What do a dozen people dressed as reindeer, four wedding couples, a Japanese man wearing traditional dress including wooden shoes, a lady dressed as a cake, and Darth Vader have in common? They all ran 26.2 miles today!
So I know I haven’t mentioned it lately, but the last four months I’ve been training for the Honolulu Marathon! Thankful for preschool (the most expensive training plan ever! Haha) , an amazing husband, and treadmills when needed, I made it through the entire 20 weeks uninjured and with all toenails intact.
Today was full of logistical craziness (babysitters arrived at 3, had to find a backway to the parking garage, walk a mile to the start line, and then fight the selfie takers to actually make it over the mat – more on that in a minute) but it was worth it and now that it’s over I need to research the races next year.
To start with, it was wet. Drizzly constant damp dreariness. To be fair, it felt pretty good (at first). When we got to the 20+ mph winds later and downpouring rain it wasn’t as much fun. After ditching the trash bag that kept me mostly dry on the walk to the start line, I joined in the selfie taking fun.
Finally the fireworks went off. They say the race starts at 5, and I’m sure for the front runners it does, but no one moves till the fireworks are over, and even then you fight crowds the whole way.
Who knew we were at a race start and not a rock concert with all the phones and cameras out?
From there, it wasn’t until about mile 13 that there was actually enough room on the road to maneuver easily. There were just so.many.people. It definitely would be hard to Boston qualify with the multitudes of people.
The race went pretty well from there, though. The sun came out and warmed us up every now and then (between downspurts), and around mile 17 I even found a yellow submarine. How can you not stop for a picture with a submarine?
And in true Hawaii fashion, we were graced with a rainbow!
From there it was just back up and over Diamondhead and on to the finish. I was actually on target for the time I wanted until mile 22. Someone in front of me collapsed and so I stayed to help until EMS arrived. Thankfully she should be just fine. Once I got up my muscles were not happy about having to get moving again, and it took a little while to get back into it. She kept telling me to go finish the race, and I promised her I would finish for her. This one is for you, Wanda!
And I found Darth Vader! Can you imagine running even 1 mile in a helmet?
Well, that’s all for now. I am eating all the food and researching races for next year. You know that’s when it’s bad is when you want to do another even while you can barely wiggle your toes without cringing 🙂