Well we are back from Hawaii! The trip was wonderful and I was sad to leave the beautiful sun and warmth. I’ll probably post
a more detailed day-by-day description soon, but for now it’s only the highlights as I’m sure you all want to know about the marathon.We completed the marathon in 7 hours and 45 minutes! Our goal was to make it under 6 hours... needless to say, we were a little far from our goal.
By the end of the race all I wanted to do is just finish... even if it meant crawling (which I almost had to do). A few things were working against us: 1- the wait for the toilets was a minimum of 20 minutes. Since we stopped 3 times we added a good 40 minutes to our time. 2 - the crowds were insane! 28,000 people take up a lot of room! My GPS calculated that I actually ran an extra 1.3 kms because of all the weaving between the people I had to do! 3 - I discovered a problem I've never had: chafing. Even though I had so much body glide I could have slipped off a chair, it wasn't enough and I ended up chaffing quite a bit (ouch), 4 - The sun. Oh my God the sun was so hot! Overall, I felt like crap the last 4 hours of the marathon. Thank goodness my sister was there because I wouldn't have been able to pull through without her!
So here, for your enjoyment is a quick overview of race day. All the times are complete guesses as some parts of the course are a blur. :-)
2:30 am - wake-up and get ready for the race
3:30 am - get on the shuttle bus and head to the starting line. I had a frantic moment when I thought I had lost my water bottle!
4:00 am - arrive at starting line, eat breakfast and head to the porta-potties for a quick pee before the start
4:50 am - Realize we are standing right next to Team Diabetes and fellow blogger Derek and decide to run with him as well.
5:00 am - race starts with a beautiful fireworks show
5:20 am - We FINALLY arrive at the starting line and can begin running!
6:30 am - feeling great, but our pace is so very slow because of all the crowds
7:08 am - lead marathon runner crosses us on his way back to the finish line... meanwhile, I'm just getting warmed up
7:45 am - I can't take it anymore and need to stop for a pee break
8:10 am - End of pee break!
8:30 am - The narrowing road while climbing Diamond Head forces us to walk.
9:00 am - crowds thin out and we are able to run again... however, we have lost our momentum
9:45 am - We give up trying to run and decide to walk the final 14 k
10:15 - We cross the 30 km mark. We are getting tired and down. It took us 5 hours and 15 minutes to get to 30 kms when we know we can do 32 kms under 4:30.
11:30 am - We resolve to laugh hysterically at our extreme slowness. At this point we just want to finish!
12:11 pm - 40 km mark and the view is gorgeous so we take a picture
1:08 pm - We finally cross the finish lines all teary-eyed. My feet ache like I’ve never imagined, my legs are wobbly and I think I'm going to pass out, but I made it!
We get back to the hotel and I realise I'm dehydrated and almost pass out in the lobby!! I end up having to be brought up to my room in a wheelchair!
I go to bed at 4:30 pm and sleep until 6:00 am the next morning.
At least I could walk the next morning and felt so much better!
A few other highlights from my trip:
- Snorkeling with all kinds of fishies
- Shopping!
- Learning how to surf!
- Visiting Pearl Harbor
- Seeing Sayid from LOST!
- Tour of Oahu in a convertible
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