by Coach Al Linsky
After an uneventful flight, we arrived on Maui in the early evening. Coach Jerry and Coach Al went to get the rental cars (minivans actually) while everyone else went to baggage claim. With everything packed up we went to look for a place to eat. It wasn't as easy as we expected and we ended up in a food court at a nearby shopping center. The food wasn't so great, but we were tired and hungry and in no mood to keep searching.
We then made the drive to Kihei to check in at Kamaole Sands. The rooms were palatial. I guess they didn't have the rooms we reserved so they upgraded us. Wow! Full kitchens, spiral staircases, two bathrooms, big screen tv's. Hey, coach, can we stay longer?
We got up early and had breakfast in Coach's room. Coach Jerry and Coach Susan had gone out shopping for all sorts of goodies the night before so we all sat around for some breakfast before the meet.
We then piled into the vans for the drive over to Seabury Hall. Navigator Susan did a great job getting us there (as she did throughout the trip) and we made it with plenty of time for looking over the course and warm up.
I don't know about anyone else, but I felt like I was about to witness the heavyweight championships!
It was a small field but there was a lot of talent in it. The JV's and Varsity ran together. Haley Grossman (Seabury) took the lead, which considering this was her home course, was probably welcomed by our top runners. Jenna, Kimmy, Maile and Amelia all stayed close and wouldn't let her get away from them. The Kamehameha girls also stayed close, but a little further back.
At the finish it was Haley holding on with a very good time of 19:24. Jenna was right on her tail, followed by Kimmy and Maile. Two Kamehameha (Oahu then Maui) girls followed, then Amelia at 20:15. Kamehameha Oahu rounded out the rest of the top 10, except for Lea Lundblad (Seabury) at number 10. Lea had a rough day due to ankle and illness problems.
Leyna, Amy and Alyssa were a little further back.
It was close, 35-39, but Kamehameha won this round.
Kimmy was running as a JV so she won the JV race with Phoebe (2nd), Valerie (4th) and Miranda (5th).
Seabury then hosted a wonderful potluck for all the runners. This was a wonderful meet hosted by some very nice people.
Having filled up on some great food, we drove back to the hotel to clean up for some "shopping". We now had three minivans as Caren Esaki had taken a morning flight to join us at Seabury. She also brought some much needed Gatorade as Coach Jerry had a small disaster with an exploding cooler.
So after getting cleaned up at the hotel, we headed over to the airport area for some shopping. The girls went from store to store, including some time at Border's. Hey, they are 'Iolani girls remember? I also spent a lot of time at Border's. But since I kept falling asleep I figured I better walk around before I got kicked out. By this time, Coach Jerry had had enough shopping too so we got together for some fun XC talk.
We decided on Aunty Pasto's for supper. I had never been there but had heard good things about it. It turned out to be a good choice as the food was excellent. The quantities were enormous, though, so we had lots of leftovers to bring back to the hotel.
Of course, no matter how large the portions were, we had no trouble polishing off an ice-cream birthday cake for Leyna's 16th birthday!
On the way home, the girls in my van decided they wanted to watch a video. No problem, I said, we'll just find a video rental store. HAH! It wasn't that easy. Long story, too long. Let's just say that it took us an hour and a half to get that movie. The girls said they liked it so it was worth it.
We decided on a late wake up call to give the girls some extra sleep. This allowed me to go exploring, camera in hand, with the nice early morning light.
After a big breakfast at Denny's, we checked out of the hotel and headed for Kapalua, home of the State Championships in November. We met up with Dennis Nakamura, the Lahainalua XC coach who gave us a wonderful tour of the course. You can read more about this at
www.usatf-hi.org.
We stayed at Kapalua about one hour, then needed to get moving for our afternoon flight back to Honolulu. First, though, we took a little side trip to 'Iao Needle. Very nice.
As our flight time neared we needed to make one more stop. Crispy Creme! I thought only Val was going to get some, but I saw a lot of boxes as we loaded up for the trip to the airport!
Next time we go to Maui it will be for States! What a great trip.
