Amy

Rogue posted to their blog:

Before the celebration comes the run!

You probably have today off* and are starting the festivities early, but don’t forgo tomorrow’s long run! A handful of people were honest with themselves and put their miles in today, but if you weren’t one of the few thinking ahead, do everything you can to get that run in tomorrow morning before you hit the lake or the bbq. You may not be in the mood, but just think how much better those burgers and that beer will taste, knowing that you earned it.

I tilted my head and realized.. the run IS the celebration for me now. I plan my weekends around running (slash biking slash swimming), and then I fit in anything else. I wasn't much of a lake and bbqer in the first place. But now it's never "Oh, I have to slog through my run before I can enjoy my weekend." It's getting to hang out with my friends and gossip and see the city from outside the car and feel good about myself and feel like I'm doing something FOR myself, and yes, enjoying my breakfast all the more for feeling I've earned it. My weekend long runs bring me more joy than going out all night and drinking ever did.

I have this old blog entry bookmarked as "Remember Me". I like to go back and read it sometimes, and I wish I could share with 2003Me what it feels like now. But I'm not sure she would believe me. And 2004Me, even feeling like I'd come so far, wouldn't have wanted to, or believed I'd ever do an Ironman. Or two. Or soon three.

* No, I don't have today off, Rogue. But thanks for rubbing it in.

Since I've spent the last 13 days posting daily, I might as well maintain that momentum and post s'more. And since tripam asked, I'll answer her "what's next?" question here. Pam, please consider this my reply.

I'm currently training with Karen's version of Team Rogue, with an ultimate goal of trying to qualify for Boston again at the Houston marathon in '10. 8 months is pretty long for a marathon training program, but this is Lydiard training, and he promoted a multi-phased system that started with a base phase, then strength, anaerobic, then a coordination phase that tapers into your goal race.

Right now we're in the base phase. That means building up to a lot of mileage per week, but all at a moderate pace, no speed work. It seems particularly masochistic to be building up to doing 20 mile weekend runs this time of year, and 6-10 mile runs on Tuesdays after work (and let's not talk about the 6-12 mile runs at 5:15am on Thursdays), but Team Rogue's inaugural year last year showed that, if you can stay healthy and whole and actually stick to the program, it'll pay off. I'm not always good at the healthy and whole part, but I've got tenacity to a fault, so we'll see how this goes.

Base phase goes through the New Mexico Marathon, which we'll run as a base marathon, not at our ultimate goal pace. Then the anaerobic phase will take us through the San Antonio half marathon, then finally the last phase will take us to the Houston marathon, where I will once again attempt to achieve a 3:40. I didn't believe I could do it last year, but now that I ran a 3:47, it seems.. more in the realm of possibility.

So that's the Next Big Thing.

In other news, the NEXT Next Big Thing is going immediately from Houston into training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2010! I let Matt choose our next Ironman, and I think he wants revenge on CdA after stomach problems compromised his race in 2007. I'm excited and scared. But I don't have to start thinking about that yet. :)

We pondered what we wanted to do our last day.. what was left that we hadn't yet gotten around to doing.. and we really couldn't come up with anything. We'd spent just the right amount of time on the big island to do all the things we wanted, with some rest built in. Matt had no votes on what we did the last day, so I said I wanted to snorkel one last time, then go to breakfast at Lava Java, which we'd heard about but had not yet visited. Invited Laura and John, but John opted to sleep in, so it was just the three of us.

We went back to the beach by the Outrigger Hotel, because the waves had been pretty violent the last few days, and that beach had a seawall that blocked some of the churn. We had a lovely snorkel, and got to say goodbye to all our favorite fish and turtles. Then we went over to the hotel itself to watch TurtleTV one last time, then breakfast.



Lava Java was a lot like Austin Java in food and in atmosphere. Except that their outdoor seating gave you a great view of the ocean. Also some great people-watching, since it was on Ali'i, and the outdoor seating was just right there on the sidewalk. Also.. birds. The sparrows were constantly alert, waiting for someone to leave food on their table. Or waiting for Laura, who kept feeding them, much to the dismay of the waitstaff at Lava Java, I'm sure. After we ate, we did some light souvenir shopping.

Back to the hotel to pack up our stuff, cram the bike box back into the rental car one last time, then checked out of the Sheraton. We now had.. a lot of hours left to fill, with no homebase. We drove back to Ali'i, did some more shopping, and ate a sushi lunch. More shopping, and we finally achieved all the souvenirs we required. We checked in via text message with John and Laura to see what they were up to, and they were about a minute down the road at Huggo's on the Rocks. We crept up behind them and surprised them, then had one last fruity, girly drink and annoyed the local crabs.

Parted ways with Laura and John for the final time, then had .. still many hours to kill before our flight (which was at 10:59pm). We found a post office to send some postcards. We went to the local Borders to get me another book (I'd been rationing the second book I brought, because I was so close to the end and still had two long flights ahead of me). We decided to drive toward the airport and check out the road that led to the Energy Lab. The road went past the seahorse farm, where Laura had held a seahorse the day before, past a kampachi farm, then ended at a public beach, where I finally got some pictures of a mongoose. After we left that road.. there was really nothing else between us and the airport, so we went ahead and went to the airport and turned in the rental car.



