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11:30pm, Thursday, November 2
I just added the second interview with KQ2 that was aired a couple days before the race. The interview was taped the night before we left.
10:00pm, Monday, October 30th
Back on the mainland. We arrived in KC at about 8am
Saturday morning. We are both very glad to have all that travel behind
us. We were able to spend time on Hawaii, Maui, and Molokai while we
were there. We both had a fantastic time - it was the experience of a
lifetime.
I think I have the PICTURES links working now.
I know I have to include a LOT more info about the fundraising and party. Hopefully that will be up in the next two days.
I also am planning to reply to each email wishing me luck or telling me
congrats. There were quite a few, so please be patient - I am
responding as quickly as I can go through them.
But right now, time to grab a late-night snack and hit the hay.
7:54am, Friday, October 27th
Wow, it had been several days for an update. I
thought I would find plenty of time to update after the race, link all
the pics, etc. I discovered it's much more relaxing to just lay on the
beach with a drink in my hand than to do that stuff.
We have had the experience of a lifetime here. I can't explain how cool
the entire race experience and atmosphere was. And then of course there
was the race itself, which was a pretty good time.
We have 8+ hours on a flight back to the mainland tonight - I am hoping
to use a good portion of that time to type my thoughts & relay
some
experiences from this trip. And finally figure out how to get our
pictures viewable for you. So please check back in tomorrow and
hopefully I'll have enough info and drivel and pictures here to bore
you to death.
Now back to that beach and that drink.
9:28pm, Sunday, October 22nd
Sorry these last two updates have been so
brief. The
guys all left today to head back to Honolulu for another day or two.
They found a booze cruise that is $25 for all-you-can-drink. On Friday,
they went on the cruise, had a great time, got off the boat &
immediately got right back in line for another go-round.
I guess you could say our vacation actually began today. We even put on
swimsuits & went to a beach. Day 6 in Hawaii and we just now
got
around to doing that. Patty and I leave for Maui tomorrow. Hopefully in
the next couple days I can type out everything in much more detail and
upload some pictures and videos.
Thanks to all of you for your support & love. We love you all!
10:15am Saturday, october 22nd
Well, that was certainly a long day.
I was kinda thinking I might finish around 14 hours, so I am very
pleased with my 13:13. Not too sore today either. I have a couple
blisters on my feet from cycling and running 138 miles with soaking wet
socks.
I did have one HUGE surprise - at about mile 79 of the bike, I came
across Patty standing on the side of the road cheering and holding up a
sign. But what really caught my eye was the 6 shirtless guys wearing
Mexican wrasslin masks hollaring my name. Turns out that a few of the
gang had flown into Honolulu during the past few days and had made
arrangements to come over and surpise me. Very, very appreciated. My
two brothers, Bryce, Jeff Lambing, and a couple of my ragbrai buddies,
Rick Grebner and Stu Churchill.
8:15pm, Friday, October 20th
Last update until Sunday. Thank you all who
have
called and emailed me with your best wishes. I wish I could have
returned each message, but that will have to wait,
unfortunately.
Let's go do this thing for Brennan, Bob, and Dan.
Aloha.
7:25pm, Friday, October 20th
I
forgot to mention that we met two
people with ties to Saint Joe, and curiously enough, we met them both
at
the slowtwitch.com brunch we went to yesterday.
We met some lady (I didn't catch her name) who told us she has
a
brother who lives in Saint Joe. I didn't remember his name either, but
she said she thought he was a
manager of something at Sears. The family is from South America, she
ended up in California, her mom in Canada, and her brother in Saint
Joe. I asked her how he ended up there, but she had no idea.
Secondly,
I was talking to the CEO of active.com, who is based in San Diego.
After a bit, we figured out that he had just hired a guy from Saint Joe
named Archie Fuston. I remember him from racing 15+ years ago.
ANOTHER
small world story - we were sitting at Lava Java drinking a
milkshake
(at least my 4th one there, they are fantastic. As they should be for
$5.50 each), when Patty mentioned that the family sitting next to us
looked familiar, thought maybe from a family reunion some years back.
She noticed the father was racing, due to his blue
wristband. So Patty came home & searched through the entire
list of
competitors until she found a name that she recognized. She then called
her mom
& she confirmed there was someone in the extended family with
the last name of Farrar. Patty then just asked at the main
desk of
the host hotel if
they had anyone by that name staying there. Sure enough they are
staying there, so Patty called up to the room and talked to the mom.
They confirmed that this is indeed some extended relative of Patty's.
