Live...

Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air
Ralph Waldo Emerson

More like, "Live in the wild air, swim in the sunshine, drink the SEA"-Justin Harris
This weekend was action packed for myself and Kristine. On Saturday we had the Jamba Juice Banana Man Chase. It's a local 5k with people dressed up as bananas. The goal is to catch all the bananas, which get a minute head start, and you win free Jamba Juice (think Starbucks of smoothies) for a year. Recently they have changed it to top 3 overall and top 3 in each age group win 26 free certificates. Kristine has been training very well and consitently and it showed with her very strong race effort even though she had to stop for a second. I came in second overall and ran a pretty decent time (15:33). So Jamba on me!

7am = still asleep

Next up was a 1.6 mile swim over on the east side in Kailua, Hawaii. Click here to see a map of the route I swam. The east side is always windy and makes the water very choppy. I was doing very well until we had to swim around the island. With 2ft-3ft waves coming over us and coral 2-3ft below me I was crapping in my Speedo ( j/k I don't have a Speedo). To add to the drudgery I had my goggles knocked of by a wave. So I had to flip over and try getting them back on. After getting around the island I had a much easier time getting back with the current to my back. I ended up swimming 41min 49 sec. and getting 1st place in my age group...because I was the only 20-24 year old dumb enough to do this race.

Theres me and theres a 60 year old man right behind me, DOH!

After the race Kristine, who was patiently sleeping on the beach waiting for me to finish, and I went for a nice bike ride around Kailua. Kailua is such a beautiful place and we enjoyed the ride a lot. It was very relaxing and a nice way to cool-down for myself.

This is me not being photogenic since I have snot coming out of my nose, I cannot breathe, I got beat by a lot of people, and saw my life flash before my eyes as I float in the middle of the ocean!

Once all the exercising was down we went to Momma's Island Pizza, which has the closest taste to NY pizza that I have expereinced outside of NY. Yummy!! With tummy's full of pizza we headed over to Lanikai Beach to soak in the sun like beached wales. Lanikai is my favorite beach on the island because when the sun is shining you cannot find water that is more blue than the water there at Lanikai.

Kristine and I stop during our bike ride with the island I swam around in for good measure.

The reason why I did both of these races this weekend is because I have an Olympic distance triathlon (Mile swim, 25 mi. bike, 6.1mi. run) coming up this weekend. I'm entered in the elite category and I am very excited. This week I will do some easy rides, runs, and swims to get ready to take on the guys who get to tri all day long; my dream.

Kristine and I chilling in the shallows at Lanikai Beach

Aloha!