Tour de Lopez - Day 2

The ride was on Saturday and we awoke to a glorious day:  Clear and sunny, still a bit chilly but overall a pretty great day for a bike ride.  We zoomed into town to get treats at Holly B’s bakery (a variety of croissants for me and Andrea & Ian), then drove into Odlin State Park to park & register before all of the ferry folks arrived.  While driving I tried to flash the two-finger “Island Wave” to other drivers I had learned form my buddy Chip long ago, but it was met with mixed results:  some drivers didn’t do anything (clearly not local), and then I got several full finger  or one finger acknowledgments (not that finger!).  I’ll have to confer with Chip when I get back if I was doing it right.  Anyway, while waiting to register, I bit into my Egg, Parmesan and pesto croissant – to my surprise the egg portion was not scrambled, but a giant hard boiled egg.  Eww!  I squeezed the egg out into the garbage, and then enjoyed a Parmesan Pesto croissant, followed by a gooey chocolate one.  Mmmm.  (I had a delicious, albeit extremely buttery ham and gruyere croissant which Holly herself gave me the slightly crusty cheese that had oozed out…..it seems weird that I’m commenting on the amount of butter, but really, it seemed a bit like too much.–MC)  Once registered, Kelli & I had to put our pedals back on our bikes, and Mar meanwhile looked for her gym buddies who were arriving from the ferry.   Once parts and groups were all assembled, we headed off onto the Tour de Lopez. 

Mar dumped us to ride with the speedy bikers from her gym, so the rest of us enjoyed the leisurely ride around the island, past farms, cows, sheep, barns, schools and churches.  The first rest stop featured more treats from Holly B’s:  raspberry almond shortbread and cappuccino bars.  We would later figure out that all rest stop had these treats – bonus!  Farther south we biked along the coast and water, beaches and bays.  It was really beautiful out.  At the second rest stop, Andrea & Ian decided to do the 17-mile instead, so we separated and continued on our 31-mile trek.  The ride had been pretty easy to this point, with only one evil hill.  The extended version featured many more hills – in the end they weren’t that bad, fairly short and some gradual, but man did my gears get a work-out.  Back & forth as I slowly cranked my way up an incline, barely moving as I inched up a hill, to then crest and fly down the backside.  As each new hill materialized in front of me, I just kept thinking about Machu Piccu – this is good training for the Inca Trail, this is good training for the Inca Trail….  As we neared the finish line, Andrea & Ian drove past on their way to the house, honking at us as we made our way to the village.

Around 1:30pm we “crossed” the finish line in Lopez Village, parked our bikes and grabbed our plates for lunch provided by the race organizers. It was actually quite good:  grilled chicken, corn salad, pasta & spinach salad, lots of cookies (to be specific: oatmeal raisin cranberry, ginger molasses – excellent flavor!, chocolate chocolate chip, and for those who finished earlier, pecan bars –MC).  We sat on the grass soaking up more sun and comparing ride notes with Mar, who we had only seen briefly along the route. Once fed and refreshed we then had to get back on our bikes and ride another 4 miles back to the state park where we had begun – that was a tough four miles, especially a small hill in the middle.  Whew! 

Back at the park we loaded our bikes onto the cars to drive home, but first we stopped at the Lopez Island Winery, recommended by my friend Zoey who had been camping on Lopez last weekend.  There were lots of wines to try and I was surprised to see they had a Malbec, my current favorite red.  Zoey had recommended the Raspberry Dessert wine which was in fact quite yummy.  After the tasting we sat outside near the vineyard for a bit, soaking up some more nice weather.

