As Jared and I stepped off the plane in Kona we immediately felt the warm humid air. What a difference it was to what we had just experienced in Boulder a few days earlier - zero degrees and snow. The airport was all outdoors and all the air crew were in bright colourful shirts. Rudi, one of my sponsors from Compressport rocks up in a white jeep with the top down. Somehow we managed to fit two bikes, two luggage bags, a spare set of wheels and two backpacks as well as the three of us in there. First stop was Target where Rudi pulled up, chucked it into park and jumped out yelling back "grab the wheel, gotta get some ice". Jared climbed over before finding a park. This must be how it's done is Kona!
We head down Queen K. It's busy. Thousands of athletes are arriving. We get close to where the expo is, where Rudi is setting up stall. He asks Jared to turn into a servo and before we know it he's outa the car again... This time with a bag of ice in each hand, "take the car, I'll call you later" he says as he runs down Palani Drive.
We head down Queen K. It's busy. Thousands of athletes are arriving. We get close to where the expo is, where Rudi is setting up stall. He asks Jared to turn into a servo and before we know it he's outa the car again... This time with a bag of ice in each hand, "take the car, I'll call you later" he says as he runs down Palani Drive.
Wednesday morning Jaz and I head out for a run. We jog 20min before Jaz leaves me at the base of a nice long hill. He heads home. I've got a hill session to complete. I stretch a little before I decide there is no point stretching anymore, I'm dripping with sweat. Let's get this done! Up and down the hill I go... First rep is a 3minute hill, followed by a 1minute hill. I repeat this 6 times. I then jog home. I scull a whole 26oz bottle of water as soon as I get in the door. Quickly shower. Have two pieces of toast with peanut butter and banana. Then we're on our bikes spinning down the road to the Specialized house (only a few km away). I was excited to have brunch with the Specialized crew. The majority of them I'd never met in person. We'd sent several emails back and forth, skyped and talked on phone but most I didn't have a face to put to the name. It started off well... First I got round to quickly meet them all before Jared and I digged into the french toast with macadamia nuts while we pulled up a piece of wall and chatted with Bobby and David. As Jared was talking I started seeing black dots. Oh no... Don't do this now Mel. I quickly put down my plate and tried to focus... Next thing I'm sliding down the wall. Luckily David saw me go and they managed to grab me before I hit the gorund. What a first impression! Obviously a little dehydrated after my run session.
Thursday morning started off with a nice ride out along Queen K through the lava fields. It was amazing. A long straight hyway with nothing but lava on either side. I was flying along the silky smooth rolling hills. It should have triggered I was riding with a tail wind but no, I just thought I was feeling fantastic. I turned around after about 50km and let's just say... I was no longer flying! Did I tell Jared what he was in for when I got back? I couldn't but I did change the advice I first gave him of "give it all on the bike, your running legs will be there". "Save a bit in the first half Jaz, it could be tough coming back", I said to him. Jared is a runner. He's done one IM/one triathlon. IM Cairns in June. He came 4th which secured him a spot for Kona. The bike is his weakest leg. He's a thin lanky runner with amazing endurance but he's still developing the strength needed for the bike. I knew it was gonna be a tough day for him if the wind picked up.
Friday was a busy day, making sure Jared's Specilaized Shiv was in tip top shape and getting it racked and all ready for the big day. I was getting excited.
Saturday 13th October 2012. It's 5:30am. Justin (Jared's best mate) and I ride our bikes down to the start in the dark while he gets a lift down. He gets everything sorted in transition, I kiss him good luck then we let him go. Justin and I run to the pier where we watch the swim start. I won't go into detail about our exciting day of chasing Jared around and watching him from wherever we could. He is going to post his own race report about his Kona experience.
Friday was a busy day, making sure Jared's Specilaized Shiv was in tip top shape and getting it racked and all ready for the big day. I was getting excited.
Saturday 13th October 2012. It's 5:30am. Justin (Jared's best mate) and I ride our bikes down to the start in the dark while he gets a lift down. He gets everything sorted in transition, I kiss him good luck then we let him go. Justin and I run to the pier where we watch the swim start. I won't go into detail about our exciting day of chasing Jared around and watching him from wherever we could. He is going to post his own race report about his Kona experience.