It was just after 6pm, and we figured we'd just chill out at the airport until it was time for our flight. Unfortunately, US Airways doesn't let people start checking in for their flight until around 8pm. So we had to sit outside the airport on a wall, with our luggage, for 2 hours. I was glad Matt suggested going by Borders to get me another book. A billion years later, they finally let us check in.

The check-in was a nightmare. Super-short version.. went through fruit inspection, had to unpack bike box to remove CO2 carts, then repack, which took us from front of the line to back of the line. Only one register open, ~5 minutes per transaction. Woman had problems and so line didn't move at all for 20 minutes. When we finally got to the front, Matt's bag was overweight. Had to transfer stuff from his bag to mine. Even though they suggested it, and WATCHED US DOING SO, the fact that bags had been opened meant we had to go BACK through fruit inspection, much to the dismay of the long, long, grumpy line behind us. But at least after we ran (literally) back through fruit inspection and back through the line, they let us come back up to the front to finish. Then after all that, it was hurry up and wait, since we still had over an hour 'til our flight boarded. Meanwhile, the restaurant had closed. I got a bag of cheetos and a water from the tiny store that sold not much else.

The flights back were relatively uneventful. Despite repeatedly drilling it into us that the flight from Kona to Phoenix was full, the other person in our row didn't show up, so I got to stretch out and sleep in Matt's lap. Then Phoenix to Austin, and back home to ridiculous temperatures. Also, due to a typo, my checked-at-the-gate bag went to TUS, not AUS. They retrieved it from Tucson later that night and delivered it around 11pm to.. our neighbor's house. Who took it inside. Then they (the baggage people) had to pound on neighbor's door when they realized the problem, waking them up, and getting the bag back.

And that's the whole story.

I didn't really intend to post a day-by-day when I came home, but since I had SO many pictures, it seemed the easiest thing to just upload a day at a time. Then since I was having trouble telling the whole story in picture captions, I figured I'd post about each day. And I surely didn't realize how long we'd been in Hawaii until I had to post about every day! (And to answer Mike's question, after puzzling through what we'd done on Day 1, I realized there's no way I'd be able to remember Day 13 by the time I got to it, so I made Matt go through each day with me and write an outline of what we did that day. Like day 13 says: "Tu, June 9, Day 13: last snorkel at Outrigger, Lava Java, souvenirs, sushi lunch, souvenirs, Huggo's on the Rocks, Borders, random driving, too early to the airport". The rest is from my head, which, as you can tell from my lengthy race reports, retains way too much useless info. Meaningless trivia from daily life and bad 80s song lyrics? Check. Anything I ever learned of History and Geography? Negative. Nothing. Thanks, Brain.)

There's a couple remaining anecdotes I may share later, but for now, that's it. That's our trip to the big island in Hawaii for a half Ironman, a wedding, and a vacation.

Pictures from Day 13

Slept in again, though not so late this time, then made good on our plans to order room service. Enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, then hit the road to drive to South Point. John and Laura had already visited South Point, so it was just us. We didn't really know anything about South Point, except that it was the southern-most point in the United States, and there was a green sand beach you could hike to.

It was pretty desolate on the drive out there, and pretty desolate once we got there. We weren't sure where to go to start the hike, and there were no signs or anything, so we parked where other cars were and started there. The waves there were HUGE and impressive, and the water very blue, and Matt and I just wandered around aimlessly and looked for critters in tidal pools and enjoyed the views. We got to some sort of burial ground, and began to suspect that we should have taken the other branch of the road we'd driven in on, so we decided to hike back to the car and try that way.



We got confirmation from another couple who was looking for the green sand beach, who had asked a local, and this time parked in the right place. Headed out again, this time on really dusty, red jeep trails. It was a sunny, hot, windy day, and there was no shade out there. We hiked a while, then realized we'd get there faster if we ran, so we'd trailrun for a while, then walk a while, then run. It was fun, but we got a lot of weird looks when we were running, from the couple jeeps that drove through (the road was only navigable by 4wd vehicles, and even then, we saw a few jeeps that looked like they were gonna roll). We got to a tiny beach that had green sand, and decided that we weren't committed to going all the way to the big green beach. We thought we could see it in the distance, but with our false start and all the hiking the day before, we were getting pretty tired, and we still had a long, shadeless hike back to the car (and my sunscreen didn't feel sufficient to the task of keeping me unburned for much longer).

Long trudge back to the car (maybe 6 miles total hiking for the day?), then the long drive back to the hotel. We had planned on going to a nice restaurant for dinner, but then we were tired and didn't feel like trying very hard, so we decided to go to the restaurant at the Sheraton (which was also nice, but didn't require driving). Got some chips and ate those and powdered-sugar-and-dark-chocolate-covered macadamia nuts on the drive back, to tide us over.

