Honolulu Race Report

Aloha,

Imagine a low budget horror film called something like "Walk of the Zombie Runners" and you have the scene of the streets of Waikiki, flooded with nothing but marathon runners in the dead of night. It was before 3am when Katy & I joined 28,000 runners making our way to the buses to carry us to the start line.

Many portaloo-ou's were clustered beside the start corral. I chose a place about 100 metres from the starting banner, where a rope stretched across the road, segregating the 2 plus hour runners from the 3 plus hour runners (or so I thought, based on the sign that was being held up). Katy decided her place as further back amongst the masses, so we said our good lucks and good byes to be reunited in another 6 hours.

I mainly sat on the kerbside for the hour or more before the start and occasionally entertained the thought of wannadoapupu. Looking around I had the impression of being in downtown Toyko as I was surrounded by the vast majority of Japanese, including the Sexy Santa Bunny Girls.



Here were the ones I was beside when waiting for the start ....




The thing about Sexy Santa Bunny Girls is that some can really run. I followed one for a few miles around the half way mark. Her little bunny ears flopped up and down as her fish-net stocking legs swished away.

Time Lost = 4 minutes through poor concentration

Fireworks announced the start of the race. Everyone surged about 3 metres and then stopped. A few minutes later the slow shuffle started and for the next 3 miles (5k) I ducked and weaved around this ...



Time Lost = 5 minutes of ducking and weaving

eventually I was able to run free and all was good until Kunahavapeepee. I remembered the advise of "sort it out early rather than keep running", so I did my best to make a quick stop in a portaloo-ou beside the road, before climbing Diamond Head Crater.

Time Lost = 1 minute, maybe 2

The climb up the crater was a little slow with more ducking and weaving.

Time Lost = 2 minutes.

The plan of a 1 hour 40 minute half turned out to be around 1:47. It was hard to judge my pace as the KM markers were 5 K apart. I must have drifted off the pace a little and figured I was in for a 3 hour 30 minute something day.

Around 30 km or 20 miles I passed Katy coming the other way. She was marching along in a procession as far as the eye could see, 8 people across, shoulder to shoulder. It was relatively thinned out on my side heading the other way and I decided I would cruise home as my race goal race time was out the window. I carried my Ipod and flicked out the headphones and cranked up the music.

Time Lost = who knows, who cares

Around 35K or 23 miles, I hit the wall, legs went dead and the going got tough. I stopped and took in some gel and the Amino sports drink on offer (icki-sticki-yuki-purchewi).

Time Lost = A couple more minutes maybe

After running through my dead legs and feeling the pain that happens towards the end of a marathon, I noticed something that felt like a grain of sand in my shoe. I stopped, undid my shoe, and found it was a big watery blister in the middle of my foot. Quickly, I put my shoe back on and tried to ignore it. This worked until half way back up Diamond Head, when it exploded with a sting that only lasted a short time.

The finish time was 3:43 which was a little slower than what I had hoped for. After standing under the shower, I waited for Katy. I thought she wouldn't be too far away....................

Finishes Medal ... errr Metal

Sorry for the delay, but it has been a little hectic around here. This (picture above) is the reward Katy got for her marathon finish. The pain at the end of her marathon turned out to be a fractured femur neck. That is, the end of the leg bone which goes into the socket of the hip. When our doctors saw this, they rushed her into hospital for emergency surgery with concerns of necrosis where there is no blood supply and the ball in the socket dies requiring a hip replacement.

In my marathon I got a blister. And it got infected a little, which really hurt.

Meanwhile Katy hadn't walked for days. I know what you are thinking ........ blisters really hurt.

The latest news is Katy is walking now and will be discharged from hospital in the morning. She will have crutches for 3 weeks and running again in 6 months.

It has been a very stressful time but she is recovering very quickly and I'll be glad to have her home for christmas.

So it begins

My Photos

My plan was a simple one ..... do the first half in 1:40 and take it from there. Little did I know there would be 1000 people to run around at the start. Then there was Volcano to get over, the warm conditions and lack of sleep. When you add a few mintues for each of these I was that far off my plan..........

Aloha

Aloha ..... Hawaiian speak for "Come Over Here Mr Tourist and Eat Something"

So now I'm Carbo-Overloaded and occasionally Carbo-Exploded (thanks to Mexican beans). In the morning I'll be getting up around 2 or 3 am to tackle the marathon. My last meal will be plain spaghetti. Feeling good and enjoyed a couple of short runs during the week. This is DEFINTELY the place to be tapering and chilling with family.

Will catch up and comment on all the posts I have missed as soon as I can, but this is the first chance for a little internet time.

I hope all those running Kurarra had a good time and good luck to others running in other places including White Rock (Susan) and whatever other Bloggers are up to (and yes I mean you two ... you know who you are)

Winner!

What do you notice about this photo from this morning?

That's right ........ no sunglasses.

But that all changed after winning the first pair in the Adidas Sunglasses PCRG Summer Series.

How good is that?

I'm still very excited as I have been secretly wanting a new pair for over a year.

Fire it up!

No point wondering what will happen, I thought to myself ......

Today I put myself down for a solid session as a confidence booster pre-marathon.

There was a big gathering for our long run and I soon found myself setting the pace with Phil and the two Johnnies (aka Phil, Johnny and Johnny). The Johnnies had us under 5 min/km within the first couple of kms (that's sub 8 min/miles after the first mile). I moved it to marathon pace around 4:40s on the way out and we still had time to chat quite comfortably.

On the way back, Phil set the pace at 4:20s and I hung on and occasionally found the energy to surge and catch him. Our last km was sub 4 min and I finished off my first decent session since my injury back in September.

For me it was flicking the turbo switch and hoping I wouldn't blow up. Phew, it all seems to be hanging together and I feel the best I have for a very long time now. Heading off on holidays on Tuesday and looking forward to that helps as well.