2010 Coming to an end..

Well it has been a great year. 2010 was a heck of a lot better than 2009. Here is what happened to me in 2010:
 I picked up a new sport: TRIATHLON.. wow.. What a big difference a year will make. I've basically spent the whole year learning what my body can and can't do. I've build a solid base for 2011 and am so ready to see some major improvements in 2011.

Met a lot of new friends: Between joining a swim class, participating in all kinds of different races, becoming a regular at Bike Works and Big Island Running Co. I've meet some pretty amazing people that I wouldn't have met elsewhere.

Shared another year with my lovely wife: It seems like each year just gets better and better. I have been so blessed to be with such a wonderful person. It is such a blast spending each day with your best friend in the world. Laura has made me a better son, father, brother, friend, and husband. Its great to have someone who knows how to challenge you day in and day out.

Watched Mekhi grow up even faster: Who would have thought that watching a child grow, day by day, would be such a blast. I never could have imagined loving someone or thing as much as I love the little guy. It makes you cherish every day you have with them that much more.

 Made him a little brother along the way: February Mekhi will have a little brother Easton. Man I thought that this year was a busy year. HA next year is going to be insane. Two boys.. what did I get myself into now?!?! Kidding, having another little guy running around the house just means twice as much excitement!

Learned a lot: I have also been blessed with the opportunity to work for a Fletcher Jones Dealership under a General Manager that has given me the opportunity to grow in the business. Marty has given me the ability to make some tough decisions and has backed me up all the way. He has given me the confidence in my abilities to run a dealership and has taught me so much, not only about the car business, but also about life.

Made some mistakes: At times I've let my obsessive compulsive gene get the best of me. I have been guilty of letting the triathlon stuff, and work take away from the precious time that I should be spending with my family. I have been making it an effort to be a better husband and Father.

Got a little closer with God: Luckily I have a Mother that calls me every Sunday to see if I attended Church and a wife that always tells me that I'd better be done working out or racing, in time to sneak in the back row at Church. I started doing a daily devotional and have been reading some scripture along with the devotional each day. What a difference this has made in my life. There's a Kirk Franklin song called "Looking for You." It basically sums up what I've been going through over the past five years. Blessed... I'm absolutely blessed!

2011... Bring it..

And the weekend is over..

Nothing like a solid weekend in Hawaii. I can't even begin to explain how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family, and a job in which my co-workers are like brothers (and Uncles for the old guys, Stan and Dave) haha. During football season we turn on all the TV's in the dealership and put them on different college football games on Saturdays. One TV usually has the Notre Dame game for me. One has USC on for Keola. One has Iowa on for Dave. One has Tennessee on for Ray, and the other has University of Hawaii on for Richard and Stan. Saturdays are usually pretty laid back here at the dealership. In the Mainland everyone is out car shopping on the weekends, but here in Kona everyone is at the beach in the mornings. So we get to enjoy the mornings watching football and eating pizza, and then spend the afternoon busy selling cars. Then on Sundays we're closed so we all get to enjoy time with our families. Couldn't work for a better company.

This weekend, with no football games on to watch, we all gathered around the big screen tv in the service lounge and watched the Ford Ironman World Championship on NBC. It is held here in Kona every October and then they air it on tv in December each year with all the interviews and a story line. It was a great show this year and was even more cool for me, because I've have been doing triathlons and know to an extent what the guys are going through. Its also pretty neat being here in Kona because you are able to meet so many of the Pro Triathletes. Last week I met Chris Lieto for the first time. I met up with him yesterday at Pine Trees and did some surfing. Super humble and down to earth guy.

Another cool thing about Sundays in Kona is that you can usually find some kind of local race event to participate in. Yesterday was the Jingle Bell 5k run, which was a disaster for me, but still fun to be out there. After the race I met up with the family and we went over to Old A's for some family pictures and then busted out the grills and cooked breakfast while the kids played in the water. Mekhi is loving every minutes of the time he gets to spend with his cousins. He usually spends most of his days just hanging out with Laura, but now that our nephews are here, he actually has someone new to play with. From the beach we headed to Costco to grab some groceries for dinner. We had Marty and his wife Chris over for dinner. We just got a new computer and I needed some help downloading all the new stuff for it and getting it up and running. I am not very good with computers so I was nice to have him show me how to work some of the stuff. His services for dinner seemed like a fair trade. haha.

All in all it was a nice great weekend. Family, Friends and Food... Can't beat that!

Runnin' Runnin' and Runnin' Runnin'...

The past few months I've really been focusing on my run. This week is the Peaman 6th Annual Jingle Bell 5k Run. It will be the first race that I've had where I can compare how far along I've come in a year. Last year the Jingel Bell 5k was the first 5k that I had ran. My time back in 2009 was 23:44 which was a 7:38 per mile pace. The most recent 5k that I've ran was the PATH 5k back in October. I ran a 20:39 with a 6:38 per mile pace. So in less than a year I have shaved off 1 minute per mile at the 5k distance, and this weekend I'm looking forward to shaving off a few more seconds. I have been trying to run a 19 minute 5k and I'm thinking what better way to end the year than to do it this weekend.

This was the first race I did.. Thanksgiving Day 2009 3.5 mile Run

December 2009 Jingle Bell 5k Run - 23.44

February Team Mango Triathlon (1/2 mile swim, 15 mile bike, 6.2 mile run)

March 29, 2010 Lavaman Waikoloa Triathlon (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run)

April 2010 Peaman Carboman 10 mile run

Hawaii Ironman 70.3 (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) 6hrs. 3 min.

October training day 16 mile run..

Alot of people have asked me why I started doing triathlons. I was always one of the top athletes in each sport I played. After moving out to Hawaii I quickly became bored with th lack of talent in the baseball and basketball leagues and I needed something to challenge myself. Triathlons were something new and I knew I would have to work extremely hard to become somewhat competitive. It is a sport in which you can do alot of soul searching and find out how tough you really are.

To most it seems pretty crazy. I myself thought that people were nuts for doing Ironmans and Marathons. All I can say is don't knock it till you try it. I started just simply by running. Started with 1-3 mile runs twice a week. Then eventually started swimming. When I first started swimming I could barely make it 25 meters without stopping. Coach Steve Borowski worked with me and within 2 weeks I was swimming in masters class and doing between 1,500 to 2,000 meters each class. Then I invested in a bike and took my first ride with Sam and Jim and realized that it was a little harder than going out for a joy ride on the old Huffy. Now we do rides of 50+ miles with ease and enjoy ever minute of it.

When I started out I weighed 191 lbs. Now a year later I'm down to 163 lbs. I've lost nearly 30 lbs. in a year. I'm not going to say that Its the easiest way to loose weight, but it definitely will do the job. Don't be affraid of taking on the challenge. One thing I've learned over the past year is that each day brings on something new. Some days you're going to get out of bed and dominate the workout. Other days you're going to wake up and the workout is going to dominate you. It will humble you and yet still give you the confidence to fight through it. If you get a chance, go on youtube and search for "Jimmy Valvano Espy Speech". Watch it and listen to it. No matter what obstacles you may be facing NEVER GIVE UP, DON'T EVER GIVE UP.

 

That time of year..

Well its getting to be that time of year. 2010 is coming to an end and 2011 is a year full of promise and new beginnings. This next couple weeks bring all kinds of emotions. Right now I'm stressed, stoked and anxious all at the same time. I'm stressed, like always this time of the month, but even more so in December. In the car business we're trying to end the year with a bang and hit all kinds of projections that were set forth for us the previous year. This year has was definitely better than 2009. We sold alot more cars and made a bit more money this year as a store. Each month seems to be getting a little better and better. We aren't seeing huge gains but hopefully in 2011 we will see some significant increases in sales.

I'm stoked for the Christmas season. We have alot of family in town and its always good to see the nephews and inlaws. We haven't all been together in over 2 years so its going to be a blast over the next month and a half. I'm looking forward to playing lots of golf with Nurmi and taking the boys to the beach on my days off. And finally I'm anxious for January 1st to get here. It starts a new season of triathlon. I have a good feeling that I'm going to see some HUGE gains compared to my first season. I've built a ton of base and now its time to sharpin my game. I've been cruising over the past 3 months and just letting the body recover and taking on easier workouts along with alot of running. My run was my achilles of the 3 sports. I've seen alot of progress in my swim and bike, but have not been able to put together a solid run all year. So the past three months I've put in a ton of base and track workouts in order to get faster for the 2011 season. I have a lot more confidence in my run and actually think I will enjoy that part of the race much more this year. I will be running people down instead of being run down. Lavaman is just over 4 months away and I really want to suprise some people. I can't wait to start grinding out every workout, going to bed early and worrying about every piece of nutrition I take in. No other sport has challenged me like triathlon has.. and thats why I'm so hooked.

Storm is over and so is my cold..

