Chelonia Midas - (aka "green turtle", HONU)
Conditions were sweet misery at this year's Hawaii Ironman 70.3 on Saturday. It was the first triathlon where I was body marked with ink and stenciled stamps instead of the ever-faithful, easy-to-remove Sharpie pen. [I have since returned to the office wearing only sleeveless shirts to show off my 1-1-4-2 tan lines; a great conversation piece! But I digress...]
Swim was nice and choppy - but didn't have much of an effect on my friend McCall, who in doing her very first half-iron distance triathlon was the first female out of the water. The rest of the pack bottle-necked around buoy #1, splashed around Hapuna Bay and then ran under garden hoses to remove the saltwater and sand before heading up to Transition #1.
Biking the big island was breathtaking in both the beautiful scenery sense, as well as in the "fight the headwind uphill just in time for the downhill crosswinds" sense. There were a good number of riders suffering flats and blow outs, but we should have expected this to be the norm on a course that is lined with a lava rock shoulder and garnished with thorny deciduous foliage blowing all about.
And once we finished the bike course, we were strewn about the Mauna Lani resort and golf course for a blessedly breezy, vog-covered half marathon run.
If you're interested in combining a half-iron distance triathlon with a summer vacation, I definitely encourage you to do this race next year! And if you were one of the people who finished this challenging event last weekend, CONGRATS, GREAT JOB!
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