Dog Jog and Mountain Madness Relay Weekend!

The Dog Jog

Saturday, May 4th was the Dog Jog. Sadie was going for first female again. She has won in the past three times maybe? I can’t quite remember but she was very concerned about defending her title.  J

The weather was super cold and rainy and we were driving down with my parents from a cabin in Blue Ridge in the morning.  In the past we had successfully convinced lots of folks to join us but this year was a tough sell with the timing and weather. We did know some folks though, Sheryl and her dog, Tim and his dog (a Vizsla) and Leah with her two small dogs.

Sadie down but not out

Sadie’s training had been shaping up nicely for a PR this winter as she was logging anywhere from 3-5 runs a week November through March. However, recently she cut her paw and was relegated to a head cone and no running for two weeks! That plus the fact that I was planning on the bike leg of a Mountain Madness relay the next day led us to readjust our goals. J We decided that instead of trying to PR, we would just do whatever was necessary to ‘defend’ Sadie’s title J

All lined up and ready to go. Sadie was ready while Bailey keeps trying to run the other way

Prior to the two mile race is the one mile race. When the one mile run started Sadie started yowling and trying to chase afterwards. She knew she was there for the race and hated being left behind!

Our stategy was to have Bailey in front with John because Sadie will kill herself trying to keep up  and Bailey is less likely to pull John’s arm off.

We started running behind Bailey and John and at first the pace felt pretty easy. I knew my legs were really tired from that week's training and I didn't want to have to dig too deep because I wanted to save any remaining energy for MM. The first mile wasn't too bad and we were right on pace at exactly 6 minutes flat or just under. I had forgotten that there is a lot of uphill and turning in the second mile that slowed us down a lot at the same effort. Overall, not our best effort but within the range I had expected and we weren't tired or sore afterwards.

Tim and his dog "drafted" off of us the whole time and pulled ahead at the finish!

Bailey and proud daddy at the awards ceremony

 Mountain Madness Relay

My parents were nice enough to babysit their 'granddogs' at the cabin all day.  I was nervous and hoped they were sufficiently worn out from the day prior. Within ten minutes we got a call that Sadie had found and eaten basically en entire large pizza. Whoops! Sorry mom and dad!

Post pizza party 5 AM snoozing

On the way to the race we were debating the pros and cons of participating. Weather was awful and I felt sure they might change the course a bit since descending a mountain in torrential rain didn’t seem smart.

Turns out DNR wouldn’t let us in the water due to poor visibility, plus they took the mountain out of the course. It ended up being a TT start to the bike with riders going off every 15 seconds or so. 

My goal was to have some fun and get some data. Not having to run,  my strategy was to ride fast when the course was slow to a higher degree than I normally would in a triathlon (ie go harder on the hills)

I had some fun with that. I ignored my power meter and ‘accidentally’ blew through my previous 1 min, 5 minute, and 20 minute PBs in the first thirty minutes. Sweet!

Overall my normalized power was within the range of what I would shoot for for a half (IF.86-.87) but my effort was much less even and I am sure I netted a slightly faster time than I would have had I paced it more evenly. I was actually aiming for about .9  but I faded a bit the last thirty minutes because of my opening efforts. Again, it was a relay so no real consequences. 

Relay teams "Race Team Relay" and "Parks and Wreck" Overall, a great race with or without the swim and the mountain and I hope it comes back in future years. 

Also, I was in a relay with Eddie while John was paired off with Andrew. John and I were the cyclists and Andrew and Eddie were our runners.  I knew I had to let John not get too far ahead on the bike so that Eddie would have a chance to catch up with Andrew. They are both good runners but Andrew's only training lately has been secret training. As it ended up, Eddie did catch Andrew but our overall relay times were very close. Rematch time! Also, we both got beat by the Podium relay team so I am seeing a future throwdown with them on tap...

Race Report Rundown - Spring 2013I

Last blog was fall 2012, so yes I see that I'm a little behind. Lots of stuff happening in triathlon world though. Here's a rundown of training and races as of late.

