Kanesa’s 7th Molokai win

Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard 2009 - 9th crossing in a row. 7th win… going for a full decade in 2010!

Aloha and mahalo for all of your support!…. I especially appreciated in this years race! My work schedule and travel to conferences limited my training, which was okay as I’d planned around it and got some early miles in, but then I got pretty sick 3 weeks ago… so after resting for the past 3 weeks, I went into this year’s channel a bit behind where I would have liked fitness-wise. However, I think my experience and my supporters came through for me in the end and I still managed to pull out a good race… conditions were definitely challenging, and it sounds like pretty much everyone wished for a bit more muscle power in the last hour!! My main man Norm, the ultimate boat driver escort, kept me in good shape, and his wife Mikala and my boyfriend Thor all backed me up in water drops and cheers.

Overall, my training partners did great - Brian Rocheleau got second overall, Mikey Cote killed the stock division and my coach Eric Abbott took 3rd stock. My friends over the years from California, France and Australia also paddled well…. so that was fun to see! And, It was pretty awesome to be able to give Jerry Lopez a lei after he finished the team Stand Up race with Sparky (from Rainbow sandals)! All in all a heck of a day.

Now that I have the channel down (which is one heck of a training run), I’m looking to be in good shape for the remainder of the season. We have a couple of more Hawaii-based races and then, who knows, I might take on the Catalina channel at the end of August!

Thanks for all of your support and love. I received so many comments from people who are excited that we’re bringing awareness to WWW.RACETOHEAL.COM and cancer screening / treatment options, especially for those folks without health insurance.

Keep up the good work!

Kanesa

Photo courtesy of Jaimie Kinard - Race To Heal coordinator (thanks for your support Jaimie!)