Back at the house Andrea & Ian’s car was gone and it turned out they headed home early, so it was sad not to see them post race.  Our group of ten now down to the final four.   Mar & I sat outside on the deck for a bit, while Kelli napped on a couch and Kevin grabbed the other couch.  One by one, we showered and changed, then drove into town for dinner at Bucky’s Island Grill.  Mar & I each got fish & chips (touted on the menu as the San Juan’s best) (nicely breaded with panko crumbs! –MC), while Kelli got a cheeseburger and Kevin the ribs.  Dinner was then polished off with ice creams of course, courtesy of the Lopez Island Creamery  - chocolate truffle and strawberry blast.  Mmmm…. (Dang, that was good ice cream, but maybe it’s because it’s been a while since I’ve had full fat ice cream…..nothing like fried food followed by artery clogging ice cream…I can feel my arteries solidifying right……now! –MC)

Back home we gathered around the coffee table for “The Game of Real Life” which we hadn’t played in a long time.  It was a rough start – Kelli & I were each aborted and had to start over, and Kelli, Mar & Kevin were all orphans.  I however met the grim reaper first, OD’ing on cocaine.  Kelli was next, hit by a landmine when Canada invaded the US.  Mar then took out both herself and Kevin (aka Burtha) in a nuclear war – game over.

Tour de Lopez - Day 1

For the weekend a group of us headed up to Lopez Island for the Annual Tour de Lopez bike ride, which you can choose to do in 10, 17 or 31 mile increments.  We of course, planned on the 31 given our recent athletic endeavors and were excited for the ride as Lopez is supposed to be a great place for biking (i.e., not a lot of cars and fairly flat).

Originally there was a group of ten going but by departure time on Friday afternoon, we were down to six:  me, Mar, Kelli, Kevin, Andrea & Ian.  We all headed out in three pairs from different destinations around 3:00pm, in hopes of making the 6:40pm ferry out of Anacortes.  As we crawled through the Everett traffic, our hopes were slowly diminishing but you never know right?  Mar and I were the first car to arrive and told we were car #11 on stand-by for the ferry, with less than a 50% chance of making it.  Kelli and Kevin arrived a little later and were told they would definitely be on the 8:25pm.  Andrea & Ian were still driving, so there was no way they would make this one.  As the ferry unloaded and began to fill back up, we inched forward towards the dock worker, we thought we might have a chance – but no.  Guess who would be first in line for the 8:25?  That’s right, we missed it by one car.  Math lesson for the day:  less than 50% = 0.

Not having eaten, we found Kelli & Kevin a few cars behind us and walked up the street to a nearby bar called Charlie’s – it didn’t smell good (Marlene C guest writing here: it smelled like sewer!!) and the hostess was not friendly.  Add to that the fact that we would only be able to order soup and/or salad, we exited and made our way down to the dock, to the Cheesecake Café in the waiting room at the terminal.  While none of us had cheesecake, the cookies that came with our sandwiches were quite yummy, as were the additional chocolate chip cookies we bought.  It was a beautiful night, so we sat near the waters edge awaiting our boat.  (MC-everyone ordered the same sandwich, the Southwest Chicken on Ciabatta rolls and don’t ever buy coffee out of a vending machine, especially an amaretto “latte”) Once it arrived, Mar and I were indeed the first car on, front and center. 

Landing in Lopez it was now dark, so we had a little trouble finding the house Mar had rented for us, but we eventually did, along with Kelli & Kevin.  It was perfect for the weekend, lots of bedrooms, right by the beach and close to town.  Nice work Mar!  Mar immediately dove into the bookshelves, grabbing every cookbook she could find, including first edition Julia Child: Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  Andrea & Ian sadly were left behind in Anacortes waiting for the 9:30pm ferry.  We started to worry though as 11:00pm came and passed and there was no sign of them.  And unfortunately (or fortunately) Lopez Island is one of the last few corners of the globe with limited cell phone coverage, so we couldn’t call and see where they were at.  In one spot by the kitchen window I could get a couple bars, so I managed to send a text.  What came back was “Help!  We R lost.”  As reception allowed they slowly navigated towards us, arriving around 11:45pm.  It turned out Andrea had only printed directions for the rental office, not the rental house.  Oops!  Andrea & Ian took the downstairs, and we all settled into bed.

Lavaman - the aftermath

It’s been almost a week since the race and now it seems so long ago.

The rest of race day concluded with time at the pool - as if I needed to swim anymore, but we were mostly cooling off and going down waterslides.  Then there was a big victory party for all the Team in Training chapters, dinner and dancing poolside as the sun set.  You would think our legs would’ve been like jelly but we danced for quite awhile, despite the very random playlist coming from the DJ. Highlights included Kelli & Lauren’s spot on rendition of Ice Ice Baby, as well as Lauren & Mario recreating Thriller.  By the time the party ended it felt like we had dance late into the night, but it was only about 9:00pm and we were all in bed by 10:00pm.

