After 5 days at home, I found myself on the road again, this time for a weekend trip to LA.

I had a rare opportunity to spend a few days with some of my dearest friends. We’ve all been friends since our freshman year of college and have managed to keep in touch over the years. One of my friends lives in the area, and the one lives on the East Coast, but was in town visiting family for the holidays. Since I’m just an hour’s flight away, they invited me down so we could spend a couple of days together. It’d been a really, really long time since we had the chance to all hang out together.

{photo taken on my iPhone by a 4-year old}

We’re all from Hawai’i and *love* to eat, so it wasn’t surprising that the entire weekend was scheduled around food:

Back Home In Lahaina

In my opinion, this place has the best Hawaiian food in California. Heck, I’ll even go as far as to say the West Coast!

{lau lau, ahi poke, fried rice, somen salad, chicken katsu, kalbi, rice}

{saimin}

{bread pudding}

…mot to mention haupia (coconut) cheesecake — quite possibly my favorite dessert of all time.

{haupia cheesecake}

Their only locations are in Southern California — Torrance and Manhattan Beach — both of which I’ve dined at multiple times. Every time I’m there I ask them to open a Northern California location. Maybe some day it will happen.

Cafe Rio

My friends and I spent our college years in Utah, where this place called “Cafe Rio” originated. It’s like Chipotle; (Mexican food), but they have this amazing sweet pork barbacoa that is served in a huge tortilla salad.

Before arriving, I had no idea that Cafe Rio had opened in Manhattan Beach so this was definitely a nice surprise!

And like Back Home In Lahaina, I also wish that they had locations in Northern California. The closest thing we have is Costa Vida in Sacramento (which I fully admit to making road trips just to dine there).

Korean Tofu Soup

I was first introduced to Korean Tofu Soup a few years ago when I worked in Cupertino. There was a great place near my office where my colleagues and I lunched at quite often.

It’s different types of piping hot soups. You can choose from mushroom, beef, vegetable dumplings, etc. It’s served in a clay bowl with tofu and a raw egg that cooks as soon as you add it to the soup. (Confession: I choose not to add the egg.) You’re also provided with a bowl of hot rice. In addition, you are served a bunch of little dishes of a variety of kim chee. It’s an ideal meal during the winter.

I don’t know what the name of the restaurant that we went to, but it was in Torrance and it was delicious!

I can always count on my friends to take me to the best restaurants!

Other Highlights of the short trip include visits to The Strand and the Manhattan Beach Pier:

{kelly & donna’s 90210 beach house}

{scootin’ down the pier}

I am so blessed to have such special friends. It’s been 19 years since we all first met and I’m so glad that we are still good friends. They don’t use social media sites, so we really do have to make the effort to keep in touch and I’m so glad that we do.

PS I would be remiss if I didn’t give a special shout out to Mikilani – our 4th who couldn’t join us but was there in spirit!

PPS I attempted a short run while at The Strand. It didn’t go so well. If you’re keeping track, I am now going on 16 days and counting since being able to run. More on this tomorrow.

Here are some favorites from last week’s annual birthday/Christmas shopping trip to New York:

Bakeries

I have been eating a bland diet since September and fully planned to indulge after CIM. I may not have been able to finish the race, but I was determined to reward myself for months and months of training.

My number one goal was to visit as many bakeries as possible. I can’t remember all the names of the bakeries I dropped in to, but the ones that stand out are:

Minamoto Kitchoan
A Japanese bakery with the best wafer cookies and jelly candies. It was so good that I visited two days in a row. I am eating my last vanilla wafer as I write this. Thank goodness they have a San Francisco location!

Two Little Red Hens
My cousin had been raving about this place ever since she got her birthday cake from here in June. The Apple Pie is the freshest apple pie that I’ve ever had – and it had lots of crust (my favorite).

Since pies are my favorite kinds of dessert, I also had the Dark Chocolate Pecan Pie, which was pretty darn good too. I also tried their biscuits which weren’t as good as Clinton Street Baking Company’s, but still delish!

Laduree

I first tasted the infamous Laduree macaroons in Paris back in September 2007. Since then I have visited their web site many times and contemplated having some FedEx’d to me. They are *that good*.

When I heard they finally opened their first (and only) US location I was determined to visit.

The 4+ years was worth the wait and I was thrilled to be reunited with it. I got a box of 8 and would have to say that the Coconut and Coffee macaroons are my favorites.

