Saturday in pictures.

Pre-biathlon, early in the morning at Club Day with Katy, the RD of the huge event..

The start line was packed. Katherine and Anthony fought for the best place to line up.

We're off.. up and over diamond head and back

And we're back.. and all the boys seem to have gotten lost somewhere back there..

We've always wanted to tie for the win. Dale, the beach boys, and half of the outrigger now think we're a couple. Next time we purposefully tie, we're totally not going to hold hands. Really.

An hour later, it was time for the paddleboard race, twice each, out and back through Old Mans, which had some good-sized surf. I've never surfed on a paddleboard before.. so I got some quick pre-race tips from the experts: scooch back, drag your feet.. um, ok. My second trip back I got a big one and rode the whole way in without having to paddle, which really is the way to race.. paddle a bit, catch wave, sit and watch the sights fly by..

Katherine and I won the paddleboard race. It helped that there were no other girls. But had there been, I'm pretty sure we maybe would have beat them. 

Then it was off to the dive boat, and to see the infamous Doctor Pfeffer. That's Katja in the foreground.. she was the designated boat babe. The dive was gorgeous, and a barracuda swam right up and checked Katja and I out while we did a little safety stop. It was so pretty.

Then came the drinking. One cocktail an hour is a great plan.. except when you start at 2 pm and finish 8 hours later, that's actually a lot of booze.

There may have been some swimming. At night. Which made me sing that lame REM song Night swimming, swimming at night.. most creative song ever.  I can't remember the last time I swam in the ocean at night.. must have been during high school, when we'd surf on full moon nights.

I think Katja got a hold of the camera while Macy and I were jumping off of the canoes. She must have been trying to capture the setting. Because here is the ground:

and here is the night. And those are the last two pics on the camera.

On tap:

Friday night starts with Eryka:

Then a Saturday morning short biathlon, followed by a paddleboard race that happens to be a relay with - who else? Katherine, of course. And no, ABK, I'm not going to go all Tonya Harding on her ass just because she keeps beating me. She's too damn nice. Plus I like having someone to swim side by side with in the ocean..

After the paddleboard race comes the late morning dive on Doc's boat, the Mo'o. I'm putting my money on a trip to the YO-257. There's nothing prettier than a mid-day dive at the wrecks.

Straight from the dive boat, Katja and I are going to walk over to the recently re-opened Tropics at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, because the bottomless slushy mai tais are back! I need one of those slushy mai tai machines at my house. Well, need might be an overstatement. It only takes one.. especially after racing and diving. I'll be in a mai tai haze by 2 pm.. I think opting out of Hawaii 70.3 over there in Kona this weekend was a good call. Happy Friday, people.

wet paint

I loaded the kids into the elevator a few days ago and there was a woman already in there. She reeked of perfume. I was surprised the elevator didn't burst into flames when the oxygen flowed in. All was quiet.. until:

Sky: It smells like paint in here.

Me: I think it smells like, ummm, pretty flowers. 

Wyatt: No, mom, that's definitely paint.

Me: No, Wyatt, it's not.

Henry (feeling the walls in attempt to find the wet paint): Do you think they just finished painting the inside of this elevator?

Since I couldn't crawl into a hole, I started searching my giant bag for something to cram into their mouths: a lolly, hard candy, a ball of yarn, anything.. but no luck, just uncomfortable silence while my children all felt the walls and floor looking for the wet paint.

I miss my people.

While they're away and I have more free time, I'm swimming every day. A week straight and that was all it took to see progress. Three of the seven swims were over an hour long and hard efforts. And today we did a time trial and I was back where I should be, right next to Katherine. Phew. Just in time for Alcatraz. I haven't been in a pool in two months now... it's all ocean, all the time. 

5.5 days until my kids are home. I'm going to turn into a prune - a salty one - from all the swimming.

Makapuu is all sharky.

That's what you always hear, anyway. I heard a group was going to swim from Makapuu to Sandys on Sunday morning and I knew I had to do it. I've been hiking up that mountain since I was 12, looking down at that clear water and watching the whales. Makapuu is just out of this photo, on the far right, and Sandys is the beach you see on the far left.

It's normally terribly rough out there, but we've had some really calm seas, so it was the perfect time to try it. A certain tough fireman/lifeguard that I know refused, something about seeing the sharks eat a person out there once...  but nine people showed up at 8:30 Sunday morning to do it, and Carrie and I were among them. It's nice to have a house guest who is an incredible swimmer and always up for an adventure.