Monday morning, Dean, Lauren & Kelli all headed to Lanai for a few days while I slept in.  My roommate Stephanie went to get a massage and I lounged around my room.  Shortly after Stephanie left there a knock at the door with free breakfast arriving, extending my lounge time even more.  Eventually I was all packed and head towards the lobby to meet Courtney who had graciously offered me a ride down to Kona where I was planning to spend the day with Lee & Retha.  Another teammate Mario was also heading south with us - we dropped him at the airport, and then I got front door service to the Kona Bali Kai.

I had barely set my bags down when I was in charge of making cookies.  The rest of the afternoon was also spent catching up on emails, watching basketball (memphis, what happened?) and getting acupuncture.  That’s right, I said acupuncture.

Retha has a guy named Joe that comes regularily and since he was scheduled to come that day, I got treated too since I have always wanted to try it.  Joe treated Retha in her wheelchair, so I laid down on her bed and waited to see what would happen.  Since it was my first time, Joe only used 8 needles: one each in my hands, near the thumb, one near each elbow, one near each knee and one near each big toe.  The only one I really felt going in was the one near my left toe.  The rest were just quick pricks.  In an ideal world Joe wanted me to turn off the TV and totally relax, but it was the begininng of the national championship game - no way!  So I watched the first half form bed with needles stuck out from me.  Occasionally I would feel little gurgles or twinges, but nothing too crazy.  After awhile, Joe pulled needles out and was on his way, but not before insinuating once again that I probably didn’t reach full relaxation since the TV was on.

Later I made dinner and the Uncle Lee drove me out to the airport to catch my red-eye flight back home.  Since Kona is a tiny airport, rolling in an hour early is usually fine.  On a week when two airlines have gone out of business, apparently not a good idea.  Walking up to teh counter, I was informed I was one of teh last to check in and may not get a seat since teh plane was oversold, despiet the fact that I was part of a group.  I hung out there for about 40 minutes, at which point I got a boarding pass with a seat asisgnment, but that seat had an asterik next to it, meaning I would need to check-in again at the gate.  I hurried over to security and the X-ray machine broke down while my stuff was right in the middle of it.  While waited anxiously to figure out what was wrong, my name was being called over the intercom to get to the gate.  Several stressful minutes later I got my stuff, ran to the gate, got a seat and walked out to my plane.  whew!  While happy to have a seat, a recommendation for all of you:  Red-Eye flights the day after a triathlon, not a great idea.

We landed back in rainy Seattle 45 minutes late, which cut into my nap time before going to work.  I caught a few winks before putting in a full day, then headed home to get a massage around the corner.  Lindsay worked me over, but in a good way.  At the end she said “I wanted to spend more time on your shoulders, but your legs were so sad.”  That my friends, sums up my lavaman experience.  I may have been slow for the field, but I finished and still beat lots of other people.  And in the end, no matter what the time, I finished my first Olympic Distance triathlon while 6 billion other people around the world did not 

 

 

Lavaman - Race Day!

4:45am came quick.  I slept pretty well though, especially considering our next door neighbors were up partying until about 3:00am, sliding their deck door back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  Cleary not Lavaman participants.  Anyway, my roommate Stephanie & I got dressed, made sure we had everything we needed in our bags, started eating and then headed out into the darkness to meet Kelli, Dean and the rest of our team.  The toughest part of the day came at the elevator as everyone was leaving around the same time and each elevator could only hold three bikes.  Three full elevators passed us by before we started calling for an up elevator instead.  We each finally made it on and met ack down at the bottom.  My elevator already had two folks in it, then we went all the way up to 7 and disappointed other racers on each floor on the way down as teh dorrs opened to show them a full elevator.  We did squeeze a fourth person into ours though, to aleviate a bit of the pinch.

Outside we met everyone on the grassy knoll as we have each day, and waited a bit longer than usual due to the elevator chaos.  Once we had everyone, we enjoyed another short mission moment to remind us all why we were racing today, then mounted our bikes to ride over to the transition area.  The sun was finally coming up and it was hard to believe ths day was finally here.

