House of the warrior

Last week was the 12^th annual Hale Koa Biathlon, one of my favorite races for a number of reasons including its one of the only events on this super fast island that I have actually placed in my age group. My friend Katey explained this phenomenon is due to the fact the Straub Women’s 10k is the next day so serious runners are there and serious triathletes are somewhere on their bikes. However there were some seriously fast ladies there including my training pal Kelley. I was watching her go from a distance and was marveling at her pace and the fast ladies she was passing (the guys left 5 minutes before us or there would have been some severely bruised egos, guys HATE to be passed by chicks!).

This race is also a favorite of mine because I love the Hale Koa (House of the Warrior) Hotel. In 2000 when Jason and I were just dating we came out here to visit from New York/Canada so he could check out the University of Hawaii where we was convinced the Army would send him to do his Masters (silly dreamer). He told me he had gotten us reservations at the “Army hotel” needless to say my expectations were not considerably high. I was expecting some kind of barracks complete with cots and wool blankets when we pull up to the Hale Koa’s open air, flower gushing lobby. I was shocked, it was so beautiful, did he have the wrong address? We had a wonderful honeymoon type vacation with lots of sunshine, surfing, plumerias and mai tais. Both of us fell in love with Hawaii. Shortly after that Jason became a Grad student at UH.

In 2001 when Jason and I decided to get married it was going to be a quick little deal with a Justice of the Peace but before we knew it we had a cast of 13 making the trip to Hawaii. We decided to keep it simple and got married at Magic Island on a Thursday morning and headed to the Hale Koa for our ‘”reception”, attending the Hale Koa Luau featuring lounge lizard, king of cheese Danny Couch. A good time was had by all!

Since then we’ve visited the Hale Koa on a number of occasions, I think its fair to say Hannah learned to swim in their baby pool, a group of new moms used to meet up there since it’s the perfect size for little people. Ella is following in her footsteps.

Last year Hannah at the age of 4 did her first run swim run and it was so stinking cute I almost cried. This year she did even better, making it to the middle of the pack and I think she had more fun since Mom hung back and let her mingle with her other age groupers rather than fussing over her goggles or swim cap. They line the kids up according to age and the big kids go first so the little ones can see what they are supposed to do, well that’s the idea anyways. Hannah’s been to enough races to have an idea of what she’s supposed to do and I think the best part is just for her to have an appreciation for participating. Mom and Dad are certainly not the fastest people on the course when she watches us but she sees us smiling and having fun and doing our best and that’s all we wish for her. We'll be back again next year and maybe we'll even convince Ella to have a go!