Restaurants

I fully admit to eating my way through the town. I think I ate at just as many restaurants as I did bakeries. The ones worthy of mentioning are:

Dos Toros
When I was here this past Spring, we went all over the City searching for a decent place to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and found nothing. In fact, we ended up having sushi instead – on Cinco de Mayo!

A friend of mine told me about Dos Toros – a taqueria started by two Bay Area brothers. I had a chicken burrito, which was not greasy or messy at all. And the guac was among the freshest I’ve ever tasted. Definitely “California-worthy.”

Locana Verde
We ate here after visiting the 9/11 Memorial. It’s an Italian restaurant that is owned by Robert de Niro. The food was amazing, but we had heard that their hot chocolate was among the top rated in the City.

We perused the dessert menu and was disappointed not see it listed. Turns out that you just had to ask for it! It was served with 2 huge marshmallows and did not disappoint.

Ippudo
It’s no secret that I love ramen. My Bay Area runner friends and I have had many a post-run meal at Genki Ramen in San Francisco’s Richmond District. I had a hard time believing that any place would be better than Genki, but I was proven wrong.

Ippudo > Genki.

{those are ramen noodles under the bar glass}

Like at Genki, I had a veggie-based ramen. In addition to the usuals, it also had pieces of the type of nori that is wrapped around cone sushi (sorry, I think only my Hawai’i friends will understand this). It was a nice add of a different kind of flavor.

You could also order an extra plate of ramen noodles, which I did (of course). You know you’re at a good Asian restaurant when the place is filled with Asians and this Asian gives it 5-stars.

{i don’t eat pork buns but i heard they are good}

Good ambience too.

Woodbury Common Outlets

On my birthday, we went to the Woodbury Common Outlets located outside of the City. My favorite stores were:

Lululemon Outlet
You can’t be surprised about this. I first visited this Lulu Outlet last year. For an outlet, I was so impressed with the wide selection of items in all sizes. The prices were significantly cheaper than current retail value and I was able to stock up on pants, and jackets, which are typically the higher priced items.

This year, the selection wasn’t as good. There were only dance and yoga products, no running gear. Also, there was a limited selection of smaller sized items. I just picked up a few yoga items and that was it. Still exciting to visit though!

AG Jeans
I first visited the AG Jeans Outlet during my first Woodbury trip back in 2005. On that trip, I got some Sam & Bailey AG Jeans for $30. Yes, $30. Retail price on AG Jeans are about 5 times that amount.

It just so happened that I was wearing one of the Sam & Bailey jeans during this visit, which the salesperson noticed as soon as I walked in. I knew I was in good hands. Any girl will tell you that shopping for jeans can be a long, tiring and possibly stressful process.

I explained to the salesperson exactly what I looking for. She set me up in a dressing room and brought me pair after pair of jeans to try on. I didn’t have to search for anything myself! There were two pairs that I was happy with and was out of there within 30 minutes! It was the most painless jeans shopping experience ever.

Kate Spade
The Kate Spade Outlet had a 90% off sale. Repeat – 90% off. At first we went crazy and compelled to buy something just because it was discounted so much. But then we decided that we shouldn’t force ourselves to buy something just because it was “such a great deal.” We ended up not buying a single thing from this store, which was a big deal for me – I feel like I’ve evolved as a shopper.

Other Highlights:

The 9/11 Memorial

The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular
I fully admit to falling asleep during the show. The Rockettes were fun to see, but the Nutcracker storyline bores me every time and automatically makes me zzzzz.

{treated myself to a rockettes cupcake from magnolia bakery}

Shops at Bryant Park
They reminded me of the Christmas markets in Europe and it was fun to watch the ice skaters at the free ice rink.

The Tree
I guess I have to mention the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. It’s a must-see but to be honest, it’s kinda ugly up close during the daytime…

…and is way too crowded to be at in the evening.

Last week, an uncle, my Dad’s brother, unexpectedly passed away. On Monday I found out the services were going to be on Wednesday morning so I had to book a last minute trip to Southern California. I left on Tuesday evening and just got back this afternoon. I felt so many emotions over the past 2 days – sadness, grief, joy, happiness, confusion, shock, wonder, etc. It was an odd yet fascinating trip, but I’ll leave those thoughts for another post while I still process all of my feelings about it.

