Kauai Half Marathon - Kyle's memory (Read 77 times)

This past week, I was in Kauai for my 20th anniversary.  My wife and I traveled with our friends who were also celebrating their 20th anniversary.

We went to Kauai because of a friend of ours, who died in 2009 due to a brain tumor.  His family would spend many family vacations there, and his wife guided us to the beautiful island of Kauai.  Since Kyle's death, his ashes have been scattered throughout the island.

In the years prior to his death, while dealing with the brain tumor, he would run / walk 5k and 10k races with his children, and always had a desire to run a marathon.  He was never able to.

When we arrived in Kauai, our waitress for our first breakfast told us about the Kauai Marathon the upcoming Sunday.  She was going to do the marathon, and was wondering whether we were in town for the marathon.  We didn't know anything about the race until that morning.  After a quick google search at breakfast, we realized they had a half marathon, and that was more in line with what we were prepared for (in order to enjoy the days preceding and following the marathon).

On Friday, my friend Joel and I registered for the race.  The race is in Poipu (south side of the island), and the location where my friend Kyle and his family had their timeshare.  For this race, I registered under the name of my friend, Kyle.  I talked to Kyle's wife before I registered, and asked her for permission to register using his name.  She agreed and thought it would be great to have me run using his name.

We spent the Saturday snorkeling and hiking and getting sunburnt on the north side of the island.  In fact, I burnt my feet enough for me to try the mustard ointment with hopes of not having problems for the Sunday race.

On race morning, my friend and I were ready to go for the 6am start.

The race was great.  The first 6 miles were uphill and away from the ocean.  The last 7 miles were downhill and approaching the ocean.  When we got to mile 6, it started to rain, and rained a perfect tropical rain for the last 7 miles.  I was able to finish the race and was only 80 seconds off of my personal best.  My running partner beat me, but I was able to keep him in sight for most of the race.

The end of the race was captured in video thanks to my wife (see link).

A couple of months ago, I raced Ironman Texas to support Kyle's daughter in her quest to raise money for an orphanage in Zambia in Kyle's name.  His daughter just started her freshman year at Texas A&M University, and has been working hard to raise money.

Kyle's wife is now preparing to run the Dallas Marathon in December (her first marathon) with the goal to complete the $100k necessary to build "Kyle's House".

To learn more about "Kyles' house", see this link.  Through that link, you'll see a picture of Kyle as well as Kyle's daughter while at the orphanage a couple of years ago.

(On a side note, I was able to pass Dean Karnazes at about the 10 mile marker and the race was small enough to know those around you.  Ya, that was cool.  Bart Yasso ran as well, but I didn't see him until the awards ceremony)

Cheers,
Brian