Honolulu Pictures

Me relaxing at the beach


Our hotel room



Our hotel room


The view from our room



The view of the swim from our hotel room


Another view from our room of the marina and swim area



Transition area and Sarah running out


First girls off the bike


T2 and first couple of girls


The first 3 girls



Spectators



Swim venue



Ala Moana Beach and swim venue



View of the Ala Wei from the glass elevator of our hotel



View from the glass elevator of the hotel



Pool at the senior meet of friday night where Serena swam



Serena won her heat at the meet



Serena driving to the meet

Honolulu Part II The Race

May 14, 2006

I don't know why I woke up so early...maybe it was because I wanted to make sure I was awake and ready for my 5:50am race start. Or maybe it was because I wanted to make sure I had enough time to digest my coffee and plain oatmeal. Well, I ended up having too much time to sit and wait and be bored. I was trying to be quiet as Serena was still sleeping, but I didn't know what to do when I looked at my watch and saw that I still had an hour to kill before going down to the transition area. And by the way, I woke at 3:30am!

I had my gear packed the night before, so there was really nothing left to do but wait...finally 4:45 come and I took the elevator 34 flights down to the Lobby, rode my bike the 1/2 mile to the transition area and started to set up.

There were plenty of lights for us to see which made it easy to get ready. I had visualized my race with the swim in particular because I knew I wanted to exit the water with a pack. After my transition was set, I went to the water to get in a nice warm up swim. I think this is the first time that I've swam in the ocean when it's been dark outside! With dark goggles it made it hard to see.
This was a non-wetsuit swim in the warm waters of Honolulu!! But at 5:30am, the water was a bit chilly! The start time was pushed back til 6am for the men and 5 minutes after for the women, because the sun hadn't risen!

The was a drum ceremony just prior to the announcing of the mens race. It was pretty cool, to be up at sunrise listening to a drumming just prior to starting a race! I'm cheesy for these things.

The race announcer called each girl out individually to the start line where we could pick any number of spots on a marked carpet layed out across the sand. There were many photographers shooting pictures and I was glad they got out of the way just prior to the gun going off! It was a pretty brutal start as I was shoved out of the way as each girl was jockying for position. I entered the water and started swimming in hopes of staying with the pack. Within 500-600m of the start, I slowly started to loose the girls and I eventually was by myself for the remainder of the swim. I exited the water and knew that I would have a lot of work to do on the bike to try and catch some women. I exited the swim in a 22:25.

I did notice however that upon entering T1 not only was my bike on the rack but there was one other on the rack...yeah, I wasn't last out of the water! After a quick transition I was out on the course which started with about 8-9 speed bumps. I felt strong on the ride and kept looking ahead to find the pack. I eventually saw a lone girl and I made it a point to catch her; I did and she hung on my wheel for a short bit and she pulled once or twice before we can to a slight rise in the road and i dropped her. I pushed on thinking I would see a pack just ahead of me. It wasn't until just prior to the turn around that I saw a pack of about 7 women. I kept pushing thinking maybe they weren't working together well and that I could catch them. Unfortunately I wasn't able to and ended up riding by myself. My ride time was 1:02:35. I had a good ride and entered T2 once again hoping to catch a woman or two on the run. I kept a steady pace but wasn't able to catch anyone. The run was flat, two loops and the weather remained cool thank goodness.
The streets weren't lined with too many spectators as it was a sunday morning and I finished a little after 8am. My run time was 39:41 for an overall time of 2:06:01.

So, I now have a good idea of what and where I need to work for the next few weeks and the next few months!

After the race, Serena and I went back to our room had some lunch and then it was a good 3 hour nap before we decided to go out into the sunshine and for me to begin my mini vacation in Hawaii.

Honolulu Triathlon Part I

May 12, 2006

I flew out of San Jose early on friday morning on my way to Honoulu. Since my cousin Serena goes to school there, she was able to pick me up at 11am when I landed. We went to her dorm/on-campus apartment and she was in the middle of moving out! Yep, another semester has gone for her and she is ready to come home for the summer. She had a swim meet in the evening about 45 minlutes away. I decided to go with her because I'd be able to get a swim in during warm ups.

The traffic here is horrendous and leaving at 4pm on a friday evening heading west didn't help either. We eventually made it and the water in the 50m outdoor pool felt great. I swam about 1700m and got out. I had a horrible headache most likely due to travel and exhaustion. I did however go for a short 20 minute run in hopes of my head feeling better. Instead I felt sluggish and my head still hurt!

Serena only swam two events, the 50 back and the 50 free and I missed both of them. She wanted to stick around and finish watching her teammates compete; there was supposedly only 20 minutes left of the meet and it was ~7:40pm when I decided to go to the car and lay down and wait for her. Oh and there was a huge swarm of termites in the air...pretty disgusting. I fell asleep in the car and only woke when Serena knocked on the door! We drove home (thank goodness it didn't take that long) and I got ready for bed and by 9pm I was aleep for sure.

