Hawaii in mid February 2004

This trip was a very interesting one for various reasons; the main one is that the trip came up at the last minute because the flight was cheaper with a stopover in Hawaii. The plan was to get by on like 100 bucks for the week, to ensure that we would have plenty of money to train well in New Zealand. We spent our first night in the airport in Hawaii as we couldn't be stuffed paying $10 American for a shuttle to the beach, we were going to get in on one of the hotels free shuttles in the morning. We arrived at 12:30am in Hawaii so we camped out in the airport for 8hrs. We went outside and found some comfortable grass to sleep on but it turned out to be uncomfortable and we ended up getting kicked off the grass after like an hr or so. Then walked around the airport for a bit and found some sleep on a hard cement block outside, I found a telephone book to take the sting off my ass. It was a horrible sleep and at 6am we ended up paying for a shuttle to leave the airport any ways whoops. We were lucky and pretended we were staying in a fancy hotel and so we got our bags locked up for a measly $10 a night. The first day was spent at the lobby just hanging out and feeling pretty bagged from the previous nights sleep what sleep? Dreams of “any baggage left unattended .ya save it!. Anyway the plan had been to sleep in parks and on the beach to save money. Hotels were a cool $100 a night and the hostels seemed dodgy…not that sleeping in parks is safer but I wanted abit of the Gabe Jennings effect and also see what being a bum really felt like, well I got more than I had asked for. The first night we tried to sleep in a park and it seemed to be working until at like 11:30 it started to rain and we had to flee for cover. We tried to hide out in a shelter in the park but gave up after an hr and got really tired so we headed to the Marriot hotel and passed out in pool deck chairs till like 6:30am, not a bad sleep maybe 5 good hrs, a security guard woke us up and told us to split, so we did. We hung out on the beach till the sun came up and started our day. The day was spent bumming around and feeling pretty bagged, fitted in a 30min run around Kaipolani Park, there’s a nice route just off the main stretch, felt pretty bagged but made it through barely. We killed the rest of the day lying around at the beach soaking up some sun. The night snuck up on us soon enough so we found some comfortable deck chairs in another hotel near by the beach and attempted to pass out, we were successful for about 1 hr and then got in trouble from the security guard at the hotel. We lied to him at first and said we were staying there, he checked our name at the desk and we split before it got ugly. The next step we had planned was to try and sleep on the beach so we found the typical beach mats and made what seemed to be comfortable beds, but actually turned out to be the beds from hell. The sand kept getting everywhere and would form big lumps after just getting comfortable and then the worst part was the bugs we encountered, Ryan looked like he had the Chicken Pox, and I also got my fare share of bites. So we snuck into another pool deck on the 3^rd floor of a fancy hotel on the main drag and moved some deck chairs out of the pool area off to the side and actually had a pretty good sleep of like maybe 5 hrs but still a bit broken up.... Baggers can't be choosers though! Up at 6am again and off to the beach to start our day after a quick nap in the valet parking of the hotel we had stored our main luggage in. Bummed around most of the day at pool decks and caught another 1-2hrs of sleep but pretty dam hot weather to be napping in 25-35'C. Ryan and I headed out for a 30min run in the park again at a pretty pedestrian pace, but pedestrians running on low reserves of sleep from the previous weeks leading up to the Hawaii marathon. We decided that we should pull an all-nighter to get on NZ time and save ourselves from the bugs and the security guards lol. So we chilled on the beach till like 1:30 watching the hard cores play speed chess, that got boring and we headed to the valet parking and played chess till like 5:30 and then having serious problems trying to stay up gave in to 1hr of beautiful much needed sleep in those chairs in the lower lobby. Started the day again at 6am oh by the way today is Thursday . After an abortion breakfast that we stole from the buffet the previous night it was to the pool decks and sleep. We headed to a new hotel and a really fancy one and slept in their pool lobby area for like 3 solid hrs, we had to wake up a couple of times as the sun can feel like a fire when it sits on you for a couple of hrs. We eventually decided to move to another hotel, as all the shade had run out and we were feeling sun burnt. We headed to the Marriot again and slept on and off till 3:30pm and then cleaned up and headed to the usual Buffet that we have been hitting up for dinner the whole time we have been on Waikiki, it was satisfying as usual, maybe it was just the fact it was the first real meal of the day. That evening we went back to the hotel lobby and called Gerry Lindgren (Former Olympian and world record holder from the U.S of A and also claims to have run 350miles a week for 6 straight weeks, that’s over 50 miles a day, 5hrs of running) and organized a run with him for the next day. Went to another fancy hotel deck and chilled for an hr and tried not to scratch our pox or bites? At 12 am Ryan headed out for his lactic threshold run for the week. When he arrived back we headed to various hotels to look for somewhere to chill, we headed across the street to the Marriott and tried to sleep just in chairs in the hallway, that lasted for a about 3 hrs and then got booted from there at like 5am.

