Kona Travel and Day 1

So Friday, 5 Oct 12, the family and I departed Cold Lake for Kona. Temperature wise we started the day off in the negative digits...and finished in Kona at +27C. We departed Cold Lake in the Sienna at around 0800, ran a few errands in Edmonton: Element Multisport to pickup some Metasalts which Elise had so kindly ordered in for me, the Tech Shop to pick-up a new pair of shoes compliments of the Edmonton 21 I had run a few weeks earlier and finally arrived at the airport shortly after 1300hrs.

A Frosted Sienna ready to depart Cold Lake.

Checked into our flights at Jetset which is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Westjet has a counter setup at the Jetset parking lot so no need to lug bags and carseats to the terminal. Flight from Edmonton to Vancouver was great. After we cleared U.S. Customs in Vancouver we were greeted by my parents. (My parents had arrived from Ottawa earlier in the day. They are accompanying us to Kona to help with the kids...what a blessing!) The flight from Vancouver to Kona was good, it also helped that the Westjet agent in Ottawa had "moved" my parents to sit with us, though he couldn't tell them that. Once in Kailua-Kona we picked up our rental vehicle - a stylish silver Dodge Caravan. Then it was a 30 minute drive south to the Kona Coast Resort. Finally by 0100 Kona time (0400 Edm time or 0600 Ottawa time) we were checked in and heading to bed. A long day of travel, but well worth the trip.

The support crew enjoying Starbucks while awaiting our flight in Edmonton

 First day of acclimatization is also now in the books. Today's workouts were a 3-3.5 hr ride up the Queen K with several race intensity intervals and a 45minute swim. Our next door neighbour is a French Gentleman, Christoph, who's done the race a few times so I elected to ride with him as he was very familiar with the course. He spoke half broken English and I spoke half broken French so we got along fine. We rode through Kailua-Kona and then up the Queen-K. On our way out of town we spotted Chris "Macca" McCormack running. This would be the first of many Pro sightings of the day. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride out and Christoph and I took turns pulling and occasionally riding side by side to talk. On the way back into town, we got the honour of riding with none other than Paula Newby Fraser. There was another gentleman riding with her so the four of us took turns pulling for a while. Then Paula decided that they were going to up the tempo for the remainder of the ride. Christoph and I went with the group for a while (we did the majority of the pulls). Finally my common sense prevailed and I backed off my pace and let the Paula entourage take off. I have to say Paula was pretty down to earth. First ride on the Queen K complete...what a blast!

And as for the swim. Well, it simply didn't materialize today. I was a little time crunched in the afternoon and seeing as the kids had been promised to swim today, I elected to take the kids for a quick swim in the Pacific.

Dinner #1 in Kona - Stirfry on the lanai.