Here's where I spend a good portion of my time lately, at the Energy Lab! Here's a great group of cyclists and triathletes getting ready to avoid the rainy weather with an indoor ride. 

One of my goals for 2013 was to race a lot more. During IM Texas training this cycle, I have had lots of fun hitting all kinds of local races, using them as speedwork, key workouts, or even just participating for fun. It's a little hard to get over the mental barrier of not going for/expecting a PR, but after you get over that hump, it becomes a lot more fun especially when you successfully integrate them into the  plan. Here's some of the races we've done this spring in picture form.

Started off the year with a few 10ks per the usual. I think this is from the  Charles Harris 10k. Trying to get that run speed back for a forced layoff over the winter... 

As I was explaining to someone the other day, in order to  not 'race' a race, it's a good idea to ditch your chip, or wear a costume! Costume runs are always a blast.. try it.. takes away All the pressure!

Steeplechase '5k' Actually, it's more like a 3.5 mile race where you jump over horse jumps! Lots of fun.. here's John and I finishing one of the last obstacles.

We did it without injuring ourselves! :)

We attempted to get cleaned up afterwards...

SEE-ME fashion show. Yes, I realize this is not a race. It's  just a picture  I actually like. I need to hire Dave Martinez to screen some of my atrocious facebook candids.

Chattahoochee Challenge April 14th. Managed to nab 1st Female which was pretty cool. Low key, fun race.

Proof that I have done a flying dismount. This is from the John Tanner Sprint last weekend. 

Sooo tired from Texas training and Chattahoochee Challenge the week prior. 

Female OA podium (I actually got second, the pic makes it look like I won)

This takes it through April 27th. Next up is Dog Jog and Mountain Madness from this past weekend. What a double that was! :) 

Chattahoochee Challenge Race Report- 2013

  

Pre-Race

I was highly stressed about the cold and I really didn’t want to wear my full sleeve wetsuit.  In the end I got psyched out into wearing it because everyone else had one on.. Except for the folks who had on nothing. Seriously, that is pretty hardcore. The air temp had to be close to 40 and the water about 64. One guy actually showed up in his underwear to race. Boxer briefs and a mountain bike.. huge props! No lie.. I hope he finished. That would be quite a story to brag about someday. 

ATC Contigent of the Chattahoochee Challenge

I hadn’t done a triathlon this small before. Though they had said three hundred were registered, I’m thinking all of them didn’t show up because it seemed smaller than that. It was very casual. You got to choose your own transition spot, too, which I thought was neat since I nabbed a good one!  Also, it seemed weird to know so few folks.. there was Ted, Rick and I plus Rich Heidal, Christian,  and Robert Murphy who were racing with Team in Training. Besides them, though I barely knew anyone out on the course. 



The Swim

You could see the current moving pretty quickly.  The flip side is that you got to go downstream for awhile then had to go three quarters of the way back up. I got out pretty strong and there was one decent looking drafting possibility from my wave. I barely touched her toe like twice and she actually stopped to give me the stink eye. Figured that meant she wasn’t likely to be a good long-term drafting candidate anyways, so I just moved on. 

Felt smooth and pretty good overall, despite having to wear the full sleeve.  I have been swimming a lot more this year. Don’t think I’ve really gotten any faster, but I must say I feel better. I actually enjoyed the swim and felt confident. Saved some juice for the turnaround so I could get over to the side and out of the current more for the upstream part of the swim. The water was definitely still flowing but it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have a watch on me at this point, but I could tell that it wasn’t as fast as last years swim supposedly was, the perceived time felt about like a normal half swim.  I did end up beating Ted’s swim by 7 seconds, thankfully keeping my streak alive of beating him in races even though I can’t beat him in the pool.  

Really long, extended run to get to the transition. Was feeling a little cold but the temperature ended up a non-factor as I knew it would. Grabbed arm warmers but didn’t even put them all the way on and was off. I was kind of lazy I didn’t even both with clipping shoes in… I was relatively close to the exit so I figured it didn’t matter much and it was one more thing to go wrong the first race of the year. 

