The Day Before the Race
[Kona, HI, Oct 13, 2016]
It was so nice waking up today! We had nothing to do until bib pick up later in the day, and we really looked forward to dilly dallying and enjoying all the creature comforts we could before having to spend 36 hours running or being in a van!
We started the day off with a nice walk from our AirBnB down to the ocean. Our house is perched up on a hill about a mile away from the ocean, and getting down to the water was all downhill. We enjoyed getting a sense of the neighborhood and we marveled at all the vegetation here. We’re so not used to all this greenery! By this time of the year, LA hasn’t seen rain in about 6 months so our surroundings back home are (50) shades of grey (concrete) and brown (burnt grass).
Once down by the water, we crossed Ali’i Drive, the main thoroughfare in Kailua-Kona, and found ourselves in a little park, which I later found out was called Hale Halawai Park. We lingered there to take photos, then headed back uphill to the house. The clouds here are amazing. The high humidity ensures there is always a beautiful patch of clouds in the sky, and we took some photos of all this. That’s another thing we don’t get often in LA – clouds. Big fluffy clouds like this are rare, although we do get interesting cloud cover when winter storms roll around. #firstworldproblems, I know.
We decided to not waste the whole day in the house, so we went to Maniniowali Beach to kill some time before we had to pick up our bibs. The beaches here are so beautiful! The water is this amazing turquoise color and the lava rocks make for a striking contrast against it and the sand. The water is warm, although the bottom of the ocean can be rocky due to all the lava. It was windy today and the waves were quite big, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We all frolicked here for a while, and then it was time to go pick up our bibs!
Next up – food! We grabbed some grub at A-Bay’s Island Grill right across from the race expo.
Bib pickup is where all 3 California teams finally met up in one place. We took care of business, then took some photos before heading home for some much needed rest. I am in van #1, which is the van that will start things off tomorrow at about 5:30 am on the other side of the island, in Hilo. This means we have to leave the house by 3:30. That wake up call will be really, really early! I still can’t believe I am waking up this early to run 200 miles with these 11 crazies. Vacation, smakation. 🙂
My team, Californians 2!
All 36 Californians in our matching shirts 🙂
#firstworldproblems – I love that =D
I LOVE the clouds in Hawaii, it is like nothing else!