Relay for Life Run

I had planned ahead to run a marathon at the Relay for Life. I trained hard to do so. And my knees paid the price for it. 3 days prior, I could barely run. So I decided to just walk at the RFL.

Derrik's son James ran for at least an hour. When he stopped I commended him. I was inspired to run. My knees felt okay. It was 1am when I went to the car and put on a long sleeved running shirt. Oops, I left my shorts at home. Oh well, I have these old Saucony running shoes and my board shorts. I can do a few laps with these.

Steady pace. 8-9 minute miles maybe. A few laps turned to twenty. The Speed-O crew's cheers every single lap kept me going. Twenty more laps later, other crews joined in with the cheering and clapping. Aw shucks, I better keep going. I drank 6oz juice every half hour. The li hing mui oranges was a life saver. That and the cheering kept me going for over two and a half hours and 65 laps.

I walked a few laps to stretch out and regain energy. Then the aerobics started. Everyone seemed excited to join in. I saw Uncle Timmy head over so WTF, if that big guy can do it, I can. 30 minutes of aerobics ain't easy after a 15-16 mile run.

Taking down and carrying the tents and supplies was super fun after that. I slept all of Sunday, and don't regret it.

Nitric Oxide

Gonna test out this whole Nitric Oxide mumbo jumbo. Started yesterday before P90X and a 35 minute run. Seams to aid in muscle recovery, and gives a boost in energy during second half of workout. Could be all the other ingredients in the N.O.-Xplode product I'm testing out. I'm consuming product 30 minutes prior to workouts (suggested minimum).

I agree with the manufacturer's declaration of improved focus, energy, and power. In that order.

I'm also gonna look into Volumaize for N-Training during cardio workouts.

Waimanu Valley Weekend Hike

Day 1 - Overpacked

The fact that I am writing this on my iPhone on the first morning of the camping trip is questionable. There's no signal outside of Honokaa town, which barely gathers a signal already.

I've been awake for at least half an hour now. It's barely 1:30am. The waves outside are echoing through the valley. It's calming and startling at the same time. There was a high surf advisory issued early yesterday but I didn't hear, or it wasn't stated, from which direction. The ocean was calm along the North and East facing shores throughout yesterday. I had to get up to piss and figured I'd jot down yesterday's happenings so I can concentrate on the present come morning.

Thursday night I grabbed all the things I wanted and lay them out next to my pack on the cement patio floor. Included were new gear from Wal-Mart: tent, sleeping bag, hammock, mosquito net. Tried calling Shannon to see if we needed anything extra before i lef the store but he sounded drunk and he coildnt hear me over the loud music. Finally went to sleep around midnight.

Woke up at 6 and eagerly began packing.

We parked about a mile and a half outside of the top of Waipio entrance, and began our hike there. The park guard welcomed us with Aloha and advised there were several groups of campers. 3 kayaks, and about 3 groups of 6 heading down shortly before us.

The road downhill into Waipio was a quick test to my new Teva wet terrain booties. I wore them a few hours after buying them Thursday night, and notice the wetsuit lining holds in moisture as well as it kept it out. So I wore my thin racing socks with them. Only problem with that is they don't protect from the backside grinding down my achilles.

The river mouth looked narrow from above. I guess rain has been scarce. The water funneled down to a fast pace where we crossed. I took off the socks and secured them to the front of my ruck. My clothes and other dry goods were sealed against rain but not so much against river. I did pack the dry stuff higher up. Although narrow, the water carved deep through the black sand and round beach rocks. We were quickly in waist deep. Shannon fell forward and was smart to have re-secured his sleeping mat, which would've been soaked.

We decided to carry our mocasins across the beach. It was now past 11. There were what seemed to be wild horses and a few dogs roaming around. 2 surfers getting some shore break. 3 sun bathing chics for eye-candy and ow, hot hot hot, our feet are on fire! We cross onto the wet sand to cool off then get onto the shaded rock path a few minutes later.

Soon enough, we get to our first switchback out of Waipio. We take a rest and Shannon packs his pipe. I place myself appropriately so I don't inhale any of it; HFD interview in a week, might make it through. Drink some water and eat an energy bar. Up we go. Some parts were steep but it wasn't too narrow. Shannon decides to remain hobbit as long as his feet can bear it. People came up here with horses? Must have been mules, right?

Well, it's 2:15am now. I should try to sleep.

