We started the long trip to the big island on Wednesday evening. We left our house around 5pm, picked up Chipotle and drove ~2:20 hr to Decatur Georgia to stay with our friend/athlete Katie at her house. With a 7:30am flight out of ATL, we opted to be close to the airport versus driving from Greenville to Atlanta at 2am on Thursday. It was nice to catch up with Katie (we haven't seen her since her 3rd place finish at IM Maryland) and finally meet her doggies. She knows how much I love her three-legged dog Pax and I finally got to meet the fluffy marshmallow.
On Thursday morning, we woke up around 3:50am and drove the 20 minutes to Peachy Parking and then took the shuttle to the domestic terminal. Although we could have flown from Greenville (Delta), it was cheaper and less layovers to fly from ATL. After checking in and dropping off our bikes and suitcases, we went through security and spent ~90 minutes in the Delta lounge in terminal A. We enjoyed some coffee and food before boarding our first flight of the day.
Although it's been 7 years since I've been to the big island, I've made the trip 7 times in the past 20 years and it's a long trip to get to Hawaii (and that's just from the east coast). We flew from ATL to Seattle (~4.5 hour flight) and had an almost 5 hour layover in Seattle. Thankfully we were able to use our Amex Platinum card to enter the Centurion Lounge. We were able to enjoy another breakfast and lunch and got a lot of work done in the lounge before our next 5-hour flight to Kona. I prefer to fly directly into Kona (instead of Honolulu and then Kona) because the later requires a smaller plane which means there's greater risk of your bike not getting on the plane with you due to weight and room (it will eventually be loaded on a different/later flight).
Even though we were flying to the island a few days before Ironman World Championship race week, there was no shortage of triathletes on the airplane. There was lots of Ironman backpacks, compression socks, shirts and hats on the plane - which also meant a lot of bikes on the plane.
On both flights, Karel sat in the bulkhead row (by the window) with extra legroom and I sat in the other room (aisle seat). I took a nap on both flights as I was tired from the early wake up and it was a long day of travel.
We finally made it to Kona after 10 hours of flying and over 15 hours of travel. I was so excited to walk off the plane (outside airport) and smell the salty air. There's something magical and special about this place, specifically on/near race week.
While Karel was waiting for our luggage around 6pm, I boarded the rental car shuttle (I rented a mini van from Hertz) to wait in line for the rental car. It took ~45 minutes for this process and after a few delays, I finally picked up Karel a little after 7pm. Heads up: Kona is a bit strict with picking up your bike from the luggage area as they require some type of identification to prove it's your bike. Since it was after 7pm, it was completely dark out as the sun sets a little after 6pm.
During our Seattle layover, I ordered groceries from the local Walmart so that we could pick up a few items for a late dinner (and breakfast the next morning). This service is free to pick up in the parking lot and it made for a very easy and quick option as we were getting tired. We drove to our Airbnb (Kona Ali condos), parked, unloaded the car, picked up our key and unloaded everything in our place. For all 8 of my trips to Kona, I've stayed at 4 different locations (in town off Ali'i drive) and now we are at a new place with a beautiful ocean view just a few blocks from the race venue.
After a light dinner of cereal and yogurt, we were ready for bed around 9pm. We slept good but in typical Hawaii fashion, it was an early wake up. Karel woke up around 4:45am and I was up around 5:15am. We enjoyed listening to the ocean as we were getting some work done in the morning and after sunset, we watched the ocean get a little busier with triathletes swimming.
Around 8am, we walked down to the pier and it was a bit crowded. We got a selfie with Kristian and Gustav and then went for a ~35-minute, ~2200 yard swim. There is a lot of talk about the jellyfish coming on Sunday but we didn't see any today. The water was warmer than I've ever experienced and it felt great. I love swimming in the ocean here as you can see the bottom of the ocean floor for much of the swim and there are always fish to see. Karel swam really well and it was a great start of the morning.
After our swim, our athlete Peggy came by with her bike so that Karel could give it a look over to make sure it was safe and ready. Around 12:30pm, we loaded our van with our bikes and drove the entrance to the energy lab (behind the new gas station) and did a 75 minute ride (North) to the scenic point and back. It was a bit windy at times but I was really proud of how I felt in the wind on my tri bike. Karel didn't feel good starting the ride but his legs started to wake up as the ride went on. There were several triathletes on the course but it will get much busier next week. The bike course is on a highway so there are lots of cars but there is also a wide shoulder to ride on. We drive out of town to start our rides because there's a lot of debris around the town which increases the risk for a flat tire. It feels really warm, even though the temp always stays the same between 76-80 degrees.
After our ride we made a quick stop to Safeway to pick up a few items (food is very expensive here so it's good to shop around depending on what you need) and then went back to our condo for the rest of the day.