The Bike

Got going and the temps had really messed with my power meter. I needed to re-zero because of the wide swing in temps but it didn’t occur to me until about twenty minutes in. So I spent the first twenty just trying to get the power up and thinking wow, the swim must have Really taken it out of me. Finally thought about it logically and realized I needed to re-zero. Then I was able to get right on target. 

So something I knew about last year was that Paul said it was easy to get off course and in fact, he himself had gone off course a good bit. Prior to this years I had that in the back of my mind but I figured I wouldn’t be in a situation where there wasn’t someone I could follow. Obviously I didn’t think it through (or study the course very well) because it was much different than I pictured. The first several miles were on a path like the silver comet, except for really windy and with lots of wind debris on it (logs and such) there were also lots of little intersections, segues, onto roads and back. Basically, much more technical and hard to navigate and with no one else around.. you know where this is going. At one point I got on a nice flat road, and I’m thinking, this must be the road we were traveling to and now we will stay on that road. With that mindset I missed one of the little direction signs that basically served as 80% of our directional cues and just like that I was off course. I went about a mile and saw a chain link fence blocking a gravel road. Now I knew that wasn’t right. Thank goodness the fence was there otherwise who knows how long I would have kept riding down that road! I had to stop, get my bearings and head back the way I came. 

At that point I had to mentally reevaluate and remind myself of my goals. I wanted a solid effort and  a benchmark of where I’m at, no need to stress about a lost 5 or 6 minutes.  I had an aggressive power goal and a conservative run pace goal. Then back to hit the last couple weeks of TX training hard.That’s it. I could still meet both of those goals even if I lost the chance for a PR.  Got back on track and it was a lonely and windy ride. I had to pay really close attention to the signs to make sure it didn’t happen again and my shoulder started spasming from the unfamiliar position. Got to the turnaround and it had been so windy and slow to that point I was expecting a tailwind on the way back. No such luck.. the headwind on the way back was very surprising and I was slated to have ..I’ll have to check but I think my slowest half time.. coupled with my best power average ever! To put it in perspective I averaged ~15 watts higher than Macon last year and had the same time. Very strange just because I was expecting the course to be really fast. 

The last few miles I finally saw some other folks. Saw Rick and ended up going back and forth with him (legally, of course) There were several of us at one point and I was so happy just not to have to look for the directions for once. So I was basically blindly following the guy in front of me. Well suddenly I was on grass, then gravel , then dirt, then mud. We were off roading on our TT bikes! Not sure if he just misread a sign or what but that’ s the second time I went off course.  Thank goodness no one went down as three more folks behind me blindly followed US into the woods.

Finally, we were nearing the end and I started picking it up, missed a sign again and went off course Again! Fortunately, a police officer who was sitting in his car nearby honked at me so this time was only a minor detour. Very frustrating, though!

To keep from getting totally frustrated, I had to remind myself about fifty more times that I was here to have fun and enjoy myself. In the spirit of having fun, I proceeded to forget any sort of nutrition or electrolytes for the run. I actually didn’t care that much, normally I am happy to live off the course, save for the fact that I didn’t think they would have any caffeine. 

The Run

I was running strong, but in full on fun mode for the run waving to folks, cheering on people, and asking for directions as I was paranoid about going the wrong way again. A couple folks had said I was in first place and I didn’t see any challengers, so I figured I’d better enjoy it as who knows if it would ever happen again! I put away the Garmin, because I knew if I looked at it I wouldn’t be able to help but obsess about pace and kill myself trying to get every last possible second. Instead, I enjoyed running by feel and watching everyone else’s races unfold. 

