Lucky we live Hawai'i

I've been feeling super grateful lately and genuinely happy about where I've landed in this world. Hawai'i is a wonderful place filled with some amazing people, great places and atmosphere, the Aloha spirit and perpetual summer!

I thought I'd take the time to share some of my favorite places and pictures I've taken over the last 4.5 years here.

In no particular order and by no means everything I wish I could share....

Vacation

San Juan Islands

Vacationing in Washington in the summer is amazing. I am fortunate enough to have been able to take some time after LS to enjoy the area. Luckily the weather we had while we were there was perfect. Cool, crisp mornings and evenings with warm, sunny summer afternoons. I was told numerous times not to be fooled by the weather because it's not ALWAYS like this in the Pacific Northwest. We were lucky enough to experience 6 of the 30 or so nice days they get every year and it was great!!!

Being able to race and then vacation for a few days after is the way to go. It's difficult to explore, enjoy and experience the areas you are racing in before the race so plan for time afterwards and you'll be happy! I sure was. 
Aaron used to live in the Seattle area so he had a few favorite places and activities he wanted to share with me while we were there......

Monday morning after the race we got into the car and drove to Anacortes to take the ferry out to the San Juan Islands.The San Juan islands are an archipelago in the northwest corner of Washington State. There are 172 islands in the archipelago and the islands are quite hilly (read, lots of hills to climb on a bike the day after a 70.3 is not easy, but it was vacation, we weren't racing and it was fun AND I was getting to experience something new that I had never experienced and it was also something Aaron really enjoys and wanted to share it with ME!!). We took the ferry to Orcas Island which like all the islands was surrounded by freezing cold, sparkling blue waters, deep green forests and peace and quiet. We biked all the way around the island to this cute little Resort and Retreat at Doe Bay. While there we were able to relax and unwind. We spent our time in the hot tubs, dining over the water at an organic cafe and putting our feet up while looking out at the water and islands in the Bay.  It was so great to be able to be somewhere with no cell service. We could totally disconnect and recharge. I would go back to Doe Bay in a second, what an amazing start to a great week of vacation.

The next day we got up and decided to bike up Mount Constitution, why not! We're here and who knows when we will be back. Mount Constitution is the highest point in the San Juan Islands in Moran State Park. Basically 2,400 ft up in 4.7 miles. Think Tantalus but 2x steeper in less distance. It wasn't too awfully steep, but two days out from a touch race, climbing up a mountain was a bit of a challenge. The view at the top, it was SO worth the little climb. A stone observation tower stands at the summit and the tower gave us you some pretty amazing views. (One thing I would do differently is not have our TT bikes with Zipps, probbaly better to do this bike tour and climb on touring bikes or road bikes, but you make do with what you have!) You can see the surrounding islands, some Canadian and American cities and since it was a clear day, we could see Mount Baker in the distance. After that we headed back to the ferry and back to home base for the trip...more adventures were waiting for us come Wednesday morning 4am!

Of course we weren't done yet, it's only Tuesday and Wednesday was going to be epic. There was one other place Aaron wanted to share with me while we were on vacation. The Enchantments. I'm gonna pull this right from Wikipedia...."The Enchantments is an area compromising an upper and a lower basin, and the lakes contained within them. The area is located entirely within the Apline Lakes Wilderness about 15 miles southwest of Leavenworth, Washington. The Enchantments is regarded as one of the most spectacular

locations in the Cascade Range." I would have to agree with that statement 100%. It was one of the most spectacular places I have been lucky enough to experience. The Enchantments is by far the coolest, most amazing, stunning, picturesque place I have EVER been to. Pictures and words do not do this place justice. You have to experience it to be able to understand. And I recommend, if you are ever in the area and are fit enough (this wasn't an easy journey, 21 miles in a 8.5 hour day, but it was worth every step! They recommend doing this in 4 days...two days in and two days out. I don't think I would recommend that since you have to carry all your food and shelter for 4 days and that doesn't seem like a whole lot of fun to me, plus it's super hard to get camping permits to stay in the basin) you should definitely look into it. Here's a few pictures just so you can get the idea:

After that it was a couple more days in the Northwest to visit and relax with friends then back home to recover from our vacation. I will say that this was most definitely the best vacation I have ever taken. I am so lucky to get to experience these new and exciting places all-the-while getting to share them with someone who truly enjoys them and lives life to the fullest makes it even better! 

