Hickam Criterium

Today was the Hickam /HACC Criterium race. "HACC Daddy" John Girmsey put a lot of time and effort into this and it went off without a hitch. Everyone talked about how this was the perfect venue and looked forward to next year. Not only did John ramrod this race, but he won the Golden masters race with a ballsey move on the last lap AND placed sixth in the 4/5 race which had a field of 37. Way to go John. I placed 5th in the 4/5's after a race that I was totally happy with. My legs came back after a week of soreness and lethergy. I don't know why I felt so rotten all week but I'm glad it's over. Here's a few more shots that John Laurion took. I notice that John, Steve and myself have our mouths wide open in every shot. I think we used up all the air in a two mile radius.

Post retirement

Well my first week of work at the HPARC is over. The job promises to be really interesting and it looks like it will be the first time in my life that I will be able to say "I love my job." This week as part of my job I got to run a timed mile and a half on Wednesday, run 3+miles and take a spin class on Thursday. That's not counting all of my own training. That being said, having working full time again is a bit of an adjustment. The funny thing is, I'm not even sure how much GS-7 pay is. I know it's not chump change, and that's about it. I guess I should look it up.

Eating what you kill

Sunday night after my workout we went to Steve and Marie's house for dinner. I had volunteered to clean our catch if Steve would use his culinary magic to turn it into something delicious which he did. He made fish cakes and asparagas on the grill. Marianne baked her famous Hawaiian oatmeal bars. Along with some good wine. Life is good.

New workout

This morning I met Scott on the North shore for a long swim. We left a car at Waimea and drove to Pipeline, got in the water and headed back. The swells were pretty big right before sharks cove, but it flattened out after that and I was really enjoying the scenery. Saw lots of fish, turtles, and Scott saw a shark down deep. It's about a 2.3 mile swim but we were a lot farther out then I thought we'd be (scary) so I'll say it was 2.5. After a quick shower we dropped Scott at his truck and Marianne drove me into Halieva. There I put on my running shoes and headed South toward Mililani. It's pretty much all uphill for 13 miles and I was worked by the time I met Marianne in Mililani for a cooldown arond the block. All in all a great day.

Bottom Fishing in Hickam Harbor

Saturday we met Steve and Marie for some fishing in Hickam Harbor. We had lots of action, catching mostly bonefish. I did hit something big that stripped my reel and swam off. I really wonder what that was? Not content with catching fish, Marie and Marianne caught a sea turtle and three baby Hammerhead sharks between them. We love being out on the water and it was another perfect day in paradise as far as weather. Next weekend Steve and I signed up for a spearfishing course to go catch the big one's

Bodyboarding at Bellows, Mango picking, Jumping at Waimea

Honu Half Ironman

Last weekend Marianne, Tyler, Becky, Christian and I flew over to the big island for the Honu triathlon on the Kohala coast. This race got the better of me last year and I was ready for some payback. The race is held on the Mauna Lani resort, North of Kailua Kona. The place is expensive but so beautiful. I'd like to go back some time just to sit on the beach and drink foo foo drinks.

My race went great. The run felt so good I again (like New Zealand) wondered if I should have put a bit more into the bike. I placed 52 out of 1100 which I was satisfied with. Full results are here .

Recent happenings

Marianne and I have been making the most of our nice Summer weather recently. A few weeks ago I did the State time trials in the morning, had a delicious dinner at Ed and Heidi's house overlooking Hawaii Kai that evening, then the next morning we went Mountain biking in Waimanalo with our our friends Roberto, Cindi, Ed, and Heidi. Ed showed us some great trails and also let me ride his Scott uber rig MTB. This full suspension bike weighs less then any of my road bikes and really opened my eyes to how far the technology has come. I wanted to get some pics on the trail but Ed, Roberto and I were hammering to much to pull out a camera. Sadly Roberto was flying out to Europe the next morning in preparation for his and Cindi's move to Belgium this summer. Roberto is a good friend and I will miss his wheel and amazing cooking skills.

The other big news is that I found someone crazy enough to hire me for a job. They expanded the scope of the Health and Wellness center on Hickam AFB and renamed it the Human Performance And Rehabilitation Center, or HPARC. Jason, the Exercise Physiologist who runs the place needed someone to lead group workouts for the physical training failures and perform other duties like using the gait analysis, and bod pod machines to set baselines and track progress. The idea is to get people who are injured or having problems passing PT healthy and in shape. I needed a job like a hole in the head, but Jason's pitch to me was " I'm hiring you because of your fitness knowledge and to provide a role model of how to stay in shape, so if you need longer lunches or whatever to work out that's cool." ...... How could I say no? I went to the grand opening last Monday and start work on the 16th.

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