I saw some fast guys who had started in front of me and I couldn’t tell if Ted was in front or not. I saw Kate a Tnt-er who comes to EL running strong, but I thought I had heard she was in a relay. I also saw Robert and Rick, both looking good, and Rich, who was farther back than I expected. (Turns out he had a bike mechanical)
           
Running without a watch does have its downsides. With no real mile markers the finish came up sooner than I expected and suddenly I was done. Certainly that has never happened before (normally the last couple of miles stretch on forever) I crossed and felt great! (I have definitely never said that before either!) It was really fun getting the opportunity to lead the race, and I thought the whole thing was very quaint. There was a really neat finish festival going on after and the whole scene reminded me somewhat of Chattanooga. I think it would be fun to get a big group for this race. The time of year probably kills it as a half in April is likely more than most folks want to take on.

I thought it was really neat experience that Ted and I had both won overall for ATC.  Rick put up a really good performance too.. he actually started in the wrong wave so his time is wrong, FYI. He was faster than recorded, although we're not sure by how much. (Don't tell him I told you that, as he didn't want to make a big deal about it) Also, new ATCer, Rich had a heroic race, he actually had a mechanical and ended up having to carry his bike back to transition. Tough guy award for sure! All in all, a fun day, and as always happens after you get that first race under your belt, I feel ready and excited to race again!

Kona 2012- Bike and Run

The Bike

Managed to get my bike stuff together and basically stumble onto my bike. I was thinking "This is awful.. I can't believe I am feeling so bad so soon!" Instead of enjoying the fact that I was at Kona, I felt like I might not be able to finish. I told myself to just spin the out and back section and get myself together. I put my Garmin screen on 3 second average to save my ego a little bit, knowing there wouldn't be any sort of information I'd be happy to see.

This was definitely at the beginning. 

The main  issues were stomach pain, extreme thirst, and being disoriented. I chugged the two bottles of liquid on my bike and hoped it wouldn't be too long before the first aid station. There I grabbed and chugged two more full bottles. The whole ride I didn't absorb anything.. I ate and drank diligently for the first couple of hours and my stomach just got bigger and bigger.. I couldn't throw up and I looked like I was getting closer and closer to my due date. Actually, after the race my stomach skin was really sore from the quick stretching.

To be honest I don't remember much about the course.. I kindof missed the chance to look around.. just had to focus on moving forward. The other issue I didn't mention is that circumstances necessitated that I switch to a new (and different) saddle and adjusted position two days before the race. No one has to tell me how un ideal that is, but I truly didn't have a choice. SO ... in addition to everything else, my poor glutes, more emphasized in the adjusted position, basically fatigued out after about two hours so I had to sit up and spin.

So bottom line is that I felt pretty crummy.. but I still thought I could perhaps finish. There I was.. riding around sitting up into the forty mph winds, with useless glutes, a cranky attitude and a massive gut and unable to absorb any food or water. To put it in perspective, I drank at least 240 ounces and didn't pee the entire race.

I think in terms of a tough ride perspective, I can probably count on one hand the rides that compared to this one. One was the death ride in Cartersville this summer where I alternated crying, shivering with heat exhaustion chills, and hoping that I would see a H and an arrow pointing me a to a hospital on the route. The other one was Ironman St. George which was eerily similar to this one... I felt like crap, it lasted forever, and I fantasized about running off the road into an ambulance so I could have an excuse to rest. Finally, possibly one of the long rides I did going down Fulton Industrial Boulevard several weeks ago where I almost blacked out due to lack of oxygen (trying to get into Zone 3 during the month of bronchitis) So, my comfort was basically that, in some ways, I was quite prepared for this ride! Overall, the whole thing was Not exactly how I pictured it going several months ago, but things happen!

The Run

I was quite happy to get off my bike. I tried to put on a brave face for friends and family but I have to say it was tough. I just kept running over and over in my head.. how did I miscalculate so badly? My race 'plan' was to enjoy the experience as much as possible but it was really tough because I just hurt so much. The thought of walking the marathon hurt slightly more, thank goodness. Also, I thought if any of my friends at home actually stayed up late enough to track, they would totally be cursing me for literally making them stay up the whole night!