So, we made it to Waimanu by around 6pm. Shannon wanted to take 'smoke breaks' at the bottom of every gulch. I don't mind and I don't judge. I just don't know how he functioned the entire hike like that, as well as barefoot. I enjoyed the surroundings, took a dip in Queen's Bath, hunted for prawns in the rivines, and fought mosquitoes.

There were 9 camping sites, of which all were occupied. The beach is about a mile long, and not so fun to walk across the round rocks while carrying our packs that seemed to grow heavier every second. Everyone there seemed to be pretty cool and friendly. We saw a few groups who we met along the trail. I doubt anyone really had a camping permit. We put our packs down at the end and hiked about 250 paces along the far cliff towards a small waterfall where we filled water with Shannon's filter. We decided to set camp next to a group of hunters at Camp Site 4, who seemed to be the only other locals there. They had fashioned a house out of five 8x8 tarps, had a fire going, and already had a set of blades (lower jaw of a boar) hanging near the hut. I asked if we could setup at the site next to theirs and they didn't mind.

My tent was a 5x6 jr pup tent from Wally World for $22.88. Geometry told me I'd have almost 8' of sleeping room diagonally. The 8x9' regular size for $36 was twice as heavy and required more carrying space. I passed on the $40 self-inflating bed mat and opted for my existing yoga mat. I bought the zippered fleece blanket for $11, which was durable and fairly light in weight. I forgot to pickup an inflatable pillow so I brought my cylindrical neck pillow (which should not be used for more than half an hour at a time).

Day 2 - The Trail is Gone, and We Tread On

The sun is up before 6am and so am I. The camp is quiet and motionless from an eventful Friday night. I eat an apple and lightly stretch before taking a swim. Camp Site 4 is in the middle of the beach so I go straight out and dive right in. The water feels great, of course. I swim towards the left beach end where 3 young ladies are doing yoga on the dry sand. I get about 100ft only to be engrossed in greenish-brown seaweed. Every stroke pulls in two handfulls. I can't see a thing underwater. After a few minutes I get freaked out and swim to shore to walk to the end. The water is very visible there. The waves break consistently right to left. I'm on vacation. Let's bodysurf! The first wave was incredible. I rode it all the way in and take a split second to get back out for a few more. I'm knee deep in love with this place.

Sun's coming up; time for breakfast. I run over to the drinking waterfall and rinse off the salt. Shannon and the boys have the camp fire going and have already blazed 4. I set my water on the fire to prep for my oatmeal. They ask what time it is and I tell them it's about 7. They start laughing, thinking it's already 10.

Shannon and I get our gear ready for a day hike and set off at 8am for the north side shore to find papayas. We find several caves inhabited by junk (broken fishing pole, old tents, and literally - garbage). I climb up a 10ft rock face to get in one. It was easier than I expected. I want more of that action. On the way back, you can see a spectacular view of the shore and realize how high up we hiked (several hundred feet, see pic on right).

Kinda bummed we head for Goal 2, the fresh water spring which the hunters drink from. On the way we encountered a ginormous taro plant. It was about 7ft tall and the leaves spanned 3ft. 2 hours on the hunting trail, Shannon spots a male papaya tree. Next to it, I point out a hermie with green fruit. Immediately after, we simultaneously exclaim "papayas!" A tree stood, bearing large twin yellow fruit. It was like finding a treasure chest. He shook the tree and I gently caught them one-by-one. Those were the most satisfying papayas we've ever had. Halfway through each we were already full, but didn't want to waste so we had to do our duty and finish the job.

An hour later we found the spring, tagged with blue tape on a nearby tree. Examining it, Shannon noted that the water was flowing swiftly enough from the source to not allow stagnant water near. I pumped the first bottle and Shannon just filled his directly. I did the same with my other 20oz bottle and two 10oz bottles. We sat, finding small bottomfish and prawns, enjoying peanut butter sandwiches and fresh spring water, filtered through volcanic rock for what may be hundreds of years.