This transition area had different bike racks than any other race I’ve been, low on the ground where you stick your back wheel.  However, these racks are clearly made for actual competative athletes, as the slots were thin for racing bikes and did not fit the fat tires on me & Kelli’s hybrids.  Therefore, we had to find a spot on the perimeter fence for our transition area.  This worked out great though, because we had a lot more room than anyone else for all our stuff. 

Next we needed to get numbered - in Seattle they usually just mark you up with a giant sharpie pen, but here on the Big Island we got numbered with the actual Ironman stamps which was pretty cool.  Timing chips were attached to our left ankle and then back to our spot to apply sunscreen, finish eating, and strip down to our swim gear before heading to the beach.

After surveying the swim course we met our team under the finish line sign for a team photo.  Then it was back to the beach to watch the officials make final adjustments on our crazy M-shaped course.  We found Lauren on the beach, ready to assume her duties as the Moral Support-Shopping team and race day photographer.  Before we knew it, the Elite field was off onto the course, as were the men five minutes later.  Five minutes after that, the air horn sounded and all the women were off too.

I headed into the water in my usual manner, at the back of the pack and starting out slow, while everyone else fights to get out front swimming over each other.  The previous two days of practice were a great help though as I settled into a rhythm much quicker than usual.  There were a lot more people in the water though, so lots of maneuvering occurred throughout the swim - this luckily where being a breaststroker comes in especially handy.  Slow and steady wins the race, especially in the swim - stroke by stroke I gained ground on many and even passed 8 men by the end, all of whom had started 5 minutes before me.  I felt good, and just kept moving along, even when fish scurried beneath me or a wave hit and I would swallow some water.  A mile later, I swam my way back onto shore and trudged towards the transition area.

The race organizers had put carpet down on the way to the transition area and it was here that I first felt a stinging on one of my toes.  I looked down and knew I had cut it coming out of the water on a piece of coral or some other rock.  I asked a nearby volunteer where the medical tent was but they didn’t know so I kept walking.  I asked another volunteer, and they told me there was one at the swim start.  The swim start?  I just finished the swim moron, I’m not going back there now.  Luckily I had packed my Group Health Ouch Pouch in my bag, so I just headed towards my stuff and took care of my toe myself.   Cleaned up with my towel and a anti-spetic, then a band-aid.  Got my socks and shoes on, my shorts & T, re-applied sunscreen, tied my bandana, scarfed down some water & shot blocks, grabbed my helmet and headed towards the bike start.  Lauren was there cheering me off as I mounted my bike and rode out towards the highway.

Hitting the highway we had a pretty good tail wind again, so it was a nice way to get started on a long lonely road.  The ride is pretty barren and hot, but it gave me a chance to suck down some water and mucn down a clif bar.  About a third of the way in was a long gradual hill, but I just found a good gear and cranked along, slowly inching towards the turn around point.  The turn around featured a short steep hill that got some good pain going for a minute, but it was over quick and then the volunteers gave you a new bottle of water.  Back on the highway, it was mostly downhill on the second half of the course which was great, but the wind swirled about in spots meaning there was no real break, no coasting for us.  The last quarter of the course was tough on the butt too.  My masseuse is gonna love my glutes on Tuesday when I see her.  Eventually I glided bak into the resort and there was Lauren again, cheering me back in.  Idumped my bike and helmet, changed shoes, sucked down some more water and took off for the last part, a six-mile run.

