Costa Rica y Nicaragua

We had a wonderful week in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We stayed at the Allegro Papagayo Resort, about 30 minutes away from Liberia Airport.



We went there at the perfect time. We almost had the whole place to ourselves.

Splendid view from our room


Breakfast


We went shopping ($90 for flip flops at the hotel!!) and visited Liberia.



Ahh shoes shoes...


Little Park in Liberia downtown



Next day, we went on a tour to Nicaragua, I really loved that place, amazing experience.

Fruit stand in Nicaragua


Hotel in Granada, Nicaragua. A beautiful colonial town. It still has the nice houses built by the Spaniards.



Con el coche, Alfredo



La comida, muy bueno


Iglesia


Volcano


We rented a car for a day and drove south from the hotel for the whole day. Visited different towns along the way.

Playa del Coco


Tamarindo - Not many Costa ricans there, it's full of americans and canadians!!


Santa Cruz - I loved this little town, it's far from the coast so there were no tourists there, only locals. It was fun to walk around.



Bought my Saprissa shirt there - Saprissa a la muerte! It's the best soccer team in Costa Rica (from San Jose)


At the University


Back at the hotel, time to relax...

by the pool




Playing pool


Futbol on the beach

My First Half IronMan

Last week-end was the Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside, north San Diego. It took Timo, Rafael, Mike and I, about 8-9 hours to drive from Sunnyvale to Oceanside.

The Half IronMan consisted of a swim (1.2 miles, 2 km), bike (56 miles, 90 km) and a run (13.1 miles, 21 km). I should have probably competed in a few olympic triathlons before moving up to the longer distance. I only have an olympic distance race under my belt. And, for other various reasons I was not able to train properly for this race because I only had about 2 months of training with a bloated stomach.

Before the race, I was a little afraid of the bike leg. I had never rode my cervelo Tri bike for more than 25 miles and the race required that I be in the aero position for 56 miles!


At 7 am, I was in the cold water. 46 minutes later, I was trying to take off the wetsuit that I had not used since my last race in November!


Swim time: 46 minutes -- Wet suit got stuck!

I had a great day on the bike. I was able to move pretty fast, to my standards. Although I should have not pushed so hard on the bike. I felt so good that I did not hold back, I gave it all.


Left, LEFT--I think he heard me


Look at the aero position baby - I am moving, I did not want Raf and Timo to catch up with me on the bike!

Bike time: 3h05min

I always hear seasoned triathletes say, the race starts on the run, well, I think I experienced that. I got off the bike feeling pretty good after a good ride. My mind was ready to push on the run (hey, havent seen Raf and Timo yet). Problem: my legs were not responding, they did not want to move. I knew the transition from bike to run took time so I keept moving hoping that it will get better, unfortunately it never did! My legs had nothing left.


I made sure I ran when I saw the photographer at least!


still moving and looking pro

I was so happy to see the finish line, I still had a little kick in the last 100 meters when I saw Shirin cheering.

Finger pointing to the sky to my Dad

Run Time: 2h37min

Overall Time: 6h37min and no cheating -- no shaved legs!

Congratulations to Raf, Mike and Timo for their incredible time!

Postrace party with Shirin, Raf, big daddy and Timo.