Quick 'n dirty: Kauai Marathon, Sunday, Sept 2, 2012. 6:55:53, marathon #24, state #23
OMG.
If you like hills, heat, hills, humidity, trade winds, hills, pop-up
showers, beautiful scenery, hills, feral chickens, hills, Dean Karnazes,
hills, counting smooshed frogs on the road, hula girls, tribal
drummers, and big-ass friggin' HILLS, this is the race for you!
After
doing tourist stuff in Honolulu (one island over, for those unfamiliar
with Hawaiian geography,) wandering around Waimea Canyon, the Kauai
Coffee plantation, Kilauea Point (not to be confused with the volcano on
the Big Island,) and hanging out at beaches looking for sea turtles
(saw 5 swimming around) and monk seals (saw one snoozing on the beach in
the middle of dozens of people,) lunch with Maniacs, and dinner with
Penguin/Dead Larry James and his wife, we had to take a break from
honeymoonin' to get up and run a marathon (half-marathon for Ron. He's
not as dumb as I am.) We were bused a couple of miles down to the
shopping center that served as the start line. After standing around for
a while (they had a great spread there: coffee, sports drink, water,
bagles and shmear,) Ron and I separated to our respective places in the
pack. I found one of the new Maniac/Fanatic friends I'd met the
afternoon before at lunch, Maureen, who decided she would get me to the
turnoff point, which was mile 10.8. Those miles went the fastest out of
my whole day. Our first ginormous hill came between miles 5 and 6. Ron's
Garmin said it was at 13% grade. We got our first of two rain showers
of the day around the same time Maureen and I hit this hill. It rained
moderately hard for about half an hour. Wet socks aren't fun for me. We
went into the Tunnel of Trees, which would have been nice to block the
sun if we had needed it. It kept a little bit of the rain off of us for a
mile or so.
The next big hill I specifically remember was a bit
after 10 miles. At about 10.5, Maureen, who chats with everyone when she
runs, asked a random girl if she was doing the half or the full. The
girl replied, "The half. We're ALL halfers--the full marathon turned off
up the road." Ummm, NO. She insisted it was so. Luckily, I had stuffed a
copy of the course map/directions in my waist pack, and it confirmed
that I was still on course, after finding out what road I was on from a
local. Panic receded, heart rate returned to normal. I sadly turned
right as Maureen turned left at the split, and proceeded to climb
another big ass hill that went on for about half a mile. I got to see
the fast people, including the lead female, coming down the same hill as
I was going up since this was part of the out-and-back (with a lollipop
in the middle.) Everyone was awesome, giving us thumbs up. I mostly
walked that hill. Had a nice downhill around mile 13ish, when I heard in
front of me, "Go Maniac!! All right!!" It was Dean Karnazes, one of the
race ambassadors. So I hollered, "Go Dean!! Wooo hooo!" because I am a
dork :) Some more downhill, and then came Mile 15, the start of the lollipop section.
I
honestly did not think I was going to make it up Mile 15, mentally or
physically. It. Just. Kept. Going. Up. It was long. It was steep. It was
painful. I gave up any pretense of running and walked up. I stopped a
few times to stretch out my back and my hamstrings and calves. I
squatted down a couple of times to stretch my quads and catch my breath.
I ended up sitting on a guard rail for about 5 minutes, trying to
regroup and convince myself that I COULD finish this marathon, that I
HAD TO finish this marathon. I can't exactly just go back to Hawaii
whenever, pick up another race. Failure was not an option. I had a
little over 4 hours left. I took a hit of albuterol and pushed myself
off the guard rail and continued to climb Mount Mile 15. I made it to
mile 16. My mile split time: 23:52. At least I got to go down the way I
came up. My legs were hurting kind of everywhere by mile 20, and by mile
21, I decided just to walk the rest of the course, testing a run every
once in a while. Nope. Of course, then I had to climb another big uphill
at mile 21. I just wanted to sit down again. There was no guard rail
here along the side of the highway. At 21.5, I noticed an abandoned aid
station. They had left Heed (nasty stuff that made me feel like I was
going to barf every time I drank it before running,) on two folding
chairs. I moved all the cups over to one chair and sat down for another 5
minutes or so. And then the second rain shower hit, this one for about
20 minutes or so. I wanted to cry. But the rain quit, and the sun came
out full-force, and I got to the top of the hill, and before me lay the
gorgeous Pacific Ocean in all its glory, and I felt like it was going to
be all right after that. I asked 8 lb, 6 oz Baby Jesus (points for
reference!) to help me finish the last f*&%ing 4.2 miles, and set
off at a trot down the hill, which hurt like a mother, so I decided to
just walk really fast. Support from the people driving the other way
down the highway, honking and cheering out their windows, helped a LOT.
I
managed to power walk my way to the aid station at mile 25.5ish, got
high-fives from the medical staff, and promptly got a charley horse-type
cramp in my right hamstring, just above the knee. I'm pretty sure I
dropped an F-Bomb or three as I tried to walk. Really?? Less than a mile
from the finish and THIS?? I tried to stretch it out, and it hurt more.
A medical person ran over t see if I was okay. She pushed and massaged
the back of my thigh until I felt like I could walk again without
feeling like a hot knife was being shoved into my leg. They offered me a
bag of ice, but I declined. I just wanted to be done. Lost another 3-5
minutes messing with that. I limped on down the road, stopping to take a
picture of some pretty yellow hibiscus flowers, turned down a road
indicated to me by the most adorable little boy (I asked for a
high-five, and he took a running start and JUMPED into it, lol,) and
Behold! The finish line!! The ocean was to my right, and some
beach-goers were very supportive (Ohmigosh! You're soooo close! How are
you feeling?" "I feel like I'm gonna barf." "Go ahead and barf--you've
earned it!!") In front of the finish line, I see Ron and my Fanatic
friends Maureen and Eric, who are waiting for me and another Maniac
friend, Ed, who was about half an hour behind me. Ron wants a finishing
picture, so I stuck my tongue out at him :) Some local high school
cheerleaders are dancing and cheering, so I danced with them for a few
seconds and got even more high fives. Got my medal, a cold wash rag, and
a bottle of water, and collapsed in the shade.
By far the hardest course I've done, but one of the most beautiful.
And I lost count of the smooshed frogs (bufo) on the course at 33 :-P
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