Still jogging through this was one of the hardest things I've done. You know the Bob Seebohar approach to metabolic efficiency.. "teaching your body to burn fat as fuel?" Well I skipped all the introductory, intermediate, and any sort of recommended steps and went whole hog straight to no food/no water during an Ironman! I was actually kindof amazed that I could jog.. I have practiced though.. I sure have had bricks where I failed to fuel and hydrate appropriately and have forced myself to complete the time regardless. This is definitely not recommended as an ongoing path to improvement, but I do believe that you have to know that you can run or jog in any circumstances. Practicing that is definitely, in my mind, the only way I got through this run.

So, as I said, I did manage to keep jogging. In the words of a friend doing a recent Ironman who may not wish to be quoted by name " I didn't walk, I just had to stop a lot!" The run was the much awaited return of the puking. Puking felt so much better and I was glad that I could entertain the spectators with a proper display of suffering befitting of the Hawaii Ironman. :) I pretty much alternated every other mile.. one mile I would hit the portojohn and the next I would take some time to hurl, then repeat.

I still was trying to at least drink, but still wasn't absorbing any fluids. In all this time, the whole route was amazing. I saw tons of family, friends and everyone was so supportive. I have to admit though, at times I wished for No spectators because it was really tough to put on a happy face.

So I slogged through with the described pattern till approximately mile 16, when I had to stop and hurl several times again. After I was done with that, though, I suddenly felt a tiny bit different and the twisting gut pain dissipate somewhat. At the next aid station, I took some more water and coke and suddenly felt as though it might stay down. It took a couple more miles after that, but around mile 18 I suddenly felt a little spark in my brain, like after these many hours it was finally getting a tiny hit of caffeine, fluid, and sugar.

And amazingly, I was able to pick it up. I had totally (and purposely) lost track of time at this point, the only thing I knew for sure is that it got dark early and I would finish well after dark.  Heading out to the energy lab, the sun was already on it's way down before six. I started doing math in my head just based on the sun and realized that if I booked it, like a lot, I might be able to finish before seven.

The body is an amazing thing. Somehow as soon as I was able to actually get the tiniest amount of food and water, it was like none of that abuse that came before mattered.  It was starting to get really dark as I headed into the Energy Lab, and I just kept running faster and faster.  Just a little sugar and water was all it took for my mood to change, too. I went from really down to totally engaged. On the way back out of the Energy Lab, they were handing out glowsticks and I kept refusing one. Nothing wrong with a glowstick, but I hadn't planned on taking one, so I didn't want it. When a man finally insisted I take one, I carried it for a minute then looped it around a cone.

I was finally having the time of my life.. running down Ali-i as fast as I could, in the pitch black, trying to beat the clock still.. just like the hundreds of people before me as well as the hundreds of people after. My wonderful parents came all the way out there to cheer me on again, and I kept asking them "what time is it" I was so focused on my new goal, the one I made, to be able to do this one aspect of the race like I had planned.



There is nothing like the last few miles of Ironman Hawaii. You can hear the voice from several miles away. And the downhill in the last six miles is sweet! I love running downhill and somehow I ran fast again. I haven't looked at my splits much but I did see that the last 1.2 miles were supposedly a 5:38 average. That seems a little suspect to me, but I don't think it was really that far off. While some people's vision of the ideal finish is doing goofy poses, or high fiving everyone on the sidelines, the only thing I want to do is run fast (and therefore practice for future fast finishes on the run :) ) It was so crowded and the lights were blinding. About half a mile out I saw Paul and Jim running along and yelling  (Impressive that Paul could still run after his own IM) After that it got too bright and crowded and I couldn't see anyone.. I knew John and his parents and everyone else were somewhere in the crowd though. I ran through and tried to do a really good jersey point, but I'm not sure if it really turned out.

Post Race

Lessons learned.. don't drink seawater.. and expected the unexpected as always.