Showered and changed, then had a nice, leisurely dinner. When we got back to the room, FIRENESIA!!! was going on outside. It's the Sheraton's.. show. Luauish dinner and a show that was like a poor man's Cirque du Soleil. It was loud, even with our patio door closed, so there was no avoiding it. I went out and watched it for a while during the part where they swung fire around, but mostly Matt and I danced around and shouted FIRENESIA!! randomly.



Got a text message from Laura, saying she and John were on their glass-bottom-boat dinner cruise, and they were parked right outside our hotel, so we went to the bar and found their boat right offshore and waved to them, even though all we could see was boat and bright lights. Watched for manta rays while we were there, but didn't see any, then back to the room to watch some tv and go to bed.

Oops, forgot to include the picture link:
Day 12 pictures

Rolled out of bed and hit the breakfast buffet, where we saw John and Laura and made a plan to meet up shortly to head to Volcanoes National Park. Once we got there, we hit the visitor's center to plan out what we wanted to do, then went to the Volcano House (I think it was hotel+restaurant) to make dinner reservations for later that night.

It was drizzling and a little chilly, so Laura and John purchased some long-sleeved items from the gift shop, and we headed out for hike#1, the Crater Rim trail. Started in rain forest, then entered a somewhat desolate section with many steam vents, and ended at the observatory, that had a great view of the active part of Kilauea and lots of info (and lots of people, since you could drive right up to the observatory). It was odd, because we were taking off and putting on our jackets every couple minutes, depending on whether we were near steam vents or in the rain forest or what. Dynamic temperature. Total of around 4.2 miles.



Hopped back in the car and drove to the town nearby and had a nice lunch, then back into the park for another hike. We decided this one would be Crater Rim trail to the Kilauea Iki trail, a total of around 6 miles, maybe. That was a little more than Laura wanted to do, given the problems she'd been having with her feet, so she decided to drive over to an overlook and wait for us there, then join us for the Kilauea Iki part. John, Matt and I set off through another rainforest area and eventually found Laura. Once we joined back up, we hit the Kilauea Iki trail and went through the Thurston Lava Tube, which was neat and dark. Then down down down into the Kilauea Iki Crater, which was a lot like being on the moon, only with more steam vents. We were expecting the inside of a not-currently-active volcano to be hot and miserable, but it was actually kinda drizzly and pleasant. Hiked through the middle of the volcano, then back up the other side, which was a pretty steep hike, then back to the car. All told, rim+loop was about 5.7 miles, for a total of nearly 10 miles of hiking for the day, but we were all feeling pretty good at the end.



Drove back to Volcano House and sat down to a very mediocre dinner. But it had a nice view of Kilauea, and once the sun went down, we could see the glow of the active part we'd watched smoking earlier in the day. Once we were done eating, we got back in the car and drove back to the observatory we'd hiked to earlier. From there, we could really see the glow of the lava, and I took some really awful pictures. We considered driving to see where the lava flows into the ocean, but it was actually pretty darn cold outside at that point (maybe low 50s) and drizzling heavily, and we were tired and had several hours of driving left ahead of us, so we decided to call it a night.

It was a long drive back, and we were trying to stay awake to make sure John stayed awake while driving, but I think we all lost that battle at one point or another (hopefully John didn't, but we didn't crash into anything, so I'll just assume he didn't). Overall, a very good day.

Day 11 pictures
This day also features a great number of really worthless videos that I made at the park. Watching them at home, I found them entertaining enough to bother uploading, but I'm not sure anyone else will share that opinion.

Ah, a day of rest. Matt and I had decided, after our interminable Hilo to Kona drive, that we needed a break from driving. We decided to postpone our intended Volcano trip a day, and just spend a day resting and.. y'know.. enjoying Hawaii from a reclined position. I'm not much of a sunbather or a beach-lounger or anything.. I like to do and see when I go places. But rest sounded good, and frankly, we had several days left, and not enough Stuff we wanted to do to fill them. We told John and Laura our plans, and they opted to take a rest day, too.

Slept in! That was lovely. 'Til around 10, maybe. My body was finally adjusting to local time, which didn't bode well for when we returned to Texas. We'd considered getting room service breakfast the night before, but since it was so close to lunch, we decided to just take our time getting ready, then head down and have lunch at the cafe by the pool. Laura had been reading by the pool and joined us for lunch, then John stopped by after his workout (he is evidently even worse than I am about needing to Do something at all times) for an iced tea.

After eating, Matt and I took a stroll while digesting. We just walked around the Sheraton grounds and down to the ocean and took some pictures. Then Matt went to lay down for a while, and I grabbed my book and went down to lounge by the pool and read. Laura and I alternated getting in the pool to cool off, then laying out in the sun and reading. When Matt came down to join us, we slid down the fun, twisty slide a few times, then jumped back out and got some delicious smoothies.



