Honolulu Marathon

12/14/08

This is my last marathon or ultra of 2008. It has been quite a year. I wasn’t planning to go to Hawaii for a while but the opportunity came up when my friend and fellow 50-State Club member Christine Merriam and her supportive husband Rick planned to go where she would be completing her 50^th state.

The expo is excellent and offered some great logo apparel. It was mostly Nike sportswear specially designed for the event. It’s too expensive to buy so I just admire.

The marathon itself is okay but not one I’d want to do again or recommend. It starts at 5am in the dark. This year it’s raining hard for the first 14 miles and then hot and humid for the last 8 miles. The opening miles are very crowded. There is standing and flowing rainwater draining on much of the course so until it gets light about 2 hours after the start it is difficult to find dry footing.

Christine and I start together and are still close enough to converse at about mile 5. I pulled away at about 2 miles but latter pulled off to the side to make a quick pit stop and she caught back up to me.

The course is essentially all in the city of Honolulu where one doesn’t see much of the natural beauty but rather a lot of hotels and housing areas.

About 80% of participants are Japanese. Many of them look quite fit and fast. One exceptionally attractive young Japanese woman is too cute dressed as Santa’s helper.

Two men, not together, are running in native Hawaiian garb. Both are tough looking but a bit too beefy to be fast. They look really cool. One is older with grey hair tied on top with bamboo or bone sticks He has a kilt-like skirt made of bamboo beads and he “click-clacks” as he runs. The younger one has a leafy head wreath and ankle laurels. He is barely covered by a loin cloth that requires occasional adjustment to avoid public indecency. I believe I (barely) beat both of them.

I Gallowalk quite a bit after mile 18 when intermittent sun and high humidity are as bad as what we experience in Central Florida. At mile 25 I tell a fellow runner near me “The good news is I can walk in from here. The bad news is I’ll probably have to.”

That said, when I see the finish line at the end of a half mile straightaway I get a burst of enthusiasm that allows me to run fast enough to pass a few people in the last few minutes. Rick Merriam is, as always, faithfully awaiting our finish with his trusted camera. Crowds prevent me from finding him again after the finish but I saw him about 100 yards from the finish line

The finish area is probably the worst I’ve seen. There is mud everywhere and one can’t walk without sinking ankle deep. Even so, we were required to walk quite a way through it to get a finishers shirt. I see no food anywhere except what is provided by private clubs who had individual tents set up for members. There are some private vendors selling food from carts. There are no finishers medals but we do get a logo key chain and a string of shells in a necklace from which one can fashion their own “finisher’s medal.” The finish area is across the street from the zoo and the rainwater and mud standing everywhere had a smell suggesting it had intermingled with animal waste from nearby.

In a strange bit of numerology Christine and I had an interesting finish. I was, to the second, exactly 1 hour in front of her (4:53:13 vs. 5:53:13). As if that isn’t coincidence enough, her overall finisher place is the same as my bib number: 10224.

Complete results are available via the event website

http://www.honolulumarathon.org/

When leaving the finish area a fellow sees my Track Shack hat and asks me if I’m from Central Florida. He and his female companion are from the space coast somewhere as I recall. Small world.

Official race pictures are now available for viewing at:

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=34936&BIB=10224&S=230&PWD

Some professionally-shot and narrated video can be viewed at

http://www.mymarathondvd.com/honolulu.html

It mostly focuses on the leaders but includes us mid and back of the packers as well and gives a nice taste of the weather, the location, the mood, etc.