Race crazy.

Thanks to my friend Jesse sitting down with my calendar and scheduling my weekends, this has been one of the busiest racing seasons I've ever had.

After the Dick Evans around Oahu road race this weekend I will have done a race every weekend for six weeks. I've been going for variety this year also. An open ocean swim race, a bicycle stage race, an olympic distance tri, an X-terra off road tri, a half marathon, a marathon, a duathlon, a half Ironman, a hill climb and two time trials. Today I've decided to do the world Xterra championships on Maui on Oct 28th. It's all been a great experience. I've never raced so much and trained so little. The Wakiki rough water swim is this Labor day. Hmmm?

A picture is worth a thousand words

Marianne and I went kayaking over on the North shore on Sunday. We had just received a new underwater digital camera in the mail and I was anxious to try it out.

We paddled in Wameia bay and jumped out of the boat to do some snorkeling. After a minute or two I looked at the camera which was hanging around my wrist and to my shock and horror the battery compartment door was swinging open. I had apparently forgot to "lock" it closed. Camera full of salt water, battery shorted, $200 down the drain. @%$^^@! Oh well, it was a beautiful Hawaiian day, the sun was out, the water clear, I decided to just forget about it and enjoy myself.

We get back in the boat and paddle into the middle of the bay and are immediately surrounded by spinner dolphins. Probably about 40 or so in groups of 4-8. They are literally within arms reach of our kayak. We had heard that they come there occasionally but had never seen them before. We got into the water and were swimming alongside them with their baby's, watching them jump and listening to their calls. They sound like a dentists drill under water. It was one of those moments you never forget.....especially if you have..some.....great......PICTURES!!!! When we got home we immediately ordered a new camera.

Here is a picture of them that I found on the web

Hiking above Anchorage

Tuesday Jesse and Kristy took us hiking in the mountains above town. The views were incredible. You have to adjust your whole sense of scale there. A mountain that looks fairly close could actually be 10 miles away. On the way down we stopped to pick blueberries and saw our first moose with it's baby. It was so far away I didn't bother taking a picture. Really.

That night we flew back to Oahu at some crazy hour and got in at 6 am. Thanks Buz and Christine and Kristy and Jesse for all your hospitality. Hanging out with you guys made the trip twice as good.

Humpy's Marathon

Drove back to Anchorage Saturday night and woke up early again Sunday to run the Humpy's marathon. Since I had little to no distance in my legs I was going to shoot for a time of 3 :30.

I'm usually a 3:05-3:15 marathoner but the wheels came off at mile 16 and I ended up with a time of 3:43. I will never be unprepared for anything like that again. It hurts my legs and my ego too much.

Halibut Fishing

After a two and a half hour trip we dropped anchor at the spot in 200 feet of water. The action was continuous. If we weren't catching a dogfish (trashfish) or rebaiting our hooks after a strike, we were catching some halibut. I was hoping to land what they call "a barn door" because these fish can go 400 pounds or more, but settled for these two. This was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. We all brought back the limit of two and most of us threw some back also. The crew filleted them on the way back and we ended up with 40 pounds of fillets between the 4 of us. We had them vacum sealed back at the dock and they are now sitting in our freezer.

Halibut fishing in Seward

On Friday we drove from Fairbanks to Seward. The scenery was beautiful especially between Anchorage and Seward. Getting up early the next day we boarded a boat for a day of Halibut fishing in Resurrection bay

Kayaking and stuff

This is me paddling with and without a kayak. Buz took it away from me so I wouldn't break it.

The third picture is me timing Buz on how long he can hold his breath while sitting in a kayak upsidedown underwater. Also a shot of Mt McKinnley. At 20,000 something feet the highest in the USA.

Exploration and wildlife sightings

Afterwards we hopped into my Hertz rental tundra crawler (above) and proceeded to downtown Fairbanks were I discovered this monument and claimed it as American soil. We then journeyed to North Pole ( the town) were Marianne put the smackdown on this moose after it pawed her chest. Kristy meanwhile was asking Santa for a new mountainbike and world peace (in that order) for Christmas this year.

Alaska part 1

Marianne and I finally made it to Alaska to visit with Buz and Kristine. It was good seeing them again and also meeting little Ethan. Alaska is an amazing place and it felt good to have some elbow room after living on Oahu.

The first thing Buz wanted to show us was this big pipeline that they use to pump the ground up caribou and baby seals to the coast were they are refined into gas for SUV's. The other big tourist attraction in the area is this guys front porch which is a piece of an old tundra crawler.

Heading North

Tomorrow Marianne and I leave for Alaska. We're going to drop in on our friend Kristy in Anchorage for a night, drive up to Fairbanks to see Buz, Cristine and Ethen for a few days, then down to Seward for a day of Halibut fishing, returning to Anchorage so Buz and I can run the Humpy's marathon on Sunday.
I can't wait to see Alaska and catch some big fish.
I'm going to be back on Oahu for two weeks before turning around and going back up to Anchorage for two weeks to help Jesse and Kristy do some landscaping and fish some more. Funny how things work out. Never been there before now twice in a 4 week period. Pictures to follow.

Paige jumping at Waimea

Hiking Koli Koli, Pali overlook and North shore garlic Shrimp

Paige went home to Tucson on Wednesday. We really enjoyed having her visit. Maybe she can come back next year.

Parasailing in Hawaii Kai

Surfer Girl