We have come to the end of the beaten path. We want to see how far we can get near the second bowl. We hit all sorts of terrain. Heavy brush, overgrown guava roots, river rocks, mud, sharp rocks, gravel, kukui nuts... the works. I now wish I had taken pictures of the tough stuff, but we were busy quickly sweating through it. After an hour of pushing through the thick, we agree to head up the river. This was a great idea. Shannon does a pushup in the river to cool down, and I follow shortly after. We follow the river towards the second bowl until 1pm and needed to switch direction towards the first waterfall. We encounted more unusual terrain along the way. There was a thick patch of tall, skinny, single-stemmed trees, with thick underbrush and mud. It appeared to be the most difficult to navigate yet so we opted to follow the river instead. We zigzagged for a while, finding more unusual things like symbiotic fern, oily water, "plant island", and fresh water opihi, until running into another batch of the same trees. We went through it this time. Wow, this was the easiest of all! We made great time until we got into heavier mud and had to cross a small, slow-moving river. We finally got to the finger blocking us from the waterfall at 3pm.

On the other side of the ridge were heavy boulders, loose gravel, and fallen trees on a 45 degree angle on the left of ther river and impassable bamboo on the right. The river was stagnant, muddy, near waist deep and blocked by more fallen trees. We took the left. The pounding water slowly grew louder. Not soon enough, it opened up to a clearing and the waterfall came in to site.

As we entered the clearing, we could hear and feel the wind blowing at us from the lake. The wind is apparently created from the continuously falling water. It was now 3:30pm and the sun was still high in the sky, but just on the other side of the ridge. The water would be cold, but we couldn't leave without swimming under the fall. Afterwards we sat on some rocks and dried off using the giant blow-dryer, talking nonsense.

The journey back to camp was quick. I lay right down and let my legs and shoulders rest. I ate 3 dinners in between naps and went to bed around 11.


Day 3 - The Race

I found out the eldest brother Kaeo was in MMA training and would be running back to Waipio nonstop. 5 minutes behind, I chased after and caught up with him a few gulches away. He was sitting down with their 3 dogs, waiting for his friends to claim the 2 that ran off to him. We talked and I got some energy from an apple. When everybody arrived, Shannon and I agreed to go at different paces. When Kaeo was ready to go, I jumped up and began running downhill. Along the way, I drank all my water and ate 2 trailmix bars. When I got to the Waipio lookout, I felt a little dizzy. I stopped to take a picture at the top 2 switchbacks. 10 steps after the second one, I heard a voice behind me "how you brah?" I jumped back cause I didn't even hear him coming. I guess that's how they catch pigs haha. The path was narrow and very rocky. I barely kept up with him and his faithful dog. We shared training thoughts along the beach back to Waipio River. All the locals knew him cause he goes to Waimanu every full moon. They occasionally go horseback too, crazy!

The next guy came up half an hour behind and the rest another half hour later. They were kind enough to squeeze us in the full size Ford diesel truck up the hill. It was old and shaky even along the sand at the bottom. I held on for dear life. I heard gears slipping every now and then. That was probably the scariest part of the entire trip for both of us. Kaeo offered a ride to the pretty Asian girl from Maui that took a liking to him along the hike. She jumped in with a big smile "score duude!"

Shannon and I finished the trip with a pitstop at Blanes in Honokaa. He had a double-teri-burger. I had a grilled ahi plate and a boneless Korean chicken plate, both with fries. I gave him my second fries but devoured most of everything else. 10 miles out of Honokaa, the van began to shimmy and made a loud howling noise. The rear-driver-side tire had separated. All exhausted and full from lunch, we had to change a tire. I cranked the jack and he handled the bolts.

Back home from the short trip, all comforts are taken less for granted. I spoke with my dad before dinner, about the trip, the fire dept, and about trekking through the world. He loved the idea and has been reading newsletters about Chris Guillebeau, a web developer who's goal is to visit every country in the world. I don't plan on doing the same, but will read up on his travel techniques. This post was already long enough before I strayed from the topic and I'm kinda tired from writing, so thanks for reading!

Weight Gain

Been steady with the P90X in classic mode, with training buddy Eric. See and feel drastic improvements to overall fitness. 10 of the guys at work are competing in a 90-day weight-loss competition. I'm at 168 with a few pounds of fat to shed. My goal is to gain 15# of muscle in the same amount of time. I'll be using P90X with roughly 8 reps per set. I'm still gonna be maintaining cardio, so this will be reeeally fun. Looking forward to Insanity after this round of P90X. I'll see what it's about when it's available and possibly use it as doubles.

In other news: I've been seriously contemplating dropping everything and travelling the world for at least a year. We'll see what happens with the Fire Dept recruitment, but I think travelling will do me better.