Swim/Run Race; Update

While watching the sunset from Kona Inn, we saw whales! It's the black spot on the left side of the sun, pretty close to the middle of the cruise ship/sun. Oh, and please also note the beautiful sunset!

Since I've been on vacation, I've been really bad about updating this and even about working out. But I did get a few races (5K and 0.5-mi swim/4-mi bike), another ocean swim, and a bike ride up part of Mauna Kea. Plus I did most of the manual holds and a few of the 7-minute ISOs. I might end up going back to week 3--I'll have to talk to Will this week.

Hawaii was pretty much amazing. I'll add pictures here when I can, but my computer is currently not recognizing my disk with all the pictures and my camera cord is missing. Soon!

Sunday morning Mom and I went with Dad to the Peaman race that started at the pier on Ali'i Drive. Mom had said there are usually around 75 people (I think her counting is low overall), but yesterday there were probably around 200. The deal with these races is that they're free with popsicles sticks for placing at the end, you can use flippers for the swim, you don't have to swim, you don't have to run, you can do a relay, it's pretty much whatever you want, you can do it. Plus there was a PeaWee race, which was out to the 3rd buoy (we went to the 7th) and back and a 1-mile run.

So my popsicle stick that I got at the end was #76. What that means, I won't know until Mom sends me the results or tells me. I don't even know what time we started, so I don't know how long my swim was. Mom finished the swim around 4 minutes ahead of me (according to Dad's cell), so I knew how much time I had to make up on the run. I decided that whoever lost had to pay for my next trip out there (so pretty much I would make out even or ahead either way), but we never really agreed to that. :-)

On the run, I knew the route because we'd done it last Sunday. I knew where the hills were and had a good idea where the turnaround was, and I was just intent on catching Mom and passing anyone else I could see. I saw her just after she turned and just before I did and caught her within a minute or so of that. I left the transition area at 8:35, 4 minutes behind Mom for a 4 mile run. I caught her at 8:58 (I think), a bit after the turnaround. I ended up beating her by a couple minutes overall but have no idea where I finished.

The run felt really good. I pushed myself and felt like I went out too hard at the start and had to slow down slightly the last half (there were no mile markers, so I'm not really sure what my splits were), but I still finished the run in 31 minutes, a 7:45 or so pace. For a 4-mile run, I'd like to be able to get that down to 7:30 at the highest, but I just have to keep running to get there!

The sisters (me, Michelle [younger], and Robin [older]) eating at the Fish Hopper.

Me jumping off the cliff at South Point (the southernmost tip of the US) with an audience of random people. We think the cliff is something like 40 feet above the water, and you can see the bottom of the ocean from the top. Yikes.