Dunstan in Hawaii - Part 1

I flew in to Honolulu yesterday, in the process crossing the equator and the international date line, which meant that I had 2 Thursdays! I flew out of Sydney at 2030 and arrived in Hi, USA on Thursday morning at 1030. I’m here until Monday, watching the Olympic distance worlds on Sunday where my good friends Ben Wearing and Phil Dove are going to tear it up, and then heading to Kona, over on ‘the big island’ ahead of my big race on Saturday 15th.

So far all is good, had my fingerprints and photo taken at immigration as part of US ‘homeland security’, 'cause remember, the world IS a safer place now. On ya GWB! I caught the shuttle bus across to the quaint little (pink!) hotel in Waikiki where I’m staying with Phil. Took my bike out of the box where It was securely packed in bubble wrap and polystyrene and reassembled it straight away. Having all of the tools and plenty of time made it a very satisfying and pleasurable experience!


The Royal Grove is a few minutes from the beach. As Piers had told me, it has ideal surf for beginners. The floor drops REALLY gradually, which means that the waves keep going forever. Long enough to actually stand up and steer the board. The place is also really mellow; kids, old guys, locals, holidaymakers, all enjoying the beach and connecting with the surf. I needed to do something to loosen up and feel alive after a busy day of packing and a reasonable flight so Phil Joined me for a quick swim in the surf. We caught a few waves and caught up with each other and headed back for some food with John Mergler. John is an extreme endurance athlete with many Ironmen races under his belt, including 6x Kona, so another great person to be staying with.

Phil really liked my bike and my umbrella! My photo of the day...


Today (Friday) we rode a 40km lap of the bike course and jogged the 5km run loop. The roads are smooth as, 95% of the course is dead flat and there is likely to be a ‘strong headwind out, fast tailwind back’ scenario. That actually sounds like a similar set of parameters to next weekend if you drop the ‘flat’ part and scale it up!

Well that’s it for now. I’m fully in chilled out spectator mode, looking forward to my last significant run tonight and happier than Larry. Hope to post some pictures soon and hope to write again from Honolulu. Bye for now,

Dunstan