Honolulu Century Ride

With a weird twist of timing, the annual Honolulu Century Ride took place the Sunday after I arrived in Hawaii. I was anxious to get onto the roads here and get a feel for local cycling, plus I was looking forward to meeting new people, so this was the perfect opportunity. I thought I'd be able to hang with the guys from the local tri shop I'd met....I didn't expect to show up before sunrise to find hundreds of cyclists milling around a still-dark staging area.

I went in without a plan for distance, figuring I'd do 40, maybe 50 miles if I was feeling good because that was all I was really trained for. We started with a pretty decent climb up and around the side of Diamondhead Crater and then headed around the eastern side of the island. The sunrise views over a perfect ocean were absolutely amazing. Next came a brutual climb over what can only be described as a mountain pass, but we were totally rewarded by panoramic views of Waimanalo Bay from the top.

Every corner we turned opened up more beautiful views, and the turnaround for the 40 mile, then the 50 mile options came and went. How could I go home and miss any of this?? At the 75 mile turnaround, I finally came to my senses and realized that I was going to suffer a long ride back in the heat. Totally worth it, though. This was the most amazing ride I've ever done!

I haven't even seen the damn beach!

Nothing like a 6-hour time change to screw up your circadian rhythm. I woke up at 5am, bright-eyed and ready to go. I used the time to unpack my bike and re-assemble all of it's components, which only took about 30 minutes. I made myself go back to bed until a little before 7 and finally gave up hope of more sleep.

The main order of business this morning was pre-employment junk for the hospital, all of which had to get done today if I'm going to start on Monday. Unfortunately, this involved another hike to Wal-Mart so I could print off documents at the Kinko's around the corner. Good thing about all of this walking is that I don't feel guilty about the lack of workouts.

Next hurdle...conquering the bus system. Had to drop off some documents in downtown Honolulu...definitely too far to walk. Made it without trouble and managed to find time to wander through a little open-air market. Bought my first trinket....a flower necklace that looks so much like the blossoms I've been picking up off the sidewalks (where they fall from the trees).


The afternoon found me hunting up an air pump for my bike tires, since I didn't bring one. I thought the scooter shop around the corner could help, but no go. They were nice enough to lend me a scooter (free of charge!) so I could zip up to the local tri shop and get a pump. Met some awesome people and found out about a century ride on Sunday. Yay, right up my alley!! By the way, the scooters are SUPER fun and I'm going to have to rent one soon.

It's now mid-afternoon of day two and I haven't even seen the damn beach yet, for all of the stuff that NEEDED to get done!

Clouds rolled in for the early evening, which cooled things down a bit and made for an awesome evening of exploration. I made a beeline for....the BEACH!! Finally!!

Got a great view of the Diamond Head crater at the opposite end of Waikiki beach...


Saw some storm clouds roll in over the water....

And last, but not least, saw the penguins at the Hilton...

(Yes, there are penguins in Hawaii, although they're not wild. Not the frozen tundra kind....these are the warm-weather cousins...)

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Welcome to Hawaii...

Flying to Hawaii is fun....for about the first 10 minutes. It started with a very early morning and a 6am flight from Indy to Phoenix. I caught all the luck in the world...an exit row aisle seat with all the leg room in the world, and then an empty row so I could lay down and sleep my way across the country. Then it was a very boring 4 hour layover in Phoenix, waiting with fingers crossed and hoping I got onto the flight (flying standby). And then, yay, finally time to head to Hawaii!! Good luck again with an exit/bulkhead type row, which means no one in front of you and plenty of room to stand up, stretch, kick off the shoes. Which was exciting for a bit....until....6....HOURS....later.....we finally landed in Oahu.

Fast forward through some luggage wrangling (yay, it all made it!!), a shuttle ride through town, and I finally got into my condo. First order of business...gotta pee. Quick glance revealed NO toilet paper (or anything else that might work), so the first order of business became Find The Wal-Mart. After a mile hike there and a mile hike back, I was ready to settle in. Unpacked, fixed a dinner of sorts, and managed to stay up until around 8am. Did pretty well, seeing as how I'd been up for 22 hours at that point. Beautiful sunset....I'm in Hawaii!!

Aloha friends!

Getting acquainted with my new digs....

I can't believe that I will be living in Hawaii 13 days from now!!

Here's the timeline...
-Packing on the 15th, 16th, 17th
-Last days at Northside are the 18th and 19th
-Packing up the "POD" on the 20th and leaving for Indiana
-Dropping off Milo in Ohio on the 24th
-Catching a plane to Honolulu on the 25th!!!

I'll be there through January 31st for sure, maybe longer if I love it.

I'm going to HAWAII!!!!!!

Urban jungle

Beautiful view, right? Could be almost anywhere....N. Georgia mountains, foothills of the Smokies, who knows? Bet you wouldn't guess suburban Atlanta....

Recognize the gravel path down there? Yep, it's the Chattahoochee trails!

Milo and I have had some great times these past weeks....going for runs through the woods, exploring trails hence unknown to us. I love trail running because your brain is so busy trying to focus on the path that it doesn't have time to think about how hot, tired, sore, and sweaty you are. Apparently this phenomenon works in dogs, too, because non-runner Milo is all of a sudden digging the trail running.