Ironman Hawaii Final Recap - Now Home

First, I was trying to load a bunch more pictures on here for people to have a look at, but, I must say that the blogger edit software is a bit of a pain to work with for lots of pictures. Perhaps it was not meant to be used for such purposes. Therefore, I have put a full selection of Ironman Hawaii pictures up on my Face Book page. Link is below:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38070&l=8cc79&id=565297862

Paolina( Pictured above - Photo by Jay Prasuhn, Triathlete Magazine) had a great race to finish 22nd. She was a bit conservative with the pacing on the bike and early on in the run, but I, think that was better for her, given the fact that she was really only at about 75% fitness going in due to some semi-serious injuries that had her missing 6 weeks of key training time. Bodes well for the future if she can get to the start line at close to 100%. I can see her really moving up. The heat did not seem to bother her and she is keen to have another go at it next year if she can qualify again. So now we are weighing odds and chances at various early season Ironman races for next year.

From previous posts, readers will know that for me, this was a return to Ironman Hawaii after 15 years. The last time I was in Kona for the race was in 1993. Goodness gracious, the internet was not even up and running at that point and here I am on a blog!! I have documented some of the changes in a previous post. The full story and the rest of the details will be published in the December issue of Triathlon Magazine Canada. I will keep you posted as to when it hits new-stands.

There was some post-race partying to be sure. Most notably the K-Swiss After Party at Huggos, which was conveniently located almost across the street from the Billfisher - the place where we were staying. Nice. It rained cats & dogs at the Awards Banquet, which was a shame, as many people left and many of the top Age-Groupers and just about all the Pros really did not get the recognition from their peers that they truly deserved. As an aside, I was the winner of an Ironman Hawaii prediction pool for the race that was organized by some of the Victoria Crew - Client Lien et al. I won $200. Not bad! Thanks Clint for letting me in the game.

After the race we rented a car for two days - a convertible Chrysler Sebring. Got a great deal through Hotwire. In all the years of renting various cars for work and pleasure, I had never had a convertible. Nice treat and, what better place than the Big Island of Hawaii to be able to take in all of the great views with the top down. So off we went - to South Point one day and also down to Volcanos National Park the second day. Stopped off at the Black Sand Beach enroute to the Volcano to see that and swim with the Sea Turtles - which we did.

One more night in Kailua and then it was time for the 20+hour marathon back to Toronto. It was rather uneventful. No mix-ups with connections. No lost bags. We did have 5 hours in the Honolulu airport, so we took a cab to the Pearl Harbor Museum & Memorial which was near the airport. There was not enough time to do the full Memorial tour, so we opted to just look at the exhibits and some of the other things in the museum and surrounding area. It was very interesting - particularly learning more about the run up to the actual Japanese attack and how it came about. Disheartening also, that so many people lost their lives here who had no real chance to defend themselves.

Kona to Honolulu to Atlanta to Buffalo and then the 2 1/2 hour drive back to Aurora. Loved coming back across the boarder into Canada and having the following very intimidating conversation with the Canadian Customs Officer:

"Where do you live?".

"Aurora".

"Where were you?"

"Hawaii".

"Have a nice day".

"Thank you, Sir"

Never even asked for the Passports!

It felt good to be home.

Now it's back to the routine - Paolina has a ton of her hair styling clients to get to and I am digging out from a mountain of Nineteen wetsuit stuff. That's it for now.