Kilauea Volcano Run - Run5 Mile


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Volcano, Hawaii
United States
Volcano Art Center
Total Time = 00m
Overall Rank = 45/249
Age Group = 30-39
Age Group Rank = 4/10
Pre-race routine:

I shall start with the excuses right up front.
1. I stopped training for two reasons Work and Family. I got horribly behind on a project and had to catch up by working many hours. That extra work time meant less time with my family so cut training to spend my extra time with them. It is what it is
2. I fell in a lava hole and couldn't train if I wanted to. My foot was too cut up run in shoes. Going back point 1 trumps this anyway.

Got up at 5:15 showered, ate some peanut butter toast and got on my way. Had to stop for gas and water. Ended up being a little bit late to the race. I was in no danger of missing the start, I just never warmed up how I should.
Event warmup:

Ran to registration to pick up number and get everything taken care of. They scrub your shoes to get foreign seeds off so you don't leave badness in the park. Used my run to registration table as my warm up and then did some stretching.
Run
  • 50m 46s
  • 5 miles
  • 10m 09s  min/mile
Comments:

I can't say enough about how hard this run was. I explained the excuses up top so I won't linger. The start of the race was pretty mellow. I started about 5 rows back which was way too far back. I had to weave and work my way an open area. Ididn't burn too much energy here, I just need to keep in mind that I should be behind the real racers but in front of everybody else. course goes from two car wide street to narrow single track with poor footing really fast, then it heads down hill. Just running at an okay pace had me passing many people, every time the trali was wide enough for two, it was on your left as went by. The narrow trail somehow made it easier to talk. The people on the downhill were very chatty talking about all kinds of things. It was odd, but pleasant. I was surprised at how far down this went. I have hiked into the crater before, but it didn't seem this long. By the time I hit the crater floor I was shocked we had travelled two miles. I realy thought it would have been 1 mile. After realizing how narrow the trail was I tried to pass as many as possible on the crater floor. At this point I had an epiphany, I am running in Volcano National Park on the surface of a crater, I need to enjoy the view. So I looked around to see if that helped my pace. The two things I noticed were that it is hard to look around when you are running on lava and two misty air makes for a poor view. I did see a decent rainbow. Back to focusing on the run. Here is where I made mistake number two, I foolishly thought I only had to get to the top of the crater and it wouldn't take that long. The initial portion of the climb was steep, with stairs, railings and doubling back on itself. I foolishly passed a few people on the inside. I really wish I paced myself better. After climbing for what seemed like ten minutes straight my body failed. My bastard of a brain revolted again and the race became miserable. I could not climb anymore and just ran out of steam. Runners who caught up to me would ask how much longer we had to climb and nobody knew. I couldn't run anymore and had to walk on some of the steeps uphills. That was the final thing that broke me. Walking cause I was too tired to run was devastating. Not knowing the course was tough cause I didn't know when the climbing would stop. Everytime I thought I hit the peak I had higher to go. This race sucked. I kept going and tried to run as much as I could. At some point I got pretty high and had a downhill section, that was so steep it made me curse out loud. I actually let a some curse slip out of mind because the downhill was too tough. It was steep, wet and my legs were done. It hurt to try and slow down and what should have been a point of rest just furthered the fatigue. You can't go down without having to go up some more, so it was back to the uphill again. I could not find a good pace anymore, my fitness was done. With 1 mile to go and waht seemed like no more hills I started to go faster. Well it was still uphill and I wasn't ready to go faster, more dejection. We also ran by two airborne obstacles, a bubble machine and steam vents. the bubble machine was annoying cause it littered the trail with bubbes and I really did not want one to pop in my eye or mouth. The steam vents were full bore. You could not see though them they were so thick. I tried to hold my breathe as I ran through to avoid the taste of Sulphur in my mouth. I guess that was mistake number 8 or 9, I lost count. Luckily breathing in the sulphur was not too bad. Keep running, keep running twist ankle. I didn't fall and luckily it was my left ankle and I can fully roll it and not have any pain right away. I also hurt something in the arch of my right foot. Not sure what it was, but it probably had something to do with the uneven trail. I really was hoping for the end of the race now. I could hear the race announcer but I could not see them. I kept running and wanted to pick up the pace but was afraid that it would be too far to the finish line. Came out of the trail, onto street, onto grass, around corner, around buildings and you could not see the finish line until the very end, maybe 70 yards left. I was able to stride it in, but i did not feel good.
What would you do differently?:

1. Train
2. Train on Hills
3. Not get behind at work before hand
4. Learn trail before race
5. Train
6. Pace

This race was a collosal failure for me. I am okay with that as I got myself in a position and that position was not ideal for training. Hopefully this pain will help me not get into that position again.
Post race
Warm down:

None, just walked to car, toweled off, picked up t-shirt and time card

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Training and Course Knowledge

Event comments:

I really like this course. It is brutal and unforgiving. I hope I can get into proper form for this next year.




Last updated: 2007-06-26 12:00 AM
Running
00:50:46 | 05 miles | 10m 09s  min/mile
Age Group: 4/10
Overall: 10/249
Performance:
Course: This course is a nightmare. It is a cruel joke. Start at top of crater run on street for quarter mile, then go down hill for two miles to crater floor, across crater and back up for three miles. Much of course is rocky single track, even included some stairs.
Keeping cool Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Below average
Mental exertion [1-5] 2
Physical exertion [1-5] 2
Good race? No
Evaluation
Course challenge Too hard
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5] 4