14 June 10: He survived!
Posted on 14. Jun, 2010 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 14 Comments
We celebrated my 32nd with a new twist on the birthday swim: 10 kilometers in the ocean on the UltraMan swim course, from the Kailua Pier to Keahou Bay.
“ohgodohgodohgod.” Jumping in at Dig Me Beach (a.k.a. the Kailua Pier) . . .
GCM, looking for sharks with every stroke.
No sharkies in sight!
Fueling break! Turns out we could each fit a bag of PowerBar Gel Blasts down our suit.
By the time we arrived here, we were pretty thirsty, though! The swim took a lot longer than I anticipated–three hours–as somewhere just before the Outrigger Hotel (The big hotels were easy landmarks.), we got stuck in a funky current and the scenery suddenly seemed to stop changing . . . Rounding the corner into Keahou Bay was like swimming in an Endless Pool, at a time when I thought I would have “been there” by now! The first couple hours were very pleasant, though. And the GCM was strong from start to finish. I was very impressed with my little sharkbait.
BFF Belinda came to meet us at the finish, as did my cousin Amy, who lives here in Kona, and is a stud paddler.
She headed out to look for us with her canoe because we took so long, but this also meant that she was able to explain why we had hardly been moving for the last hour, which made me feel better!
Drinks!!!!!!!!! I’d been dreaming of them forever, it seemed!
Belinda also had a small feast packed for us to tide us over til we got home . . . We also had a lovely birthday dinner by the water with Belinda and Juzzie at Lava Java last night.
The Birthday Swim 2010 is done and I still have my boyfriend!
14 Responses to “14 June 10: He survived!”
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Hillary’s Time in Madison, WI
Happy Birthday!
The swim sounds awesome, what a great way to spend a few hours of your birthday
Congrats on a great swim – to both of you. Did you see any critters at all?
OMG! you find the best ways to turn long workouts into crazy adventures! AND your pictures perfectly capture all of it!
Happy Birthday, Hills!!!
I’m so happy that the GCM did not get eaten by his imaginary sharks!!!
Happy birthday!! a great celebration hahaha! nice pics!
Rad! 3hrs of saltwater! I think I would have been choking on my tongue from thirst.
The GCM is clearly smitten with you…a freakin’ 10k ocean swim!? I love you, but not 10k ocean swim much!
what brilliant pictures and what fun it must have been swimming in such crystal clear water. You should meet up with Karlynn Pipes-Nielsen sometime. she lives in Kona and swims those mad distances as well.
It sure beats my 1,5k swim in the thames last weekend…..no sharks but lots of swans and God only knows what else was lurking beneath the surface….yuk!
Awesome! What an adventure! Wish we could have been there! Way to go team!
NICE! GCM is a trooper – that sounds awesome. Except for the not-going-anywhere part. Happy Bday!
Happy 32, now how is it that training in Hawaii means taking a long swim? I think maybe a long run and a cooling-off dip in the ocean. Then a long ride and another dip in the ocean to cool off!
Love you.
Late Happy Birthday girl!! Great pics!!! Love it! XO
I echo what was said. It must be true love or else GCM would have dumped you. 10K is madness.
And now you know the feeling I get in every triathlon swim: “I should ‘be there’ by now.”
Happy Birthday Hillary, I wish I was able to swim in Kona with you guys, the ocean here is maybe 58 degrees but we can get in 2 miles without too much of a headache but not a 10k. Not too worried about Sharks in the Northeast, just seaweed, jellyfish, fisherman and boaters. Can’t wait to see how your running comes along, keep us posted.