Jean had found escorts. We had Tom, a Hawi-born lifeguard who has made countless channel crossings between all the islands, and Duane, who kayaked along with us as well. Tom took a look at Makapuu and told us all to get in our cars - we were going to have to swim the other direction because the current looked strong, in spite of the glassy water. So off we went to Allen Davis to jump in off of the telephone pole:

I made a quick decision to go with the fasties right off the bat, some of them, like Olwen, Tom Anderson, and Carrie, a former Cal swimmer, that I had no business trying to hang with.. but I was able to hang on as long as I drafted. There would be many more photos if I didn't spend the whole swim huffing and puffing to avoid getting dropped and left all alone out there. This was my view of Carrie's feet for an hour and ten minutes:

A school of kihikihi way down deep - I usually see them solo.

The visibility was incredible, my camera doesn't do it justice. The water was at least 50 feet deep for most of the swim, and there were caves and ledges and fish all around. The waves coming back off the cliffs made for some difficult chop and I got tired.. I haven't swam more than 2k in a while and this was 4k, easy. But we made it..

And some people (Tom) even had the energy left to bodysurf when we finished!

One of the great things about Oahu's triathlon community is just walking up to a group where you know one or two people, making introductions, and then heading out for an adventure. The Kailua Swim Club folks are so cool and I was reminded - this is why I train. This is why I learned to swim. So I can go out and do things like swim around Makapuu point, which for most of my life I thought only an olympian or a moron would do.

MIA

I was not the only white chick at Mos Def thursday night. I was probably the only mother of three pulling a 23 hour day, though. His enthusiasm and joy for what he does was contagious.. for the first 2.5 hours of it. But  2 am is way past my bedtime, and I had to drag my friends out of there before he even stopped. Neither work nor swimming on three hours of sleep and and too many vodka sodas went well the next day. I started this blog post Friday.. it took me this long to finish it. 

My college friends are in town. Matt's here with 14 friends for a bachelor party. Carrie came over from Kauai for the show. Carrie and I haven't been up for all of the evening bachelor party activities (not that into korean hostess bars, it turns out), but we have spent some afternoons at the Sunset Beach rental:

You know you've been at the bachelor party too long when the give you one of the official bachelor party tshirts.. I think it's my new favorite shirt. Trevor's been surfing on this, which he made - no skeg, mother of pearl inlay, ancient-style:

Ramsey took the kids to California for eleven days. I will try not to worry myself to death, but the only thing scarier than putting myself on a giant metal death box is putting my children in a giant metal death box. I would love to say that I'm going to have a great time on my own, that I'm going to sleep well and train lots and enjoy the peace and quiet. But really, I'm going to cry a lot and worry about my babies and be lonely. But I get what I get, I guess. My friends have been keeping me busy.

So tomorrow I'm going to hop on a plane to Kauai for a few days. Matt, Carrie and I are going to swim the Na Pali Coast. Carrie is a massage therapist, and she told me that sometimes if you get your jaw worked on, you don't talk so much. I'm trying not to take it personally.. But first I'm off to swim from Makapuu to Sandys with the Boca people.. I have no idea how many miles that is, because people don't swim it, because it's supposed to be so sharky. I guess I'll find out if that's true in an hour or so!

Last night, leaving dinner at The Pyramids, my sister and I hugged our friends good-bye, then got to eachother. I pretended I was going to hug her and she said "how about just a high five?" Our family doesn't touch. Pretty much ever. This is how we show our love..

momentum

My car's bumper is sitting on my living room couch. This is not a good sign. I might have forgotten how big my car was and taken a parking garage turn too tight, scraping the side and knocking the bumper off. I pride myself in not driving like a girl. But sometimes I drive like a girl.

I've started a couple of posts, then quit them. I've been visiting my friend John. Today I went in early and helped with breakfast, and sat around and chatted as the sun came up. Queens is a nice place, and they sure put John back together well, which many people are very, very grateful for. He had 16 hours of surgery right off the bat after the accident. There are a few things that really strike me. One is that all my mundane racing and training is just that - it's the small stuff, which is why I've had a hard time feeling like any of it was worth a post. Life can 180 in a heart beat. Quicker even. Another thing that strikes me is how often John & I said how lucky he is. This is a man who was just hit by a tour bus. But when we were discussing ideas to make cycling safer and I said we should ride facing traffic the way we run so that we can dodge crazy drivers, he busted out m1v1=m2v2. I couldn't have brought up one of Newton's laws that quick if my life depended on it.. and my only thought was yep, his head works. Thank god his head wasn't hit!