There is no race like this one. Before going I brushed a lot of it away as hype and figured it wasn't everything  that everyone said. It isn't .........in fact, it is Way better. It isn't just the race itself, it's all the activity and the whole scene and history behind it that make it so amazing. I feel so blessed to have been a part of it.. and if anyone every asks I will say it is worth it to go whether it's to participate or spectate.

I should also mention that Bob Seebohar does not condone trying to better 'use fat for fuel' by going fuel-less during an Ironman :)

Surfing a couple of days after

Me and Macca

Awesome supportive cheering section :) 

View from our place

Kona 2012- Pre-race and Swim

Pre-race

The most amazing thing about this race was just absorbing the atmosphere and having such great support of friends and family. My incredibly supportive parents/John’s parents both made the trip and the Lincks were there, Giorgia and Giuseppe, and Klo. It was cool to have other people there who appreciated just how awesome the whole scene was. Way more fun than I thought and all I could say was, I have GOT to find a way to get back here!

Paradise!

Pre-race with the awesome fam

Do I still remember how to ride a bike?

Amazing support from my girls, too :) 

Loved everything about it from visiting the places we’d heard about, to the laid back atmosphere, to the underwear run, where Paul, John, and I made it to the website of Triathlon magazine.

On to the race preparation phase….

Race-wise I have to say I was feeling pretty apprehensive. Eight weeks out to about four weeks out, my training was extremely compromised due to a really intense viral infection where the symptoms included not being able to breath, and my ‘key’ training sessions included barely jogging, swimming with a pull buoy, spinning in zone 1 with frequent rests, and flogging myself for being such a weakling.  There were days when I managed to pick it up a bit, but then I would usually be forced to take consecutive even easier days after.  Four weeks out to two weeks out, my body was able to pick it up a bit on the bike and swim, but my running was all low mileage slogging. I tried to keep a good attitude but I’d be lying to say it wasn’t a little depressing to go to such a big event so unready to race . After awhile that disappointment lost the sting, and then I was just hoping to be healthy enough to to the line.. and make it to the finish.

So needless to say after all that, my expectations weren’t of any personal bests or great performances. My thought was that I would try to  enjoy myself and make it to the Finish!

The Swim

I was really apprehensive as it was about to start. I talked to this nice girl on the shore who didn’t speak good English but it was nice to share a little empathy. She said “ I am afraid” to me and it was nice to not have to feel like I was the only one feeling a bit overwhelmed. She indicated that she had done the race once before and I asked her the swim was and she said ‘it is war’ Something haunting about her accent and the way she said it .. I really just wanted to survive the swim.

Half the people were just standing on the shore in no hurry to get into the water, and the other half were dutifully warming up between the shore and the start. I kept standing there and finally I figured I would go find my place near the start. The water is strange in that it is actually kind of chilly near the shore and warmer farther out. I gradually began to wade out and was relieved that I felt like I was floating easily. Like I said, I had been having some respiratory difficulties and my greatest fear was that they would surface during the swim and make it impossible to keep swimming. I had been planning to move as far to the left as possible and I looked for this large multiperson giant canoe thingy so I could hang on and stay chillaxed before the start. It’s always the case for em that the course and route look so obvious from above but become disorienting as soon as you enter the water. I was asking one of the paddlers on the boat which way to go and she indicated that I would be pulled towards the other shore if I went far to the left as many swimmers were doing. I asked her advice and she pointed towards the middle .

Well she seemed like she knew what she was talking about so I was going to listen… I reluctantly went towards the middle and the back third of the pack. For some reason the cannon didn’t go off and so everyone just started going.  I was expecting 'a war' and was surprised that, at first, there wasn’t  much contact. I had seeded myself far enough back so there was really no one behind that wanted to pass (or clobber me), but not far enough up so that I was around swimmers worth drafting off of. At kona the swimmers are condensed.. they don’t spread out much like at other IMs and pretty much everyone is between 55 and 1:20 or so. So basically there is nowhere to go. Fine for me at first, like I said, I certainly was being cautious and felt like I was moving slow but no problems for the first few minutes. It was pretty choppy and of course made choppier by the mass of bodies so one thing I noticed is that I was swallowing some  amount of water. I really didn’t think much of it.. obviously I know that drinking seawater is not a good option for those lost at sea, but I’ve never had an issue with it before in my few ocean swims.

