Counting by Saturdays

Three Saturdays ago, I had a lunch that changed a lot of things. I already knew that Hayashi’s You Make the Roll Sushi is the best place to get sushi (Ever. Anywhere.) But now I am fairly convinced that it’s magic. And I have to keep getting weekly Ninja Rolls with special aioli sauce or the spell might be broken.

But that’s another post for another time. The point is, I am now counting my life in Saturdays.

Two Saturdays ago, one of my little brother’s best friends got married. I watched this kid grow up next door and both of our families have gone through a whole lot of life together. It made me feel old and happy and proud to see my little brother stand by his friend in dress clothes and Filipino sash. (Yes. Sam wore it and rocked it.) And it made me feel young and sad and humbled to hear my dad tell this new sweet couple what marriage really meant. In sickness and in health, for better or for worse. Both giving 100% because if one person has a bad day, you’re still covered. And then we dried our tears and ate more Hawaiian-Filipino food than I thought existed on the island.

So handsome.

Last Saturday, my nursing school friend Ellen came to visit for the weekend. Ellen is the first friend I made at the start of my RN-crazy-year. We discovered quickly that we were both tall and had names that start with “E” and we better be friends since everyone thought we were the same person. Past that, we also discovered we both had parents with cancer. She lost her dad, I lost my mom. We both liked to run and eat and read textbooks at the beach. And we spent about the same amount of time on studying for exams. Which in my opinion is the exact right amount. So this weekend we studied minimally, ate maximally, and went to the beach as much as possible.

Friends forever.

This Saturday will be the first social event of the 20s and 30s demographic of Living Stones Church. There are about thirty of us that fit the two decade span. Some single, some married. All very cool. And we have done enough together to warrant a cool name. Kainos. It’s Greek for “fresh” and “new” and I can’t help hearing it in Mr. Portakalos’ voice from My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL9whwwTK6I

Right?

So, if you are in Kona this Saturday and you are between 20 and 39 and 11/12ths, get in touch. It will be fresh and fun I promise.

Happy Tuesday everybody. I’m going for my weekly magic Ninja roll.

The Dekatriathon

I’ve been missing my Super Runner Friends on Oahu that used to let me draft off of their super powers as they ran 5 miles like it ain’t no thing. They’re the ones that are running marathons in the double digits before thirty-years-old. I’m the one that has yet to break double digit mileage in one day.

Audrey is the leader of the pack when it comes to running.

The 8 mile Great Aloha Run is my one and only racing achievement and this year’s race is right around the corner. But this year, I’m using it for training. For a Half Marathon. Which I wish they would give its own name. Why diminish it with “Half”? It’s 13.1 miles! Let’s look up the Greek and call it…a Dekatriathon. Oh, I like that.

I have yet to find the Dekatriathon that I want to try. There’s one in Hilo on March 18 and the Wahine “Half-Marathon” in Honolulu on April 1. Their website gives me pause. Check it out. That’s a whole lot of feathers and tiaras. But it did have my name on it.

Well, most of my name.

On Tuesday, I ran with my Super Triathalon Trainer friend, Emilee. She can swim for days and is a rock-star on wheels but is just back at running after a stress-fracture in her foot. We took it easy on a grassy three mile run and she let me pretend to be Super Runner. She’s so nice to me like that.

So yesterday I decided to see how far I could go by running a fun little loop of 6 miles, a lot of which is downhill. I did it to the tune of some really lame “club cardio” music and went over opioid pharmacology in my head.

Bad Romance is NOT the correct soundtrack for panaoramic views of the coast.

I think if I switch up the tunes, keep up the training with Emilee, and keep memorizing drugs along the way, I got this dekatriathon in the bag.

I’m only in it for the Participation Ribbons.

Now that I am a registered nurse, I am not busy at all. As several helpful people have pointed out, I have only had my license for two weeks so the jobless state should not be bothering me yet. And for the most part it is not bothering me at all. I focus on classes, some volunteering, job-searching, spending time with the family, and exercise.

A lot of exercise.

I know, I know. As my good friend Audrey would say, “my life is so hard”. My entry today is very Audrey-esque because she writes a runner blog that will inspire you like it has inspired me.

Yesterday I spent some motivation money on running gear since I’ve been building up my mileage. I’m not a competitor so I need to do what I can to keep going. Check out the neat-o arm bands for my iPhone.

I splurged on last season's Asics GT2160. Not sure I've ever known my shoe model before.

Running and I have a spotty history. Twin sister and I started running at 14 because we were bored. We had just returned from Kona after three months in Asia with our family. It was still a new town for us, we had very few friends, and it was a hot summer to spend inside our little two bedroom cottage. I remember Dad telling us we should try to run down to the Kona Pier and he would pick us up there.

We started running those 2 or 3 miles every day and we kept up the tradition through the teenage years. We ran to outrigger paddling practice. We ran to the Old Airport Beach Park for soccer practice. Somehow Sara got skinny and I got, let’s just say “muscular”. By the time I was 19, I decided I hated running and I did it very sporadically through college. And dropped 20 pounds. What the heck. Running, you mock me.

But, when the mid-twenties became the late twenties, I realized that this new found metabolism wasn’t going to last forever so I hit the pavement again. And this time I loved it. Mostly because I have so many friends that run and it became social…which is one of my favorite things! (Have I told you how much I love people?) Audrey especially helped me to learn to love running on Oahu with all of the coastal areas and pretty hills in Manoa. And now that I am back in Kona, I am running the old twin sister routes. Good times.

But now, since I have a ridiculous amount of free time (the calm between the storms, people), I have also picked up another old love. Swimming.

When I was in elementary and middle school in Florida, we were on a summer swim team for three years. Running was Dad’s doing. Swimming was Mom’s. She had great memories of her swim team days and signed us up gleefully for our own memories.  The Oviedo Barracudas. We were awesome. By the second season, the Barley girls were famous. Because Sara was fast and ribbon-winning, Megan was the only one in her age bracket so the whole pool cheered her little one-person races, and Erin was the sister that made lots of friends and got participation ribbons. That team was a cool club of little kids with ill-fitting swim caps, even iller-fitting speedos and college-aged coaches.

And then, since we loved swimming so much, Mom signed us up for the “YEAR ROUND” swim team. The Blue Dolfins. kicked. my. butt. All of the sudden, the cool kids were the ones who trained for Junior Olympics, wore multiple old suits for “drag training” and showered in the locker room. I still remember trying to squeeze two suits on and getting into the pool without bending at the waist. We were expected to swim 1,000 yard warm-ups and then sprints on the clock. I can hear Coach Dale yelling out “On the 30…go!” “Get that bottom up, scissor those legs…what kind of flip turn was that?” My flip turns usually mutated into the kind that took the least amount of energy so that I could continue swimming without being the lame-o that hung on the lane lines part way through practice. And our wonderful parents humored us by letting us shower in the locker rooms even though we lived ten minutes away.

The really great thing is, that swim team not only humbled my bad Barracuda self, it gave me life-long swimming skills that I have never forgotten. I haven’t been on a swim team since (unless you count a semester long Advanced Swimming class in college) but it is a skill set that I have in my exercise arsenal. I even did an ocean swim with some great ladies who have now talked me into trying out the Master’s swim team. I know full well that I won’t keep up but that’s OK. They can kick my butt too.

I may run the occasional 10K but I’m not a competitor. I’m in it for the friends and the participation ribbons. And hopefully to avoid getting too “muscular”. So,thanks Mom. And Dad. And Audrey. And all of my other exercise-y friends. Because of you, when the late-twenties become the early thirties, maybe I’ll be ready.

If you want to come along, I will get you a ribbon too.