It was a nice day of just lounging and reading and relaxing. As it neared dinnertime, we went back up to the room to shower and change, then met John, Laura, Jenn and Bob for an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet in the Sheraton restaurant. It was good, but we all ate way too much. We then went to see if we could see any manta rays in the water from the Sheraton bar, but I was fading fast. All that resting wore me out. So after I saw a manta ray swim close, I called that good enough, and headed up to go to bed.

Day 10 pictures (day of rest means short update and not many pictures)

(We were there for 13 days total, in case you're curious if these damn updates will ever end. Not yet!)

This was Friday, the day my parents were flying home, and therefore the last day they had the condo, and therefore the day that we had to move to home#3: the last one. We spent the morning enjoying our final turkeyfeeding, then packed up and loaded our car, then helped them load theirs. Said our farewells, then Matt and I decided to go check out Hilo, the other big city on the Big Island.

Headed north for a while (same route we'd taken to get to Waipi'o Valley), then east into new and uncharted territory. We really had no firm desires as far as what to do and see, so I suggested a couple waterfalls that were in that area, since we hadn't seen many waterfalls.

Just north of Hilo was Akaka Falls, which featured Akaka Falls and Kahuna Falls. Akaka Falls was really big and pretty, Kahuna not quite as. It was a nice, short, easy little walk to get to them, so we enjoyed the scenery, took some pictures, then headed into Hilo for breakfast/lunch/whatever. Drove around until we saw a sign that featured the word "pancakes", and since Matt loves pancakes, we ate at Ken's Pancake House. It was okay.. nothing to write home about.



After eating, we headed inland a bit to find Rainbow Falls. Eh, it was pretty, but not spectacular. Apparently I have high standards for waterfalls. So we headed out again to take the long drive to Kona.

The long, long.. long, long drive. We went the southern route (there's pretty much two options to get from Hilo to Kona, since there aren't many roads), past Volcanoes National Park and Ocean View and .. probably some other stuff. If I had to pick a low point of the vacation, it was probably this. Hilo hadn't been all that exciting, and now we had a ridiculously long drive, when all we'd been doing was driving the whole vacation, and this one wasn't all that exciting (it was pretty, but we just wanted to Be There Already after a few hours, and .. it was a lot of hours of driving) (I should, for historical accuracy, point out that it was Matt who did all this driving, I just spent hours passengering).

Eventually our very braindead selves made it to Kona and, despite not remembering to take the directions to our hotel, we found the Sheraton Keahou and checked in. We told the valet not to even go park our car, just leave it topside, because we would be right back. Ran inside, threw our stuff down, threw on bathing suits, and met up with John and Laura to go a-snorkelin'.

Drove (more driving! yay!) up to a dock near the airport and met up with Leilani and Ron, Rod and JohnF for a night snorkel with (hopefully) manta rays! On the boat trip out to the spot, we got lucky and saw a pod of dolphins, and got to watch them frolic and play for a few minutes.



We got to our spot (there were a ton of boats there, lots of places offer trips to dive and snorkel with the manta rays), suited up into our rented wetsuits, got our spiel about how this worked, and then waited for the sun to fully go down. Once it was time, we got in the water and all clung to a ring of pool noodles. The drill was, you hold onto the ring with one hand and you have a flashlight in your other hand that you point straight down. The flashlight attracts the plankton, the plankton attracts the manta rays. The more light, the more plankton, so we had to all stick together and think bright and planktony thoughts. The first thing we attracted was about a billion mackerel, who formed a swirling mackerel vortex. That in itself was amazing to watch, as they were just right there in front of you, in a feeding frenzy. But they weren't the desired main attraction.

After a while of being out there (you kinda lose all sense of time when you're in the water, in the dark, staring down at bright lights, trying to stay relatively still, not being able to talk because you're wearing a snorkel and you're underwater), one of our crewman said something about seeing one! This was exciting, because it's always possible that some nights, none will show up at all. They don't really have them on retainer for a guaranteed nightly show. So yay, there was one out there! And then I saw it out of the corner of my eye, a big moving thing. A couple minutes later, I got a better look at it, still way far away. But I saw it! And I thought, "Wow. I saw a manta ray. That was so worth coming out here. That's something I could never do at home, and it was amazing. I'm glad we did this." And then a few minutes later, we saw a different one! We could go home happy now.

And then more started showing up. And they started getting closer. Our crew was trying to come up with ways for us to attract them to our little group, so they shifted some people around so we had more light coming from our poolnoodlering (people kept getting cold/seasick/whatever, and going back to the boat, taking their precious plankton-attracting lights with them). And it worked, because the rays started coming closer and closer. I'd see motion behind me, and look back under the water to see one just right at my feet. And then finally, one came up directly under us. They do this weird pattern where they start low and do a big barrel roll (so you can see their white bellies), then move up a little and do it again, then move up a little and do it again. This last one is basically right underneath you. So close you have to move your flashlight up or they'll hit it. (And we were told not to touch them, as it would scratch off their protective layer of mantagoo, which could get them sick.) Several manta rays came by and did this right underneath us. I think at some point we all got bumped by a ray.. one bumped up against my elbow (hey, he touched me, not vice versa.. apparently they don't have the same rules regarding touching humans), and everyone has a story about getting bumped.

