Say goodbye to 2020

Here we are, the last day of a year to forget. This time last year Pattie and I were celebrating the new year just as we have been for nearly forty years, at our friend Dr. Ric Trimillos’s condo in Waikiki watching the fireworks light up the sky. This year we will be doing the exact same thing, except we will be the only guests. The usual crowd will tune in on Zoom. That pretty much defines 2020.

This year began with what felt like an endless decent into chaos. I hope you join me in wanting to make 2021 the climb out of the abyss. Notice I said "to make" and not "will be." We each have a role to play in creating happiness.

I consider myself very fortunate in how little the pandemic has affected me. I’m still alive (yea!). I never got sick. I still have a job, although I sometimes work from home. Many people have not been so fortunate.

There is one thing I miss a lot. Playing in the U.H. Gamelan Ensemble. The music, and the social life. But it will still be there next year, or the one after that, just as if I had spent a couple of years studying abroad.

As for my athletic pursuits, after a precipitous nose dive during winter I managed to pull out and achieve some worthwhile goals. In July I started to participate in Ironman VR races, culminating in completing an Ironman 70.3 in August. I had been training as if I were doing Kona, and was delighted when the Ironman organization decided to honor what is known as Kona week -- the week leading up to the World Championship -- with a full Ironman virtual race. The fact that I did it just goes to show what can happen when we don’t act our age.

While all that was going on I decided to become a coach. I set up my website, I got my state excise tax licence, and I completed USA Triathlon Level 1 certification. I am putting off ordering a custom kit until I have a few paying customers. All in good time.

This was a year to deal with a couple of health issues. I got my heart fixed up so it does not freak out on long runs, and I got special glasses that fixed my double vision problem. My active side is so much happier. If only I could do something about my skin.

So far my 2021 plan looks exactly like how 2020 ended up. Training for Ironman 70.3 Hawaii in June, and Kona in October. I predict both will be virtual, if anything. I keep getting this romantic notion (call it a crazy idea) to reproduce the original Ironman course. (The first three Ironman races were held on Oahu before moving to Hawaii Island.) There are a lot of reasons not to do that, but it is fun not to act our age.

I have been and will continue to use my training as an experiment in how to train as a senior athlete. I rely heavily on the work of Joe Friel, in particular his groundbreaking book Fast After 50, but recently have uncovered a small but energetic women’s movement devoted to the same topic. Dr. Stacy Sims in particular is doing really useful work in this area. The way I look at it, I plan to coach senior men and women, so the more I know about women the better. As Stacy puts it, women are not small men.

What else happened in 2020? Oh yeah, I grew a beard. If we call it a COVID beard I will have to shave it off someday, so let’s just call it what it is, hair that still grows.