John looks better every day, he has more color, more movement, and is more and more of himself. I posted a link at the top right ----> for those that want to keep up.

This link came to me from so many different people - all Sky-followers. I just have to say that if my daughter had found this, I would believe in Cheesus:

I can't wait to show Sky that someone found her Cheesus. It's worth watching, just to see how seriously people take their snacks.

This has been sent my way via email, via facebook, I've even gotten phone calls... it really is too bad that sky didn't find the jesus in the cheeto.

When I was pregnant with sky, back in 2003, we were living in berkeley after a year on kauai. She was my third baby, and after having two easy labors, I wanted to have her at home. We lived in what was practically a hippie commune, a small apartment complex built around a great playground, full of german post-doc families who had all had their babies right there in the building. Richard, Melvin, Janna - all born at home. We took turns making meals for the kids and eating at the picnic tables. Wyatt knew how to say train in german before he could say it in english. When it came down to it though, I couldn't get over the what if. What if something was wrong, and the ten minute ride to the hospital was too long? So I had her at Kaiser, after driving myself there in the middle of the night (wyatt was sick, so it had to be a solo mission). Her birth was easy, and she was fine. We went home the next day. And for the next 9 months, I fought the methicillan-resistant staph aureus I picked up in the maternity ward. Round after round of antibiotics, one of which even got to sky and caused her liver to stop working properly. Wyatt, who was one, picked it up from me. Then henry got it. Kaiser grossly overdosed the kids on one antibiotic, and I woke up to a pharmacist pounding on my door yelling that there had been a huge mistake. Every time I thought we had it beat, it came back. It wasn't until I went on something terribly toxic, close to a year later and living back on Oahu, that I finally stopped paying for not listening to my instincts and having sky at home.

So you can imagine how much I like hospitals. When my best friend had her baby, I just couldn't go. When I hit my head so hard that I couldn't remember getting through Kailua in the Dick Evans race, I talked my doctor into coming to me. When I finally had to go to make sure I hadn't had a stroke during the migraine madness that was november 2008, I threw away my slippers as soon as I got out the door, and tossed everything that had been worn in the hospital.

Today was my second visit to see john. When I went on Saturday, I was pretty blown away at my first sight of him. John is always, always fit. And always talking, animatedly, waving his arms around and laughing. And now he's lying on his back, with a collar forcing him to look at the ceiling. He can feel his legs (yea!) but can't yet move them. I would list what's broken, but it would be faster to list what's not. When I saw him Saturday, he was chatty and friendly, but pale and thin, newly buzzed, and adjusting to a new pain med. On Saturday, I went to the back of the elevator and said Eight, please, so that I wouldn't have to touch a button. I washed my shoes when I got home, in addition to all exposed skin. Today when I went in, John was twice as bright, twice as smiley, and seemed so much better. He's healing up and you can see it in his face.

And I pushed the button in the elevator (had to, it would have been a long solo wait for someone to come push it for me!) and did not throw away my shoes upon leaving.

I heard rumor he's an early bird like me, so I've got a 6:30 date at Queens tomorrow morning - with jambas of course, and this time I might even sit in a chair..

Fried.

I rolled into Jamba at 11 today and nearly passed out. My hands were shaking when I handed over my coupon and I almost added STAT to my Primo Acai order, but refrained because that would probably make someone spit in it. The last 24 hours have been hard, and I hadn't fueled any of it properly. I was having blood sugar issues.

Friday started with a 3k swim chasing the fast gang through 500 m intervals in the morning, followed by work, then 11 miles of Tantalus running with Katherine in the evening. The five miles up are just switchback after switchback, and we took turns pushing the pace. By the flatter sections near the top, it was all out racing. My quads were shot by the time I got home.

The view from the first look out, part way up:

Saturday morning was another hard swim with the Boca group. The ocean was glassy and the turtles were friendly. Trying to hang with Ryan, Dave, Pretty Billy and Wil for interval after interval nearly killed me. When we finished, I looked out at the glassy little bumps and was overcome with a need to surf. As if on cue, Todd Bradley showed up and offered me a stand-up board that would be perfect. I hauled it down to the beach and my friend Billy was just heading out, so I had someone to coach me. I surf, and I stand up paddle, but I had yet to combine the two. It took about an hour before I got my first successful wave on the stand up board.. but man was it worth the wait. After 2 more hours in the ocean, I was done. My legs were shaky on the board, my arms and shoulders ached, and my quads were screaming from the mountain run.