It was seriously amazing. I had this impression of them being maybe the size of a kid's kite. But in reality, the males have a ~5-8 foot wingspan, and the females can get up to 14 feet! These things were big. But strangely not at all threatening (at least I didn't find them so). They were very peaceful, and it felt incredibly surreal. After a while (again, no idea how long we were out there), my head started to hurt from the mask. And I felt a little seasick just from floating in the ocean staring down. And it got a little stale to breathe through a snorkel for so long. And even though the water was pretty warm, it got cold just because it was night and we were completely immobile. But even though I got fairly physically uncomfortable by the end, I refused to even consider going back to the boat until they made us. I wanted to see as much of these guys as they'd let me. And I was rewarded by one of them coming by again just right underneath us. Amazing.

Eventually they did make us go back to the boat, though, and then it was a pleasant ride back to the dock (for everyone but Leilani, who'd gotten seasick, fortunately after she got a lot of time with the manta rays) (and fortunately it was just mild seasickness.. no vomiting that I know of). Drove back to the hotel and sought out dinner, because we were starving (hadn't had anything between pancakes and 9pm, other than a small bag of cheetos and half a twizzler on the boat). We ate in the bar, and had two drinks before we got our food, so we were feeling the alcohol. Then we ate a ton of appetizers, which were delicious. Or probably were.. we were too hungry to judge accurately. Then a much-needed shower, and fell into bed.

It's funny that, at least for me, this day had the lowest point (the drive from Hilo to Kona) and the highest point (the manta ray night snorkel).

Day 9 pictures (a couple pictures of the ride over to manta rays and dinner afterwards, but no manta ray pictures, since we didn't get a waterproof camera. plus, I wouldn't have wanted to experience it through a camera.)

Started the day up north for a change, and made everyone come to us! I made breakfast sandwiches for everyone, and once they (Laura, John, Ron and Rod) got to the condo, we caravaned up to the north coast, to Waipi'o Valley. This was a beautiful valley right on the coast with a short hike down into the valley. You'd think short hike would attract a lot of families and overlook-viewers and whatnot, but this short hike featured a 25% grade, so.. we only saw 3 other people out there who were hiking (though we saw quite a few jeeps).



Only 4wd vehicles and hikers are allowed down the road into the valley, so it was sparsely populated, and I personally really enjoyed it. There was some bitching from the peanut gallery who evidently didn't get the memo about the steep grade. :) (Rod didn't end up going down at all, but just waited at the scenic overlook at the top for us.) The views were beautiful, with a nice waterfall view as you finally get down to the bottom. Also a very tiny village at the bottom. Right as we walked into the village, two horses quickly ambled down the road to greet us. Just some wild horses, who shoved their noses at us and demanded we pet them. That should happen anytime I go anywhere! Also a very friendly dog, and since we were all missing our dogs, it got a lot of attention, as well.

Then.. back up! John and Ron opted to "deliver the mail", walking from one side of the road to the other, so the grade isn't as steep, but you're still making forward progress. Laura spent a good deal of time going up backwards, because her feet were bothering her. I just walked up like a normal person. And Matt.. Matt had to be different, so he decided to run back up to the top. Ron bet him $5 he wouldn't make it. Matt has politely not demanded that Ron pay up yet.

Back to the top, back in the car, and back to Kona again, stopping for lunch at another place on Ali'i, this time a pizza place where I had the recommended, but frankly kinda average, chicken parmesan sandwich. Then a short drive to Keahou Bay to meet up with Jenn and Bob for some snorkeling.

We did a catamaran trip out to Captain Cook where there's a fabulous cove for snorkeling. The journey out was great, and the boat was nice and had snacks and a really nice crew (all the aquatic things we did seemed to be crewed by young, tan, in-shape guys; shame, that). Once we got there, we spent an hour exploring the coastline. Many, many kinds of fish, several eels and lots of neat coral. Laura and I embraced our inner 4-year-old and would see a particularly interesting fish, or giant school of fish, and go swimming crazily after them, arms outstretched. Poor fish. (Especially the little spotty pufferfish.)



Eventually they summoned us back to the boat, and another great boatride returned us to our cars. We were pretty exhausted after all of that, and still had to drive back to the condo again, so Matt and I just grabbed another dinner from the neat grocery store on the way home, then called it a night.

Day 8 pictures.
(Lots of pictures, because that day was particularly scenic.)

Morning, turkeys, parents, the usual.

Laura and John had originally wanted to jetski off into the sunset at the end of the wedding ceremony, but that turned out to be logistically difficult, so instead they decided to jetski the day after the wedding. They asked if we wanted to join them, and we said we'd be delighted. Got there very early, to make sure we could find the place, and make sure we could reserve jetskis for the same time they had them. It was no problem, and the four of us plus Rod headed out.