Landin greeted me at the run entrance, which begin with a ricky lava trail, meaning that I would continue to use the term “run” fairly loosely for this part of the course.  Running on these varied surfaces was not fun, so I walked a big chunk of the “run”, like at least 3/4.  But I was cool with that - I didn’t want to twist an ankle and I enjoyed seeing the scenery as we wound our way through the Waikoloa resort.  It was also getting hot.  As I hit the “popsicle” loop section which was on brand new black asphalt, you could really start feeling the heat.  The first three miles went pretty quick and after having checked the time a couple times I knew I was still on pace to meet my goal.  After four miles we headed into the main part of the resort, winding our way along the water and lagoon, past the pools and restaurants.  Along the Kings trail I sang One Shining Moment, already ready for the basketball game the next day.  At this point I had my eyes peeled for my Uncle Lee & Aunt Retha who were coming out to watch, but because Retha is in a wheelchair I wasn’t sure where they might be as the Waikoloa is not the most wheelchair friendly spot.  But as I passed the final restaurant without spotting them, I figured they must have gotten stuck out on the road in the traffic caused by the race.  I turned the corner down to the final stretch, 1.5 miles of lava rocks and sand, and down at the bottom of a small hill, just before the trail, there they were, behind the water station, just waiting for me in the shade.  I ran over to say hi, catch my beath, and down some water.  I gave Retha a quick sweaty kiss and then continued on my way, re-energized and ready to tackle the end of this course.  I walked over the rocky parts, jogged on the trail parts and made my way to the sand.  With finish line in view, I jogged my way in with Kelli & Lauren cheering me on, right around my goal of four hours.  whew!

 A big beach BBQ greeted all finishers, so we noshed and recounted our journeys with our teammates at the ocean’s edge where the day had begun.  Dean finished in just over three hours, Kelli just under 3.5 hours.  The overall winners came in around two hours - seriously.  Eventually I made my way back to the transition area to pack up my stuff and turn my bike in for shipment back to the mainland, the I wandered over to the Kings Shops to meet up with Lee & Retha for awhile.  We caught up at Starbucks, made plans for the next day, and then parted ways:  them to home and me to the shower. 

It was a good race - I can’t believe I did it.  I probably could have put out a little more effort in spots, but I wanted to enjoy it and not kill myself.  I met my goal, finished and stayed healthy except for my sliced toe, so all in all, a very good day.

Lavaman - Day 3, part 2

After practice we spent the two hours showering and being lazy, checking email and all that.  Then we had packet pick-up at 11:15.  This was one of the most unorganized things I had ever seen.  They had the tables in all the wrong places to keep a good flow going for 800 people.  How do some of these event people end up in their positions?  Needless to say, picking up our numbers and shirts took much longer than it should have and we missed the beginning of the first basketball game.  But eventually we escaped from the twisty never-ending lines and headed upstairs to the Malolo lounge to watch Memphis-UCLA.  I was starving so as we watched I ordered myself a chicken sandwich - $17!  This place is nice but so pricy.   I’ll take the Holiday Inn with their free breakfast and internet anyday!  At halftime we headed backto Kelli & Dean’s room to watch the rest of the game from bed.  It’s kind of sad to be in this warm wonderful place and stay inside, but we also didn’t want to lay out in the sun and get our energy zapped.  So, in our room we stayed for the afternoon, watching hoops until our 4:15 meeting for team pictures.  From pictures we had a mandatory meeting with the race director to go over rules and course changes.

Apparently there were some major changes from last year’s race due to construction and the fact that the race has grown to about 800 people.  The biggest change was in the swim course - last year they swam two circular loops, but this doesn’t work well timing-wise to decide when to send the waves without having the Elite field swim over a wave that’s just been launched.  So this year they planned to change it to a single loop which would be great.  BUT, there was a low-tise in this week, so in order to do a single loop, they would have to send us pretty far out in the bay.  The compromise instead was a funky “M” shape course.  We’ll see how that goes.

Another change was on the run course, where there will be one section we have to do two loops on.  For the second loop, we will pick-up a popsicle stick from a volunteer, and the return the popsicle stick to a volunteer as we end the second loop.  Seriously?  Again, we’ll see how that goes.

From the meeting we headed outside to our Team in Training Pasta Party, with all five chapters particpating:  Washington/Alaska, Silicon Valley/Monterey Bay, Greater Los Angeles, North Texas and New Jersey.  We loaded up on carbs while listening to an amazing guy who is a 4-time cancer survivor and had a heart transplant last year.  He’ll be racing with us tomorrow - impressive.  All the chapters together raised over $1.2 million for the Lymphoma & Leukemia Society in this race - THANK YOU again to those of you who donated!

By the time the pasta party ended it was 8:00pm, so we all headed back to our rooms to organize our gear and get some sleep.  Meeting time for race day = 5:30am. 