The start of the final day!!!!!, feel pretty bagged but not to bad I guess. Ate an Egg mc muffin from Mc shits just for fun and to be different and then went to church on the beach, it lasted only 20 mins but its the thought that counts, right mom? Then went to the hotel on the 3^rd floor and slept there for 1hr and then it started to get too hot and noisy outside so I went to brush my teeth and get cleaned up for another day. When I got back Ryan was standing with another security guard who didn't look so happy at all, I guess Ryan had lied to him and said we were guests and then changed his story afterwards. He tried to scare us with the police and stuff but ended up being a nice chap and just warned us and escorted us out. We grabbed some lunch at the convenience store, bread and meat. I rented a surfboard and went out surfing for 2.5hrs. I had a decent board but no wax on the board , so as soon as I would get up I would slip off, I rode a couple but nothing to exciting developed. My arms got really sore from the paddling. I came back to the beach and had a quick bunch of sandwiches and got into a big talk with a priest about God, running injuries and the world in general, he was a nice guy from Singapore that loved to talk , but also knew when to be quiet. He prayed for my leg to heal and that I could have a successful career ahead of me, so hopefully his prayers will be answered). Then rechecked the surf board and headed to the park to meet Gerry Lindgren.

We walked from the beach to meet Gerry for our run. We couldn't see him from the spot so rang his cell phone, whenever someone calls him he pretends to not know who Gerry is, he's defiantly a joker. When we did see him he pretended to not see us, he is quite a comedian. We took a few pictures and then we followed the master for a jog that lasted about 15mins around a grass loop with him and a few of his friends/athletes from the coconut running club. As we jogged he was full of jokes the whole way...Nolan, you see that tree over there thats a hibiscus, what do you call the tree below it?â€� me finally catching on to his humor, “it’s a lowbiscus Gerry � and he starts laughing again, he is a funny runner guy that Gerry. I found out he does claim to have run those 350miles for 6 straight weeks and also a 46min training 10mile run. He talks about them both like they are no big deal and he can’t understand why people find it so hard to believe. I filled him in on the Letsrun debate about the mileage and if it was really possible. He laughed and told me that people are just too lazy and would never try and attempt that kind of mileage these days; therefore they would rather write it off as impossible. He told some funny stories about Prefontaine. He credits himself for getting Pre involved in running and away from softball. He also stressed how cocky Pre was; he did back it up most of the time though. He said sometimes Pre’s head was so big that he had to leave him to himself and go off before it really bothered him. He told me about NCAA x-county titles…beating Pre, his legendary 8:40.00 2mile indoor National High School record. He also spoke of racing some big races in Europe and USA and about his world record 6 mile run with Billy Mills. He said that Jim Ryun was very down to earth and a well mannered chap, not that anyone would disagree. He said jokingly how Jim Ryun was tall and powerful looking well he on the other hand was short and geeky looking. He explained to me why he ran so much, his main reasons were that: Seattle was a boring place in the 60's, he didn't have TV and he wanted to prove to everybody that the little skinny mite could succeed, "I was a social outcast with no friends or girls to chase around, so I ran a lot�" he is defiantly motivating to a runner, even my brother Ryan was a bit inspired I think. On the 2^nd loop he said that we would pick up the pace a bit so I said sure and went with him, it was a lot faster than I had thought, the old guy surges and he was really moving for a 58 year old. Lots of spring and life still in him. I was thinking how cool it was to be sprinting with a former Olympic Gold medalist hopeful. He told the story of the 64 Olympics like it was yesterday. He said that he had been one of the favorites for the 10km building up to the games. Billy Mills was very confident when learning that Gerry had ankle troubles in the build up to the 10k @ the Tokyo Olympics and said now I can win�, he did end up winning. He speaks of the Olympics as if he would have won, I and many other people would probably not argue that. He asked why a kid my age knew so much about all the greats form the 60's and 70's, I told him that I wanted to know about everyone who had made noise in athletics and how they got there and what drove them to succeed. After the pick up was finished we did about a 10min cool down and finished off the run at about 42 mins. He had said 6miles on the phone the night before and that was about what we ran. I guess after running so much he must have a pretty good sense of pace judgment. I asked him about the marathon and if he had ever run one, he told me of his major attempt on the distance. He was in peak shape and was on a pace just over 2hrs and leading the field by a fair bit; he then collapsed about 300m's from the finish line and could not get back up. (This is the only story I have trouble believing because it seems almost impossible, I think he may have told the story wrong, his athletes looked at me when he was telling it and grinned at me) He thinks that the marathon world record has not improved as much as it should have by now. He really stressed that the mind can do great things for you once you fully know how to use it to your advantage. We had a quick stretch but he told me that too many people waste valuable training time stretching and doing drills. I'm not totally sure about that. If you're injured from lack of stretching you won't be doing any running at all. We shook hands and exchanged e-mail addresses with him and he was off just like that. So there I was standing just like he never came...¦oh by the way Gerry drives an older Mercedes for you car lovers.

Ryan and I stretched and then I went for a quick dip in a nearby swimming pool and cooled off. Grabbed supper at the buffet place and talked with a fellow Canadian I had met there the other night, we talked about NZ and Edmonton and exchanged phone and e-mails and then it was off to the lobby to meet Ryan and get ready to go to the airport. What a trip!!!!! Now I'm at the airport writing this at like 11:30 local time. This trip defiantly was an experience; I think combining all the sleep from the last week would barley break into double digits. It had a bit of the Gabe Jennings effect I was looking for and I met some interesting people also. I find putting yourself in extreme situations helps you learn a lot about yourself, maybe thats why I like running so much as well as a really unusual life style with traveling and other activities, everything is an experience, some bad and some good. I'm bagged so enough for now, later

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