Last minute wish to spectate Kona in person? Good news

i might write a little front page article about this but, until then i’ll stick it up here. i did a little digging. a guy i know who runs a travel program from europe has a bloc of rooms at the King Kam (the hotel right at the start finish). he’s got some rooms left over, he’ll have to eat a “restocking fee”, and, he’s offering them half price. which is still pricey, at $200 a night, but half of the $400 a night the hotel will get otherwise for these rooms (w/2 beds).

this is for any days right around the race, as in, starting thursday, and over the weekend.

i checked around to see if you could even get to the island from the U.S. at any reasonable rate and i was surprised. i just looked at travelocity. here’s some rates i found, in in the 9th (thursday upcoming), back on the 14th (tuesday after the race). honestly, i was shocked at the rates. check out san jose and phoenix. and these are all either nonstop or 1 stop fares, i didn’t consider 2 stop fares.

Denver $1100
Oakland $700
San Fran nonstop $1000
LAX nonstop $800
SEATTLE $650, the nonstop flight $950
Phoenix nonstop $683
San jose nonstop $515 !!!
Portland $650

so, if you go, and you have a buddy, and you split the room, pretty darned cheap vacation and it’s a pretty wide open race it seems to me, both on the men’s and women’s side. should be a good year this year.

shoot me a note if you want to go, i’ll put you in touch with the fellow who has the rooms.

Dan - Please have your friend give me a call. My name is Dean Discher Cell 408-306-8626. Thanks for giving us a heads up on this!

Off topic, but I agree that the men’s race is wide open. The women’s race, on the other hand, is not. Unless you are talking about the race for 2nd.

Would also take 2 nights fri/sat. How do we reach him?

Hi Dan, would be interested to book a room. How could I contact the guy? Br, Valdur

Off topic, but I agree that the men’s race is wide open. The women’s race, on the other hand, is not. Unless you are talking about the race for 2nd. //

I would say the womens race is slightly less wide open, but no slam dunk by any means. I would hazard to guess we will not know the winner of the womens until the last 4 to 6 miles or so, and perhaps not even then. To me that is pretty open. In fact, i really do not know who you think is the prohibitive favorite…

Off topic, but I agree that the men’s race is wide open. The women’s race, on the other hand, is not. Unless you are talking about the race for 2nd. //

I would say the womens race is slightly less wide open, but no slam dunk by any means. I would hazard to guess we will not know the winner of the womens until the last 4 to 6 miles or so, and perhaps not even then. To me that is pretty open. In fact, i really do not know who you think is the prohibitive favorite…

There’s an article on the front page if you would like to do a little research…

You’re killing me. Cheapest flight from BF nowhere hellhole that I live is $1,400 and 15 hours of travel. I miss California.

There’s an article on the front page if you would like to do a little research…….//

Oh I know what is on the front page, but if you ask 15 different people who is gonna win the race, probably get at least 5 different answers. What i never heard was your guess that is a lock.

Last time that i would say there was a lock was in the Chrissie years. I mean she did shit before and during to handicap herself against all the other girls, but she was such a lock, that giving up 10, 15, even 20 minutes was not enough for any of the chasers. You would probably have gotten about a 90% win rate in any poll too. Not so this year.

Edit; Just noticed the prediction thread has started, with 5 people thus far predicting. Guess what, 5 different womens names in the top spot. Appears I’m not the only one that thinks the race is up for grabs…

You’re killing me. Cheapest flight from BF nowhere hellhole that I live is $1,400 and 15 hours of travel. I miss California.

Hey, you made my day!!! Thanks Cathy.

THANKS DAN FOR MAKING THIS OFFER TO US!

Not much better from the east coast. 1400-2200 r/t. Too rich for my blood. Maybe next year