So there I am just cruising along.. trying to stay calm and not freak out at the masses.. I start to feel nauseous  after awhile.. no worries. I’ve just swallowed some air and need to burp. Happens all the time.  Anyways, I just start feeling more and more uncomfortable and strange.  I had to stop a couple of times, which I generally don’t do for obvious reasons. I finally make the turnaround and feel like I am moving in slow motion. Now I know my swim fitness was not the best going into the race, but despite my limited training  I  had certainly done enough to make it through a little IM swim! More time passed.. I stopped more.. I treaded water, I started puking up the saltwater, I got dizzy.. stopped puked again… I was starting to think I had been out there a long time. It was very strange.. I have never felt quite like that. I felt like I was hot and feverish and dizzy and like I must have been carrying bricks in my hands.. it was quite difficult to keep swimming. I was cursing what I thought must have obviously been extreme out-of-shape-ness and then I started fantasizing about a glass of plain water. That was what pretty much got me to the end.

I got out and started staggering around. Seriously.. it was so weird. Also, I wanted to cry.. I just felt so bad. 

I actually had to walk instead of jog through transition and I stopped at the aid station and drank several cups of plain water. I heard the announcer say.. “We’re 1:12 into the age group race” and I thought maybe I was hallucinating.. I thought there was no way I wasn’t in there for 90 minutes or more. 

We are in Kona, and I am not leaving....

Timeline of events so far in Kona...


1.En route-  I downloaded the wrong "as the crow flies" Instead of the biography of Craig Alexander, I read a fictional account of a wanna-be grocery store owner born in 1900. From selling fruit door-to-door to owning a grocery empire, I successfully got through all 800 pages despite battling through a complete lack of interest. What an achievement!

It actually wasn't a  bad book...

2. Caught up with friends and family. John's parents, my parents, Paul, Kim, etc. Much more fun to hang out in paradise than anywhere else.

Cookout on the first night..

3. Toured the sights, dig-me beach, where John accidentally told Chris Lieto "good luck" even though he knew he isn't racing Kona this year. Also, two trips to the coffee boat, where I managed only one head-on collision with another swimmer.

Coffee boat.. only have to swim half a mile out for this...

Random expo pic.. the expo goes on and on for blocks...

4. More hanging out with friends and family at our awesome digs one mile from the pier on Ali-i Drive. Bikes and runners go by at all hours of the day and night, and the waves literally come up to our doorstep.

The front gate of our house...

The backyard of our house...

5. Participating in the awesome 'underwear run' Some very interesting sights to see.  It was hard to take pics while running, so you'll just have to come see yourself. Our outfits below are painfully tame.

We're supposed to be flexing here... 

Looks like I have temporarily given up on even being able to feign a flex. Paul and John still got it...

6. Being dressed up going to lunch in bike shorts and a jersey. They matched and were relatively clean and new.. it might as well have been black tie

Here I'm actually REALLY dressed up in a tank top

7. Buying the sweetest kit I've ever seen from Zoot and the coolest t-shirt I've ever seen, too

The bike jersey top is even better... can't wait to wear it!

8. Meeting Christy and getting a sweet pic of us with me and my Energy Lab t-shirt!

This basically counts as an endorsement, right? (Note: we did  not tell her "good luck")

9. Planning ambitious events post race, that sound like a great idea right now. They include surfing, SUP-ing, windsurfing, and mountain biking down a volcano. Also, frantically planning how we can come back again whether I race or not! As I told John, "This is a great place for an annual vacation.. heck.. bi-annual".. and "These are my people! I want to stay here!" etc. etc.

10. More to come soon! Tonight is the banquet, and tomorrow I am planning to be mostly boring and lazy, minus a trip to buy the ten things I forgot.