Instead, this post will be about my random thoughts while traveling:

Airline Seating
I always, ALWAYS sit an aisle seat. But since I booked my flight one day in advanced, the seats were slim pickings. I refuse to sit in the middle seat (I’m claustrophobic that way) so I coughed up $15 for an “Even More” seat. Best $15 I’ve spent in a while. Although the flight was just an hour, and I have pretty short legs, it was so nice to have space! I could fully stretch my legs and lean over to get something out of my bag without hitting my forehead on the seat in front of me. I also sat in the window seat. Not only did I have control over when to pull the shade up/down, I also got to look out and see the terrain for a change. And when I had to use the restroom, I didn’t have to climb over the other 2 passengers in my aisle. There was ROOM to walk by them without bothering them.

Long Beach Airport
I thought the Long Beach Airport was interesting. It’s really small and you walk on the tarmac to deplane/board the aircraft. The terminal has 4 gates and is situated in a building that looks like a portable classroom. You walk outside to get to security, baggage claim, etc. Roadbunner pointed out that it is ironic that I found it so interesting because on Molokai, the island I grew up on, the airport is essentially an airplane hangar. I suppose it’s because I never expected the “mainland” to have such a small airport. It was super convenient though and I loved how the outside of it looked. It reminded me of how Southern California must’ve been like in the 50′s and 60′s.

Food
While I was very well-fed on this trip, it’s always hard to be thrown off my routine. Not eating when I usually eat, or what I usually eat definitely affected me. Eating out for almost every meal did too. I tried to make healthy choices. My parents and I went to “Back Home in Lahaina”, one of my favorite Hawaiian restaurants. Where I could have ordered island favorites like kalua pork, loco moco’s (white rice + hamburger patty w/gravy covered in fried eggs and spam musubi, instead I stuck with…

…Ahi poke (not the chips):

…Seared ahi tuna:

(this was actually my Mom’s dish, but it was good too!)

…Wonton saimin:

However, I could not pass up my favorite ever dessert. This restaurant is the only place I know that makes haupia (coconut) cheesecake, so I had to have a slice:

I was enjoying every delectable bite of it until PunkRockRunner texted me and told me I’d have to run 9-miles to burn off the one slice. After that text I put the fork down and didn’t even have a bite of my Mom’s Hawaiian Bread Pudding. Ha!

Workouts
I knew I would be pressed for time, so I didn’t even bother to pack workout clothes. This was a first for me. But I felt that if I packed it and never worked out then I would feel guilty. Since I never took a rest day last week, I decided that I would take 2 rest days in a row this week.

While I know that it was good for me, I honestly don’t know how people don’t workout. After just 2 days off I feel like such a slug. I can’t wait to get back to the sweat tomorrow.

Jet Lag
My cousin Troy has a theory that jet lag isn’t only caused by crossing time zones. He believes that the altitude changes cause just as much jet lag. I always scoffed at that theory before, but now I’m starting to become a believer. After just an hour’s flight, I feel so drained and exhausted. Is it age, or does his theory have truth to it?

Zico Chocolate Coconut Water
About a month ago, I started drinking Zico’s chocolate coconut water. It was so good that I put it on Amazon Auto Subscribe, so I have a case of it sent to me every month. I recently introduced it to my cousin Jeff. He describes it as, “like drinking Cocoa Pebbles, but it’s good for you.” He searched everywhere for it and could only find it at Mollie Stones for $3.19 – so I ordered him a case too.

So how ironic is it, that of all places, I find a Zico chocolate coconut water at Long Beach airport. They may not have had any healthy food in the gated area, (all I found were chips, candy, cookies and trail mix), but they did manage to have this:

As much as I love to travel, I’m such a homebody and nothing makes me happier than to be home.

It’s the last night of my mini-vacation and I find myself staying in a little town north of Seattle. My cousin Riley’s Little League team made it to the State tournament and is being held in this little town I’ve never heard of before.

The rest of the family headed north yesterday but Jenna and I waited until today to make the 3 1/2 hour drive.

On the way, we stopped at South Center in Tukwila (aka as the start of the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon) to have lunch at Ivar’s. No trip to Seattle is ever complete without a stop at Ivars.

After lunch, we continued north, through downtown Seattle until we got to the Seattle Premium Outlets. It’s near our hotel so we spent the afternoon shopping there. I finally got a few pieces of non-workout clothing. Tops from Gap and J Crew for $5! Can’t beat that!

We stopped at the ballpark and watched a few innings of a game, then continued further north to mecca…

…also known at the Lululemon Outlet!