Well the storm is over and there is snow on top of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa mountains. Yesterday was probably the coldest day we've had all year and we got the most rain we've probably had all year as well. Now its time for everyone to grab the trucks and head up to Mauna Kea and put as much snow in the back of the bed to drive back down the mountain to make some snowmen and have snow ball fights. I've had more that enough snow for my lifetime, but people here in Hawaii go nuts whenever there is snow up the mountain. I enjoy looking at it from the beach. I don't miss the feeling of cold wet socks or frost bit fingers one bit.
Yesterday was a perfect day to catch up on some much needed sleep. I was finally able to pass out for a few hours and let my body fight this cold. I'm back to 80% but I feel a million times better than I did yesterday. Looks like I'll be able to go for a looooong run tomorrow, to make up for skipping yesterday and today's workouts.
Until then, its time to sell some cars. Aloha..

Sleepless nights..

Its 2:30 a.m. here in Kona and I am extremely tired, but some how wide awake. I've been battling a head cold for the past four days, and nights have been the worst. You'd think between work, training and playing dad, I'd be able to sleep just fine. But for some reason sleeping has been a challenge over the past few nights. I think the longest I've been able to sleep at a given time has been an hours. I can feel my body begging me to just fall back to sleep, but I just haven't been able to. So, hopefully staring at this computer for the next few minutes will create that heavy feeling in my eyes so I can get a couple hours of rest before I have to wake up and run. I know if Luis were here right now he'd be furious knowing I was going to wake up at 5:30 and go run, knowing that I'm battling a cold. BUT he's not so its all G.
Took the day off work yesterday and got a nice early morning ride in. The weather here in Kona has been amazing. Clearest I've seen it out here since I can remember. The winds from the south have pushed the vog away over the past week and the Island has had a different feel to it. Laura's sisters and our nephews are both visiting from the Mainland so we all got together and went to Kua Bay to enjoy some sun and catch a couple waves. Its the first time that I've been in able to get in the water in the past three months and not have to think about swimming a certain distance. Was just able to relax and have some fun in the good old Pacific.
Well I think I'm going to take another crack at trying to sleep. Hopefully this has done the trick. I've tried about every remedy out there. Nothing seems to be working. Wish me luck. If no can, I may be going for my run a few hours early.

Walkerton to Kona

Got a little bored today and decided to start my own blog. Doubt many people will actually take the time to read it, but I got nothing better to do so its all good. I'm sitting in my office looking out at Hualalai mountain and thinking of how I got out here on this rock called Hawaii and how God worked in my life to get me where I am right now. Back in 2006 is when I met Laura in college. I was from the small town of Walkerton and she was from a so called small town of Kona. Kona is about 5 times the size of Walkerton, so calling it a small town is hard for me to do.
My first visit out here was to meet my future inlaws. I had to fly out over Christmas break by myself. It was only my 3rd time ever flying and my first time flying by myself. As we began our decent the pilot came on the speaker and said "If you look out the window to your left you can see the Island of Hawaii." As we got closer and closer to the Island I noticed that there was a lot of lava rock everywhere. I wasn't sure that this was the right Island. In the Mainland we picture Hawaii being this lush Island with all kinds of palm trees and beautiful flowers everywhere and all I could see was lava flows.
I instantly fell in love with this place. I finished my second semester of college and moved out here 2 weeks after baseball season was over. I spent the first month looking for a job and ended up working for Hawaiian Rugs. $1,000-$30,000 rugs? Really? These were the most expensive rugs I had ever seen. After about a month I came to the conculsion that selling rugs was not for me. I was offered a job as head technician for DirecTV and jumped at the opportunity. I paid me twice as much and I got to work outside and enjoy the tropical weather.
About 3 months into the job I did an install at a condo in Kona Sea Ridge. The client was the General Manager of the Honda dealership here in Kona. We got to talking and he asked me if I had ever thought about a career in car sales. I had always thought about being a car salesman if I wasn't able to play pro ball. It seemed pretty easy and sounded like the money was good. I talked it over with Laura and she was a bit skeptical because it was commission based. I told her I didn't want to be installing DireTV for the rest of my life and thought that selling cars could be a good move.
Jerry (the GM at Honda) hired me about 2 weeks later and I was hooked. Selling cars gave me that competitive high that I needed from playing sports all my life. Selling cars is a game between you and the customer. I instanly knew that this was the business for me and began moving my way up. Now 3 years later I'm the General Sales Manager of Big Island Honda - Kona and as I look back, I can see how God opened and closed doors for me to be where I am right now.
All my life I wanted to play pro ball and planned on doing whatever it took to make that happen. God closed that door knowing that it was not the best thing for me. He lead me from Valparaiso University to Bethel College, where I met Laura. He then brought me out to Hawaii and gave me the DirecTV job knowing I would meet Jerry creating the opportunity to work for Big Island Honda, along with a lot more series of events which moved me up in the business.
God is good and he does provide. I can honestly say that I would not be sitting here right now without him. I owe it all to him. Thats all I got for today.