Kona 2011 Day 1

                                   
Kona baby! Here we come…again!


I have been traveling all day. 0300 wake up for T, Sassy and me. Sassy to the doggy daycare, T to United for some space available travel fun, and me to American Airlines courtesy of the U.S. Navy. T got on both flights and got into Kona this morning. I flew Denver to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Honolulu and then a 6 hour sit due to a cancelled flight and then over to Kona. I am currently in between Honolulu and Kona now.

I have been thinking about this year’s Kona all week long and have no idea how it is going to go. As a pilot, I just go by a checklist. It makes things easy for me. Here was my checklist last night when I was packing:

Bike-check, Bike stuff-check, run gear-check, swim gear-check, casual clothes, underwear and a shavekit-check, frazzled nerves because I am scared to death I didn’t recover from Canada-check, pit in my stomach because I have been breaking my own rule on getting 8 hours of sleep a night-check, amazing excitement because tomorrow I will wake up and swim the course-check, pumped because Hamster and Paul get here tomorrow-check, 14 days uninterrupted with my wife-check, checklist complete.

I will take the next week and spend some time talking about the inside of age group kona racing, general perceptions I have for this year, anything interesting that pops up, and of course, tell you a lot about my amazing athletes that are here racing Kona. I am fortunate enough to have six of them here this year.

For now, I would say that the only overarching feeling I have is one of gratitude. I am grateful to be healthy enough to once again come to the island and race in what I would consider the Big Daddy of our sport. Just getting here and getting here healthy is a huge accomplishment. Like I have heard it said- it is an honor to race Kona. I feel it huge right now!

The Flight Attendant just announced, “we have begun our initial descent into Kona Keahole Airport. Please bring your seat to the upright and locked position, ensure any personal items you have taken out during the flight are safely stowed underneath the seat in front of you, the Captain has turned on the fasten seat belt sign, this is for your safety and the safety of those around you. Please turn off any electrical devices, laptop computers, cellphones”…Doh! That’s me! More later…!

Jonser