Hawaii (continued)

Once I settled into the room, I headed for the bar. Hey, it was only Thursday and I knew Friday and Saturday were going to be pretty dry days, so I figured I had to check it out. I walked through the grounds and sat at an open-air bar and had a beer or two and ended up chatting with a couple of other women who are also doing the race, two older women who happen to be Canadian (there was some bonding there about Newfoundland and Regina), and the race announcer himself. The announcer actually walked with me for a minute to point out part of the run course and to show me the general direction of the finish line (yay!). Turns out we will run on the pathway that abuts the bar, so I'm hoping people will be squirting beer at us as we run by.

I picked Rob up from the airport around 5 and after we got him settled into the hotel we had a lovely dinner at Roy's. Yes, I had my own souffle, and it was even Rob's idea to get two. As we were celebrating his birthday, they'd printed up special menus with "Happy birthday Robert" at the top and wrote out the same in chocolate on his souffle plate.

Yesterday we got in the car and tried to find the part of this island that we think Hawaii is supposed to look like. We nearly succeeded - we drove up into the hills and then north, and had spectacular views of this side of the island (barren, jutting volcanic rock from volcano top to just before the ocean, where the green abruptly starts and is marked by palm trees). We stopped on the north shore at a little ocean park and got some nice photos, then headed back south. We stopped at a place called the "Seafood Bar" for lunch, but after we sat down and enjoyed the view of the refinery (or something else with toxic waste holding tanks) we decided to change venues. We ended up at the Macaroni Grill right by the hotel.

At 2PM I picked up my bike, which couldn't have been easier - they were all racked and tagged and you just wandered around and took yours out. I guess I should have upgraded! I inflated my tires and checked it over and all looked good.

Last night (Friday) we'd booked a night dive to go see the manta rays. That was hands down one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The boat takes you ~30 minutes up the coast to a little cove, and after dark the dive guides take a basket of floodlights to the bottom and shines them upwards. The scuba divers all kneel on the bottom and shine floodlights up, and the snorkelers float at the surface and shine floodlights down. This attracts plankton, which manta rays eat. Actually, before we were even in the water there was a manta ray swimming at the back of the boat, attracted by the plankton that was attracted by the lights on the bottom of the boat. When we jumped in there were four huge rays swimming around us.

We swam about 20 yards over the lights that they call the campfire, and set up shop. There were over 14 manta rays, and as the local biologists have been studying them they all have names. Our guide kept a list of which rays were present and was able to name 14, but couldn't get a good look at the 3 or 4 that were hanging around the outskirts.

We spent 40 minutes underwater, watching the rays do somersaults, swoop down at you and avoid your head at the last second, flap their "wings" in your face, and it was absolutely spectacular. They are huge, huge creatures - some had a "wingspan" of ~15 or 16 feet! They direct plantkton-filled water into their guts with two little arm-like appendages at the front of their mouths, and then when they are heading your direction it's a bit intimidating. They look like they're going to eat you, and you can shine your floodlight right into their smooth guts. They swoop down right at you, "mouths" open, and then, right at the last second, they redirect and just barely brush the top of your head.

In case you don't know what a manta ray looks like:

 

And imagine that 15 feet wide. It seriously was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life.

I was in bed at 10:30 last night after one glass of wine, and this morning was up early to meet the team and go for a swim in the ocean.

We walked down to the start, saw the transition area being set up, saw the finish (on soft sand. Waaah.), and checked out where the swim course would be set up. The buoys weren't out yet, but they were being inflated and we could at least see the bay. It was amazing - calm and blue and 78 degrees. Heaven! We swam for about 15 or 20 minutes and then I ended up walking through some shops and heading back to the hotel, where I picked up my race packet. It has all of my numbers and the information I need for race day tomorrow. I also picked up some schwag - got a bike jersey and a visor! I'm very excited - the swim felt fantastic and I feel good.

Now, I am back in the room and about to take a quick nap/rest before Rob comes back from his day-long adventure flying some super sporty plane (he calls is the corvette of small planes, sounds fun). I have to then set up all my race gear, then there's a pre-race meeting at 5PM today, then it's out to dinner and then immeidately to bed. The team meets in the lobby at 5:30 tomorrow morning and the transition area opens at 6. Race starts at 7:30 sharp!

Just think, in 24 hours I'll have a beer in my hand...