While it looks like I am paddling on a pretty lake, I swear there were some sets rolling through. The tricky part was paddling fast enough to make the drop, and then jumping my feet to my regular stance while hurtling forward.. but once I got it down, it was awesome!

It kind of feels like I've been Ironman training -- only more fun. 10k of swimming, 44 miles of running, and waves this week.. what more could I ask for? A rest day. And pizza. Both are up next.

ov-er-whel-med-ness

I woke up with a nyquil hangover Monday morning and promptly stabbed myself in the blurry eye with the mascara wand (DuWop Lash Venom, girls, it rocks. And no, they don't sponsor me, I know you're all thinking I only talk up stuff I get for free and that is so not true. I'm offended.) It was an appropriate start to a week that has continued on in that direction. Give me five four-dollar martinis at Indigo happy hour on a friday night and I'll wake up bright-eyed and ready to ride 50 miles.. but a half dose of nyquil and I wake up ruined. Or maybe it's just the cold. Or the over-whel-med-ness (I think it's important to say all the syllables in that word.)

I had a sore throat during the 5k and was wheezy, but you know, 5ks are hard, so I didn't think much of it during the race. Not 20 min after finishing, I started to hack. Thanks to years of scuba diving, and sometimes doing gross things like puking through my regulator at 110 feet, I was able to cough without breaking my rhythm during the post-race swim, but by Sat night, I was ruined. I am a snot factory. My lungs hurt and I sound like Carly Simon, but not in a good way. More in a Priscilla Queen of the Desert way.

Sky brought home this card for mother's day. They're practicing typing at school. Her teacher edited it:

It's adorable, but it's also full of lies. I did not, in fact, have my first child at age 11, which would have been required for me to be 21 today. But it was nice of her to imply that I was a pre-teen slut. I don't like purple much at all, as it reminds me of bruises and eggplants, two things I don't really like, and I know for a fact that she doesn't really think I'm prite. How do I know? Because in the past week she has told me two things: You have a mustache and When you sit like that, your tummy is all fat. To the latter I replied: That's skin! Maybe if I had stopped after two kids... but I don't think my sweet innocent little third child picked up on my hint. No one gives it to you straight like a five year old.

I just noticed that Sky is featured sacrificing babies on Kaui's blog today. If you're looking for a good read, Kaui pretty much always makes me spit coffee on my keyboard..

5k report and cars vs. businessmen

In my next life, I want to be a boy. An elite-running boy. Because it is indeed fun to just run as fast as you can, for as long as possible, but looking at the results, and seeing Todd's average pace of 4:31/mile.. well, I would love to know what it feels like to run that fast. Here's Katherine and I with the overall winner - he told me before the race he was going to break 14:30. He won it in 14:29. Plan, execute, end of story.

It's still Africa hot and humid as hell here, and the race started at 7 am, a little too late for this early bird's liking. I didn't know if I had a sub-19 5k in me these days, as I've been having some trouble with my lungs when running fast. Katherine and I fell in together after the crowd thinned out and I was surprised to hear a first mile split of 5:42. And even more surprised that I still felt great. We ran together until 2.5 miles, but I could tell she had a little more than me, as she kept getting a step ahead, and then I would fight to pull back to even. I have a problem with talking during racing. OK, I am the queen of verbal diarrhea, and I probably should have shut up and run a little more today. With half a mile to go K got a few feet up and I couldn't hang on. We finished second and third overall. I came in at 18:25, holding a pretty steady pace of 5:44/mile. I was not a PR, but still well ahead of what I had hoped to be, and secured a year of free Jamba Juice. And it was really fun this time.

Katherine, super-coach and race director Raul Boca, and me, ready to hit the water for a 2k swim after awards:

I don't know what Brandon was saying on the podium, but apparently it was fascinating!

And Jaco, the PT king, doing what he does after the races:

I got some great news after the race from the lululemon ladies - I was chosen as an ambassador! The first order of business is starting a monthly run to add to the run club. Beth, Rachel, Kirsten and the rest of the Carlsbad shop have a great one going that runs a 6 mi or 3 mi course, and the 6 mi is a fast-paced tempo run with the local fasties. I'm already recruiting and hopefully we'll be meeting starting in June! The lululemon folks will provide refreshments, and the fast folks will provide run tips.. I can't wait. Check out the new lululemon blog here. 