After a successful visit to the Woodbury Commons Outlet in New York, I had high hopes for this store. Sadly, most of the inventory was for sizes 2, 4, 10 and 12, neither of which I am. All I got was a running visor for $5 and the travel pack! I never thought I would say that I am so excited to wear a fanny pack, but I am! LOL

Tomorrow I *really* hope I can pull off a 10-mile run around this little town. I have a route mapped out – hopefully it will work out for me. Then I drive back to Portland solo (I’ll even miss Riley’s ballgame) to catch my flight home.

It’s been such a fun trip!

I just celebrated my 4th graduation in the past 4 weeks.

First there was Mary’s graduation from law school…

Next there was Lil’ J’s graduation from pre-school….

Then there was a high school graduation party for Chelsea and Christina who are going to become soccer stars at University of Washington…

Speaking of UW, I spent the weekend in Seattle to see Lauren graduate from there with her undergrad degree!

If you recall, she was the cousin who raced in Vancouver with me.

I met her family…

…and a bunch of our aunties in Seattle on Friday evening and we spent all day Saturday celebrating her big day! (…it was a really long ceremony…)

Her sister Jenna is also home from teaching abroad and it was the first time in a year that I saw her!

I always have the best time visiting these cousins!

{2 UW Huskies and 1 WSU Cougar}

Congrats to all my favorite graduates!

As I sat by the pool for 5+ hours on Friday, I kept thinking about the 15-miler I had scheduled on Saturday. I hadn’t been eating very well (I mean, I was on vacation!) and I knew I also hadn’t been drinking enough fluids. Sitting in the sun didn’t help that either.

So after lunch I moved to the shade and took a 45-minute nap under the palm trees.

That evening my cousins Shari, Jasmine and I met up with my parents, aunt and sister for dinner at Don’s & Charlie’s:

It was the only meal I’d have there and the ribs are my absolute favorite and I couldn’t not have them. So I ate half a slab but did have a baked potato. Pretty much the only carbs I had.

When we got back to the hotel, I stopped at the 24-hr shop and got a bagel since Regency Club didn’t open for breakfast until 7 am.

We wanted to be at the ballpark when it opened at 11 am the next day. It would take at least 30 minutes to get there, and I’d need at least an hour after running to stretch and clean-up. Which means I’d have to start my run by 6:30 am at the very latest. Having run here before and experiencing the desert sun, I was more than okay with this.

My alarm went off at 5:30 am but I didn’t get out of bed until after 6ish. I had laid all my stuff out in the bathroom (including that bagel) so as not to wake anyone. I stumbled around and got ready in the dark, downed the bagel and headed to the concierge to find out the recommended running trail.

They gave me the same card as last year and my plan was to do the 5.8 loop three times. I hadn’t packed any fuel belt, water bottle or gels with me so I figured each time back I’d run to the 24-hr shop and get a drink of water from the free water station they kept at the counter.

My first few steps out of the hotel – the sun wasn’t quite up yet:

Just as I was about to start, I saw this little guy hopping around:

I headed out along the main road outside of the resort. It ran for about a mile and was pretty non-descript. A little into the second mile I veered onto the bike/jog path around a man-made lake. It was a mile out and back. Had I headed back to the hotel at this point would have been to repeat last year’s short run.

Instead, I crossed under the tunnel and headed in the other direction to finish the 5.8-mile loop. Only thing is I missed road that I was supposed to take to head back and instead kept running north. I zoned out and wasn’t paying attention to my Garmin. By the time I figured out I had missed the turn; I decided to just keep running and see where it took me. The path ended at 8-miles here:

At this point, I had no idea where I was. I had my phone with me, but the map app wasn’t working right. So I turned around and headed back in the direction that I came.

When I got to this point…

…at around 10-miles, I figured out where I had missed the turn.

I got back to the main road at 12 miles, so had to repeat a little bit to finish out the last 3 miles.

Since I didn’t have any water or gels with me, those last 3 miles were pretty tough. The sun was already out and I envied people I passed who had a drink bottle in their hands. I was almost tempted to ask one to let me have a drink. You’d think in Arizona that there would be water fountains along the path…but nada.

I got back to the resort right before Regency Club closed and was able to snack a few pieces of fruit and lox, and downed 2 huge glasses of water.

