Kona Catch Up #1

It would be just like me to wait until half way through the trip to start writing about it. I have good intentions, like Jessi, to blog each day… to email my class to let them know what is going on, and to check in with people while away. But the reality of it all is that you get caught up in just relaxing and hanging out with friends and family. Then, all of a sudden, it’s time to go home and all the visions that you had of documenting this amazing trip. So here goes my attempt in ‘catching up.’

The trip started off a little rough with me getting a bit behind on my sleep the preceding days. On Tuesday, of the week leading up to leaving, I had a Staff Council meeting at 8:00am, before children arrived. That same day we also had a ‘Principal half Day’ at school which required us to be at school until about 7:00pm. So, it was a long day that did not allow for too much prep for the trip. Then on Thursday the entire 6th grade heads out to Camp Reed for an overnight. So, yet again, a night sleep of about 4 hours after all the little ones are asleep and then needing to get up in the morning a bit earlier. That day, after being in the cold and a bit of rain started to b ring on what seemed to be a bit of a cold. That night I spent much of the evening coughing. But I thought I would rebound, and I did not want to miss Camp. That takes us to Friday, the day before we leave. Still need to pack AND make lesson plans for the week I will be gone. Fortunately Gary Berven will be taking care of my class so I know they will be in excellent hands. But I still have to make a few plans for that week. That leads to another night of about 4 hours sleep. We finally get on the plane and all things seem to go pretty well. We are traveling with some pretty great people that make the trip a bit more fun and easy to manage.

We finally get into Kona with all of our bags. After getting all the rental cars, stopping and getting food, and unloading the car, it’s about 12:00 Hawaii time… that is 3:00am Spokane time. Needless to say, another night without much sleep.

We wake up (actually Emma wakes us up) Sunday morning to the beautiful sun lit hillsides and crystal blue Pacific Ocean. It really does not get much better than this. It was already about 75 degrees and the AC was blowing cool air. Even though I was excited to be here, and looking forward to a relaxing few days, I was definitely sick. Sore throat, congestion, coughing… all the signs. Fortunately I had an appointment to see PZ Pearce about some other issues in regards to preparation for the race. So I was able to throw this in as well. Champions Sports Medicine (PZ’s business) is an amazing sponsor of mine. They have been so supportive all year long in helping out when my body needed it the most. So it was great to have them here in Kona as well to give me a little extra hand. I ended up getting on a Z Pac (antibiotic) that should knock out anything bacterial in the next 4-5 days. Even if it was viral, it was worth the chance. He checked out some other tings as well, but this definitely got me going down the right track.

Tuesday brought about a better day. I think I could feel the antibiotics taking hold… or maybe the ease of conscious that there was something that would be helping. I was able to get out and go for a swim and a short ride too. I actually ran into Norman Stadler’s manager and stirred up a conversation with him that led to him offering for me to ride the new Kuota Kueen K… the one that Norman will be riding on Saturday! This bike has not even been released yet. I will be the 3rd person to ride it. So of course I do it. I take it out on the Queen K. For a rear wheel it has the Zipp 1080… yes that is right, the 1080. There are only 2 wheels like this made in the world. One for Michellie Jones and one for Norman. I am riding a wheel specifically made for Norman! I don’t think he will be riding this wheel because it has too much flex, and that is why I was able to. Oh well, I’ll take it :) It was a pretty amazing bike. I do really like it and would not mind racing with it. I don’t think they spent as much time on the components as they should have, but they are pretty good. But the frame and the R&D that went into it are pretty visible. But you can read all about that on line. I took it out and the thing just flew. It was set up a lot more aggressive than my bike, so it was a little uneasy to ride, but fun to ride as well. Don’t really know how it would be after 112 miles, but for about 45 minutes, it felt pretty fast an fun. I heard from Norman’s manager today that Norman rode 60 miles and averaged 26 miles per hour. That is Wednesday… the week of the race. Norman is out doing 26 mph rides! Are you kidding me?

Gotta hit the sack. I will continue my update tomorrow and will hopefully bring you up to date.