My First KONA Part II

Denny and I getting a pre race ride in on the Queen K

Of course when I got to Kona my mental rant about Marion went away and the excitement of it all filled my veins. Denny, Billy and Cicely were all staying with me. I hadn’t seen Cicely in a while and it was going to be so awesome to have her their. She is one person the brings the best out of me and knows how to calm me down if I get stressed and bitchy. Me bitchy? NEVER! Of course if Cicely can’t slap me out of it Denny can always come to the rescue and take me out for a ride or something. I trained so much with Denny this summer and he had some of the best advice that week leading up to the race. He claims to be a basket case before races too, but he was smooth as silk and his result proved it!

So picking up Cicely at the airport that first night caused a bit of tension. I hadn’t seen her in so long that I could tell we were both a little insecure if everything would be in tact. She had cut her hair all off and it was obvious she was nervous about what I thought. I knew she was going to be thrown in with all my Boulder friends and might feel like odd man out.




When I got her it was so strange to see her only because with the new do did look so different. Who am I to talk though as I had blond hair myself! Anyway, we get back to the place and there are two single beds, a futon and a queen in my room. I think I had it all set in my head that I was going to take the queen and get my own room the whole time because I need “my space” to focus etc. Well, when it came time to go to bed, Cicely asks in her extremely direct way “where do I sleep?” I could tell she sensed that I was going to say the futon. You see, Cicely and I go way back and we have shared beds on SO many occasions. Many times we crack each other up to the point of tears right before bed when we share. I stopped for a second and thought “why should this be any different? My best bud is here for two weeks and we should hang like old times.” So I said for her to stay with me in the room. I would have been Bitchzilla if I had spent two weeks in there by myself!




Denny and Billy were in the two singles in the main area. You would have thought that the four of us were at summer camp. The amount of farting and pranks that were going on was at an all time high. Billy was getting pretty irritated with the farting. He stepped out for a min and we didn’t really know where he went but he came back and he had this look on his face. It’s that look that a dog has when he has been digging through the kitchen trash. Something was up and sure enough about 5 min later we find that Billy left a few floaters for us in the toilet LOL! He though he was sooooo slick with that. Cicely was like “Don’t’ be leaving no floaters when I need to pee!”




Then at some point after the laughter died down we all decided to go to bed. I would step out about every 3 min to get something from the kitchen and leave Denny and Billy an air biscuit. They kept laughing about something but I knew it wasn’t about the crisp winter green smell of my farts. So I am in bed and all of a sudden I feel something under my pillow. It was my book and I look at Cicely and say “ What the hell did you put my book under my pillow for?” She gave me that “your crazy” look. And then I move around some more and come to find that Deny and Billy had put pretty much everything I owned in my pillow. How they got the shoe in there without it looking stuffed I don’t know. Anyway, it was clear we were all regressing to the 7th grade.




The next morning Denny and I got up to go get a swim in. We decided to swim the entire course as we still had some time before the race. It’s funny how many occasions I have been to Kona and never done the entire swim. It seems that every time I am there I can’t find anyone that wants to do the whole thing. I sure as hell don’t want to be out there by myself without a wetsuit on. I get a little freaky when I get too far from shore.




So the pier was crazy as usual. Everyone was showing off the bodies like a bunch of peacocks in heat! It is amazing how fit everyone looks. Very intimidating to say the least. So we just got in and started the swim. It went by rather quickly. Before we knew it we were at the turn around buoy looking back at the shore. Billy had come with us and was a little bit behind. As we were looking at the shore we were also waiting for Billy. When he finally reached us he looks at us and says “Where is the buoy?” Denny and I were confused as we were floating right next to it. We turned around to point to it like a bunch of smart asses but as it turns out there was a current and we had drifted pretty far away from it without even knowing. So Billy being the Marine that he is (and squirlly) had to go “touch” the buoy. I get it, OCD. All us triathletes have it…..Yes you do. No, I swear. Yeah you, the one reading this….you have it. LOL.




The best highlight about that swim was that on the way back we met up with a few dolphins. Normally I don’t like the sea creatures to get near me. And at first all I saw were fins. JAWS! But then once I saw they just wanted to check us out I was okay with it…but I still had one eye looking for the sneak attack. You know those dolphins KNOW they are so cute and shit. They could be plotting to distract us with their “under the sea charm” and then WHAM! Lunch. It could happen. So I’m ready.




After the swim we went out on the bike and then got a small run in. The rest of the week pretty much went something like that in regards to training. We just did a little of everything every day. We did drive to Hapuna beach and then road up to Hawi and back. I felt strong that day on the way up but on the way down it was so windy that I didn’t get any calories in and bounced a few bottles. I freaking BONKED! Not the best thing to be feeling the week of Ironman. I got to that gas station at the bottom and had another one of my “eat everything in site” moments. I ran for 7 min and 21 seconds after the ride. That wasn’t a very encouraging run either.




Luckily everything went well after that. I was feeling calm about everything and actually looking forward to the race. I still had nerves but not to the extent that it made the pre race process un enjoyable. If anything, I was concerned that my mother was about to join the frat house. She was staying with us and would be subjected to all the shenanigans. She can handle it though. As you will see later in the write up she gets a few Mai Tai’s in her and then proceeds to go out with us.




Once I got my mom I realized she was going to fit in just fine. Before you knew it she was on the beach with Cicely in “chill mode”. You have to understand that chill mode for my mom is relaxing for 5 min, vacuuming 10 times in the day, cleaning something, and then maybe another 5 min of down time. The women never learned how to chill but Cicely was doing a pretty good job of showing here the ropes.




There were only 3 more people in my group that needed to get there. Jessica, John and Maggie. Honestly I couldn’t believe that they were coming. Jessica is always all over the world researching for her PhD and big trips like this are SOOO not in the budget of a student, John is a big LA guy with movie shit going on all the time so getting away is never easy and Maggie is this awesome chick that I only know through John. It meant so much that they were going to be there for my first Hawaii. In fact, I met John at my very first triathlon and he and I came out to Kona to race Lava man a year after that. It was so crazy to think that I was now here in Kona getting ready to not only “do” Hawaii, but actually race it.




The night before the race everyone was here and we decided that nobody wanted to cook so we went to eat at the Italian place on Alii Dr. There was not a lot of room for us so Maggie crashed a table and we ended up eating with two Canadians doing the race. It hit me that it was not the night before the night before the night before anymore and that it was simply “the night before”. The resturant was so loud and busy that all I wanted to do was get home. I was getting edgy again and the environment wasn’t helping. Luckily for me the group could see that and we got the check rather promptly and retreated back to the sugar shack where we were staying.




All that was left to do was get a good nights sleep and have some faith in the work I did up to this point. I was down at about 7pm. I woke up at 1:30 WIDE awake but felt like I should still sleep untill 3am. I did that and when I woke up again I was EXTREMELY groggy! Oh shit! This can’t be good. All I wanted to do was go back to sleep……but wait, I have an IRONMAN to do today …..