Ironman Weekend

Living smack dab in the center of Kona has been interesting. Always living in a "village" this city life has been sharp change to my relatively quiet existence. Being close to everything makes us a bit more involved with festivals and such things. This year marked the first time that I watched the world known "Ironman Triathalon" from my doorstep. Granted I was at first freaked out at being blocked in, [since our road closes for the entire day]. And then the crazy amount of people that flocked the streets and stores made me want to vacate Kona. So I gave up watching or even sticking around, until I found out that a friend of mine was a participant. I had gotten to know him thru CrossFit and appreciate the support he always shares. So, from then on I decided to stay and watch one of the most intense triathlons. 

A local designer created this shirt with Alika's number and name. 

Two of my girlfriends came over and we woke up early to catch the beginning of the swim. It was such a sight to see the water go from being calm to all churning with around 2,000 pairs of arms cutting thru the water. As the mass moved it's way down the course we turned and worked our way back to the start of the bike part. Listening to the announcer, we craned our necks to see the first swimmer come thru on his bike. He came thru around 45 mins after the start.  

NBC camera crew

First 3 women out of the water and on to the biking.

After seeing my friend come out of the chute we started our way back up to the house. We got a bit separated at the crosswalk as so many bikers were coming thru.  

"What do we do?"

Hearing all the cheering and shouting you couldn't help but join in. And it was impossible to miss the few courageous guys that entered, even with many things they had to overcome. The crowd would cheer three times as loud when they would pass by. 

We came back to the house after a bit as it was so hot out on the road. Refreshing ourselves in the much cooler house, we went out later to watch the winner run down the hill. 

Alika starting on the run

I ended up enjoying the whole thing much more then I ever have and cheered until my throat was sore. And I was pleasantly surprised to see Alika 6 different times on the course and watched his finish live via the internet.