Pretty Sunsets + My First Track Meet (...in ~20 years)

Hello again!

We made a valiant effort at coming up with some sort of plan that would keep us from having to return to the mainland, but alas that whole pesky bill-paying thing kept coming up, so finally we surrendered and shuffled onto the plan. I'll post a few more Big Island pics here & there once I've had some time to go through them, but there are a few down at the bottom of this post.

But let's be real, you don't come here to read about my vacations. The big news lately is that I just signed up for my first track meet in nearly 20 years, the 10th Annual PrideMeet on June 17, put on by the SF Track & Field Club.

There are shockingly few all-comer track meets in the Bay Area, at least that I've been able to find. (If you know of others, please share!) I've wanted to run on the track again for years but it's never worked out schedule-wise. In the future I'd like to try my hand at some of the shorter distances I've pretty much ignored for these same 20 years, but as I'm gearing up for 10Ks & half marathon(s?) this summer and fall, I thought it might be cool to try to jump start things with 5000m on the track. (The fee covers as many events as you want to run, but honestly, if I'm going to go all-out, I'm not sure I'll be good for much after the 9:00am 5K. If I were doing shorter things like the 400m, 800m, or mile, I'd probably opt for multiple events.)

To be honest I'm a little scared out of my mind, BUT I am also feeling rejuvenated and ready to get back to training after a week off. I ran 40+ miles for each of the three weeks preceding vacation, which is a lot for my body right now, but I figured three higher volume weeks followed by a mini-break was probably a good balance. We also managed to stay pretty active in Hawaii with lots of hiking, walking, swimming/snorkeling, and a bit of cycling, so I'm feeling fairly ready to gently amp up the speed & tempo work & also get back into a consistent strength work schedule.

So, having not raced on a track since ca. 1997, I may completely tank, but that's okay! It'll be a new (low-stakes) adventure, so I'm still excited to give it a shot.

Meanwhile, please enjoy these shots from Big Island. We mostly stuck to Volcanoes National Park and Kona, with brief forays into Hilo/Puna & down the Saddle Road, so there is definitely plenty left on that particular island to see, but I can't recommend the parts we saw enthusiastically enough. We were only there for 8 days but we packed it so full that I swear it felt like a couple of months.

(Apparently I took 1,375 pictures, not counting the ones on my phone, which, if you're curious, is the equivalent of, oh, a little more than 57 rolls of old-school film. I promise not to post them all here.)

Haume'uma'u Crater, Volcanoes National Park

Hiking Kilauea Iki Crater

Petroglyphs in Volcanoes National Park

Cycling out to the Pu'u O'o ocean entry

At Pu'u O'o ocean entry (just outside Kalapana)

Pu'u O'o vent flowing into the ocean, making more Hawai'i

Spelunking at Kaumea Caves (outside of Hilo)

Rainbow Falls (outside of Hilo)

Rainbow Falls Hike

Onomea Bay, just outside Hawai'i Tropical Botanical Gardens

Hawai'i Tropical Botanical Gardens

Onomea Falls

Sunset outside our condo in Kona

On our way out to a night snorkel with manta rays

Snorkeling in Honaunau Bay ("Two Step")

Place of Refuge, Honaunau Bay (~20 miles south of Kona)

Place of Refuge, Honaunau Bay (~20 miles south of Kona)

One more sunset (because, sunsets)

Aloha, Hawai'i. See you again in, oh, two weeks or so....