Racing Towards The Finish

Today marks the first time in years that the Ironman Race is being held again in Kona. During COVID it was stopped and one year held in Utah. Today the women race and Saturday the men will; having split the race rather than all be in one field of participants.

The race brings many thousands of competitors and along with them families, friends, news crews, support people, commercial vendors and volunteers. It is no wonder that many locals stay home due to the crowds. The visitors fill the hotels, B&Bs, homes, use rental cars and of course, shop. In fact, a couple days ago I was at Costco to buy supplies but the others beat me to it. There was no lettuce, salad or certain other foods desired by the runners. All sold out!

Here is a photo early this morning of the racers on the pier just before race start.

Ironman does bring with it the press and many around the world get to see and hear about our spot in the middle of the Pacific; literally the most remote places to live. Even Antarctica is closer to South America than we are to the mainland.

Ironman is not the only race here today. I have been racing to get my friends farm fully planted so that his lessor will be happy. We were *supposed* to have had his farm planted by the end of September, but it has taken a few days longer. I took the tractor over there and have been cutting the weeds which grow over 8 feet tall and are like stalks of corn. I cleared the 6 acres or so and then went back and mowed again to bring the greenery down to a couple inches. A crew (actually a local family – Father, Wife and 2 children) laid out the rows and columns with orange spray paint where the trees will be planted. Then beginning Saturday the guy will come with his punch to break up the rock and make holes for the trees. The trees we will plant are already a year old or more and a few already had a coffee cherry or two on them. There still will be at least 2 years before a meaningful crop will be had. Still, the hole punching will go pretty quick and so too the planting. Into the holes will go some dirt, fertilizer and the tree. Within a couple of weeks we will need to place a plastic pipe around each tree to eliminate workers hitting the trunks when they weed whack. So with this race, we are still a bit behind.

Here is part of the farm after my cutting the grass the firs time and before the second trim to make it look better.