tough. We're out here training in it. Bring on the wind and the heat, that'll be awesome.
McKenzie: That's why we're out here now. You can't simulate the Kona winds anywhere else. I'm getting used to it and I love it, so I want it to be really tough on race day. I know it would hurt our overall times, but a tougher day where everybody has to work harder on the bike and goes into the run a little bit more tired, is definitely going to be to my advantage and to Linsey's advantage as well.
You can reach Dawn Henry at dhenry@ironman.com
