Picking up where I left off, what makes Honu such a great race is that it's an immersive experience. First, you're in a resort setting for several days surrounded by 1500 other triathletes swimming, biking and running the course. It's extraordinarily motivational. Second, it's in Hawaii which has its own unique and lovely culture that was very visible in the awards ceremony.
Everyone was so happy to see local pro Bree Wee take the win and be carried to the stage...
And I finally got to meet Moana, who's probably the most outgoing, friendly 2-year old I've ever met, and just as adorable in person:
After the awards ceremony I went home to clean up (it took easily 15 min of scrubbing to get the numbers off my arms), tend to my sunburn, and go to an LA Tri Club party... terrific people. Several of us were talking about renting a house for Honu next year!
I'm just happy to have a tan after several years of white San Francisco skin. (Not healthy I know, but it looks healthy and that's what counts. Right? Ha.)
The next day, since I didn't get enough of a shoulder and core workout (kidding), I decided to go kayaking with my condo-mates and their friends. We went to Kealakekua Bay and paddled across it...
... to the Captain Cook monument, where we went snorkeling.
The snorkeling was amazing. Think about the coolest salt water aquarium, and then go swimming in it. We heard that this is one of the best places in the world. I didn't have an underwater camera, but here are a couple pics from Let's Go Hawaii:
Then we got cleaned up and headed to Huggo's On the Rocks in Kona to listen to music, consume fruity beverages, eat amazing fish tacos, watch the waves... and then head to the airport to catch my plane at 9:45 pm. Great race-cation!
Now I get to figure out what's next. I don't think I have another 70.3 in me for this year... I have so much work to do in strength, stretch and run training. I'll take June to be a gym/stairs/yoga rat, and then ramp up training for Pacific Grove olympic or maybe Santa Barbara if I'm feeling a lot stronger. Then the Healdburg half marathon in October. Then next year I may come back to Honu or find another great destination 70.3 race. After the experience last weekend I feel like I've drunk the tri cool-aid all over again.
Nice race report and wrap up! Hawaii is so wonderful-hope to get back there within a year or so! (Waikiki Roughwater!!)
Don't you want to do Escape from Alcatraz? Or don't people from San Fran think that's a cool race- I would die to do it! :-) Well, not die, but work my butt off!
Posted by: cheryl | 06/08/2011 at 04:13 PM
That's so cool you went to Kealakekua Bay... I swam there in Feb with ~25 dolphins. Amazing! I love Kona. Love. Love. Love. Come back next year! There's no chance I'm missing that race next year...
Posted by: Michelle Simmons | 06/08/2011 at 07:14 PM