quinnzblog: Red Buoy

As of the Popoia Race, the local swimming community is officially into the outdoor season. The Outrigger Canoe Club hosts a race in a couple weeks, and the North Shore Swim Series starts after that. Then there is the Waikiki Rough Water, and for the hardcore, the Double Roughwater.

Brian, a friend of mine from the University of Hawaii Masters group, and I have started training outside instead of doing the usual pool swim. We did our second swim together today.

We started at the Kaimana Hotel near the foot of Diamond Head at about six in the morning. The plan was to swim the length of Waikiki, around the Ala Wai buoy marker and then about a third of the way back to the Shorebird. That was the plan.

Brian and I swim at different speeds, so we staggered the start. The first time I see Brian is forty-five minutes later when we are rounding the red buoy. He starts tapping my feet. When you are half a mile off the coast in pitch-blue water rounding a buoy bigger than a Volkswagen Beetle and something yanks at your feet, you notice it. It was Brian, so we stopped for a little chat. The subject: his car key.

The key for the car Brian parked at the finish, was still in my car, which was parked back at the start. The swim just got a little longer. We decided to swim about halfway back, to the Sheraton, get out and then run from there back to the start.

It's pretty shallow coral there so it took a while, (swim, scull, float, swim) to make it to the beach. We walked for a few minutes and then broke out into a run. Both of us, barefoot, and in racing suits. I wore a 'drag' suit over my racer, but still.

Anyway, we made it back to my car by twenty of eight. I got to work a little late, but it was worth the good times.

epilogue ..from a Facebook thread later today: