Second Annual Ironman World Championship Kona Blog Day One

That is quite an auspicious title, who knows how many annual Kona blogs there will be. Maybe this will be the last one, and they will fall away into the archives of wherever old blog entries go. Or maybe this will continue on, a tradition carried on for the entertainment of all the triathletes in Tulsa -- if not by us, then by someone else. But for 2007, the Chance blog continues on -- but by Dana this time.

Last year our first day started out uneventfully, but when we arrived in Hawaii we soon learned that while we were flying over the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii had experienced an earthquake. This year, the shake up started before we left for the airport. About a month ago, Rob and I had a little too much time on our hands (tapering for a race can sometimes have long reaching effects into other aspects of our lives). We found a house that we fell in love with, bought it, and put our house up on the market.

Thankfully we sold our house quickly, but with unfortunate timing. We have to be out of our house on the 15th of October. Yes, that is the Tuesday after the Ironman in Kona. So we have furiously been packing up as much as we could, and we will have a moving company pack everything else up Ironman weekend, while we are miles and miles away in Hawaii. Rob’s mother, who is always up for an adventure, has generously agreed to take care of the kids, animals, and oversee the move in Tulsa. I don’t know if she has any idea what she is getting into -- and we are thankful for that or she might have reconsidered!

Our flight to Kona was uneventful except we were delayed leaving Denver because the plane was too heavy. Instead of unloading all the cases of bicycles they unloaded some extra fuel and began asking for volunteers to get off and be placed on another flight. After an hour and a half just sitting there on the plane going nowhere we finally got away. The pilot, being a triathlete, made his predictions for the weather at Ironman this year. He apparently has been riding his bike on the Queen K and he was calling for a windy ride.

United airlines have a game called “Halfway to Hawaii”. The pilot gives the passenger’s information which includes, time we left, total distance, airspeed, and wind resistance in mph. The object of the game is to calculate the exact time (Kona or Denver time) to the second when we are at the midway point in the flight. Well, Rob put down the Su doku tablet and started the calculations. On our approach to Kona they announced the winner. Rob was the first place winner and was just 4 seconds off the actual time. What a geek!

On our arrival to Kona, we noticed the weather to be pretty nice. It never has really cooled down in Oklahoma yet so there really isn’t much difference in the climate. Diving from the airport to the condo the familiar packs of triathletes on the Queen K with aero gear was ever present. Welcome to Kona, home of the Ironman World Championship.

So here it is Day One, and hopefully we are leaving the chaos behind so Rob can have a nice week of rest and recovery before the Big Day.