The Kauai Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

We decided to do this race last minute, it never fell anywhere within our training plan. Since I learned a dear lesson from the last race I did for fun and lost 3 weeks of training due to an injury, I was determined not to go all out and hurt myself. About 2 minutes before the gun, the Hawaiian skies decided to bless us, at least that's what the locals call it. I call it getting drenched, but whatever, I'm used to it by now. Thankfully it was a quick downpour, when the gun went off it had already stopped.
I started out steady, going nice and easy picking off the few people that miss-corraled themselves. The first 4 miles were pretty standard, other than the constant, gradual uphill it was pretty uneventful and nice. My Ipod decided to take the day off so I was busy talking to the voices in my head :)
After the water stop at mile 4 we turned the corner and leveled off for about half a mile. I was thinking to myself that this wasn't as hilly a route as I had thought. Wrong! They snuck a big one in that I swear was 15% and 20 miles long! Well, maybe only 8-10% and .5-.75 miles long, but it sure did look intimidating and never seemed to end. I backed off my pace as soon as I realized what I was up against (going back to the not getting hurt issue). The 2 lead women that I had passed earlier took this opportunity to blow by me. Once the road started going down at 7.5 miles, I was able to run one of them down but the other one was untouchable unless I was willing to puke up a lung.
The downhill from mile 9-11 was really tough, if I was doing the whole marathon this would have done me in. I was on cruise control after that and just sorta keeping it steady, not pushing too hard the last couple of miles since it was a gradual downhill. The second woman decided to take this opportunity to pass me. I didn't feel like chasing her down, not even sure I could have, so I let her "chick" me. At the pace she was moving, I didn't feel any disgrace when she blew by me.


Maybe scout the course.

Walked around, got a massage and found the free beer :)


Not much, wasn't really training for a half so I feel pretty good about my run overall.


This was the inaugral event of this race. The event staff went out of their way to make this awesome. The schwag was a lot better than most races nowadays. The drink stations every 2 miles was a big plus for this very challenging course. The food and drinks at the end were fantastic. They even had all you can drink free beer, how you gonna beat that? The MC at the awards was funny, but a little long-winded. One thing I did find odd, there were no pros or elites in this race. The overall trophies were some pretty cool looking glass fish. Great race, I hope they can duplicate this next year.