Lake Stevens 70.3

Another race....
I love racing, I really do and getting the opportunity to race somewhere other than Hawaii is even better. Mainland racing is fun! It's not easy to travel all over the place and go to races when you live on an island. You can't just hop in the car and take a road trip to your next race (well you can, but it'll only be 45 minutes away at most). So when I decided I wanted to race another 70.3 this year, Lake Stevens seemed to be the easiest choice to make. Logistically we knew people there, could borrow cars and friends graciously gave us places to stay while we were away.
On to the race...
4:57.05

The Swim
25:04

When it's 50something degrees outside, it's notsomuchfun getting in the water. I have done a lot of swimming outside in freezing cold temperatures in my life and I know it's not something that I enjoy. Luckily on race day, it wasn't freezing, but to a now Hawaii girl temperature in the 50s is brutal. I got my wetsuit on as soon as we got transition set up and it was toasty warm. We decided we wanted to at least feel the water before the swim start so we got in a little ways and it didn't feel freezing, it actually was warmer than the outside air temperature (probably should have realized at this point that the swim might actually be HOT)!
Anyways, LS was a wave start swim this year and we all know how I feel about wave starts in swim races. JOY! I was in the 3rd to last wave (woooooohoooooo, I get to swim through 900 people, somuchfun!). The waves were separated by 3 minutes and actually ended up being a great system for wave starts! What do I know anyways. So the swim course at LS is pretty cool, it's a one loop swim and the buoys are all connected together by a white rope that is about 2.5 feet below the water. The lake was a little murky and algae-y (see above not correctly formatted (sorry) picture), but clear enough so you could see the little white rope leading you through the entire swim course. Thank goodness for that rope actually because the marine layer was so thick race morning, you couldn't see more than one buoy ahead of you at any point during the swim.
When it was time for my wave (18-29 females) to start I made sure to be out in front. We hopped in the water and had about 60 seconds until the gun went off. I was comfortable in the water, let some "cool" water into the wetsuit and was ready to go. The gun went off and after about 10 strokes I couldn't see anyone, I was cruising along, with no other light pink caps in sight. At about the 2nd or third buoy I started catching people, but it never got chaotic, I would just stay right on that little white rope and cruise right past the people in front of me. I think I hit every buoy with my left arm, that's how closely I was following that rope, but I barely had to sight, only to watch out for people, not to go in the right direction...if only all swims had a little white line to follow (kind of like a pool, maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much). Anyways, 10 buoys out and 8 back in to shore. I think it was at the second to last buoy that I saw Aaron and I tired to get his attention by willing him to breathe in my direction, but it didn't work, oh well. I was out of the water and pleased with my swim, I wanted to be under 30min and came in at 25:04 so I was pumped. I didn't know at the time, but I ended up having the fastest female swim of the day, including the pro women, so that's pretty cool. I guess all that band swimming and LCM on Monday mornings has paid off! Thanks swim friends!!

Transition:
I was in and out of transition relatively fast and there weren't a ton of bikes already gone which at the time I thought was strange since I had basically started at the end of the swim starts. Aaron ran right by me in transition and I think was a little surprised to see me there already. I had to make sure I was out of there before him because I wanted a little time on the bike before he blew by me. In retrospect, I probably should have taken 2 more seconds in transition because I forgot my e21 and chomps, whoops! At least it wasn't cold out and my electrolytes would be ok for the day. Live and learn.

The Bike:
2:45:46

glasses on or off? 

