A Year Ago

About a year ago in 2008, I went with my boyfriend at the time to the Big Island for 4 days to watch him and some friends race this thing called "the Honu". A long race in my eyes! 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 mile run = 70.3 I didn't enjoy the trip as much as I hoped. We did alot of "chilling" before race day to let the athletes rest up. I was so bored!! Race day was exciting, I got to see all of the athletes getting ready for the race and seeing everyone race was super exciting and it motivated me. I told myself that day..... I will do this race next year!! Well, it is 2009 and I am racing this year and really excited about it. I am pretty proud of myself, I set a goal of completing this race before I even owned a bike or had ever even tried to swim freestyle in a pool or the ocean. The only thing I was a surfer who ran :-) I am gonna do this!!

I bought a bike in July 2008 and started riding with BOCA, thank goodness! I learned alot by having coaches to tell you things you other wise would be clueless. I didn't have any time to loose :-) After the training was over, I did my first 100 mile ride in September along with my very first triathlon in September (all women's Na Wahine Triathon) I loved doing the race and did other ones in October and November. All of these were short races around 500m swim, 12 mile bike ride, 3 mile run (sprint)

In the winter months, I continued to ride with a group called Quick Release "the bikefactory guys/gals" What a fun group, they know how to have a great time no matter what the event. Here is a picture from the K-bay Criterium bike race.

I also kept on running to keep myself in shape. January I started riding in another BOCA clinic with organized workouts, coaches and lots of fun people. The goal of this training was to climb Haleakala 10,000ft mountain on Maui. This is a photo of some of us at the top!

After the Maui trip was the start of the Triathlon training with BOCA. This is an amazing group of people, not only are they amazing athletes, they are all smart, fun, talented and amazing people that I just love to be around. Here is a picture of the group on the Big Island during our training weekend.

So, this is just my year of activities in a nutshell to give you a backgroud of why I started this "triathlon stuff" and the reason that I love all of this so much is from the people and the fun that I have during the training.