Vacation in Kona and take in an Ironman

  Johnna and I headed to Kona for vacation, run camp and to watch the Kona Ironman National Championship.  What an awesome week.  We got in a ton of running and swimming along with a lot of great food.  We arrived on a wednesday and stayed at the Mauni Lani Resort (which is awesome), just past Waikoloa about 25 miles from the swim start/run finish.  We swam the run course weds, thurs, and friday and got in some tough runs in the heat.  It is friggin' hot.  I'm still amazed how fast the athletes go in this race.

 On race day, we got to the start at 5:30 and it was already packed.  We watched the pros finish the swim, ran over to the bike out and watched them all come out on the bike.  Then we bunnyhopped back to the swim finish to see the last people before the 2:20 cut off.  We grabbed breakfast, and then headed to the hot corner to watch the pros come in off the bike and run out of T2.  We even caught Patrick of EN come out on the run.  Exciting race.  We watched all the pros finish, took a little nap and hung out till midnight to watch the last finisher.  A few men and two women in their 70s came in in the last hour.  The race didn't disappoint.  Pete Jacobs took the men's crown.

        Leanda Cave took the women's after battling Zena on the run course.  At no other sporting event can you get up so close to the athletes and see the pain on their faces and sheer force and pressure they are putting their bodies through.

 Johnna got to meet the some famous people, and look who was sitting behind me on the plane ride home, all of them so gracious and nice.