When I started out, I honestly didn’t think I’d do all 15. I didn’t feel prepared and told myself I’d be happy with anything between 5 miles and double digits. I’m pretty happy I got all of the miles in…even though those last few felt like death!

Hello from the desert!

We arrived late last evening and picked up our powder blue Crown Victoria car rental which told us it was 91 degrees outside at 9 pm. :/

We headed straight to my aunt’s home in the West Valley where my folks are staying (they happen to be coincidentally visiting at the same time). We had dinner, and then headed to another aunt/uncle’s vacation condo nearby where we stayed for the evening.

My natural body alarm clock woke me up super early and I got to watch the sunrise. This photo doesn’t do it any justice.

I read for a few hours then headed to the pool to get some laps in. I had a few challenges trying to figure out how to get in the pool, and by the time I did, I was only able to get a 35-minute workout in. Better than nothing, right?

We met up with my parents and sister for lunch at the Yard House. I know that the Yard House is a chain restaurant but I LOVE IT! I seriously do. I wish they had one in the Bay Area! The Kona coffee macadamia nut sundae is one of the best things ever!

After an afternoon nap (I mean, we are on vacation), we headed to Scottsdale where we’ll be for the rest of the trip.

{this afternoon’s temp reading}

We stopped at Sports Authority to pick up some baseballs for autographs and I picked up some GU and drinks for my long Saturday run.

Once we got to the ballpark, the temps had cooled down considerably and it turned out to be a breezy evening – a perfect night for a ballgame!

Our original seats were along Right Field, but we were invited back to the seats behind home plate again – the best seats in the house!

It was a quick game with the G’s beating the Angels 4-0. After the game we checked into the hotel and spent the rest of the evening relaxing. We’ve been coming to this resort since 1994 and being here just feels like “home.”

I’ll be heading to the pool again in the morning and will take some pics of the property while I figure out my route for Saturday’s run.

PS Sorry for the crappy iPhone photos. I’ll be using my regular camera for the rest of the trip.

Workouts:

AM: Dailey Method
PM: 5 rainy miles

It’s been a really long day so this will be short. I ran a tough 5-miles tonight and learned that one shouldn’t eat a tub of salsa and blue corn tortilla chips before a run. I was pretty miserable the entire time. Oh and it rained. No, it poured. But I won’t complain about the that because soon summer will be here and I will be cursing the heat.

Speaking of heat, tomorrow I head back to the desert for Spring Training Trip #2! This time there will be no race, just all baseball and a whole bunch of this:

I’m back from my first of two Spring Training trips! While it was a lot warmer than I expected (I’m not a fan of hot weather), it was still a lot of fun!

Here’s my top 10 favorite photos (in no particular order):

{My first view of Scottsdale Stadium. These are the banners that were used in the World Series parade. Isn’t it a thing of beauty?!?}

{I planted myself along the first base line, next to the G’s dugout, with all the other kids to get autographs and photos. Here’s 2B Freddy Sanchez signing for the fans.}

{I love the shadow of all the fans in this photo! This is prospect Charlie Culbertson who signed autographs for a long time. Since he stood right in front of me signing for so long, I asked him if he ever autographs a baseball on the sweet spot. He replied, “Oh no, that’s for the manager. You get in trouble if you sign there.” LOL}

{I got a photo op with LHP Jeremy Affeldt. Why do I always look so terrible in these photos? Well for one thing, the wretched heat!}

{This is top prospect, 1B Brandon Belt. I was most excited to see him play in person and he did not disappoint! He crushed a HR to right field. Giants fans, get excited about this kid! He’s the real deal!}

{I have *dreamt* of these noodles since Spring Training last year! Best ballpark food ever!}

{This is the first pitch of the ballgame. I’ve sat in these seats for the past few years. They’re right behind the scouts from the other teams. I always try to read what they’re writing and watch the gun to see how fast the pitcher’s pitches are.}

{Pat Burrell at the plate and Charlie Culberson on 2B.}

{This photo was taken during the national anthem at a game in Phoenix vs the Oakland A’s.}

{Wouldn’t this be the best promotional giveaway ever?!?}

I’m headed back to Scottsdale in 9 days for my second and final Spring Training trip. Can’t wait!

