Melia stuffing cheese in her mouth

ALOHA

I just wanted to post a little update on the race in Hawaii. and hopefully add some pictures too. I just got back to Texas from California where Robyn and Melia are still hanging out with Mike, Karyn and Nash. We all flew from Kona last thursday. When we got to the airport and went to check in, we found that I had screwed up. Our ticket was really for wednesday not thursday... So I had to pay a ticket transfer fee for each of us and we got on the flight.

Kona was awesome! the weather there is perfect and we especially like to stay in waikaloa, a small town on the north kona coast on the big island of Hawaii.

So anyways about the race. It was a perfect day almost... the wind was brutal and had been for about three days before the race. In fact the night before the wind was so strong it sounded like a hurricane from inside our bedroom. I was nervous and sure enough the day was very windy. Fortunately the wind was an offshore one when we had to swim, so most of the swim course was calm and smooth. The water was 73 degrees and felt great. I wasnt as fast as I was in california this year, but I guess the wetsuit made me a bit faster in oceanside. also Hawaii was a mass start, and there were about 1400 people swimming for the same bouys... it made the turns very difficult. The sun was in my eyes for most of the swim and I had no idea were I was swimming, so I just followed the feet in front of me. I got banged up, hit, and kicked the entire swim. Overall it was a good swim.

I exited the water in a full sprint to get up the beach to the shower were I saw my freind and first time racer Casey waiting for me with a smile. I immediately felt really slow. I ran up the ramp to my bike and headed out on the street.

I was fast. I rode hard and passed everyone I knew out there that had beat me in the water. I saw some of the pro's up ahead but most of them were way in front of me. My swim time was 39 minutes. the top pro's were at 24/25 minutes, so I was not going to catch them. For the 1/2 ironman a 2:25 or under is pretty good and I was on track for a 2;20 bike split. At the half way point I was sitting at 1:10 and it had been all uphill till then. I turned around in Hawi and started going down back to the mauna lani hotel. It was so fast! I had a tailwind and was downhill. I was hitting speeds of 46 mph and maintaining them too! So from mile 28(1/2way) to mile 41 I was killing the competition. I had probably passed about 200 people going uphill and about 50 more coming down. Then all of a sudden I felt a pain in my hips. I had the same pain the last time I had done this race. Only this time it stopped me. I stopped my bike and fell over onto the road because I couldn't stand. I sat there while I watched everyone pass me that I had worked so hard to pass in the first place. I stretched and tried to get on my bike a few times with no luck. I just couldn't push on the pedals! After about 5 minutes of not moving I decided that I would get on my bike and try one last time to go. instead of pushing on the pedals I decided to pull up on the pedals. It worked but my speed was half of what I was averaging before. I made it back the last 16 miles to my running shoes but I had lost almost 20 minutes. I finished the bike in 2:40, 10 minutes slower than last year. I think I threw up less than last year... only about 4 times compared to last years 8. I got off my bike, sat in a chair and put on my running shoes not sure what would happen on the run.

I figure if you are reading this far into my story you wont mind more about my run, so here goes.

I started to jog and a slow pace and amazingly it didnt feel too bad. the pain in my hips was somewhat gone and I could run. I somehow managed to run a few 8 minute miles, a bunch of 9's a few 10's and finished it off with two miles running 7's. I kept my run under 2 hours, my goal was 1:39, my time was 1:59. I was happy though.

I had a terrible day that I almost had to quit the race in, but I finished feeling good that I could finish and still beat my last years time by 20 minutes.

I finished with a 5:23

Next year I am going to watch Robyn do this race from the sidelines! But I do look forward to racing in California again in the spring!

Robyn and Melia were my fans (the best ones on the course...and the only ones too). They ran to see me on the run in about three different spots and they yelled for me each time. Mahalo!!!This was from yesterday. I rode my bike out in a place north west of san antonio called medina, and vanderpool. It was quite the story, maybe I will tell you about it tomorow. I have written too much for today and I have to get ready to go to church.