We ended up sharing jetskis to save some money, so Matt and I switched off driving. Except being a passenger bothered his shoulder, so I didn't drive long. But that's okay, 'cause passengering was fun, and Matt's more of a speeddriving sort of person than I am, anyway.

We were unfortunately confined to a very small area, so we did a lot of loops. During one of the loops, I caught something out of the corner of my eye. Looked again, and sure enough, there were fins. I made Matt stop, and sure enough, there was a pod of dolphins in the distance. We watched, captivated, and next time Rod, then Laura and John came around, we waved them down, then all sat and watched them jump and play. I really hadn't expected to see any dolphins while in Hawaii, so this was a great bonus treat.



After our hour was up, we went to lunch at a place on the main drag (Ali'i Street or.. Road or something) and had delicious food and more (on fire) alcohol. I don't remember what John, Laura and Rod had planned next, but we decided to head back to the condo. We took the scenic route back, and it was beautiful and mountainous, went through about 4 different weather systems, then came up to a golf course with warning signs around it to watch for nene (the Hawaiian state bird) crossing the road. Matt turned into the golf course to look for nene, and we were immediately confronted by the most fantastic bird in the world (that's a video). We fed the francolin (we saw nene, but they ignored us) and stalked some teensy baby turkeys, then continued our journey to the condo. Turns out, the scenic route took even longer to get from Kona to the condo, but it was definitely worth it for the views.

The parents were spending that night at the Sheraton in Kona, so Matt and I decided to pick up a pizza from the Italian/pub place nearby (and some cheese fries) and just laze about the condo and watch tv. Just a lazy night, but I think we needed some downtime after the craziness of the previous two nights.

After our morning turkey ritual, Matt and I jumped in the car and drove down to Kona to meet Laura for a morning snorkel at her hotel, the Outrigger Hotel. It was wonderful and I only ended up with two coral cuts. Apparently I'm not adept at avoiding the coral. After a shower and clothing change, we met up with Leilani and Jenn, the other two bridesmaids, for a bridesmaid lunch. With Matt and Bob as the two token boys. Laura gave us all fantastic turtle-themed gifts, and we had a cocktail. And apparently this cocktail was made of really potent alcohol, 'cause Laura and I both ended up drunk off one drink at the end of lunch. Yikes.



She went back to her hotel to sleep it off, and I took a short nap in the car on the way back to the condo. Back home and mostly sober, we showered and got all decked out in our wedding clothes. Then back to Kona again to pick up Laura. Then to Walmart! Nothing says classy like starting your wedding at Walmart! (We joked about this a lot.) We had to caravan to the wedding site, so it was a nice central, easy-to-find location.

We drove back up north toward the airport to this little unmarked street, and had to go through a guard gate and closed barrier to get to the wedding site. Once we got there, we had to let the boys go away first (so John wouldn't see Laura), then we got to check out the beach. We met the reverend and the photographer (who was his wife, and also a reverend, and also a grade-school teacher which was abundantly obvious in the way she acted), and they walked Laura through what they'd be doing and what she needed to do, etc. I took some pictures, then moseyed down to the actual cove where the wedding was taking place (no official aisle walk, just a random mosey). A bit later, Laura and my dad made a more official walk to us, and the ceremony took place. It was short and sweet (and more religious than they'd requested, but that's how it goes) and while my mom avoided crying, Jenn, who was standing next to me, was bawling up a storm. Made it so that I was laughing too hard at her to cry myself, which was convenient.

So, he did, and she did, and then they were Mr and Mrs Zeiner and there was kissing. Then they took a picturesque stroll to the edge of the water, I suspect so that Laura could look for turtles. After a round of congratulations, Laura and John were whisked away by the photographer to take sunset wedding pictures, and the guests were left to fend for themselves. And since we're all dignified adults who know how to behave at a solemn wedding ceremony, we all started crawling over the lava rocks and peering into tidal pools looking for crabs and other assorted sea creatures.



Eventually Laura and John were returned, more pictures were taken (I tried to take as many as I could, since it's rare that everyone gets to see the official pictures until much later), and then it was pretty dark, so we all piled back in the car (except this time we offloaded Laura on John, because they're married now, and he has to take care of her and drive her around and stuff).

We all drove to Huggo's on the Rocks in Kona and had a fantastic reception dinner. Any dinner where you sit down and someone brings you an unrequested mai tai is a good dinner. Then a coursed dinner with sushi, chocolate booze drink, delicious salad, seared ahi and a dessert that I almost couldn't fit inside. There was some dancing after that, where Matt and I played the part of The Old People and just sat and watched everyone else. Then we were beat, so Matt and I ducked out a little early. (But not first! We let Jenn and Bob take the Old Person award for being the first to leave.)



Long drive back to the condo, after a busy, busy day.

Congratulations, John and Laura!

Day 6 pictures.

We started the morning, as we'd start every morning while staying in the condo, by getting up and sitting on the backporch until the turkeys came by (generally about 3 minutes), then feeding them chips and other assorted things that turkeys would eat (which was pretty much anything). It was a fantastic way to start a morning, and I wish I could do it every day.

