The trip to Maui started out well. After arriving Wednesday evening and taking two nights to get used to the 5 hour time difference, I felt in top form. Luckily I was able to get a room at the Mau Prince Hotel (the host venue for the race). I originally planned on swimming Wednesday evening to loosen up after a full day of travel. However after talking to the valet, who happened to be a recreational swimmer, I decided that the risk of encountering a tax collector in the dark beach waters was too great. Waiting until Thursday morning, I went for a 20 minute ocean swim on the race course, followed by an easy loop around the 4 mile practice course set up for the bike (no pre-riding of the mountain bike course allowed), and an easy 15 minute run. The choppy waters, extremely hilly terrain, and a noticeable lack of shade, summed up my initial impressions of the course.
After repeating the previous day’s routine in the morning, I went on a sightseeing tour of the Road to Hana. This is an infamous 37 miles of road with more twists, turns and elevation change than I have ever seen. My wife, Kira, started out driving with me riding shotgun. However after a few miles it became clear that I was going to either get car sick or go crazy, so I took the wheel for the rest of the journey. Beautiful mountain top ocean views, waterfalls, black sand beaches, caves, and roadside banana bread and breadfruit combined to make this trip worth the journey.
I spent Saturday relaxing, hydrating, and putting the final touches on our costumes for the post race Halloween Party. We went to Maui Tacos in Kehei, so I could chow down on a prerace Burrito (favorite prerace food). It turns out that I wasn’t the only Xterra racer that enjoys a good Burrito. I met age grouper Rife Hilgartner and pro Ryan Ignatz from Colorado. They gave me the tip to run slime filled inner tubes to combat the huge thorns that line parts of the race course. This turned out to be great advice. I ended up racing passed a number of competitors suffering from flats on race day.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Hawaii Part 1
The trip to Maui started out well. After arriving Wednesday evening and taking two nights to get used to the 5 hour time difference, I felt in top form. Luckily I was able to get a room at the Mau Prince Hotel (the host venue for the race). I originally planned on swimming Wednesday evening to loosen up after a full day of travel. However after talking to the valet, who happened to be a recreational swimmer, I decided that the risk of encountering a tax collector in the dark beach waters was too great. Waiting until Thursday morning, I went for a 20 minute ocean swim on the race course, followed by an easy loop around the 4 mile practice course set up for the bike (no pre-riding of the mountain bike course allowed), and an easy 15 minute run. The choppy waters, extremely hilly terrain, and a noticeable lack of shade, summed up my initial impressions of the course.
After repeating the previous day’s routine in the morning, I went on a sightseeing tour of the Road to Hana. This is an infamous 37 miles of road with more twists, turns and elevation change than I have ever seen. My wife, Kira, started out driving with me riding shotgun. However after a few miles it became clear that I was going to either get car sick or go crazy, so I took the wheel for the rest of the journey. Beautiful mountain top ocean views, waterfalls, black sand beaches, caves, and roadside banana bread and breadfruit combined to make this trip worth the journey.
I spent Saturday relaxing, hydrating, and putting the final touches on our costumes for the post race Halloween Party. We went to Maui Tacos in Kehei, so I could chow down on a prerace Burrito (favorite prerace food). It turns out that I wasn’t the only Xterra racer that enjoys a good Burrito. I met age grouper Rife Hilgartner and pro Ryan Ignatz from Colorado. They gave me the tip to run slime filled inner tubes to combat the huge thorns that line parts of the race course. This turned out to be great advice. I ended up racing passed a number of competitors suffering from flats on race day.
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