Koko Crater Classic

We finished our second (and final) day of filming for Hawaii Five-0 today. I think today was a bit more fun than Wednesday was, but maybe that was just because I was more prepared for the Hurry Up And Wait theme of the day. It may also have been because the scenes we filmed were just more exciting.

The first scene of the day was a triathlon swim start. Running from the beach. Which, um, was not especially fun for me after hurting my calf yesterday. I had to sort of limp it in, trying to land on my heel and not push off my toe at all. The problem really was that they had the 'swimmers' lining up toward the front of the pack... while normally I would be quite happy with that, this morning it wasn't so fun because everyone was sprinting by me before we even got to the water. It was messy. Especially because they sort of encouraged us all to swim right by the cameras (and consequently on top of each other) for special effect of what a triathlon swim start really looks like.

In reality, this wasn't so bad for most of us. I have been in much much worse. But you know who hadn't? The real Hawaii Five-0 actors. There were four of them (the diamond robbers) in this scene and the producers had them lined right up at the front with us for each take of the start. I think they were afraid before the first time we did it. Then having experienced it once, they were really afraid before the second time. Before the third time, well, one of the gals just had these freaked out wide eyes and all she could say was, "You guys are crazy!! You guys are crazy!!" and another one of the guys was asking for stunt doubles.

You know, the very worst part of any triathlon is the first 50 meters of the swim. And that was what we did over and over this morning. Good times.

Well, I was feeling pretty significant pain in my calf after filming that scene so many times (don't laugh if you see me on TV limping through the sand toward the water!). I actually sat out the next scene which involved the swim finish. I just couldn't imagine running/limping up the beach all the way to T1 while being filmed. So I was just an 'on-looker' for this part. Everyone else swam out to the first buoy, then swam/raced back in and then went through T1 like a real race. Lots of people fumbled a lot, mostly because of nerves bc of those big cameras in your face exposing every mistake you make on national television. That would be really tough. But good T1 practice!

Next scene involved biking out of T1. In this scene the good guys are trying to catch the bad guys biking out of transition, but they can't tell who the bad guys are so they randomly stop a couple of triathletes. Lucky me, I got to ride toward the front, and there's a good chance I'll actually make it onto TV with this scene because every time I rode by just as the two hot cops were running into the picture. I lost count of how many times we filmed this one. A lot.

The last scene just involved us riding circles around the parking lot. They wanted us to go fast and simulate a race, but there were too many riders and the circuit was too short to go too fast because we would catch up to the slower riders every lap... so we would hold up and wait, then race around in front of the cameras and then slow up and wait, then race in front of the cameras again. We did this for about an hour and I think we were all dizzy by the end. It was fun though to ride next to some different friends I haven't seen in a while and catch up on things. Right, Roz? ;)

Yay! Nalani and I at the start of the inagural Koko Crater Classic Triathlon! We are guessing that someone is going to put on a real triathlon called this in the next few years. I will have to race it for sure if they do!

So while all that was fun, the best part of the day for me was that my massage therapist, Jennifer, was there and she worked on my calf a bit. I also met another Jennifer who is a PT at a local club. She also offered to work on my calf a bit. Nalani caught the image of pain on my face as PT Jennifer found the sore spot and dug her elbow into it. OUCH!

In good news, she seemed pretty confident when she told me that it was just a muscle strain and with the right treatment I'll be fine and running again soon. Phew!