I decided to not bring my garmin on the bike (or run) with me for this race and see how it went. I am usually pretty focused on maintaining certain numbers that sometimes I think it takes away from actually racing and today was all about racing, putting it all out there and seeing what would happen.
I was excited for this bike course, it looked a little hilly, rolling hills, and not too flat at all, which I enjoy in a race. It was a tough, tough bike, but I would do it again in a second, I would actually like to do that bike course again so I could take in the scenery a bit more. The bike course was well mapped out with very clear directions on which way to turn when, which was a really good thing seeing as how there were lots of twists and turns after some pretty steep downhills might I add.
I was cruising along, super happy with my pace and how the course was going (although by half way I had been passed by 2 girls in my age group already) when I caught up to Mariane  about half way through the bike which was a nice surprise, I thought she might be racing, but wasn't positive. Super fun seeing her out there, she's always so positive and encouraging, no matter what and always has a big smile on her face!
Two other girls in my age group and I kept flip flopping positions throughout the bike. I would pass them on the uphills and they would blow by me on the downhills (I guess I should learn how to ride my bike down a hill faster?!). You couldn't really take advantage of the downhills on this course because every time you went down a hill, you almost always made a sharp turn and went right back up another one. All-in-all, I was happy with how the bike turned out, I stayed fueled and hydrated (which was a bit difficult seeing as how it was freezing out and I never felt like I needed to drink, I never got grumpy and I turned in my fasted 70.3 bike split (I know you can't really compare courses or course times when they are all different, but I was super pumped to be where I was when I came off the bike).

T2:
nothing significant, get off the bike, rack the bike, put on run shoes, visor and race belt and leave.

The Run:
1:43.12
I was super excited for this run. 2 loop course (not sure how I feel about a 2 loop half marathon, nice to see what you get to do the second time around, but not nice that you get to see what you have to look forward to (or not) the second loop) I looked at the course map, saw a bit of the course the day before the race and was ready to go.
I was off my bike and running. About a mile in a really needed to pee (so I stopped), someday, I need to learn how to do it on the bike. Everyone I talk to says it's super easy, but I've yet to be able.
About 2 miles into the run, I hear, "Nice Job Hawaii" and who was it you ask?! Meredith Kessler! I met her for about 10 minutes last year at CdA and she remembered me, how cool is that?! I didn't have my bib facing backwards or anything. That's pretty awesome. What a great professional!
Anyways, the run was tough, a lot tougher than I expected. I thought it was going to be much flatter, but there were a few bumps in there along the way. The bump on the second loop wasn't very much fun at all, I wanted to walk all the way up that little hill so bad! I was able to hold it together pretty well for the duration of the run. There were a few dark moments, but in the end I had a solid run. I faded a bit toward the end, but never stopped. I wanted to be able to run a bit faster and know I am capable of a faster run off the bike, but I gave what I had on the day and it landed me 5th AG (top girl in my AG was 3rd woman OA and 2nd in AG was 5 OA including pros, so I'd say my AG was somkin' fast at this race).

I had a solid race, learned a bunch, which is always a good thing when you are racing and I grabbed up a spot to VEGAS! Mission Accomplished!

Washington

We've arrived in Washington (2 days ago) and let me tell you, it's beautiful. I've been told numerous times not to be fooled, that it's only like this for maybe 2 months of the year, but it's pretty nice. Cool weather, light for 12+ hours, Pacific Northwest summer, fresh fish, friends, a little racing and excursions planned for all next week!
Totally enjoying our time here so far. We've had such great hospitality and couldn't ask for better friends to be helping us make the most of our time here!

<<<<<<<---------We travel light

Friday morning we decided it was a good idea to try to get right on track with West Coast time so we go up at 5am and went on a short little shake out run with a few of Aaron's old friends. They usually meet on Thursday mornings before work for their THAMR (Thursday Morning Run), but were gracious enough to change their plans this week to accommodate their friend Aaron. So FRAMR it was! We didn't see any eagles, which is apparently a usual occurrence on the trails and paths here, but we did see some bunnies and a deer!

The trails and bike paths they have here are amazing! Isn't this great? I could run for hours on this trail (well I would like to think I could), but being able to have this scenery and be off the road with aggro drivers is a nice and welcome change. What a treat! 

But, I suppose if you want this then you have to deal with cold, grey, raining, miserable weather for 10 months out of the year...I think I'll stay put right where I am and just visit these places every once in a while. 

Saturday morning was full of race prep and logistics. We decided to go for a quick little spin in the morning before heading up to Lake Stevens for packet pickup and bike drop off  just to make sure the bikes were all good to go. Again I was able to experience the bike paths in the Woodinville area. Love them! We even went for a quick little jaunt into Chateau Ste Michelle. Would have loved to stop in for some wine tasting, but we will save that for Saturday night! 

Once we got to LS, everything was a breeze. Ironman is a well oiled machine and can churn you in and out of packet pick up and bike drop off with great efficiency. (I even got to finally meet Krista, now we can be real friends and not just FB, blog stalking friends!)

