Lavaman – Day 2

After crashing at 9:30pm the night before I woke up at 6:00am, even though my alarm was set for 7:00am.  Therefore, I took my time getting everything together for our team meeting and practice at 7:45am.  We met outside the lobby and once all gathered started walking over to the swim area via the run course so we could check it out.  The run on this race is very interesting as you have to traverse a variety of surfaces: regular road, grass, lava, sand.  A chunk of it even goes right through the resort, by the pools and restaurants.  This final mile we were walking on is through a lava field and fairly narrow, so we’ll see what happens on race day.  I have a feeling I’ll be walking a lot of the just to save myself from twisting an ankle.

Over at the beach we gathered for a “mission moment” where one of our teammates shared the story of brother’s battle with leukemia to keep it all in perspective for us.  Then we headed in to the water.  Our coach Cathy pointed out which buoy she wanted us to swim out to and man it looked far.  I don’t like open water swimming and I hadn’t done it in at least two years, so I was a little nervous, but I also knew my usual routine from other races, so I hung to the back and started slowly swimming out for a bit without getting my face in at first.  The water was pretty warm which was great, as my lungs usually tense up right away in lake washington.  However, another big difference in Hawaii are the coral reefs you have to avoid.  Some people may be excited to have a free snorkeling adventure while racing, but not me.  I’m an aquarium girl and just wish they fish would stay away.  Though I guess it’s still better than the algae and ghostly green white hue your hands take on in lake washington.  As I slowly got comfortable and settled into my rhythm, fish were swimming around below all of us.  I actually made it out to the buoy much quicker than I thought, and turned around to head back to the beach.  I was feeling pretty good now, until two turtles went swimming by and then a big coral chunk loomed in front of me.  I had taken the turn a little wide, so I had to side step a bit to avoid the rocks (and more fish!).    It was a curvaceous route back, but I landed on the beach in the middle of the pack, so I was feeling pretty good.  Not having been to any team practices previously, I had been apprehensive about where I would fit into this group that had been training together, so it was good to start getting  a gauge.

Once everyone was out of the water, it was off to the parking lot to pick up our bikes which had been shipped over together in a big giant crate.  Checked our tires, fixed seats, put our pedals back on, and then we were off for a 15 mile ride out on the course.  Those of you who have been to the big island know that there is only one main highway heading up the west coast, and that’s where we were biking, right along the shoulder as big semis and tourists in convertibles zoomed past us.  The course is fairly flat, just rolling hils, but the killer today was the wind.  It was a swirly cross-wind and pretty heavy, so even on the downhills there was no break – we still had to pedal.  I got passed by more people than I passed, but since I’ve only been on my actual bike once since last fall, I was cool with that.  Later that night, my roommate Stephanie said that was windier than the race had been last year, so hopefully it will dissipate before Sunday.  The good thing about the wind though is that it cools you down – biking on black-top surrounded by black lava, you can see and feel the heat bouncing back off the ground.

When everyone was done, we rode back to the hotel and were done with team stuff for the day.  We trekked our bikes back to our rooms, showered and changed into our suits to hang by the pool for the afternoon.  I brought my computer and sent some emails form poolside that needed to be done before Monday, then stretched out for a bit.  While at the pool our moral-support shopping team started to arrive, as Lauren hit the Big Island and came straight to the pool to join us.  She’ll pick up Landin tomorrow.  Many of our teammates were also hanging around catching some rays, and those of us not going to the optional team BBQ made plans to drive down to Kona for dinner instead.

We left around 4:00pm and met up with that group at the Kona Breweing Company where we were all starving.  I had really only eaten energy bars, shot blocks, nuts, dried fruit and gummy candy all day, so I was ready for a real meal.  We shared some garlic cheese bread and then I had the BBQ chicken sandwich which was all good.  I also had a really tasty beer, a seasonal brew called Wailua Wheat which had passionfruit in it:  http://www.konabrewingco.com/beers/wailua  yummy

After dinner our carload headed across the street to the Sack & Save to stock up on more drinks and snacks.  Thanks to ability to remember phone numbers we also managed to save some cash and completely through off Lee & Retha’s typical shopping profile at that store as I gave the cashier their phone number to get the member discounts (like a safeway card).  Between the five us, that cashier didn’t what hit him.  At one point he actually made a statement wondering who the real Lee Jones was – I explained he was my uncle

No vacation is complete without ice creams at the end of every night, and luck for us there is a baskin-robbins next door to the Sack & Save.  I had mint chocolate chip and called Retha to let her know we had abused their member card and thrown off her shopping profile.  She was delighted as I knew she would be.

Back at the hotel we just kicked it and headed to bed as we have a 6:45am start the next day.