Relaxing In Hawaii

Monday December 13th was the first day that I didn't have to rush to do anything. No biking to do, no marathon to run, no plane to catch, it was just a day to have fun. I got up at 6am and grabbed some coffee and headed down to the pier behind the hotel to watch the sunrise over Diamond Head. Truth be told, I actually wanted to hike Diamond Head and get some sunrise pics from the top of the crater, however, they closed the road for repairs for the week I was there! Grrrr! Oh well. So my plan for that day was to meet up with Shelly & Beth and do some sea kayaking. After a litte fiasco at the rental car place (apparently Shelly was on the 'do not rent to' list - LOL!) we got our car and headed to Kailua. We got our kayaks and decided to grab some sandwiches on the way out so we could have a little picnic on one of the islands. The people at the kayak place told us it would take 1 1/2 hours to paddle to this island... I did it in 30 minutes flat! BOOM!

We set out on a little exploration trip of the island and found some really cool stuff. There was a tide pool and some interesting rock formations. We found a shady part of the island and had a little picnic before heading out. On the way off the island I paddled out to sea a bit and tried to surf some waves in my kayak. It was a lot harder than it seemed in my head. We then went on to do a little snorkeling and headed back in to shore because Beth had a plane to catch.

Later that night I went out for a nice sushi dinner at Doraku with Marie & Shelly. I ordered "omakase" for us which is basically chef's choice. The chef, Hide Yoshimoto, apparently didn't get to do that much. He was so impressed that I knew what it was that he came out to speak with me, brought everything out himself and explained exactly what it was, how it was prepared and how it should be eaten. The food was spectacular as was the service!

Here is one of the dishes he made for us. I think this one was red snapper with deep fried ginger chips.

This is the view from the restaurant.

Back at the hotel, this is the view from my balcony.

The next day I tried my hand at surfing. I got up the first time which was awesome but apparently that was beginners luck because I fell a ton after that. It was a ton of fun though! After that I decided to just chill for the rest of the day. I had to figure out where I was going to stay the next night because my plane didn't leave until Thursday but my hotel reservation ended on Wednesday. Technically it ended on Monday but I was able to crash with two different people on Monday and Tuesday night. No such luck for Wednesday though. I also wanted to drive up to the north shore to see the big pipeline surfing competition. So what better solution than to rent a Jeep, drive to the north side of the island and sleep in the Jeep?! I wound up getting a soft top Jeep Wrangler (I've always wanted one of these) and cruising around.

Here's my ride!

The surf competition started early so I woke up at 5:30 and got some coffee. There were a ton of locals out surfing before the competition began at 8am.

The last 3 pics are of Kelly Slater. He's freakin' amazing! He's won Pipeline Masters like 6 times since he started.

After I saw Kelly surf it was off to cruise the island in my Jeep with the top down!

Here's the Dole plantation. Those are all pineapples.

This is a spot over on the east side of the island. Just gorgeous!

As my time on the island was drawing to a close I was reflecting on the trip and comparing it to others. In all my travels I've seen some amazing things but I've always been ready to come home. For the first time, I felt like I could stay. I had no desire to leave whatsoever. I've heard people say that time and time again about Hawaii but now that I've been there I totally understand! If you haven't been... GO!

The Honolulu Marathon

Marathon Day - Sunday December 12th
Miles - 26.2

The Honolulu Marathon was my 6th marathon. There's always something a little different about each one with regards to how it's run, food, water, start time etc... This one was start time. The race begins at 5am! That means I had to get out of bed at 2:45am to get ready, eat, hydrate and walk from my hotel to the start line. It sucked getting up, but if you've ever competed in anything before you know that you're usually pretty anxious and therefore don't sleep the best so it's not the end of the world. We had a little breakfast down by the pool and took a group photo.

Then it was off to the start of the race. I was told it was only about a .5 mile walk to the start. It took 45 min. I suspect it was more like 2.5 miles. Then I had to use the restroom... that was another 45 min. wait because apparently some half-wit was in charge of logistics. I would think anyone with a 3rd grade education could figure out that if you have 30,000 runners, you should probably order up more than 16 port-a-potties. I watched the fireworks for the start of the marathon from the bathroom line.

Then I had to rush to catch up to the very back group of runners... the 6+ hour people and just barely got in front of the walkers. I crossed the START line 12 minutes after the gun went off. Then Mary, Graham and I had to fight our way through the sea of people at the back to get to the group we wanted to be with. I have to say it was quite interesting. As we passed masses of people we got to see all sorts of crazy costumes and groups of people. There were people dressed for getting married with full dresses and tuxes. There were people running in traditional Hawaiian outfits like grass skirts and barefoot. I even saw a dude in getas, those traditional Japanese wood sandals, and a kimono. He ran the whole race in that! There were actually a ton of cool Japanese outfits because like 70% of the people that run the Honolulu Marathon come over from Japan to do it.