Perfect Pre-race lunch! Smoked
Salmon and noodles!

Once everything was settled we went down to the lake to check out the water. The air temp was a bit chilly, but the water was just right...I hope! After checking out the lake, I calmed down a bit, I was a little anxious about the cold air and cold water, but since the water will be ok, I'll be great!! 

Super excited for the race tomorrow and am looking forward to what they day has in store for us!!  

Not a bad place for pre race relaxation

A week of racing....

Fourth of July week is usually filled with lots of races over here on Oahu. I only did 1 (the second of the North Shore Swim Series, Waimea Bay Swim). 

What a fun week....here's a little recap in pictures.

Aaron and the Lanikai Hui did the Da Hui SUP
race up on the North Shore

Michelle and I rode out to the boys race

Tourist pic 

We got to take the boat out to the Mokes and watch the fireworks from the water

Heading out to the Mokes

iphones don't take good fireworks pictures

Aaron and I pre race

post race run with M and G and Aaron
(he was just the one taking the pictures

SangriaFest

Turtle Bay Sunset

Sunday morning bike ride pre FreedomFest

Aaron at FreedomFest

Wrong bike for this kind of race

 Only a little over a week left until the next big race. We leave for Lake Stevens a week from Thursday....

Quadruple Birthday Party

Sooooooo.....I was going to blog about the awesome quadruple birthday party we had last Saturday, but I didn't take any pictures and I think Michelle covered it exceptionally well!

What a fun day! Thanks friends!


On another note, I found a fun new pool to swim at. Went and swam LCM with some BSC ladies on Monday morning and let me tell you, LCM is no joke! My arms were sore the rest of the day after our morning workout. It's been a while since I've swam meters and I'm excited to start swimming meters again even if it is only once a week. It's so much fun to swim with people who genuinely enjoy swimming. Thanks for letting me crash your Monday morning parties!!

Honu 70.3

Bike check in

I did this race two years ago and it was my first big race. I didn't know anyone or really what I was doing and I had a pretty successful outing. The water was calm, the winds were off and it wasn't too awfully hot out either (at least that's how I remember it). I was totally naive to triathlon. Two years later, I am in great Honu shape, I've put in all the hard work (pool workouts, ocean swims, long rides, hill climbs, intervals, track workouts, tempo runs, long runs, bricks etc), I know what the course is and what to expect and the day ends with a result I'm not 100% satisfied with, I want a do over! But you don't get do overs in races, races happen and you are either physically and mentally able to handle what the day has to offer you or....you're not. Yesterday was not my day, I was prepared and ready, but it just wasn't my day. Before I get into the nitty gritty, I want to say congrats to everyone that raced, we really had to fight for that finish! Yesterday was tough and to everyone who toughed it out out there, you deserve a medal (oh wait, you got one!). Seriously though, if you finished, you are a rockstar!

You win some, you lose some, but there's always something to be learned. I think I learned more from this race than I have from any other race I've done. There are still some unanswered questions, but I will definitely be more prepared when the unexpected happens next time.

Pre Race:
We woke up to winds in the morning at o'dark thirty and knew it was gonna be a tough one out there on the bike today. The winds had been off all week and sure enough, race morning, they were baaaaack! It wouldn't be a Honu without those famous Kona winds right?!
Anyways, I had my usual pre-long race breakfast of a bagel with banana, peanut butter (yuck!) and honey. Along with a drink, in retrospect, maybe I should have drank a little more pre race? I might have gotten dehydrated on the course? Not sure, but more water, EFS, gatroade in the morning wouldn't have hurt things. After breakfast and applying the ever important PlanetSun Suncreeen (face and body formula!) we were off to Hapuna.

Michelle was our Super Sherpa for the weekend so we didn't have to wait to take the shuttle, all we had to do was hop in the mini and get driven over!

We got to transition, pumped tires, reapplied PlanetSun and headed down to the beach for some stretching and to get away from all the crazies and anxious people milling around transition. We got a course conditions report from Stefan who had just swum the course this morning (thanks!) then got in and swam a bit, chatted with some friends and before we knew it, the pros were off.