The guy's name is Frank Farrar from South Dakota. The dude is SEVENTY
SEVEN! There are actually two dudes older than him competing - both at
79. Also a nun from Spokane, WA is competing at 76. Sorry to stray from
the topic here. So anyway, Patty the family are going to try to hook up
tomorrow during the race, or more likely, Sunday after the race. Crazy.
Oh, and I have to beat him. Can you imagine the embarrassment I'd
suffer if at the next family reunion if word got around that two of us
had done the ironman, and the other guy beat me??!?!?!
We have also run into Sarah
Reinertsen two more times since we met her yesterday morning. I think
she is stalking us. haha
Also crazy is that we have been here in Hawaii for 4 days now, and we
have not touched swimsuits or been to any beaches. Well, not
counting me donning my Speedo & swimming in the mornings.
6:06pm, Friday, October 20th
We have some time to burn as we wait for our
carry-out pizza to be prepared.
Entire state under flash flood warning, I just saw on tv. Looks like we
might have a wet day tomorrow.
4:41pm, Friday. October 20th
ok, the pics thing isn't working I don't
think. They
are uploaded, I will just have to figure out to let you all see them.
maybe later tonight.
4:30pm, Friday, October 20th
Internet access for the whole iisland was down
for a while today. Better today than tomorrow, huh?
Thursday, October 20th
I uploaded a bunch of pictures - I hope you
can see them CLICK HERE
9:06pm, Thursday, October 19th
We drove the van out on the bike course this
afternoon. Patty dropped me off along the way back so I could ride back
home. Traffic on the highway is so bad in the late afernoon
that
I beat her back by about 10 or 15 minutes. We then got ready and went
to the pre-race carbo-banquet. I was amazed at how quickly and
efficiently they were able to serve nearly 2000 folks. It is held in
the
parking lot of the King K hotel. They have huge video screens &
rock-concert sound system so everyone can see/hear. They had cool
videos of the past races, inspirational stories of individuals, and
authentic luau hula performance. Afterwards we walked back to the
condo,
stopping for ice cream along the way. We are now sitting out
on
our patio with some beer & wine and typing here. We have been
taking tons of pics, and hopefully after the race I will have time to
post them on this site. Hey - did anyone see the interview on KQ2 last
night? How goofy did I look? If anyone recorded it and has the ability
to dump it to the computer and email it to me (tim@tgarv.com), we'd
appreciate it.
Tonight I am going to bed soon. I was going to say early, but this is
not really early as we have been in bed before 10 every night. I'm
going to try to sleep in tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to check
in my
bike & all my gear, so very little, if any training. By that I
mean
probably none. Tomorrow we'll relax and finally go see some stuff on
the island. Catch you all tomorrow!
12:09pm Thursday October 19th
Just got back from a brunch hosted by the guy
who
owns a triathlon forum on which I post. There were about 30-40
folks there, very nice place right on the water. Hung out a little bit
with Sarah Reinertsen - the girl with the prosthetic leg who did the
Ironmnan last year, and can currently be seen on TV on
the Amazing
Race. Her contract with CBS says no photo ops, so we didn't get any
pictures of her. More importantly, we talked with a VP at Scott Bicycle
Company,and he was nice enough to give us a pass to a VIP
party
right on Alii Drive near the finish line. Think the balconies on
Bourbon Street - that is where this VIP party is. So cool that Patty
will have a great place to watch the race, on for me to go get a beer
after the race! haha
9:08am Thursday,October 19th
Let's see, what have we done since 12:40
yesterday...?
We had a bunch of time to kill, so we walked around a ton. Up &
down Alii drive several times. Went to the expo again, got some
autographs and more schwag. I am going to have so much of it I'm
planning to ship a box of it home before we go to Maui on Monday.
I went for a ride, maybe 30 miles or so, up a little past the airport.
On the way back, I had a broken spoke for the first time in my cycling
career. Luckily, the bike shop was on the way back in town so I limped
in, dropped the bike off, and bummed a ride back to the condo. It took
Patty about 30 minutes to finally realize/ask where my bike was haha.
We went to the athlete orientation at the race hotel. In the blazing
sun. I am pretty sure Patty got more out of it than I did, as all that
info is the same as at just about any tri. We had to sit there for 45
minutes - HOT!
After we got back, Patty & I ran for about 30 minutes, it was
getting dark & I was getting hungry so we turned back. Even at
dusk, it is still very hot & humid.
We got cleaned up, and cooked/ate here at the condo on the porch. We
walked around a bit more for some ice cream, then went to bed early
again.
