Weekend in Kona

Here is how the weekend has gone so far...

Saturday

Got up early in the morning and went swimming with my good friend Ryan Clive-Smith, who is here with his family on a vacation, which coincides well with the Ironman Worlds. His swim is actually pretty good, as with just a few pointers he was noticeable faster and really paid attention to what I told him. He also has a surfing background and things, but I was impressed.

Before we got into the water, we had a chat with Welchie, and Pete Coulson, (Michellie's husband and coach). Right when we got into the water, we chatted with Michellie, as she was finishing up. She looks thin folks. Thinner than I've ever seen her. She's ready for this race.

After that we went for a bite to eat, before I got on the bike for a 2.5 hour ride. Here's a bit of news for the regular readers of this blog, I have a new bike, a Look 496, and it is DAMN AWESOME! WOW! I love this bike, and on the Queen K, it shinned!

Sadly, I had some bike issues to attend to first at the local shop here, Bike Works, after some mishaps with putting the bike back together. I managed to strip one of the bolts on my stem, (and the threads in the stem), NOT GOOD! Luckily they helped me out, and fixed up some loose brake issues I had, since I didn't have the right tool to get the angle I needed to tighten them.

I headed out on the Queen K and saw a CRAP TON of triathletes! It was almost stupid. I saw a bunch of the big boys, so no point in name dropping. It's funny though, when riding down the K, everyone checks out everyone else, even if it's just a glance at the rider going the other way. I do it, but it's funny how some people take it to the extreme, and play the mind/ego games. One guy literally rode up to me, sat on my wheel as I am just riding along, pulled up next to me, as I nodded and said hello. He just stared at me. No nod, no gesture, no hello, nothing. JUST A STARE. And not a nice stare I might add. Then he put on his brakes and waited for the chick he was riding with. I had to laugh, what an idiot. I didn't recognize him, and even if I should have, I don't care. For this race, I'm the last guy he should be trying to play mind games with. Hell, I don't know if he was even a pro.

Orlanda even noticed how funny people are here, as she knows who the triathlete's are by what they are looking at when she walks by. She got a cool new pair of Zoot shoes, and everyone keeps staring at them!

Other than the foolishness around, the ride was great. The Queen K has an atrocious beauty to it, which is amazing. The road is very smooth where I went, and depending on the wind, the course can be FAST! I actually finished the ride back to the condo in the rain, which was pretty cool. I actually hope it rains and is aweful weather for a good portion of the race, make it more like an XTERRA! That would definitely add to the fun factor!

After the ride, I bagged the run, and just chilled out with Orlanda, waiting to watch the Huskers get killed on ESPN to Missouri. That was a crappy ending to a great day.

Sunday

Orlanda and I got up early, while she went down and did the local 10K on Alii. Ryan met up with me for a 60 min run with some 1 min surges. All in all, a perfect start to the day.

Later Orlanda and I headed out back of the condo to the ocean, and found the biggest sea turtle I've EVER SEEN, in captivity or wild! It was just chilling between these two rocks, so Orlanda and I took our pictures with it. (Sorry I can't upload photos, my computer broke, so using Orlanda's, but it doesn't have a media card reader).

After grabbing a few things we needed, we headed south to K-Bay, and ate breakfast at the popular Aloha Angel Cafe. MAN THAT WAS GOOD FOOD! Great breakfast, and gecko's all over the place!

We continued on to Ho'Okena Beach, where the hippies love to hang out. I did a swim, where I had a near run-in with an eel. A little shocking at first, and creepy, but cool in retrospect.

We hung out at the beach for about an hour, then continued south to South Point, the southern most point in the entire US. When we got to the spot, I quickly saw how popular this place is for cliff jumping, and well diving. I got a photo of guy diving into this hole, and falling into the narrow pool of ocean water down below. SCARY TO WATCH, not even to think about doing!

From there we headed home, and enjoyed the beautiful drive back to town. What an amazing place.

Tomorrow morning I plan to swim, then head out to the Energy Lab for a jog. Later in the afternoon we will head north and drive the bike course to Hawi, where I'll hop out and do some riding on the course, check out the winds, etc. Orlanda and I also plan to stop and see some sights along the way.

Hopefully I can get my camera's plug mailed to me, but if not, I will definitely post all the pics after the trip.

Aloha...

Vance