A quick Henry story: The other night, while walking through the parking lot at Ala Moana, I told Henry to get closer to me because there was a car coming behind us. It turned up a row and disappeared, and he glanced back, then said to me: Mom, that's not a car, that's a businessman. I turned around, and sure enough, there was the quintessential tokyo businessman walking behind us, complete with glasses, tie, and pants belted higher than any American. The way he said it, the Duh, Mom tone, cracked me up. A few moments later, I hear singing behind me: Henry got run over by a businessman... 

Kahala Challenge on Youtube.

Kahala Challenge movie - this is so fun! This video tells the story of the Kahala Challenge so well. Kris and all the Kahala folks really put an incredible race together. 

There is some rather unflattering ass-coverage of me during transition (does anyone's ass look good from ground level looking up while running in a swimsuit? Is there such thing as flattering ass-coverage?) but the last few seconds, of Katherine and I goofing off made me laugh so hard! This was such a fun race, I cannot wait to do it again next year!

John and then some drivel

My friend John was hit by a tour bus on Saturday and is badly injured. If you can spare a positive thought or a prayer.. well, John is a positive thought kind of person. He's hanging in there, but the injuries are mind-boggling. Of all the people I know, he might have the best attitude to face the long road to recovery because John is just a high energy, happy kind of guy. The full story is here.

Cycling is just too dangerous. I keep saying I'm going to give it up.. and then not doing so. I feel much safer on my own two feet, facing traffic.

The rest feels like mindless drivel in comparison, but here it is anyway.

The Bananaman 5k is this weekend. I should try to make it to packet pick up. I have a really hard time with packet pick up. I inevitably completely forget to go. Ever. Sometimes Katherine bails me out by getting mine for me. But most of the time I just beg for a chip/swim cap/number an hour before the race starts.

At the Bananaman 5k, the top 3 win free jamba juice for a year. The past few years I've been in good run shape and have consistently gotten my annual fix. But this year, I'm getting my ass handed to me left and right on the run. I'm a little heavy, a little sluggish, and my lungs are really holding me back more than anything else. Saturday morning is going to hurt.

In 2007, Ramsey was a banana. He and Uncle Duda tried to do the electric slide in banana costumes. It was amusing. 5ks make me want to barf, and sometimes make me sick for hours after they end. Why must I do it? Oh yeah, the jamba.

Today was interval morning. The run included 4 x 1000 at the marathon finish line, followed by long 250 m intervals in the ocean with Stefan's Tuesday swim group. The air is thick with vog again, and you can't see the horizon, but the trade off is glassy, crystal clear ocean. There were turtles all around the group today. And Todd, known for his running prowess and only 2 months into his new sport, hung on to the lead pack for the intervals. Monumental swim.

And this has nothing to do with anything, except maybe that it's a precious life - I found this of Sky at 6 or 7 months old, when I used to dress her up in goofy things and take her picture. I needed a Sky fix.

klepto sister

Yesterday I woke up at 3 am and couldn't fall back to sleep. I'm generally on the road at 5 am, but 3 is a little ridiculous, even for me. So I did the opposite of what I said I was going to do in my last post. Sometimes a long run has nothing to do with training, and everything to do with enjoying an hour and forty minutes of neighborhoods, road, ocean, music, and quiet. I ran into work and had no problems with my foot. In fact, it seems better off for it. 

Today I tried out my new wetsuit at the group swim. It's an aquasphere, and it's black and gold, a color combo that reminds me of a mid-life crisis corvette. It fit well though. The group usually does 500 meter intervals and leave on 8 minutes, and I am generally happy if I make it to the pole in 7:30. Today I stopped my watch at the pole, turned around to see if Stefan was on my feet, and realized I was alone. And that my watch said 6:50. Which is a huge PR for me at Ala Moana. And that settles it, the new wetsuit is indeed golden. Inside and out. I made it back in 7:00, and things got worse from there.. but I don't expect too much from my swim right now. I may in fact be getting out more than I'm putting in, somehow.

And now things feel just right: my legs and hips are a little sore from the run, and my arms and shoulders and lats and torso are a little sore from the swim. I've got no races to do this weekend, just a long hilly ride with Katherine, and it's lovely outside..

While I understand that Target is indeed open all weekend, my sister and I decided to ditch out of the First Friday crowds in Chinatown and spent most of our Friday night wasting money at Target. Here we are in Chinatown - me and my real sister, along with the one who gets called my sister on a regular basis. I guess my sister and I don't look that much alike.

I told Celia I needed a laundry basket, and she told me she would take care of it. When we unloaded at home, this came out of the back of the car. This is her confused What, I'm not supposed to take this home with me? face.

The rest of the weekend was spent here, by the pool, with Wyatt checking out the downtown view..