I wanted to beat the heat Sunday morning so I headed out early'ish for my ride. As I'm heading down Queen K I hit a rock on the road. I immediately hear my front tyre go down. Damn! As I'm changing it, I think to myself - I better head back, pick up another tube then head out again. I only had one tube with me. As I chuck my gas canister on, it goes straight up then to my disappointment straight down. What! I rip the tube out. It was faulty. Before I can even think what to do a bike stops and offers me his only tube. I couldn't leave him stranded with no spare so I refuse to take it. The next bike stops and offers me a puncture repair kit. That'll do I think. It's brand new. I puncture the lid on the glue and squeeze it... And squeeze it... There is nothing in it but air. I look at the patches. Maybe one will stick without the glue, just to get me home. But they are no longer sticky. I guess the kit was too old. I remember Rudi saying he was setting up stall at Lava Java this morning. I must be less than 10km from there so I call him to see if he's close. He is. He's on his way so he offers to swing by and pick me up. I start walking back. It's the day after the World IM champs. I didn't think there would be many bikes out, especially not early. If I knew more than a dozen bikes were gonna ride past me I would have just waited for the next kind cyclist to stop. As I'd already rung Rudi and by now he must be almost here I turn down every other offer including a lady who stopped in her truck on the other side of the road willing to give me a lift. This really made me aware of how friendly and helpful our fellow cyclists are. Anyways... I'm still walking. And walking. I walk right back into town. Long story short - Rudi got lost. I walked over an hour in my cleats and Jared, the day after his second IM rode into town and brought me another tube. By now it's hot and I'm tired from walking so we grab a coffee then head to the pier for a swim. The water was beautiful. I think if I lived in Kona I could almost get to like this swimming thing. As I swam parallel to Ali'i drive I could see the massive volcano mountain one side, the never ending ocean to the other and down below the beautiful coral, fish and even turtles. Yes, I swam with a turtle. Amazing!
Monday was the day we tried our hand at Stand up paddle surfing. So much fun! And such a nice place to do it. We didn't mind falling off into the crystal clear blue water. We rode our boards like paddle boards, surfboards, kayaks, you name it. We tried to jump on each others board when they weren't looking. See who could stand the closest to the end of the board before it flipped us off. We rode waves. We raced. We had a ball.
Our last full day in Kona was Tuesday and we definitely made the most of it. At 7:15am I was out the door on my bike headed for Volcano National Park. It was about 160km away. I had a brick session to do this morning - 100km ride followed by a 30min run. As I was out cycling the boys took off to get a hire car. At 98km they pull up beside me as Jared yells out "how much more you got?". 2km I reply so they pull up a couple of km's up the road. I trade my bike shoes for my runners, my nicks for running shorts. Take a quick pit stop in the bush then head off for my run. Our transition couldn't have been in a better spot. Just down the road was 'black sand beach'. The boys drove down there to take a quick look while I opt to keep heading in the direction of the volcano. I run up and over the hills for 30min before jumping in the car for the last 50 or so km.
When we arrive in the national park the first thing we stop to see is the steam vents. Massive holes in the ground with really hot steam blowing up. Pretty cool. Next stop is a ginormous crater with steam pouring out. We couldn't get too close to this one - I'm guessing the surrounding areas could be dangerous and mighty hot. But we still got close enough to get some great photos. We then stopped at another massive crater where we had our packed lunch of, you guessed it - peanut butter and banana sandwiches. The bottom of this crater is hard smooth cracked lava. It looks just like the earth has dropped down leaving a huge hole in the middle of the forest. There are people walking over it way down below. They look like little ants. We then drove on to see more craters where we got out and walked over them. I even brought back some lava. There's two different types of lava. Smooth lava that looks like a wet wrinkled towel that's set then there is the honeycomb type that glitters in the sun to show rainbow colours through it. Oh, then there is the chunked up lava that looks like poo! Our last stop was pretty amazing - the lava tube. A long tunnel of lava that we were able to walk through.
On our return we headed straight for the snorkel beach where I got in a good swim while the boys watched the turtles nibbling on the rocks and getting washed up and flipped over constantly as the waves rushed in. What an awesome week! One I'll definitely remember.
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