Honolulu Marathon

 


Honolulu, HI

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Not sure what I was thinking signing up for a marathon in the heat at any time of year, let alone in December when I most certainly am not acclimated after running in 25°F weather in New England.  Almost zero training for the last month didn't help matters, but that was both unplanned and inevitable after broken rib.

Two weeks after the rib incident, doc gave me the all clear to run, and the marathon was already paid for at the tune of $240, so let's do it.

I think this pic is self-explanatory!
Picking up my bib the day before the big race.

Bought this nice tech hat at the expo

The marathon featured a 5am start in the dark, to try to limit the exposure to heat and sun, so this meant a very early wake-up and breakfast.  As I almost always do before a marathon, I laid out my clothes and supplies the night before and tried (but failed) to get a good night's sleep.

Everything laid out and ready to go.

Early morning prep:  I set the alarm for 3am (isn't that crazy?!), but ended up waking up every hour or so and was wide awake at 2:55am, so I just got up and turned off the alarm to save waking up Mark or Jana.  Had a breakfast of instant oatmeal, a yogurt parfait with granola and fruit, and an orange juice.  Left the hotel by 3:45am for the mile or so up to the hotel Matthew was staying in with his friend, then another mile to the start.

Dilly-dallying cost me dearly:  With half an hour to the start, I had to use the stall.  Again.  Ugh.  Happens frequently on races I'm nervous about.  TMI.  I wasn't nervous for any time goal at this race, but I was nervous for the heat and humidity, and with reason.  The starting temp was 74°F, with a humidity of 86%.  Ugh.

So many of my fellow runners had the same need to use the stall, and the line went VERY slowly.  Got out of there with ten minutes to spare.  Should be easy to get to the starting line now, which is almost in sight.  Nope.  Honolulu Marathon bills themselves as the 4th largest marathon in USA, after New York, Chicago, and Boston, and according to Hawaii News Now, there are 15,000 runners in today's marathon.  Hit a wall of people very quickly, and I'm a good 1/10 of a mile to the finish line.  Now what?  Fortunately, there is a fast looking kid from Korea next to me and he's very upset about being in the same situation.  At least I think that's what he's mumbling about, but I don't really know, because, well, I don't speak Korean.

He elbows and pushes his way through the dense crowd, so I just make sure to stick very close to him and ride his coattails.  I got up to within 100 meters of the start when I heard 30 seconds to start, so I just lift up one of the barricades blocking runners in, and push my way in.  A woman lets me know she thought that was rude, and told me to close the gate as she blocked any further runners from entering.  Should I have apologized?  Should I have closed the gate?  I did neither.

Race start:  5am.  The race started, synchronized to the start of a fireworks show.  It was really cool!  What was not cool was that it took me 1 minute 40 seconds to get to the start, and then I was behind runners where the majority were slower than me.  I know:  I own that.  But maybe it would be a nice for the 4th largest* USA marathon to have assigned corrals based on time?  (*4th largest may have been point in time as obviously number of runners fluctuates, but it's still one of the largest in USA)

Absolutely crowded with no room to move up at the start.  
(From Honolulu Marathon website)

Start of the 2023 Honolulu Marathon

The fireworks at start were really cool!

Anyway, the first half mile was plain ugly.  I did a lot of weaving, jumping over curbs to run in tall grass, and was so conscious of falling, as I was sliding in some of the dirt sections in the median and avoiding construction barrels and poles.  It's completely dark, remember?

By the end of the first mile, I longer had any issues passing people by just staying to the far left of the road.  But my breathing was pretty labored for just one mile into a marathon and running just over 7-minute pace.  I had originally thought sub-3 would be a nice goal.  But since this was never a goal marathon to begin with and I had little expectations given the heat, humidity, and interrupted training, just made the decision to run easy and not check my watch frequently.  My goal was sub-3, as mentioned, but does it really matter if I do end up running 2:59 (which I don't think I can do anymore) and beat myself up or run 3:30 and run relative easy and hopefully recover quickly?

Mile 1 to Kapiolani Park (10K):  This part of the run was through downtown and Waikiki sections of Honolulu, and past many buildings.  I was clearly passing many more people than were passing me here, but that was only due to me starting so far back AND people much faster than me wrongly being on or near the starting line.

The first 10K of the route was through busy downtown streets, and brought you to (and past)
the finish area in Kapiolani Park.

The best section of the course here was the City of Honolulu Christmas light display.  I was wrongly encouraged by having a number of miles here in the 6:50 range and remembered thinking maybe I will break 3 hours today anyway.  Only later did I realize that my splits were wrong, and it was due to GPS error, likely because of obstruction with tall buildings.

Blurred runners passing part of the
Christmas light display

Kapiolani Park (10K) to turnaround (17M):  At this point, the course splits and the 10K runners go right into the park, and the marathon runners continue ahead.  This was depressing to see the finish line so close.  But yet so far ....

Shown here (from l to r):
10K out to a lollipop turnaround at ~ Mile 17;
mostly return on same route back to finish.

Next we begin our only significant hill ascent, at Diamond Head.  The elevation gain is only about 100' and I barely notice it, passing people along the way.  

I come up on a loud noise that resembles horses clomping loudly on the ground.  It's a woman runner with a very unusual and hard stomp onto the pavement with each footfall.  It takes me a little while, but I'm glad to get past "Clippety Clop" and have that noise in the background.

