We swam for about 30-35 minutes. During the swim, we ran into a very large sea turtle (I literally almost ran into him on the way back in). Also, Coffees of Hawaii set up a floating coffee bar about 500 yards out in the water during race week (very cool), so Jen, Mat and myself decided to have coffee in the middle of our swim. As we were sipping our beverage, a school of spinner dolphins came by and literally swam underneath us. I grew up around dolphins on the Jersey shore, but I've never been around them in water sooo clear. We just watched them swim around. I was wishing I had a waterproof camera! Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called "Tante's" for some Frills (eg. food).
The second part of my day consisted of a fairly long drive out to Hawi (the turnaround point on the bike). I did this for a couple of reasons: (1) I wanted to go out there to ride for an hour and get a feel for the hills and wind...which is typically where it's strongest, and (2) to see the bike course. It took us about 1:30 to drive to Hawi. We snapped some pics along the way...
For those that haven't been to Kona, although the bike course looks flat...it isn't....trust me. And seeing the lava fields on tv just doesn't do it justice. It's incredible...and intimidating. My plan was to ride 10 miles out of Hawi (mostly down) and then back up. Once in Hawi, I unloaded the bike and headed out...
My coach was hoping that it would be windy for this training ride so I could get a feel for it....well this was her lucky day! I don't know what it typically feels like when the winds blow in Hawi...but it felt very windy. In fact, I had to hold on for dear life a couple of times as the wind hit the surface area of my carbon fiber wheels. It was especially tough when an eighteen wheeler would go past. I finally hit 10 miles and turned around. I must have hit a piece of lava rock, because my tire immediately went flat. Upon further inspection, it had a huge tear in it. Great!!!! Now I had to unwrap my tightly and neatly wrapped spare. Since I have tubular tires, they need to be glued on. So, when a spare goes on, it's not really "on"....it just sits there and you hope (and pray) it doesn't roll off. After I got my spare on (pretty quickly I might add), I observed a bubble on the side casing. Basically, it looked as if my spare was going to pop. I contemplated for a few moments, then decided to ride easy and see if I could make it the 10 miles (uphill) back to Hawi. Fortunately the tire held and I made it back safely....where Jenn and I had a great lunch at a restaurant called Bamboo. After we got back to Kona, I dropped my bike off at the bike shop....where they'll glue some expensive, new tires ($100 a pop) onto my ride.
Tomorrow is the underwear run.....pics to be posted!
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