Here at last

Arrived in Kona last night just after sundown.  Had a lovely dinner with authentic Hawaii pizza--a little cliche, I know--but I love Hawaiin pizza and I couldn't pass it up with roasted pork.  Also couldn't pass up the musician playing his uke for the restaurant.  He played a few songs, took a break, and came back to let us know he would only be playing on more song as he was being summoned by the kitchen to step in at his other job.

Amazes me that this thing fits nicely in that little box.

The finished product.

Got to our vacation home at 10ish, settled in and went to bed as soon as possible.  We hadn't sleep on the plane rides to try to fight off jet lag.  As we were driving to our destination, I realized this meant I had gotten a full 7 hours of sleep in the previous 72 hours.  I was exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open.  We woke up with the sun this morning and I put my bike together before we went into Kona for the day.

The feel here in Kona is different than what it was in Wisconsin.  I'm not talking about the locale, as we're a long way off beer brats and cheese curds, more the feel of the triathlon community.  The feeling is friendly but certainly more serious than what I found in Madison.  There are so many top notch athletes here.  Hard to not be intimidated.  I have to remind myself of the first Ironman I did in 2008 with my 1995 steel-frame Specialized road bike.  As Lance Armstrong's book suggests, It's Not About the Bike.  I have to remind myself to trust my training.

I got in my last real workout of my training.  Did 2 miles swim, tackled the Queen K for 25 miles, and ran down Ali'i Drive for 4 miles.  Walking through the town and embarking on my swim, I felt vastly out of place.  I didn't know how I belong here.  Everyone one seemed to know everyone, and if not, they knew where they were going and what they were doing.  Everyone is uber fit with rock star caliber bikes.  This is the center of the long-course triathlon universe after all.  Again, Do I belong?

The swim itself was gorgeous though.  It exceeded all expectations as just 10 to 15 feet below the ocean floor was covered with beautiful corral surrounded by tropical fish; even swam over a sea turtle.  Glad I'll be swimming here the next few days so I'm not too distracted on race day.

Photo from last year's IM Hawaii swim start that won National Geographic Sports Photo of the year.  Photo by Donald Miralle.

The bike course.  An interesting challenge. 

On my bike I discovered a couple problems with my gears and brakes that I'll need to address before the race.  I actually only have use of 1/2 of my gears at the moment & it won't shift for me.  I had a major tune-up last week with some new components and with that many new pieces, it is bound to require a little tweaking before it's full ready to go. 

After the workout, I caught up with Melissa and we had a delicious lunch before driving out on the Queen K to see the full course.  There are a lot of hills and it will be a difficult balance of going hard on the bike but saving some for the run.

Getting ready for bed now.  Need some rest.  Tomorrow is a day off for me.  Going to have nice breakfast with Melissa, enjoy a walk at the beach near our place and see what else the day brings.