Monday evening... first blog at last!!

Preface
I will start this blog with a short overview of what happened to me before leaving for Hawaii. In February a stress fracture in my leg made it impossible to run for 2 months. As a result, I could not participate in 3 races that had been planned originally in my calendar. Today this is all a long time ago and completely forgotten. You also should understand that it did not cause an inferior form for my running in Hawaii, but at that time it really felt as a false start of the year.

Instead of starting my season in South Africa, I actually started it in the Marc Herremans Classic in Antwerp. I finished second in a race that I thought to be only moderate. A few weeks later, I started in the full Ironman of lake Placid and finished (only) third. Again I was not really pleased with my performance and hence I insisted with my trainer to go really deep in the training sessions leading to Hawaii.

The training camp in Font Remeu was a really tough one with long bike and running stages , but I managed to digest them very well and I felt good about it. We had great expectations for the Half Ironman in Monaco, beginning of September. Unfortunately I had to quit the race because of bike problems, after I fell in a slippery turn a few miles away from the finish. I felt bad because I had not been able to finish the race, but I felt good about my performance.

The last stopover on my way to Hawaii was in Lanzarote. It became a good final training camp with a focus on long bike legs. Five days after coming back from Lanzarote, I took my plane to Kona, Hawaii, accompanied by my wife Sofie, daughter Tille and Stijn De Meulemeester. It became a long journey with a brave little baby, delayed flights, a storm before take-off, followed by a lot of turbulence, tough immigration and other controls, very little 'leg room' and then finally... Hawaii.

I don’t know how comes, but once I step onto this island, something changes in me. I become quieter and i feel a certain energy that I do not feel elsewhere. This really feels as my second home. When I sense the humidity and the heat, coming from the airplane, I change into a better athlete.

Marc Saenen
You will not be able to guess who was awaiting us in the Kona airport: Marc Saenen (a Belgian running a travel agency in Hawaii and who had been organizing all our previous trips)!

He was there with the traditional Hawaiian flowers to put around our neck He helped us to bring our luggage to the condo and to install us. He even rented a bed for Stijn... He was extremely friendly and said 'see you shortly' when he finally left. After he was gone, we never heard back from him anymore. After receiving alarming messages from the home front, saying that he had not reserved anything for more than 40 other Belgians, just taken the money and disappeared, we got suspicious and went to check whether the reservations for our second condo (which we always take a little further from the city center for the week before the race) were really made. This was not the case, so we were robbed by Marc, just like may others. There is very little we could do, so we had to accept the new situation and do something to recover.

Sofie spent a full day, looking for another condo. We ended up in a 'surfer's house', close to the ocean and with 4 bedrooms. It is not as luxurious as the other one, but it is nice to have a spacious place where everyone has his own spot and where we can quietly prepare for the race. It was not easy to still find something that close to the race day, so we are happy that we found a solution. The move to the new house was planned for last Sunday. However that Sunday proved to be a 'shocking Sunday'.

Earthquake
Around 7.10 am I was literally 'shocked' out of my bed. A really big earthquake was hitting the Hawaiian Islands. The whole building was moving back and forth. It takes a while before you understand what is going on, when you are so rudely awaken. I was perplexed and did not know what to do. Finally it was Stijn, who shouted that I had to run outwards. I was panicking a little bit and while I ran out in my boxer's short, I wondered whether Sofie and Tille would be safe. These two were not in the condo.

Tille always wakes up early and Sofie then takes her for a little walk. They either go to the ocean for a swim or to Lava Java for a cup of thee. Luckily they had gone for a cup of thee when the earthquake started. Sofie put Tille back in the buggy and ran away from the buildings towards a little grass park. The stayed there until it all was over. I went to look for them and found them unharmed, while they returned to our condo. Tille probably has not realized what happened, but Sofie was panicking a little. She had been afraid that something would have happened to Tille. But in the end, we were all fine and thus could start packing and moving.

The move
What we thought would be a simple move, ended up a little more complicated, because of the earthquake. Apparently a water tube was broken, resulting in a 'watery' living room. The rental agency said they would look for a solution and asked us to wait in the condo. So we waited and waited and waited... There were 3 options: look for another house, stay in the original house but with one less bathroom to use, or try to repair everything that Sunday, so that we still could move in the evening and use the full house.

Meanwhile Stijn and I still had to finish a swim training from Saturday. That Saturday the swimming pool had been closed, because it needed an 8 hour cleaning cycle, after somebody had pooped in it. On Sunday morning, we tried again, but then it was closed because of the earthquake. Finally in the afternoon we were able to finish our swim training. Meanwhile the rental company had managed to repair everything in the house and finally at 6 pm we moved.

Car accident
It is now Monday. Normally everything should be fine now. My father, Pieter and Claude managed to get safely into Kona and today the atmosphere in the house was excellent.

But apparently we did not get our total portion of misery yet. This afternoon, a person working for the travel agency Hanes tours, has driven into the back of our car. I wasn't there, but Sofie was driving with my father and Tille as passengers. What a pity for Tille: she became 10 months old today and in that short time she has been robbed by Marc Saenen, survived an earthquake and now she was in a car accident.

Luckily it was nothing serious and everybody is OK. While it was nothing serious and the other driver admitted that he was at fault, our rental car company told us that we were obliged to go to the police to file a report anyway. We didn’t know that and so, tonight we had a policeman visiting to take down a report for the insurance. Now that this has been handled, I hope this was the last piece of bad luck for this trip, so that i can concentrate on the most beautiful race of the year, next Saturday: The Ironman Hawaii!!!