We'd considered renting snorkels, but then we realized that given how many times we planned to snorkel, it'd probably be more cost effective just to buy some. So we headed into Kona (man, the drive to Kona from Waikoloa Village was about 50 minutes, and I swear it got longer each time we did it, and we did it a lot) to find cheap snorkels.

On the way, we stopped at Java on the Rocks, chosen randomly because they seemed to serve breakfast, and ate breakfast. It was right on the water, and just beautiful, and the food was tasty. Then to Walmart (it was cheap and open and right there, and also sold pillows) to get snorkels and a pillow for Matt, who hadn't been able to sleep at all on the pillow in the condo.

Headed back to where the tri had started to try out our snorkels (we just got snorkels and masks, no fins, since we both had fins at home, and didn't think we'd really need/want them in Hawaii anyway). We went the whole length of the beach and saw nothing, because it was on sand, then got over to the rocky part and saw a ton of neat fishes and turtles. Good stuff, and the first, boringer part gave us a chance to get used to the snorkels and masks in calmer water. The water got a little rough (and I got a bit queasy), and it was the middle of the day so the sun was harsh on my tri-sunburned bits, so we packed it in and headed out.

Headed back to the condo, picking up lunch from a really neat grocery store on the way. Showered and changed into fancier clothes, then BACK to Kona for night-before-wedding drinks and dinner (not a rehearsal dinner, because there was no rehearsal). Started with drinks at the Outrigger Hotel where John and Laura were staying, and watched the sunset there. Then moved to Quinn's Almost On The Bay and had a tasty dinner with the whole group that had come to Hawaii for the wedding.



Then back another 50 minute drive back to the condo, and to bed.

Day 5 pictures

Having hydrated and eaten well the night before, we actually all woke up feeling pretty okay. And, of course, we all woke up early, because we were still adjusting to the time difference. We met up with John and Laura and hit the breakfast buffet again, after dropping off my bike to be disassembled and reboxed. Then we went down to say goodbye to the turtles at our turtlecove, then checked out of the Fairmont Orchid (hotel#1).

The bikebox wouldn't be ready for pickup until much later in the day, so we decided to kill time by just driving around randomly. First we drove to Waikoloa Village to move our stuff into Paniolo Greens, the condo my parents were staying in, and generously agreed to let us take the guest room for a week. Then we drove over to Hawi, the place where the bike course had turned around, but via a different, more mountainous route. Then back down the bike route so Matt could check it out, stopping off at a random beach access road that turned out to be really pretty (and had a portapotty).



We had lunch at the pizzaplace/pub near the condo, then went to pick up the bikebox, then to the grocery store to pick up supplies for dinner. We got some delicious-looking ahi, local salad makings and some cheese bread, then went back to the condo to start making dinner and have our first encounter with the turkeys that lived on the adjoining golf course. Laura and John joined us and the folks, and John lightly seared the ahi as we assembled the salad, then we ate. It was very tasty.

Sat around and chatted and ate chocolate-covered macadamia nuts for a while, then to bed. This was our second most restful day in Hawaii, and it really didn't contain all that much rest. :)

All the day 4 pictures.

Alarm went off at 4am, no problem getting up due to my body actually still somewhat believing that it was 9am, and quickly into my tri costume. This was a new tri costume, because Laura and John had tri tops made specially for the event. Shark on the front, turtles on the back, and verbiage about John and Laura's Hawaii wedding. This led to an entire day of, "No, I'm not Laura. I'm her sister. Yes, they're both doing the event. I'll pass on your congratulations."

( Full report.. )

All Day 3 pictures (event and post-event-dinner-and-sunset) are here.

Laura and John, who got there a day before us, warned us we'd probably wake up around 3am, and sure enough, we did. We'd agreed the night before to meet up at 5am, in order to maximize our chances of swimming with turtles, so at 5am, Matt and I stood waiting for them at the turtle cove. In.. the dark.



Turns out, sun's not up until around 5:30am. But it finally came out (though it was overcast), and we swam and saw neat fish and lots of turtles (who we didn't molest, because the signs say not to, but we certainly.. hung out right next to them). Then we hit the breakfast buffet, and saw a turkey and several mongooses.

Went and dropped off my bike to run bag and picked up my now-assembled bike, and we took the bikes out for a short spin to make sure everything worked and fit. Met back up afterwards with everyone doing/spectating at the event (us 4, Clarence and Carolyn, and JohnF), and had lunch at the resort. Somehow schlepped all the bikes to the start line (4 bikes and 5 people in 2 small cars with no bike racks.. I sat on Laura's lap in the front seat, and we both nearly died) and dropped off bikes and helmets as required.

Came back and packed up more gear for the race, then met up with everyone again for the Ironman dinner buffet at the resort. Kind of a strange pre-race buffet. It was tasty, but not really ideal pre-race food for the most part, and my stomach was actually a bit upset all night as a result. Oops.

