Tri Lana’i
When I got off the boat from Maui yesterday and stepped ashore on the island of Lana'i, a couple asked me: Are you here for the race? As I wasn't here for anything else, I said sure, when is it and whom do I race doing what exactly? Back in the day it seems the local tribesmen used to send their fastest runners out to race for land: where one cut the other off was where the land was divided. Flash forward. So I ended up doing the local triathlon society's 10k run early today, be it that no real estate was at stake now.
After a meager 6 hours of sleep at Michael and Susan's exquisite B&B "Dreams come true" I was served freshly squeezed passion fruit juice by my host and -no surprise on a former Dole plantation island- fresh pineapple. It must have helped because I finished 18th out of the 100 or so contestants. Mind you, that's 1 in every 32 inhabitants of the island participating in the Tri Lana'i run (ok in short: pop. 3200, paved main roads: 3, traffic lights: 0, malls: 0, preferred means of transportation: 4x4 or offroad bike). Even though the terrain was not exactly vertical but seemed so to Dutch eyes and feet, I managed to conquer the bronze medal for finishing third place in my age group (yeah that's right the Tweeniors) clocking 55.18. Click here for the in action photography.
Cooling down for me consisted of an afternoon mountainbike ride with suspension, suntan lotion, Ray-Bans and my 2 liter Camelback waterpack plus some fruitgels. After a climb I crossed the ridge to Shipwreck Beach where this WWII tanker -though a mere shadow of her former self, not unlike me by the end of the day- still resides majestically just off the shoreline. As for me, I'm still majestically trying to get the dust out of my ehh... everything.