The Swim:
Wave starts. The pros went off at 6:50, followed by the men at 6:53, then the women at 7:00. I followed Stefan's directions and took the best line I could and made it to the first turn buoy without much struggle. There were 2 girls in front of me, but then we started to hit the wall o' men and I lost them. I finally met up with Kathryn at the second turn buoy right before we headed across the bay. I was feeling strong and smooth on the swim, not exerting myself to much, but I was confident in my position in the water, slingshotting past the men and staying relatively untouched. Well, that didn't last long, all hell broke loose at
the 3rd turn buoy, this is where men were cutting the course, arms were flailing; it was total chaos. I guess when you start 7 minutes back from the men and you're a pretty good swimmer, you're gonna to run into a huge wall of them at some point and this was that point. I got completely lost at this point, people were swimming in every direction, the sun was high in the sky obstructing my view of shore, I completely thought I had done a 180 and started swimming back out to sea! The buoys are there for a reason people, don't cut the course, you will eventually get caught and it's not worth it!!! Finally after probably 2 minutes of chaos, I got my bearings back and was able to swim in to the finish. After all that, I was 5th woman out of the water (2nd in my AG to KT who had a great swim) and happy about the swim (albeit annoyed at the men that got in the way there at the end).

T1
uneventful, run up a short steep hill. If you just jog, it's super easy to run past lots of people! I found my bike easily and was off.

The Bike:
The winds did not disappoint, they were here and they were constant. I guess you never know what to expect with the winds in Kona, but you can expect it to be challenging. I'm pretty sure there was a headwind the entire ride. So much for the winds not picking up until later in the morning. I had a great first half of the ride, I think I only got passed by 3 or 4 women which doesn't usually happen, so that was exciting for me. After the turnaround at Hawi, I was looking forward to trying to blast back down the hill to Kawaihae, but no dice, Madame Pele didn't want that to happen, headwind, headwind, headwind, headwind but at least it was a going downhill and I was basically done with all the climbing. I started to get a little grumpy in Kawaihae before the turn back onto the Queen K. At this point Frans rolled up on me and shouted "Let's go." Well, thank goodness for that cause I stayed with him for almost a mile and then we hit the hill to get out onto the Queen K. I stood up and went, that was the plan at least I thought Frans would come with me, but as soon as I got back onto the Queen K, I looked for him behind me and he was gone...whoops. Sorry Frans, but thanks for reigniting my fire to get this bike done. The last 10 miles were uneventful, slow (avg 15mph!? seriously, the wind was ridiculous!!!) and I couldn't wait to get off my bike.
I was super pleased with how the bike went and was ready to run!  

The Run:
The first four miles of the run felt pretty good, I was holding a solid pace, one I could definitely keep up for the remainder of the run and I might even be able to catch some ladies up there. I had a little twinge of a side cramp, but nothing a little long, slow breathing couldn't get rid of. About three miles in, I was still feeling
good, it wasn't even hot out! Not a good sign. That should have been my first indicator that something was seriously wrong
(this was the hottest date on record for this race in the 10 years it has been happening). It's probably not a good thing when you're running in miserably hot heat and you don't feel hot at all. I plugged on and made it about 7 miles before I started imploding. I'm not exactly sure how I got through the rest of the "run", with the puking, kneeling down on the golf course to puke some more, walking, jogging, attempting to run and not being successful, just one foot in front of the other. Thanks Ryan for all your help out there on the run! It was great to see everyone out there being so encouraging when I was in such a bad place. The negative self-talk started, was there in full force, I wanted to sit down on the side of the golf course, curl up in a ball and not move. I'm not sure what it was that got me to that finish line, but I got there. I ended the day 5th in my AG, in a race that I had to fight harder than ever to finish and at points I though I might not finish at all.

The result is not what I was trained for or wanted as an end result, but I learned some valuable lessons that I can and will take with me in my future endeavors. I know what to do when I get into those dark places, how to get myself out of them, and how not to go there in the first place! I now know better how my body will respond to extreme heat and am glad I had this experience because I anticipate racing in hot conditions in the future. I know that I can race and be mentally and physically drained and still finish. Leaning to "embrace the suck" and keep moving forward. I know there are always people out there that support and love me no matter what the outcome. Being able to spend the day with an amazing group of people on a tough, tough day is something I won't soon forget. Many more lessons were learned from this day and they are stored away ready for use when needed! Thanks to everyone for your encouragement, support and kind words before, during and after the race.