Kona race week, Paula is calm and the boys are not, washboard gravel roads, backing out on a race with a friend, and more!

Eric Lagerstrom (0:00)

Hey, everyone, welcome to That Triathlon Life Podcast. I'm Eric Lagerstrom.

Nick Goldston (0:03)

I'm Nick Goldston.

Eric Lagerstrom (0:04)

And that is it.

Nick Goldston (0:05)

Holy crap, we are here in Hawaii, big island, Kona, big vibes, big feelings, big expectations.

Eric Lagerstrom (0:12)

And everybody's left now because Paula's not here.

Nick Goldston (0:16)

Sorry, it's just the boys again this week. Paula is currently getting a massage.

Eric Lagerstrom (0:20)

Yep, and that is the first time I think she's, well, we did a little bit of training this morning. She got out and got to a little swim in and got a ride on the trainer because going up and down the highway can be a little intense, but has been doing a bunch of media stuff.

The amount of media stuff is absolutely outrageous.

Nick Goldston (0:36)

It's been nonstop.

Eric Lagerstrom (0:37)

We were recording this on Wednesday, so luckily everything was pretty much front-loaded today. We just did the donut run, which we will get into, but Thursday, Friday, totally chill, maximum laying downtime.

Nick Goldston (0:47)

Okay, so I think it would be fun for people who have a little bit of FOMO to give them a, like what has it really been like?

Eric Lagerstrom (0:55)

It's a zoo. I was actually just talking with Ralph Dunning on the phone for the last 20 minutes.

Nick Goldston (1:00)

Name drop, no big deal.

Eric Lagerstrom (1:02)

If you know, you know. Why we're a little bit late on our start in this, but there's a lot of energy, but I guess the one thing that was like, the only thing that has not lived up to expectation is the Expo.

Nick Goldston (1:13)

The beach front side of the Expo is pretty freaking cool when you look down. But when we first walked in, we both kind of had this feeling of like, really, is this it?

Eric Lagerstrom (1:21)

Where's the rest of it? Which I think might just be, it just feels like it's more spread out. Like it's less concentrated. Like when Republic and PTN have like gotten a house, it's a few, but that's like half a mile away. And then there's like a ceramic speed thing that's like a half a mile away. So I think it feels a bit spread out to me or something. I don't know, I've just been musing on that because that's the only thing that hasn't felt like wow factor otherwise.

Nick Goldston (1:46)

You're right, you're right. And I think we're comparing it to something like, whatever, Marbella, that had a sand expo. There's just such a vibe.

Eric Lagerstrom (1:55)

11 out of 10

Nick Goldston (1:55)

But here, when you go into town, it seems like there's triathlon banners on every building. It's like Ventum or Ceramic Speed.

Eric Lagerstrom (2:05)

Every coffee shop is wrapped.

Nick Goldston (2:06)

Yes, exactly. And that, I think if you take away the expectations from just the expo, then you kind of still get this immersive feeling of, oh my God, yeah, the whole triathlon world is watching.

Eric Lagerstrom (2:17)

It's like triathlon town. Yes.

Nick Goldston (2:20)

Yeah. And it's cool. There's, it's, I think it's even more of a homogenous triathlon thing throughout town than I was expecting.

It's fully takes over every crevice of the town.

Eric Lagerstrom (2:35)

Yeah. Sorry, locals.

Nick Goldston (2:37)

Yeah. I can see why if you're local and you are not directly benefiting from the economy that it brings, that it's a huge problem.

Eric Lagerstrom (2:46)

Yeah. It's crazy.

Nick Goldston (2:48)

And people are just running down the street all times a day, up and down a leaky drive, biking down middle of the street. But it's cool.

Eric Lagerstrom (2:55)

Camera crews. There's like 700 dudes with cameras on gimbals running around. There were like four drones flying over the swim area as we went swimming the other day.

Nick Goldston (3:04)

This is your fault. This is partially your fault. No.

Eric Lagerstrom (3:06)

You created this. No, no. It's Talbot, Kona series.

Nick Goldston (3:09)

You're right.

Eric Lagerstrom (3:10)

That's the one. I've been on YouTube, but I've done no Kona things. So I don't know. It's just interesting to see.

It feels much more performance-oriented than Lake Placid. Lake Placid felt like a really overgrown local energy sort of a thing, and this feels like there's a bunch of people here who are here to be the fastest, and they're trying to win their age group, and that is priority numero uno.

Nick Goldston (3:35)

Yep.

And for people who are still listening to the podcast, but are mainly interested in how Paula is doing, I would say she's doing freaking great.