I have some goals this year that include overcoming some pretty big obstacles that I have had in the sport of triathlon. I have travelled to the big island of Hawaii to do some training as a part of the steps in achieving these goals. This will likely be my only trip to Kona this year, but I am glad I came. This is my fifth trip and thus far the only one which will not end with a race on Saturday. Being here, without the race, without all the iroman crazies and triathlegeeks, amongst all the very pale tourists, and training pretty much solo is so WEIRD. It is January and I am in Kona, weird, yeah in my childish vocabulary, all I have is weird.

Let me give my fellow triathlegeeks and ironman nerds some more examples of how Kona is when ironman is an afterthought and not a dominating presence:

-Lava Java serves dinner with white cloth linens and candles. Don’t worry, the morning still has a solid crew of coffee and pastry grabbers. However, the elderly tourists ordering a basic coffee are even more clueless than the Germans who can’t read the menu on ironman week.
-The drivers are worse than when we are here for ironman. I honestly feel like a local as I weave with the kids on skateboards and the mopeds flying up and down Alii. However, the current flock of tourists are always slowing at random times and weaving into the shoulder when they get a semi-good view of the ocean or some shopping center.
-There are still runners out on Alii and cyclists on the Queen K and some even look like triathletes based solely on their attire. I realize that triathletes come in all sizes, but the ones you find during January are a totally different set of athletes. I have heard many of my friends disturbingly point out “lottery athletes” on the week of the big dance. However, it is all relative to some of the folks I have seen tooling around over the last four days. I am glad to see them out here gettin’ some, but for someone who only sees the cream of the crop out here in October, the current batch of athletes are quite the site at times.
-Finally, there was a complete stock of bagels at Safeway! Each year I get here it always amazes me that the one thing I have a hard time finding is a bag of bagels. Well, without so many bagel-mad irongeeks, I was easily able to find my favorite staple of carbs and even my favorite wheat bread for PBnJs, and of course my preferred Skippy Natural peanut butter and grape jelly, all in one stop. For once I found it all in one stop.

I will be sure to post some more insights to my training, and perhaps even a discussion of a ride that I did, that was not on the Queen K, ooooooohhhhhh….!