Ho'ala Training Swim

The alarm clock rings at 5:30 am, almost reminding of a normal working or weekday in Mainz, when it's time to go to work again, or when you have to be at the university at 8:00 am and still want to be active before that.

Quite early, but we have a lot planned for today and the early start to the day makes it much easier. After a quick breakfast, this time not outdoors but indoors, we head down to Kona, park the car and walk to the world-famous pier. There, we find a VIP spot on the front row of the wall, let our legs dangle over the sea and watch the spectacle. Gradually, the athletes swim out about 200 meters to the starting line... A wild bustle that you just have to see. In the meantime, the sun rises and gives everything even more shine... We are deeply moved by a woman with paraplegia who also participates in this swimming event and is carried into the water by her trainer/escort, and then appears among the swimmers like one of many athletes. At 7:00 am sharp, the starting signal is given, although many of the total of about 650 people have not yet made it to the official starting line.

https://vimeo.com/364709869

But now it's time to go full throttle for them, even though the time only counts from crossing the starting line. We stay at our position for a while, until we then go to the finish line, which is located in a different place today than the start in 6 days at the World Championship. From here, we have a clear view of the first swimmers who cross the finish line after a good 46 minutes.

About 3 minutes later, a second group follows with significantly more athletes, including the first woman, whom we of course honor with special applause. So we stand at the finish line for quite a while and watch the swimmers coming in, simply an experience and one can imagine to some extent what will be going on here in a week....

Afterwards, I also have swimming on the program, although not in the open ocean. We spend the rest of the morning at the idyllic Turtels Beach, writing postcards, reading and relaxing, and some triathletes also join us. They deserve it! The perfect place to escape the colorful hustle and bustle around Kona for a moment.

In the afternoon, we go snorkeling again at Kahala'u Beach Park, where the underwater world appears completely different in the afternoon sun than in the early morning hours. Here, I have the pleasure of encountering a stingray - these 'sea creatures' glide a few meters away from me. I have no idea if these are dangerous specimens, but I better make my way back to the shore.

On the way back, a huge rainbow shines in front of us, so we just have to stop and take some photos! We then end the evening at home with us, watching the photos and videos after the sunset and reflecting on this eventful day. After all, you don't experience something like this every day or every year, and we are always grateful to be able to be a part of it.....