I was a little worried about how I was going to feel. I hadn't really trained for the race and I had just biked 242 miles that week so I didn't have high expectations. I ran the first 1/2 with my friend Graham in about 2:03. I was feeling good so I told him I was going to take off. The sun was coming up and it was getting warm but I was still feeling pretty good. I've never run a negative split (where your second half is faster than the first) but I was feelin' it today. At mile 24 I felt good enough to stop on the side of the course and slam a beer that some guys were handing out. It was awesome! Then I headed out and came across the finish in 4:01:00. I was really shooting for sub 4hrs but no biggie. I was super stoked to run a negative split and I felt really good at the end.

The nice thing about having a race that starts at 5am is that I was done by 9am and had the day to relax. I went back to the hotel and took a nap and then me the group for a luau later on. Let me just tell you, if you feel the need to go to a luau in Hawaii, make sure you go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We went to another place and it was pretty cheesy. The food was mediocre at best and the drinks were hella expensive (the 'included' drinks are crap).

This drink I had to use one of my drink tickets plus pay $12 for! Crazy! On the upside it was good to hang out with the team and celebrate another awesome Bolder Options destination marathon. It's hard not to have a good time with a great group of people! Right cousins?! LOL!

Hawaii Trip Day 5

Day 5 - Friday December 10th
Miles - 40.6
Climb - 1043

Today was the last day of our ride around the big island. I had a mix of emotions about it coming to a close. Excited because of what we had accomplished but sad because I wasn't ready for it to be over. Riding around the island was amazing. It was a little chilly in the morning and kind of gray. It looked like it might rain so we were all ready to go with the rain gear. As we set out for our ride I left last but quickly caught up with the front riders Chris, Jeff & Kim. We were riding pretty close together and the shoulder on the road was not very wide and in not very good condition. We were frequently swerving into the road to avoid debris and potholes. The order of our line was Jeff, Chris, Kim and myself bringing up the back. When you ride in a line like that it's a little nerve racking. The rider in the front calls out and uses hand signals to let people know what the road is like. If there is a debris in the road the front rider points. If they need to stop, they yell "stopping" as well as use the hand signal. The people in the back have to pay close attention as well because they have less time to react to something. At some point Jeff swerved to miss a pothole and Kim didn't. Her front tire slammed into the far edge of the pavement and sent her flying. I immediately swerved and locked up my brakes to avoid running into Kim. It's like time all of a sudden slowed down for me. I saw, in slow motion, Kim wabble, then fall, then still clipped into her pedals slide across the asphalt and come to a stop. I did a little endo with my back tire coming up off the ground from me riding the brakes. I quick clipped out of my pedals and luckily landed on my feet unscathed. Unfortunately I can't say the same for Kim. She cracked her helmet and had some pretty gnarly road rash. She wanted to keep riding but neither her or her bike were in any condition to keep going so she was forced to sag in. What's kind of crazy is we later found out that her husband, Nick, crashed right around the same time but 15 miles back or so. They had some sweet matching rasberries to show off in Maui.

Not too long after that it started to rain. First a mist then full on downpour. We arrived at lunch totally soaked!

At lunch Kim found herself another helmet and a backup bike and decided to ride the rest of the way into Kona. Impressive! She's pretty bad ass! So the rest of the ride was a little nerve racking. It was pretty much all downhill. With the rain, cold, narrow shoulders, decreased visibility and heavy traffic it made for an interesting ride. My right hand went numb and both of my forearms were cramping from riding the brakes for 20 miles. I was actually kind of excited to be riding in the rain though. We had 4 great days of riding weather and it was nice to experience the rain. I could have done without the cold. It was absolutely freezing being soaking wet and cruising downhill on a bike. We weren't really having to work very hard so our bodies weren't generating any heat which just compounded the effect. We arrived at the hotel in Kona and had a little celebration that included pool towels. As much as I enjoyed the experience of riding in the rain I equally enjoyed a piping hot shower and dry clothes. That night we were supposed to go to a luau but with the weather they cancelled it and we went to a local bar/restaurant called Jackie Rey's.

Outside the restaurant is this sweet Mercedes ??? custom station wagon thing.

After the restaurant we went out. When we were riding everyone was in bed pretty early. You were tired from the day of riding and then had to get up early to do it again so there wasn't a lot of partying out on the ride. This was our chance to celebrate and blow off some steam. On our way to the next place I stopped at an ABC store to purchase a new Hawaiian shirt for the nights festivities. I was ready to roll now!