Thursday morning, I got up & was swimming again by 7. water is
a
little less murky, I could actually see the bottom in places. After
swim, I met Patty at Pacific Vibrations (no, they don't sell that stuff
you perverts) for the Underpants
Run. I would guess there about 200
folks. I took plenty of pics (yes, this time "I" am the pervert haha)
and will post them later after I get back to the mainland. We ran a few
blocks to a parking lot, and did some calesthentics (sp?). It was
funny, the leader would instruct us to do like 2 jumping jacks then
announce he was tired & asked us all to take our heart rates.
Then
2 lunges. Then two side stretches, etc. Always with measuring heart
rates. Oh, and of course, FLEX for the crowds!!!! Then we ran up
&
down Alii Drive for maybe 10 minutes. Stupid fun, all to raise money
for special olympics
I hope my bike is done soon. We are planning to drive up the bike
course to the turnaround point and Patty will drop me off somewhere on
the way back so I can ride back home. Will be last ride, as we have to
check our bikes at the transition area tomorrow afternoon.
12:40pm Wednesday, October 18th
Finally found a wifi hotspot,so I have
uploaded some
stuff. I'm going to eat some lunch, pick up my bike, and go run with
Patty. After that I will go for a ride.
11:00am Wednesday, October 18th
Just went to walmart ($100) and safeway ($50).
We
plan to eat a bunch of meals here at the condo. Oh, also bought a bunch
of wine & beer. For Patty, of course. Also dropped off the bike
for
tune-up - hope it's done early enough today so I can get a ride of at
least an hour in. Almost got mowed over in the bike shop
parking
lot as I walked. Some old dude just flat-out didn't see me. Missed my
bike by no more than a couple inches. Wouldn't that have been a strange
ending to this whole IM experience? We are now off to register for the
race, and will hopefully find a hotspot so we can update this site.
Oh, my cell phone rang at 3:00am (which was of course 8:00am in
Missouri). Phone call from Joe Bechtold who did not realize we were in
Hawaii yet. I'll definitely turn off the phone for the remaining nights.
8:30am Wednesday October 18th
Got up around 6:30, walked down to the pier
for a
swim. Already hundreds of folks down there. We can see the swim course
from the balcony of the condo. I was expecting clear water, being able
to see the bottom, etc but that is definitely not the case. I wonder if
the sediment is extra stirred up from the earthquake a few days ago? In
any case, I swam for about 30 minutes. Salt water makes a person more
buoyant, but I couldn't really tell any difference. I drank plenty of
that salt water as I swam and didn't get sick, so that diminishes one
of
the concerns I had coming in. I saw a blind guy on his leash behind his
"guide". Wonder if he's competing. One real neat thing about walking
around among all these athletes is that you hear all kinds of
languages. You realize this truly is an international event.
I still need to get my bike put together and take it to the shop for a
quick tune up at 10. And I still need to get all these
updates to
the site pushed up.
9:00 pm Thursday October 17th
Finally arrived at the condo. Nice little
1-bedroom
place. Half-a-block from Alii Drive, about 2 blocks from race central.
We walked around town for about an hour. Got some pizza, visited the
expo. I can't believe how big the expo is. I could spend a TON of money
in there. We are pretty tired - our total travel time was nearly
eighteen hours. Time to sleep!
3:50pm Tuesday, October 17th -
We
are in the Honolulu
airport now. We have a 2-hr layover before we take the last flight over
to Kona. Hopefully I can get some of this stuff I typed up on the
airplane to upload while we wait.. Nope. I'll have to wait until we get
to Kona & see if I can find some internet access.
8:45am Tuesday, October 17th -
Might as well switch to recording these posts in Hawaiian time. We have
been on this flight to Honolulu for about 2 hours now. Another 6+ to
go. We left home at 6:30am, and by the time we arrive at our condo in
Kona, it will be around 11:30 or midnight, Saint Joe time. Will be a
long day of traveling. I'll try to finish/polish up some of this
website while Patty is sleeping.
10:45am
Tuesday, October 17th
-
We started out on the wrong foot. My parents (our ride to the
airport) arrived
to pick us up at our pre-arranged time of 6:15 this morning....and the
doorbell woke us up! We still had plenty of time & arrived at
the
airport with no rush.
We were sitting in the airport bar eating some breakfast when Michael
Sanders walked in and surprised us. Very nice of him to get up that
early & drive all the way up to the airport just to see us off
& wish me good luck. Thanks, Mike!
OK, off now for a fun 8+ hr flight to Hawaii!
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