Lavaman - Day 3, part 1

Up at 5:45 today for a 6:45am team meeting.  These early mornings are tough, but race day we have to meet at 5:30am, so its good to slowly build it up to be ready for tomorrow.  We met outside of the lobby again and biked over to A-bay to do a little mini-triathlon and practice transitioning.  There’s actually a bunch of people o n the team who have never done a triathlon before, so some of these little things that are old hat for me are new to many.  We set-up a make-shift transition area, and then headed to the beach for another swim.  Two open water swims in two days - that could be a new record for me.  Once we throw in the third tomorrow I’ll definitely be done for the year.

Right after the swim started today a wave came I swallowed some saltwater through my nose - gross.  the taste was caught in my throat for what seemed like a long time, so it wasn’t a great start today.  But I eventually caught my breath and got some of it out, settled into a rhythm and kept going.  I made sure to hang closer to the buoy on the turn around today and avoided the big rocks I saw yesterday as I trudged into the beach.  Again I was in the middle of the pack, so that was good.  Next I toweled off quickly, slipped on my bike shoes and hit the road for a 15-minute ride.  Heading out was great - no swirly wind and a huge tail wind, so I easily cruised into a high gear and flew along the shoulder.  Then we had to turn around and wham!  The head wind on the way back was no fun.  We’ll see what we get on race day.

Back at the “transition area”, we dumped our bikes and went out on a lava trail for a short run.  Running on rocks is hard - my run time is not going to be good.  But thats cool - I’ll walk and enjoy the view

Once everyone was back in, we were on our own for awhile.  It wasn’t even 9:00am and we had already put in a full day.  Coming up we have packet pick-up and some meetings to attend, as well as a pasta party tonight.  In between we will of course be watching some hoops action - go Memphis!

 

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.

Lavaman - Day 1

I can’t believe we’re actually flying to Kona to do a triathlon.  It’s totally surreal that this weekend has finally arrived.  Back in November when we went to the informational meeting and signed up, it seemed like such a great idea.  But it did not seem like a good idea December through March when they expected me at outdoor training sessions while it was 35 degrees and rainy.  Will my random gym sessions be enough to pull me through?

Kevin and Kelli picked me at at 6:30am Thursday morning to head to Sea-Tac.  I was ironically on the “team flight” with people I had never met, while Kel & Dean had booked their own flights since they were also headed to Lanai.  Slowly I made the rounds introducing myself to all these strangers who I’m sure were even more perplexed by who I was.  Oh well - everyone seems nice and don’t seem to mind that my first appearance at a team event is for the flight to the race.

We flew Northwest over to Honolulu to start, where I was stuck with a middle middle seat.  They did however have personal on-demand video systems at every spot, so I watched PS I Love You and National Treasure. In Honolulu we had three hours to kill since we were now on Go! airlines after Aloha folded three days earlier.  I did some work on my computer while Kel & Dean tried to get on an earlier flight, and then we grabbed some lunch in the bar.  Unsuccessful in obtaining an earlier flight, Kel & Dean hung in Honolulu for a couple more hours while I winged my over to Kona with a chunk of the team.  Once landed, we got our bags and boarded the bus to head up to the hotel.

We are staying at the Hilton Waikoloa, where most of the race takes place.  This is a HUGE Vegas style resort, with both a tram and boat option to get to your room.  You can check it out here:  http://www.hiltonwaikoloavillage.com/resort/index.asp

I checked in and finally met my roomie, Stephanie, who seems nice.  This is her second time doing the race so hopefully she’ll have some good pointers to share.  I just kicked it in the room until Kel & Dean arrived, then we headed out to catch the sunset and walk around the grounds.  As usual in Kona, the sunset did not disappoint and it is so nice to be warm.  To walk around outside without being all bundled up - ahhhh, I love Hawaii.

Next we caught a trolley over to the Kings shops to visit the grocery store.  None of us were starving for dinner, so we just bought snacks and ice-creams, as well as whatever drinks we needed for the next couple days.

Back at the hotel, we parted ways and I zonked out around 9:30pm while reading my book, which was good since we had to be up early for a team practice.