2018 Honolulu Marathon - December 9, 2018

Training

After the Maui Marathon in mid-October, I had my sights set on the Honolulu Marathon. I wanted to do well, but with such a short turn around, it was actually harder than I thought. I took 3 weeks off after Maui and didn't have much time to hit the weekly benchmarks in November. It is a good idea to take at least 3 weeks off after a marathon to let the micro tears heal, the rule is 26 days which is almost 4 weeks. Two weeks before Honolulu, I did do however a 19 mile run 2 weeks out. I still felt confident going into Honolulu.

Marathon Expo

Darren, Jana, Erik, Michelle and I met up the day before at the Convention Center for the Honolulu Marathon Expo. This expo is put on well, maybe because there are so many volunteers. The organizers of the Honolulu Marathon rely heavily on their volunteers which is why I would like to volunteer once my marathon days are over. This year was special because Michelle would be walking her first marathon. With no training, I gave her the best advice I could which was to not think about the miles and walk as far as she could. After the expo, we walked to The Lanai to eat. We had good conversations.

Marathon Day

Aprille wasn't doing the marathon and she was task with dropping us off, waiting for us, and picking us up. That's a commitment in a half right there. As the gun and fireworks sounded, I started off very slow because my most successful marathon was in 2015 in which I did the same thing. However at mile 10 I didn't feel good and felt some cramping really early in the run. This was not good as I haven't had this feeling since the North Shore Marathon in 2011. I usually don't cramp till late. Dealing with the cramps for what seemed like forever, I just kept on running when I could. It was tough, but the marathon has taught me to not dwell on excuses and chip away at the miles. That is what I did. I was chipping away and by the time I knew it, I was on mile 23. I wasn't able to finish strong and knew that getting a time under 5 would be difficult. I finished in 5:08:45. I ate a malasada and banana, took a picture with Ted and went to the bathroom. Now the task was to go find Michelle and finish the marathon with her. I walked and took breaks on my way to meet her. I saw Erik, but he was not in a good mood as he wasn't feeling too good. I eventually met Michelle around mile 23.5. She was over it already, but I knew her spirits were lifted seeing me. Even though the Honolulu Marathon has thousands and thousands of people you could feel lonely walking in such pain which Michelle was feeling at the time. I distracted her mind off of it and we walked the 2.7 miles to the finish. I was so proud of her, not many people can say they did a marathon and she did it. Post meal was at Rainbow Drive Inn, but we just took out.

I walked with Michelle to where the others were hanging out. Darren did okay, he finished 12 minutes ahead of his time last year. Even though Darren doesn't train for the event, he has the correct mindset, that is the marathon is a challenging event. It is an event where you have to challenge yourself at all cost. Anything less is not good enough. Cat who recently joined our running group completed the marathon sick as a dog. Erik didn't get the time he wanted, but it has been 2 years since he ran his last marathon. Jana had a better finishing time than last year, but she doesn't like the pain it causes. For me this was marathon #12. Although the OAG's want to do more marathons, I question what is my purpose? I started in 2011 and exceeded all expectations. I've done a marathon on every Hawaiian island that has a marathon event, I've done the Honolulu Marathon 8 times already.