How can I make an entry a little more interesting when I tend to visit the same ideas or touch on the same issues? I had a bunch of hits yesterday and I hadn’t written an entry in about a week. So here ya go. Mahalo to those of you eager for something interesting and visit lavagal.net.
Lately I’ve been training with the Try Fitness Hawaii Tinman group. Try Fitness is for women, but lately someone’s husband has been training with us. I kinda wish he’d go away. It’s like guys who enter the Hawaii Pacific Health Women’s 10k. Geeze. I don’t care if you are her coach, does a coach swim in the next lane in the Olympics? Give your gal a chance to shine on her own. And if she can’t, don’t set the alarm.
Yesterday while I was running 15k in the Hibiscus Half Marathon, my Try Fitness team mates cheered me on as I climbed Kahala Avenue near Triangle Park. They also cheered me along Diamond Head Road, and when I was approaching the finish along Kapiolani Park. It is such an amazing mental lift to get that kind of encouragement. I really appreciated their looking out for me. My first and last miles were faster than the rest of my run. The rest of my run was just as consistent. I’m learning how to settle down and keep moving. My stats. I always forget to turn off my Garmin at the right time, so this one is three seconds longer than the official race results.
So here’s a funny thing. A lot of mango trees in East Oahu are heavy with fruit. When I am out running or riding my bicycle, I want to stop so bad and pick them up off the ground, but I don’t have a bag, and I also get the most horrific mango rash of anyone I know. Despite the joy I get from eating them, I need someone else to prepare them for me. Sometimes I do what I shouldn’t. When I suck the seed my face goes on fire. It happens while I’m eating the mango, sucking the seed, and I know I shouldn’t but I do it anyway. Resisting the urge to stop and pick up a couple of bruised mangoes means I’m not setting myself up for a bad rash. But if anyone has them and looking to unload them, think of me! Once peeled and seeded, I like to make salsa, eat them with sticky rice and sweetened condensed milk, sliced over ice cream, and made into mango bread, with coconut!
When we ride these days along East Oahu, we always encounter mangoes. This is what you might hear when the Try Fitness gals are riding by:
“Car back!”
“Bus back!”
“Runner!”
“MANGO! MMMmmmmmmmangoooooooo!”
Mango is a bitch to clean off a bicycle.
Today John and I went for a little ride to Diamond Head and back. The wind is howling. We took turns pulling each other back to Hawaii Kai on Kalanianaole Highway. I couln’t wait to get home.
Relaxing. Happy Memorial Day from this veteran lucky enough to serve her country from a computer room during her entire military career.
