back from kona.

kona was rad and we are a back in san diego after a long day of travel on sunday.

i was basically in sherpa mode all weekend... and i loved every minute. i was the pre-race cook and race taxi driver.

pre-race meal i cooked up for the crew: grilled tuna & mahi, sweet potatos, yams, zuchinni, broccoli , and brown rice.


part of my pre-race meal. maui brewing co. Big Swell IPA. solid. none for the racers! being a sherpa is hard work.


early saturday morning we packed in the "race taxi" and headed down to Hapuna beach. It was already warm and there wasn't a clound in the sky.

pre-race photos:


colleen and beth.


jaakko with his game face on.


ready to do work


jaakko and caue.


beth had a great 2/3's of a race. i know it killed her to pull out of the race but I am as, if not more proud of her for what she did and the way she handled it than i have been with any race she has won. it took a lot of guts and i know it really bummed her out, but she put her body and season above a single race.... and a race i think she could have won. she was 13 minutes off the lead (i promised i would give her the split after the bike) coming into T2 and the run course and conditions were brutal. i think there is a good chance she could have run her way to the front. it would have been tough but so is she.

she did juke everybody and run out of T2 though... but pulled out right when she ran up to us... maybe a 1/10 of a mile. she just wanted to see how she felt. little did she know that if she had kept running i would have tackled her!

after she was done racing I fulfilled another promise i made to her and that was to have a drink in her hand 15 minutes after finishing. we sat around and rooted on all of our friends at the finish. we knew a lot of people over there for the race so it was almost like being at a local race. it was definitely fun and i was able to score some free beers. it seems everybody knows i like beer and was offering up their athlete wrist bands which got them 3 free beers. i definitely took advantage!


once all of our friends finished racing we hit the beach. tom let me take out one of his paddleboards and it was fun. i need one!




later that night beth and i headed out for an epic dinner at the Canoehouse. we sat outisde with a killer view of the ocean, the food was perfect, and the cocktails (hawaiian martini's) were strong). a perfect way to spend our last night in kona.









we flew out of LA because we were able to get cheaper flights. so sunday we were up early and we headed down Kailua to check it out. we cruised around and checked out the town and killer farmers market. then we grabbed some lunch at the infamous lava java.

tuna wrap at lava java. my favorite kind of food.


we really had an awesome time but it wasn't long enough. we'll be back sooner or later.

as for my training... i'll get to that later. a lot going on.

more photos from the trip.

Tom and Julia.


erik and chris.


erik.


chris.


caue and beth.


Felipe.


jaakko.


caue.