Hawaii Saturday

So Hawaii is pretty cool so far. Our flight yesterday was about 5 hours long - flew direct on United to the big island. We got to the hotel and had several hours of free time (after waiting for 30 minutes to get checked in). We went to the pool, had lunch, and just kinda kicked it a bit until 5:30 rolled around and it was time to get our bikes. Luckily, my bike arrived in one piece (yay!). We took them out for a quick ride last night to make sure all our gears and brakes and knick-knacks worked after that and then went to dinner. I fell asleep last night to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach and the palm trees outside our window making noises like rain...

This morning we woke up and went and did an early morning swim. Hawaii is 3 hours behind CA so waking up at 7:00am really wasn't bad at all. We swam in the bay where the race will be tomorrow - it is crystal clear and it was awesome watching all the little sea creatures and critters swimming around on the coral beneath me as I swam along. It got me really excited for the race tomorrow and I think that the swim might end up being my favorite part.

Got my race packet and everything so I'm all checked in and ready to go! I'm so pumped for the race tomorrow! Its finally here!

(BTW - I have to pay for internet here so I'm going to try to use it as sparingly as possible. If you want pics, you can check my facebook profile - everyone with their nifty iPhones are uploading pics to facebook all day... :-)

Tonight is the TNT pasta party - there are so many TNT participants here. We had a meeting this am with Dave Scott (i think thats his name...) - he's won the Ironman World Championship like 6 times or something. He did a Q&A session with all TNT people - there were probably 150-200 TNT participants from all over the US who were there.

My official race number is 82. One number off of my birth year. Go team. I have some videos that I'm uploading too so I'll try to get these to you ASAP - again, internet sucks so I have to be picky. :-)

Aloha!

Internet

So the internet here is really expensive. so i'm not gonna be able to do as many blog posts as I would like. I will try to do one at the end of each night (hopefully). But currently its 10:45 PM local time and I've been up since 3:00am local time, so its time for sleep. :-) goodnight, sweet pacific ocean waves crashing outside my hotel room window! goodnight.

Its Gon' Rain!

In the true style of the Blackie Weather Report from Family Guy, it may be raining in Hawaii. But alas, it'll be that nice, warm, Pacific Ocean type of rain (we shall hope...)

Total Raised

I just found out that our team raised over $400,000.00 for Leukemia and Lymphoma so far! Wow. I'm impressed...

Leavin on a Jet Plane

Only 4 days till Lavaman! Holler!

All my bags are packed
Im ready to go
Im standin here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin
Its early morn
The taxis waitin
Hes blowin his horn
Already Im so lonesome
I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Theres so many times Ive let you down
So many times Ive played around
I tell you now, they dont mean a thing
Evry place I go, Ill think of you
Evry song I sing, Ill sing for you
When I come back, Ill bring your wedding ring

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Now the time has come to leave you
One more time
Let me kiss you
Then close your eyes
Ill be on my way
Dream about the days to come
When I wont have to leave alone
About the times, I wont have to say

Oh, kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

But, Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Counting Down

As of this posting, I have 5 Days, 16 Hours, and 50 Minutes until the gun at Lavaman (I'm allowing a little bit of time for me to type...) I am soo super excited about this. Its gonna be a blast!

We had our last Saturday practice this last Saturday (group picture at the bottom of the entry). I'm not sure if I'm happy that I no longer have to wake up at 7:00am (or earlier) to brave the seas, or if I'm sad that I'm saying goodbye to a lot of new friends (most of them are on Facebook anyway, so staying connected is really just simply pressing the 'poke' button - which could be awkward, depending on the person...). Most likely it's the latter, however I'm almost positive that I'm not going to miss the early Saturday practices. The practice consisted of a 45 minute swim in the ocean (yes - it is still freezing, although I'm becoming acclimated, albeit slowly...) followed by a short and easy 30 minute jog along the Venice boardwalk. (I love Venice, btw... such a conglomerate of cultures and identities - the quintessential California bum beach. It really is great.)

I did a spin class at my gym on Sunday, which was great. I love those spin classes. So intense and everyone is movin and groovin to the beat. Its great.

Today (Monday) is my day off from workouts. Its gonna be an easy week:
-Swim Tuesday
-Bike Ride and Run on Wednesday
-Swim Thursday
-Fly Friday
-Relax Saturday
-Race Sunday
-Partake of copious amounts of booze post-race Sunday
-Fly home hungover, sleepy, and 100% satisfied Monday

I'ma try to post a lot this week to see if I can capture my preparations. We shall see. I have a laundry list of things to do (which, not surprisingly, includes laundry) before I leave. Maybe tonight I'll get motivation enough to actually do some of the things I need to. Or maybe I'll watch TV.

A Little Bit of Amazingnesss

I got this information from one of my teammates, Scott Stone, who took the average over the entire season of how far we swam, rode, and ran. This is based off of the assumption that I did every workout and did the intermediate or advanced level for each. Its a nice assumption, because I'm thinking my actuals are a *slight* bit different... who knows.

SWIM
20 Weeks x 2 practices a week, averaging 1500 yds/practice = 60,000 yds
BIKE
750 miles +/-
RUN
20 weeks x 2 workouts/week avg 12 miles/wk = 250 miles

Whew. I'm impressed just by looking at it.

REACHED MY GOAL!!!

Check it:

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who donated to help me with this great cause! I am so pumped about my race its going to be great. I know it! :-) Updates are coming soon - check back this weekend to hear about my 7am practice at Zuma! We're doing the full triathlon tomorrow! Holler.

chris

Send Off Dinner

Monday we had our Send Off Dinner at C&O Cucina for TNT... this is the big dinner where we eat pasta and laugh at pictures of ourselves taken over the course of the season. It was really cool - I'm pretty sure most of the team showed up... all 75+ of us! Lots of food and the temperature (and decibel) level in the room kept rising...








We also had our last full-group open water swim (the Desert Triathlon folks are done after their race on Sunday - I still have 3.5 weeks). Tear. After the swim, we had a competition to see who could take off their wetsuits the fastest. Good thing I was wearing my Tri-shorts underneath!


It actually is kinda sad to see the season closing out. It was a blast. I'm definitely doing triathlon again.

LOOK!

I'm officially on the start list for Lavaman (I'm number 4 on the list)! USA Triathlon requires that age be listed as of 12/31/09, so I'll be competing in the 25-30 age bracket as a 26 year old... Holler!!!

Only one more week to donate! Do so here!