Maps not to scale make the Hawaii islands seem so close to California. So deceiving! Well let me tell you, it's not a quick hop over the Pacific ocean. Over the past 11 years (since my first IM Kona in 2007), I've traveled to the Big Island for the IM World Championship a total of 6 times. Four of those times I was an athlete ('07, '11, '13, '15) and now twice as a spectathlete ('16 and '18). While it's a long journey to get to Kona, the first step off the airplane makes it so worth it. There's nothing like seeing the island as the plane is getting closer to landing.
Our journey to Kona started on Monday afternoon. After a see-you-later to Campy and our cats (they will be well taken care of thanks to my mom and our neighbor Joey), we packed up the car and headed to Atlanta around 3:30pm. With a 9am flight on Tuesday morning and a total of 11ish hours of flying, the thought of leaving our house at 3am on Tues was a bit exhausting and stressful. Since we were leaving our car at the Holiday Inn (Parkway Parking), I booked us a hotel room for the night. It was actually a great deal because we could get 7 nights free parking with a one-night stay at the hotel. Aside from a bit of traffic in Atlanta, the trip was very uneventful to Atlanta. We listed to a few podcasts (loved the recent interviews on Triathlon Taren with Lucy Charles and Cody Beales) to help pass the time by for 2.5 hours (well, 3 hours with traffic). We ate dinner at Moe's (our favorite "fast food" option when we travel) and then checked into the hotel around 7:30pm. It was a quick stay as we got up at 5:20am, ate some food in the hotel at 6am and boarded the complimentary airport shuttle at 6:30am. We arrived to the airport around 6:45am and by 7:30am we were at our gate. Pretty quick for the Atlanta Airport!
We usually fly Delta but I was able to find very affordable tickets to Kona on United (likely due to the Volcano) and the seat options plus layover options were much better on United versus Delta. We also wanted only one layover to eliminate a lot of plane changes with our bikes, so that is why we decided to leave from Atlanta instead of Greenville. And because Karel's mom is going with us to Kona, I wanted to make sure that this trip was easy for us all but also affordable.
The first flight to Denver was 3.5 hours. I packed a bagel + PB sandwich for this first flight, along with other snacks (ex. trail mix, pretzels, Amrita bars). I "upgraded" our seats for around $47 each which was well worth it to have the extra leg room (especially for Karel). To pass the time, I watched a movie and skimmed through my book (Essential Sports Nutrition) once again as I am sharing some sneak-peaks for you all on my Facebook page.
I typically like to give us a layover of 1:45-2 hours when we fly with our bikes so we had time in Denver before heading to Kona, to get some food before our 7.5 hour flight. I found a delicious lunch option of tofu, potatoes, apples, walnuts and goat cheese along with a strawberry whey smoothie. I brought the salad on the plane for later and had the smoothie during our layover. When we travel, I try to eat small meals/snack every few hours as it's easier to acclimate to the new time zone and to help the stomach with digestion (versus eating large meals and then having long hours go by without eating).
I was very surprised to see that our flight to Kona was nearly half empty! There were so many empty seats. This was a big shock because in the past, the flight has always been filled with people but perhaps with the Volcano, people are choosing not to travel to Kona right now. We did have plenty of triathletes on the plane which was nice to be around so many like-minded people.
Karel had his own row and extra-leg room up in the front of the plane and his mom and I sat in the middle of the plane (I wasn't able to get us three seats together near the front so I just purchased a seat for Karel so he could stretch out). Karel's mom wrote in her journal throughout the trip and enjoyed looking out the window (we had three seats for two of us so I took the aisle and she took the window). I watched a few movies/TV shows, worked on the computer and took a few short naps (I'm not a very good napper but I tried).
Although a long flight, it was great to touch down in Kona. The view, smell and feeling of stepping off the plane is priceless and I always look forward to that moment. Karel's mom cried when she got off the plane for she never thought she'd ever travel to an island. Thanks to triathlon, we have been able to share so many of our races with Karel's mom and it's given us an excuse to travel and see the world.
There's something about the outside airport of Kona that says "welcome, you are on an island."
Karel picked up the rental car (mini van) and I collected our luggage (yay - everything arrived!) and then we headed off to Wal-mart for groceries and then to the Kona Plaza - our home away from home for the next two weeks.
Karel and I went for a ~30 min jog along Ali'i drive and it was so nice to move blood and smell the salty air along the ocean. When the sun went down, it got very dark so I used my phone as a light to keep us running safely along the road. We ran just after 6pm - it gets dark early here but the sun rises super early, which makes it easy to get the day started early and to wind down quickly at night. After a light snack, we answered a few emails (work stuff) and then went to sleep around 8:30pm. We were quick to fall asleep and surprisingly, we slept until 3am (forced ourselves to go back to sleep until 5am).
Stay tuned for more of my updates as I will try to blog each day of our daily activities/workouts on the Big Island.
Stay tuned for more of my updates as I will try to blog each day of our daily activities/workouts on the Big Island.