Notes
Kauai Marathon Race Report Below
Kauai Marathon 2014
Poipu, HI
August 31, 2014 6:00 AM
Sunny ~75-82, 5 mph NE, HUMID!
What does undertraining, overconfidence and maintaining a streak equal to a runner?
Answer: The good chance of getting hurt and not meeting your goal
The Kauai Marathon 2014 is certainly one for the record books. As always my “training” is dictated by the rest of my life… at 32 years old with 3 kids, a fulltime job, house projects galore, and attempting to be a loving husband… life doesn’t allow much time for training. In preparation for this marathon I knew I had to hit at least one 16 mile long-run in the hills of Kalaheo if I wanted to stand a chance at finishing without injury. And that is what I did… one run, 16 miles 1 ½ weeks before the marathon. Training started and finished all in one run.
In the days leading up to the marathon I thought the cards were totally stacked against me. Our little inoculators (Tatum and Taelynn) decided to inoculate Sarah and me with the flu… Thanks Kalaheo School! I was sick from Tuesday until Friday morning questioning if I should even attempt the marathon.
Well, my frugal side kicked in and I said I already paid the entrance fee and couldn’t roll my entrance over to 2015… therefore the decision was made; I was going to start the race, regardless of the outcome.
Race morning was here, I got to the starting line questioning if I should just turn around and go home. The only way I could see myself finishing the marathon, without injury, was to keep things slow and drink as much Heed (aka Gatorade) as possible. My plan was simple on the surface; I would go out slow and drink Heed at every aid station – simple as that. I didn’t want to wear a watch as I knew if I saw the mile splits at every mile I would “feel” like I could pick it up so therefore I would be “that guy” asking random runners what the time was… I only wanted to ask a few times early on just to get the 9-10 minute mile pace down and once I locked that in I would try not to worry about the time.
I went out at a very comfortable pace and just watched the people around me on Poipu Road. In very atypical fashion I went with the crowd… yuck… Mile one slowly approached and I was fearful of what the result was going to be… someone whispered 8:55… “Wow”, I thought to myself, “See I can do this”. Miles 2-4 went by without any splits being said but at mile 5 I overheard a guy state that they were right at 9 minutes a mile. Perfect… I thought… All the while thinking I don’t know what I am actually capable of doing but 9 minutes a mile felt comfortable and I could carry on conversations with random runners so that is where I stayed.
I started to question, what 9 minutes a mile would equal for a full marathon – trying to do math in my head while running isn’t always that easy but I was able to figure out 9 was close enough to 10 minutes a mile and just did the math from there. ~4 hours total time. I think I could live with that. 4 hours for 26 miles and limited training… nothing to cry about there.
I got up to the highway and started to head back down Omao Road. I could feel the ease of downhill compared to the previous 8 miles of uphill. The first ½ mile of downhill was nice and easy; I opened up my stride and could tell my cardiovascular system could handle the faster pace. However, my feet and stomach couldn’t. As I started to hit the pavement harder and harder my stomach got more and more upset. All I could think is this is what undertraining does to you… it causes all the “other” parts of the body to be unprepared for the pounding of running this far. So I backed it down and tried to keep my stomach and feet in check.
In the miles that followed I ended up talking to a guy from Northern California about everything under the sun. From GMO’s to cloud computing… he actually did “Consulting” work for Monsanto… entertaining. At least I knew he wasn’t going to throw a punch when he found out I worked for BASF . We got through the halfway point in Lawai and he stated we were right at 9 minutes a mile. My body actually felt surprisingly good at this point. Also, someone shouted that we were ~53rd and 54th place overall. What did that mean to me? I don’t know. I forged my way up to Kalaheo drinking Heed and trying to keep my body as cool as possible. When I went past Kai Ikena Drive I looked longingly down the ½ mile hill to my house – if I only could take the “right” in ½ mile I would be home, beer in hand and showered all within 10 minutes! I resisted that temptation and kept going because I knew I would “force” myself to run a marathon between now and December 31st to keep the streak alive so at this point I was determined to finish, regardless of what it did to me.
I hit Pu’u Road and started to see a number of people cheering me on. Many of whom see me running on a daily basis. They were really encouraging as I passed by. Going around the loop I started to pass a number of runners, ~10-15 people. I started to think to myself, where are all these people coming from? Am I speeding up? Or are they slowing down? I don’t have a watch so I don’t know for sure but I was starting to get a little nervous. Normally at this time in a race I am the guy getting passed because of my stupidity in the early miles… now I am the guy passing other people. This is actually fun. I passed a ~25 year old guy that looked beat he was walking and didn’t look like he had anything left… that was me 2 years ago on this course, it is easy to underestimate the heat, hills and distance on a course like this.
At mile 18 the aid stations started handing out cups of ice, which was a GOD SEND! I took the cup and chewed on the ice to help keep my core cool – it worked like a charm. I knew when and if I overheated this run was going to get brutal… and fast. I got to the Kakela Makai hill and hit it hard. I forged my way up the “final” hill to mile 19. At this point of the race you start the ~900 feet of elevation descent to Poipu. I knew from the previous downhills I couldn’t speed up much but I wanted to open it up to see if my stomach could handle the faster pace. It seemed to be ok even if I had to make a “pit stop”. The final 7 miles went on without much fanfare, I walked up the ¼ mile hill in Lawai. I passed a couple more people on Koloa Road but from this point on I just wanted to ensure I finished. As I went down the New Koloa Bypass Road my stomach turned on me one last time and I HAD to make that emergency pit stop at the mile 24 aid station. I had no choice, so close but so far away. With that out of the way, I had new life again. I got down to Poipu feeling really good. I opened it up during the last stretch and passed 2 more people to the finish line. I was pleasantly surprised to see under 4 hours… 3:51 and some change – not bad.
The day concluded with a couple of nice naps and an IV of Gatorade straight to my blood stream.