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....................