Went to bed around 8:30 that night, with the alarm set for 4am.

Okay, I've begun the process of uploading and captioning the pictures. I organized all the pictures by day already, so hopefully it should go faster after this.

We'll begin with.. day 1!

Flew to Hawaii, arriving somewhere before 2pm local time. Local time being 5 hours earlier than CST. It caused severe sleep-confusion for the first few days.

Laura and John picked us up from the airport and drove us to our hotel, which was also the host hotel, the Fairmont Orchid. It was a resort, and thusly very expensive and very nice. We did packet pickup, dropped off my bikebox to have them assemble the bike, walked around the grounds and took a billion pictures of birds and flowers, then ate dinner at the Japanese restaurant in the hotel. Delicious.

Then we went to bed around 8pm local time. Which felt like 1am to us. It had been a long day.

Pictures from day 1.

Matt and I just got back yesterday from a two week vacation in Hawaii (big island, mostly the Kona area). As an overview, I:

- completed the Honu 70.3 (Hawaii half Ironman) (race report to come eventually)
- snorkeled many times with assorted fish and many green sea turtles
- had the honor of standing by my sister as she got married on the beach
- jetskiied and got to hang out with dolphins during
- ate really well, and pretty much constantly
- renamed the Hawaii state fish to humuhumu-eukanuba-yaddayadda
- took a catamaran to Captain Cook and snorkeled next to the monument, chasing fish and poking eels
- gawked at, pet, photographed, or otherwise bothered every turkey, goat, feral cat, pet dog, donkey, nene, pheasant, mynah bird, sparrow, toad, dove, francolin, crab, fish, eel.. and anything else we could find
- did a night snorkel with manta rays (where they got close enough to bump up against you)
- did a short, but beautiful hike into a valley on a road that was a 25% grade (and were rewarded with wild horses that came up to nuzzle us) (ohyeah, add horses and chickens to the above list)
- chased waterfalls
- hiked around an active volcano and through an inactive one
- drank more in 2 weeks than I had in the previous year
- tried to find a green sand beach, but gave up before getting there (and instead just meandered, watching the giant waves, finding a smaller green sand beach, doing some trail running, and watching jeeps almost fall over)
- had a fantastic time with family, new and old, and friends
- took an overwhelming number of pictures, which I will attempt to wade through and begin posting
- probably other stuff, but jet lag is making my head fuzzy, so that'll do for now. Pictures and race report to come.

Another month, another Splash and Dash. This time, there were enough folks signed up that they split it into two waves: men and women. Way more women than men, which is rare, and due in large part to Tracy making this the TriZones intermediate workout, so TriZones was heavily represented.

As the day went on, I really wasn't feeling like doing this event, so I went into "Just going out there for fun, don't care, just go do it" mode. So no warmup run or swim, just hanging out and chatting with sister, friends from high school, tri friends I hadn't seen for ages, and strangers. Lots of fun, which is what I needed. Then it was time to go!

( Race report.. )



Then hotdogs and cookies and chatting with friends. Good times.

Back in August of 2008, I posted that I'd gotten some regular running shorts and was trying to work them into my running, so far with some success. Through my Houston training, I'd break them out every so often, but mostly stuck with compression shorts because I was afraid to experiment too much. I ran Houston in compression shorts.

I think my first run after Houston, I wore compression shorts. Then I stopped. I think I've worn capris twice since then, when it was colder, but otherwise.. all running shorts all the time. And I've had no problems. Granted, the longest run I've done in them is still just over 12 miles, so they're untested for 20+ milers in nasty hot, humid Texas summers, but I have high hopes.

After wearing compression shorts exclusively for so many years, it's funny when people notice for the first time that I'm not. It made both Erin and Laura, at different times, say something like, "Hey, you're wearing shorts!" causing the people around us to believe that I typically run without shorts, presumably without any sort of pants at all.

Maybe if I can build up the confidence to run shirtless, pants will be the next thing to go.

The day after the Houston Marathon, Meredith sent me an email saying that she had been doing some writing for Austin Runner Magazine, and Wish had asked her if she knew any good candidates for the "biggest winners" story he was doing.. "mini-profiles of folks who lost a lot of weight through improved nutrition, running and anything else." She asked if I would be okay with her sending him my name. I told her I was fine with that.

( The rest of the story.. )

And here it is:
The pdf of me in Austin Runner Magazine

I love the jumping picture. Love it. And the text is pretty true to what I said. A few bits are edited in a way that makes it say something slightly different from what I said, but nothing that offends my sensibilities.

Overall, it was a pretty neat experience. I hope that my story can help inspire others, even if my story isn't as impressive as some of those amazing guys who shed over 100 pounds. And I've enjoyed my 15 minutes of fame, cover-model style!

(A couple more pictures of the photoshoot, taken by Robyn, here. Also some puppy pictures.)

I'm not a trail runner, but I do love trail running, and so two or three times a year I'll go out and do a trail run. Usually in the form of a race. A race for which my body is woefully underprepared. Always fun, though!

( Race report.. )