So we went from Jackie Rey's to a bar called Humpy's.

The Mai Tai's not only tasted great, they look awesome too!

After a few drinks I thought we should all go sing karaoke so I found a local joint that had it. When I say local, I mean townie bar. It was awesome! I'm pretty sure our hotel rooms were bigger than this bar. It was filled with bikers and people with lots of "character". We closed the joint down and then piled into a cab like we were trying to break a Guinness World Record for most number of people in a midsize sedan. I sat in front with someone on my lap.

Here's some of the girls showing off their flowers. You wear it on your right side if you're single and on your left side if you are taken.

At first glance this photo is just another drinking pic. Upon further examination you will find it's a fairly accurate snapshot of the character of the bar and it's patrons. I love the lady to my right with the reindeer antlers on!

This is Beth dancing on a chair.

All in all it was a great end to a great bike ride!

Hawaii Trip Day 4

Day 4 - Thursday December 9th
Miles - 57.7
Climb - 2523

Today started out a little cool. It was a beautiful morning though. Once on the main road we ran into an elevation sign and had to stop for a pic.

That was the top of the hill and for the next 28 or so miles it was all downhill. Nick promised us that the uphill at the end of the ride today wasn't too bad. So we had a nice little pace line going downhill to lunch. We rotated riders about every 3 miles or so. I had started out towards the back and by the time I got up to the front to pull, it was only 9 miles to our next stop at a little coffee place. I was feeling really good so I decided I was going to pull us all the way to that stop. It was one of those rides where everything just clicks. My legs felt fresh, my mind was clear and all I wanted to do was get into a low hear and just crank! And that's exactly what I did. Upon arrival at the coffee place a couple people mentioned that they had to break going uphill. I'm not a big guy but I'm big for a biker and apparently I create a nice little wind block. It was a great ride.

Here's us at the self serve coffee & macadamia nut sampling.

These are coffee cherries.

And this is inside the couples home that owns the Kau Coffee plantation there. She was bagging up fresh beans for us to take home. It was a lovely little place with a phenomenal view of the ocean. And she was a very interesting lady. Definitely drank a TON of coffee! She sells it online and will ship to the US also if you are interested. It was delicious!

After our stop at the coffee place it was on to our lunch stop. It was only another 6 or so miles. We were headed to a black sand beach for lunch. When we arrived it was absolutely breathtaking. This was the first time I'd ever seen black sand. It was awesome!

After lunch we started our climb that Nick had said was no big deal. Maybe one long hill. Well the one long hill was in fact an 11 mile long, category 2 climb (there are only 2 levels above it). It seemed to be the never ending climb! But we all made it through and arrived in one piece at our bed and breakfast for the evening.

The B&B was pretty cool. There was plenty of space and some really cool open areas. This whole patio area was covered and screened in.

Later that day we ventured out to South Point, the southern most point in the United States. We also attempted to find a green sand beach but it was too far of a walk to make before dark. Darrell and Chris and I just threw rocks into the ocean for an hour while the rest of the group tried to make it.

This is South Point. If we had made it there before dark you could actually cliff jump off of these 40'+ cliffs. There was an old rusty ladder that you would climb up from the water and it just looked like to much fun for me to pass up climbing down it. I discovered a cool cave at the bottom, and that it was a little nerve racking being on an old rickety ladder above the water.

Thanks For A Great 2010!!

I've got a ton of stuff to post but for my first post of 2011 I wanted to just take a minute to say how grateful I am to everyone in my life. 2010 was a phenomenal year and it was all about great stories and great friends. I was able to do a lot of travel from weekend trips to Vegas to a bike ride around the Big Island of Hawaii and everything in between. I've seen more parts of the U.S. in 2010 than any other year in my life.

A lot of people come up to me and say things like "Oh, that's so awesome! I wish I could do that." or "You're so lucky, how do you do it?" Well, the short answer is I just did it. I took a page from all the sales training and self-help books I've read and just made a decision. I decided that I wasn't going to sit around and let life pass me by. Every opportunity that has presented itself I've made my best effort to say yes to. I've discovered that unless you make it a point to get out of your comfort zone and go do something you probably won't ever. I don't want to wake up when I'm 40, or 50, or 80 and say "What the hell happened? I haven't done anything!"

And so will go 2011. I'm off to a great start with a trip to Kenya & Tanzania. I'm planning on visiting my niece in Seoul, South Korea hopefully in May. Then off to Germany in September for a little Oktoberfest action and the Berlin marathon.

I'm excited to have you all as friends, acquaintances, colleagues & family. I hope that I can continue to entertain you with great stories and adventures and I invite you to make a leap and create some adventures of your own!