Well, we arrived today after nearly 12 hours of flight time. \u00a0All along, I had thought that I had booked a direct flight from Newark Airport to Kona, but as I learned, we had a brief stopover in Phoenix. \u00a0No matter though; both flights seemed rather quick to me as Roya and I both alternated between naps, reading, playing Uno, and snacking.<\/p>\n
Upon exiting the plane at Kona Airport, we were met with the weather that I’ve been fearing for months: \u00a0heat and humidity. \u00a0It wasn’t totally debilitating, but it was ugly and made me wonder how I’d be able to perform in this kind of weather should it continue. \u00a0That wonderment continued on our taxi ride as our driver got into it with descriptions of cloud cover, rain forecasts, etc. \u00a0Later, my buddy Steve also spoke about the coming weather. \u00a0No matter how many people and websites are consulted and considered, the weather will be what it will be, and no amount of kvetching will change that. \u00a0I have to accept it, ensure my race\/nutrition strategy is well-conceived, and then execute. \u00a0Simple, right?<\/p>\n
We’re staying at the Kona Seaside Hotel for two nights until our posse shows up on Wednesday. \u00a0Then, we’ll all meet up and stay at a house we’ve rented for the 11 of us. \u00a0Much more to come on the attendees later. \u00a0For tonight and tomorrow night, we’re stuck in this motel-like place that isn’t terribly fancy but very affordable. \u00a0And it’s located right near the “hot corner” which is an intersection where spectators can see their favorite athletes a number of times. \u00a0So, it suits us quite well.<\/p>\n
We met up with a buddy of mine, Steve, shortly after checking in. \u00a0Steve is from NJ, lives in the LA area, and like me, is not a champion age group Ironman but rather, a regular Joe (who happens to swim like a torpedo!). \u00a0We met at Ironman Brazil in 2008 and have remained friends since. \u00a0Having cheered on a friend last year at this event, and after having done a half-Ironman not far from here earlier this year, he had some good advice as to where to walk around, where to spectate on race day, etc. \u00a0As we chatted, and during dinner with Roya later that night, all I did was check out the scores of really fit Ironman triathletes.<\/p>\n
I’m trying not to compare myself to them, but I am so out of my league here. \u00a0Sure, I have durability and a pretty cool race career, but I don’t have long course speed and feel totally inferior to most of these lean machines out there. \u00a0Steve has been a good voice of reason, telling me (as Roya has too) to calm down and just enjoy the experience. \u00a0Who cares how fast these folks perform on race day; I’m not racing them, right? \u00a0Of course that’s right, and of course, it makes perfect sense, but I can’t seem to overcome this sensation of being way out of my league. \u00a0This shall pass.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow, my coach has prescribed for me an early morning swim of about 30 minutes, followed up with an hour run along Ali’i Drive. \u00a0The goal is to be done with everything by 9 a.m. to avoid the strongest heat of the day. \u00a0That, I assure you, will be easy to oblige. \u00a0Thereafter, I’ll relax all day with Roya and maybe do some sightseeing as best we can without a rental car. \u00a0Truly, I’ll be happy to just lounge by the hotel pool and read a book.<\/p>\n
So, with signing off now, I remain humbled by what I am about to embark upon, and I’m super excited to see my good friends on Wednesday. \u00a0I think that they will get a real kick out of this whole experience, and I will get a lot of pleasure out of witnessing that. \u00a0See, we all stand to benefit!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Well, we arrived today after nearly 12 hours of flight time. \u00a0All along, I had thought that I had booked a direct flight from Newark Airport to Kona, but as I learned, we had a brief stopover in Phoenix. \u00a0No matter though; both flights seemed rather quick to me as Roya and I both alternated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":687,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions\/687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}