From Mile 11 to Mile 16, we are on the very wide Kalaniana'ole Highway headed eastbound, and then we return on the same route westbound from Miles 17 to 22.  The eastbound lanes are closed to traffic, and are coned off in the middle to separate runners outbound from runners returning.  I'm running about 7:20s pace here, and these highway miles are pancake flat.

I watch the two wheelchair leaders come through, and after several more minutes, police motorcycles come through followed by the race leaders.  The first three come through, separated by less than a minute each.  It's almost sunrise (~6:45am) as I approach Mile 15 and get closer to where the course will split.  There is a long break between runners 3 and 4, and I continued to count each runner as they go past.

I see another police motorcade and right behind them is a filming truck and the lead women's pack.  Just at the rear of the pack is Matthew.  I yell out to him that he's #13.  Just as I'm turning off to start the "pop" part of the lollipop, I see his friend Andrew and yell out that that he's #17.

It's just shy of a 2-mile loop as we reverse direction and start to head back west on the Kalaniana'ole Highway.  It's 7:10am and completely light out now, with the sun and temperature both rising.

Turnaround (17M) to Kapiolani Park (Finish):  I don't generally care for an OAB course (which much of this is), as you have to come back and repeat the same section you already did, and on your way out it's depressing to see runners already on their way back.

But at least I'm on the return now, and I have the upper-hand in watching all the poor souls who are now on their way out.  I will see runners coming at me for most of the remainder of the course now, and I do enjoy the people watching as well.

The further back in the pack that I run past,
the more costumed runners that there are.
I remember seeing this guy and thinking
how he can run in this outfit, including
sandals?

And this outfit ...
Just wow.  
It's not likely you'll see me in this anytime soon.
I don't have anything more to say.

This might be the first marathon in which they have kilometer markers at all 42 kilometer splits, and it's certainly the only marathon I've ever run that has both all mile splits AND all kilometer splits.  I am enjoying that facet, as the kilometer splits come up much quicker than waiting for the mile splits.

My pace slows dramatically on this return section, despite now going with the ~12mph wind out of the east.  I'm guessing the rising temps to near 80°F are affecting me more than the wind is.  From 7:20s on the way out, I am now running about 7:50 pace.  I am getting frequently passed now, including by Clippety Clop and other runners that I passed early on in the race.  It's frustrating, but I have no other gear but slow at this point.

The return up Diamond Head and its 100' elevation gain is very different than the climb on the way out.  This time I am struggling even with this small hill, and the vast majority of runners around me are walking.  Fortunately, I resisted the urge to join them and soldiered on at a less than blistering pace of 9 minutes.  Yikes.

View of runners on their way out at Diamond Head, the only point on the course where
you have a view of the ocean.

Similar to Boston's Heartbreak Hill and Vermont's Battery Street hill,
there are drummers at the top of the hill at Diamond Head.

Finally, we are at the entrance to Kapiolani Park, and someone calls out that we have 0.6 miles to go.  The guy in front of me takes a spill on the asphalt and tumbles around on the ground before getting up and giving a thumbs up sign.  He's clearly not doing well and stumbling a bit, but fortunately he makes it to the finish line without further issue.

Very close to the finish
(from marathon finish line video)

I hear the roar of the crowd as the finish line is in sight.  It's an ugly time for me, but I completed it.

Crossing the line.
3:21:09 gun, 3:19:31 net.
(from marathon finish line video)

Finish line shot (from Jana)

Final result:  3:19:31 (net), 152nd out of 15,140, 6th out of 760 in age group.  Full results here.

Crossing the finish line, I immediately feel unstable.  I hold out my arms to balance myself, and fortunately, unlike some others around me, I don't fall to the ground.  Jana has a cold Gatorade for me, and then it's off to the cold showers.  

Holding out my arms to balance myself after finishing.

Not happy with my performance, but glad to have completed this, my 25th marathon.

Happy to be done!

I must've stayed under that cold water shower for five minutes.

Happy for Matthew's debut (2:39)

Often I feel fine after a marathon, or at least a few hours post-marathon.  But today, I was wiped out for the rest of the day, and felt some heat sickness late afternoon.

What went well:

• Pre-race communications were great.
• Expo check in was quick and efficient.
• Fireworks show coordinated with race start.  Really cool!
• Markers at every mile AND kilometer!
• Cold showers at finish.
• Shirt and medal are nice.
• Getting a printed certificate the next day was a neat touch.

What could have gone better:

• Probably my biggest criticism of this race is that with over 15,000 runners, there were no corrals or any enforced line-up by a previously run marathon time.  This just made for a disaster of a start.
• The heat and the humidity.  Obviously, I knew this before I registered, but I seriously underestimated just how much it would affect me.
• Post-race food was pretty much non-existent.  A banana and a "malasada".  I don't eat bananas, and I took one bite of the malasada (essentially a very sugary fried doughnut) and threw it in the trash.  Some fruit in the heat might be nice, and something more substantial.

Take-aways:

• I'm glad I ran this, and it was a "fun" destination race.  Never say never, but after this experience in the heat and high humidity, I can't see myself running a marathon in a hot climate again.  I originally had a bucket-list goal of running Miami Marathon one day; that one is now out the window for me.