» kona Yesteryear Remembered

Back in 1996, my wife and I took a week long vacation to Kona, Hawaii. We were there for no other reason except to get some much needed rest & relaxation.

We decided to venture out of the resort for a bit, and we stumbled upon a running race which we soon found out was part of the Ironman Triathlon. For anyone reading this post that doesn’t know anything about the Ironman Triathlon, it is a grueling competition which consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and a marathon run or 26.2 miles. To top it off, the majority of this is done during the heat of the day and in Hawaii, with the high humidity, it could get unbearable.

They had tables setup along the race route that acted as cooling stations for the runners. The runners would run by, grab some water to drink and/or a sponge soaked in water to squeeze over their head/body to cool themselves off.

After all of the runners had passed by, I walked to the middle of the street and picked up a souvenir from the race which was an actual sponge that one of the runners threw down on the ground after he cooled himself off. I know, it sounds gross, but I was watching and he didn’t use it to wipe his face or body, he just squeezed the water out over his head. Plus I washed it in soap and hot water, upon returning to our place.