May 13, 2006

Woke at 6:30 this morning feeling much better and rested. Serena was up packing more of her belongings as today is the day she has to be out of her apartment. We went down to the pool and I was able to swim 2000yds. with a few pickups. I felt better today too. Oh, and I must mention that as I'm writing this it's 10:30am and I have yet to get a cup of coffee...it's driving me nuts!! I'm sitting in the apartment typing this while Serena and her boyfriend Chris drove to storage to leave some of their belongings and then to take Chris to the airport. After that she'll be coming back here to pack up her clothes and my bike box and my clothes while I ride my bike to the pro meeting at 1pm. We'll be staying in a hotel close to the race start and I'll check in after the meeting.

I figure I'll ride down a bit early and hopefully find something to eat OR go to the meeting, hopefully be able to check in early at our hotel and then get something to eat. That way I don't have to lug my bike around with me. Although, I will be getting a large latte prior to the meeting!!

That's the update for now. Check back tomorrow after the race and I'll hopefully have a report up. Oh and the race starts tomorrow at 5:55am! Early start, early finish!! Plenty of time to go surfing!!!

24th Annual Jamba Juice Wildflower Triathlon Festival

May 5-7, 2006

I can't believe that it is this time again; Wildflower Triathlon Festival is here. Jay, Sprocket and I got down there early on thursday morning to give ourselves a day extra to relax and get comfortable down there.

Friday was spent dying my hair pink before giving a transition clinic on the main stage. It was sponsored by Tri-Zone and it went really well. I even had a woman come up to me the day after and said that my tip about baby powder really worked and she thanked me for an informative clinic!

I felt confident going into this race despite the fact that I believe I was somewhat undertrained. I was on my new Felt F1C for only a week prior to this race, so wasn't sure how I was going to feel on my new set-up. I got down the the transition area about 7:10am and put it together only to realize I forgot my wetsuit back at camp...so, I made my run warm up back to camp got my suit and ran down. Then I guess the majority of the women racked in the wrong spot...so, we had to move our gear down the rack a bit; no big deal. I was a bit nervous and just wanted to start. I got a small swim warm up in, but nothing much as they called us out of the water pretty quickly. We started 5 minutes after the men and I felt pretty good. I was able to get with a pack of women and hang with them. I felt a bit choppy and tried to relax. I noticed that our pack caught up with a few women just ahead of us just prior to the exit. I had a pretty good swim and exited at 27:07. It took me a few seconds to find my wetsuit cord and get the top half of it off, but managed pretty well once at T1. I ran out towards the mount line and was off on the bike. I was on a mission to catch a few women who I "normally" can ride faster than, but it wasn't going to be my day on the bike. The longer I rode, the harder if got, both physically and mentally. I didn't have enough time on the new bike to be comfortable with it and as I said before I was undertrained on the bike. I did the best I could despite the fact that I wanted to not race triathlon again (thoughts come and go on a ride like this and that was one of them). I was slower on the bike this year by 9 minutes! My legs felt heavy and sore and my low back felt on fire! I honestly couldn't wait to get off the bike. I was excited when I did after a time of 2:56!

I felt so much better on the run and I had a goal to catch 6 women. I had no idea what place I was in and I just wanted to try to be in the top 10 ( I didn't think I was there when I started the run). I felt strong on the run and my attitude changed to the positive and I was glad I was racing now! I was able to catch 3 women and tried my hardest to catch 2 more with 4 miles to go; unfortunately I wasn't able to, but I did run myself into 10th place with a run time of 1:31 and a total time of 4:57...At least it was under 5 hours!! For complete results go to www.tricalifornia.com.

The weather was great. It started out foggy and cold and eventually warmed up about half way through the bike. It never got too hot out there and I was thankful for that considering we haven't had hot weather to train in.

At 3:45pm on Saturday, I was once again on the main stage as part of the Power Bar Nutritional Panel. Scott Tinley was the announcer and Cam Widoff, Chris Lieto, Kim Loeffler, Tim (sorry, can't remember his last name) and Julie Upton (Nutritionist) and I were on the panel. Please visit www.powerbar.com for information on nutritional goodies!

Jay had a good swim and bike but pulled out before the run due to getting sick the week before the race and a small piriformis injury. Dad placed 8th in the long course on Saturday and 3rd in the olympic distance on Sunday and mom placed 5th on Saturday's long course.

I leave for Honolulu on friday May 12 and will be racing on Sunday the 14th. It's a PanAmerican Cup ITU and you can look at results at www.honolulutriathlon.com.

New Sponsor

A big thank you goes to Jim Felt from Felt Bicycles for taking me on so late in the season. I am now riding an F1C road bike and it fits great! Please go to www.feltracing.com to find out more about Felt Bicycles.