Lavaman Triathlon 2010

Carbo Loading dinner at Waikoloa before the Lavaman Triathlon.

Me and Gerd. Gerd turned 60, and for his birthday is doing 6 Ironman races on 6 continents. This coming weekend will be #6 in South Africa, Good Luck Gerd, way to go!!!

Race morning, Monica and Rick in line for body marking.

The sun starting to come up over the volcano.

Ricci and Micheal excited to race!!!

This is actually after the race. We look like we are ready for more!!

The Lavaman Triathlon has a great after race food table. Lots of great salads, fruit and meat to replenish your body. And I must mention also, yummy Kona Beer!!

Jack ( who knows more about the geography of BC than I do) and Jodi and I .

Tom taking the picture for us in another photo op.

Anthony and Tom in the picture as well this time.

What can I say!! Ricci was 14 seconds ahead of me on the swim, so I was eating her bubbles along with 600 other people she was ahead of :) Ricci was in the Ironman World Championship last year and had an awesome race!!

Bree Wee giving out kisses!! Actually she is accepting her 1st place prize and then gave a very nice speech thanking everyone for their support. Congratulations on another 1st place finish Bree!!

Chris McCormack also on top of the podium and also set a new course record. Nothing new to him :)

Jodi picking up where she left off 10 years ago, an amazing race!! Ricci's coach Andrea hot on her heels in second place.

Bobbi, who I met through Monica and also cant keep up to swimming also on the podium. Her niece Allison took top spot in her age group.

Now this is the way to end an afternoon after a race. Thanks Monica for all of your thoughtfulness and great organization to come up with great ideas like this.

Ok, the day after Lavaman Triathlon, I am ready to go again. The massage must have helped :) Just before I begin my ride up Kaloko, a 3500 ft elevation gain in about 10 km. The last section is a 17-18% grade, way more fun coming down than going up.

Part way up, heart rate at 151 bpm, and I am actually trying to keep it low. One of the reasons they call Kaloko a challenge.

There are so many fun things to do in Kona, that I missed my flight home. haa haa. Well, me being forgetful does not help, but thanks to Ricci, I was able to go whale watching with her and Monica and Rick. You can see the whale breaching just ahead.

And there it is a little closer.

And now the whale even closer!!

Yup. I am pretty lucky!!! So much fun that week in Kona, so many nice people and a great way to spend a day when you miss your plane. After this was a few hours of stand up paddle boarding.

Thanks to everyone that made another trip to Kona so memorable and so much fun!!