The Honolulu Marathon

Marathon Day - Sunday December 12th
Miles - 26.2

The Honolulu Marathon was my 6th marathon. There's always something a little different about each one with regards to how it's run, food, water, start time etc... This one was start time. The race begins at 5am! That means I had to get out of bed at 2:45am to get ready, eat, hydrate and walk from my hotel to the start line. It sucked getting up, but if you've ever competed in anything before you know that you're usually pretty anxious and therefore don't sleep the best so it's not the end of the world. We had a little breakfast down by the pool and took a group photo.

Then it was off to the start of the race. I was told it was only about a .5 mile walk to the start. It took 45 min. I suspect it was more like 2.5 miles. Then I had to use the restroom... that was another 45 min. wait because apparently some half-wit was in charge of logistics. I would think anyone with a 3rd grade education could figure out that if you have 30,000 runners, you should probably order up more than 16 port-a-potties. I watched the fireworks for the start of the marathon from the bathroom line.

Then I had to rush to catch up to the very back group of runners... the 6+ hour people and just barely got in front of the walkers. I crossed the START line 12 minutes after the gun went off. Then Mary, Graham and I had to fight our way through the sea of people at the back to get to the group we wanted to be with. I have to say it was quite interesting. As we passed masses of people we got to see all sorts of crazy costumes and groups of people. There were people dressed for getting married with full dresses and tuxes. There were people running in traditional Hawaiian outfits like grass skirts and barefoot. I even saw a dude in getas, those traditional Japanese wood sandals, and a kimono. He ran the whole race in that! There were actually a ton of cool Japanese outfits because like 70% of the people that run the Honolulu Marathon come over from Japan to do it.

I was a little worried about how I was going to feel. I hadn't really trained for the race and I had just biked 242 miles that week so I didn't have high expectations. I ran the first 1/2 with my friend Graham in about 2:03. I was feeling good so I told him I was going to take off. The sun was coming up and it was getting warm but I was still feeling pretty good. I've never run a negative split (where your second half is faster than the first) but I was feelin' it today. At mile 24 I felt good enough to stop on the side of the course and slam a beer that some guys were handing out. It was awesome! Then I headed out and came across the finish in 4:01:00. I was really shooting for sub 4hrs but no biggie. I was super stoked to run a negative split and I felt really good at the end.

The nice thing about having a race that starts at 5am is that I was done by 9am and had the day to relax. I went back to the hotel and took a nap and then me the group for a luau later on. Let me just tell you, if you feel the need to go to a luau in Hawaii, make sure you go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We went to another place and it was pretty cheesy. The food was mediocre at best and the drinks were hella expensive (the 'included' drinks are crap).

This drink I had to use one of my drink tickets plus pay $12 for! Crazy! On the upside it was good to hang out with the team and celebrate another awesome Bolder Options destination marathon. It's hard not to have a good time with a great group of people! Right cousins?! LOL!