About a month or so ago, Sandra and I were chatting about December races, medals, etc., and the next thing I knew, I found myself with a trip booked to LA for the LA County Half-Marathon. Only thing is, I never really prepared for it…foreshadowing…

Pre -Race
We flew to LA on Saturday afternoon. By the time we picked up the car rental it was about dinner time, perfect timing to meet my friends, Carter & Sarah, for dinner. They live in Manhattan Beach, which also happens to be where Back Home in Lahaina is (an onolicious Hawaiian restaurant). Since we’re all from Hawai’i it was a no brainer that we’d meet there for dinner.

I hadn’t seen Carter & Sarah in about 3 years, which is absolutely silly since we live in the same state! Ironically, the last time I saw them was when Little Miss Kaia was 4 months old. This time, I was meeting Baby Casden for the first time who is now 4 months old.

It took a little bit of sweet-talking; i.e., lots of candy, to convince Kaia to be my friend. Isn’t she just the cutest thing ever?!

After dining on kalua pork, lomi salmon, lau lau, won tons, rice (great pre-race dinner, huh?) and a lots of catching up, we said our goodbye’s and headed out to our hotel in Pomona, to where the race was.

The Race
Although the race didn’t start until 8 am, we woke up early to get the race site a little after 6 am because we still needed to pick up our bibs and race packets. That was one of the great things about this race – same day pick up!

The expo and race were just steps apart so it was so convenient to pick up our packets that morning. There were no crowds, indoor bathrooms (no porta potties!) and most of the vendors’ merchandise was being sold for 50-70% off. Yes, we bought a few things.

It was also great that when picking up our goodie bags, we could try on the race t-shirts and pick which size fit us best. Not very many races do that, and I honestly think its my most favorite race shirt so far. Seriously, the expo experience I’ve ever had.

When it came time for the race to start, we made our way to the Starting area and ran into Maritza! There were no corrals or anything, so we got in line and slowly made our way to the Start where we were off.

Now the race itself was great; I really can’t say anything bad about it. Yes, there were a lot of hills – but that was pre-advertised.

Me, being completely unprepared for this race, just didn’t realize it. It was also really hot – it got up to 87 degrees that day. But they had plenty of aid stations to keep us hydrated.

Once we ran through the motor speedway track, the course itself was gorgeous, looping around Puddingstone Reservoir.

And because this was around a park, there were plenty of park bathrooms; i.e. real toilets; i.e., no porta potties! Talk about a gold star!

My Race
Now just because I said the race itself was great, doesn’t mean “my race” went so well.

Did I mention that my longest run since the Portland Marathon had been 8 miles? Did I also mention that I never run hills? Ever. And did I also mention that I am a complete wimp and can’t run in anything over 65 degrees?

So you can imagine how this race went for me.

I told myself that I was just going to take things easy, but like every race, the first couple of miles are spent doing the bob and weave trying to get around other people.

I went out with way more effort than I would have liked, and with less than 2 miles into the race, I knew I was toast. Literally, it was so hot. People crowded the first water station to get cups of water and Powerade. I had decided beforehand that I would walk through every rest stop, but I actually had to stand there and wait a few minutes until I could grab a drink. And from then on, it was a battle – me versus myself.

I had a long conversation with myself during the race and realized a lot of things:

- I have no ability to pace myself.
- My mental stamina is non-existent.
- I’ve spent the past year being mentally exhausted and haven’t pushed myself the way I did in 2008 and 2009.

Funny thing is, cardiovascularly I was fine, and my body held up pretty well too. There were a couple of times where I felt like I was one step away from a charley horse in my calf, but it went away fairly quickly. And the rest of me felt fine during the race. So even though the course was tough, and it was really hot, I never felt like it was a death march. I just didn’t have the mental fight in me to push myself to do better.

I finally crossed the Finish Line…

Look at that knot in my calf. And that’s the good leg!

…and got my Snowflake Medal!

Isn’t it so pretty?!

Half-Marathon #8 turned out to be my slowest one, but still productive because I came out of it with a lot of resolve.

After the race we met up with everyone, Danica too!, for some quick photos, then raced back to the hotel with only 45 minutes to spare before checkout.

Thereafter, we met Sandra’s friends for lunch, at where else, but Back Home in Lahaina, this time in Carson. Different place, same great food! I had saimin and ahi poke for lunch – perfect combination of carbs and salty protein.

We wore our medals for the rest of day, I mean, after all, we earned it!

I really did enjoy this race a lot, but I know I can do better, so I’ve already told myself that I want to come back next year, better prepared, and run this race. It’ll be my birthday weekend, so my friends are now on notice that they have a year to prepare to run this, because this is how we’re celebrating next year!