Personal Update & Pre Mauna Loa

I have posted a couple of times this about "Team Mango Races" that I have done, but so much has happened that has changed my life. I now have two kids. I have my own little video business. I am in better overall shape from boxing, which I haven't been able to make it to in two months, and training for and competing in Triathalons. I can't seem to trim up, I can't get myself in front of the camera to interview myself, and I have had this abnormal craving for fast food. I think it may be a pre-depression, because I am afraid I am in the same spot I have been the two previous years. NOT QUITE READY! So frustrating, I can go out and finsh a tough Triathalon, but this race is so tough, and most of the people running it are 50 lbs. lighter than me, in fact before the race this year eat a couple of these little runners to give me the extra boost to finish.

I am going to summit Mauna Loa this weekend from the longest route for training. There are three different trail systems leading to the top. I would like to do it in a day, but it is super slow to ascend, the elevation goes from 6000' to just below 14,000', it should end up being over 32 miles round trip, the cairns (rock piles) marking the trail are the same color as the surrounding rock and the trail winds in crazy directions, often you have to stand next to a cairn scan around for about 300 degrees to locate the next cairn before you can move forward. Most people turn this hike into at least a three day hike due to rugged terrain and adjusting to altitude and temperature. There are two cabins along the way, one at around 10,000' and one about a 1000' below the summit. I can't really run it, because I have to have a backpack with camping gear in case I start heading towards hypothermia because of minimal layers of clothes I wear hiking, or if I get altitude sickness. I usually am not that prone to either, but anyone is suseptable to either. And, with two kids, you want to return home at the end if the hike.