Today I ran the third marathon in the Aloha Series. We ran the same course for today’s race as we
did yesterday. As usual, we started at
4:30, which means it was dark for the first half of the race. This time, however, I was already familiar
with the course.
I got to bed early enough to get a reasonable amount of
sleep. My legs felt a little stiff, but
no more than yesterday.
Today’s weather was a little bit cooler than the last two
days. We also got more rain. The big story, however, was the wind. There was a strong wind out of the north for
the entire race.
Before the race, it was raining off and on. It started raining again just before we
started running. Between the rain and
the wind, I felt chilly, so I made a last-minute decision to start the race
wearing a Tyvek jacket. I wasn’t the
only one. About half the runners were
starting the race with jackets.
For the first half of our out-and-back course, we were
running into the wind. When I turned
around and started heading back, I could feel the wind pushing at my back. With the wind at my back, I started to get
hot, so I unzipped the front of my jacket. By now, the rain had stopped, so I continued
to get hot.
When I finished my first lap, I took off the jacket. No sooner did I head out again than it
started to rain again. I quickly noticed
a pattern. Whenever I started a lap, the
rain started. When I reached the
turnaround, the rain stopped. By now, I
was warmed up enough that I wasn’t worried about getting cold without my
jacket.
In general, it’s easy to run this course in the dark, but
there was one section with a few large puddles.
I tried to look for them, but my headlamp didn’t let me see them in time
to go around them. At least once per
lap, I stepped into a puddle and got my shoes drenched.
The start/finish area was at a beach park, so we were close
to the water. The turnaround was at the
top of a hill. Going out there was a
slight uphill trend, and coming back it was downhill. When we were going uphill, we were also
fighting a strong headwind. Coming back,
it was a tailwind. Finally, it seemed
like the on and off rain usually coincided with the direction I was running.
This made it seem like two different races. Everything about the first half of the lap
was difficult. The wind in particular
was wearing me down. Coming back it was
easy. The wind pushed me to a faster
pace.
It was also two different races in another way. I had to run six laps in the dark, followed
by six laps in daylight. I didn’t like
the combination of rain, wind, and running in the dark. When I finished my third lap, I told myself I
was half done with the “dark” laps. I
counted down the remaining laps until daylight.
I didn’t worry about the remaining six “daylight” laps.
As I reached the turnaround for the sixth time, there was
just enough light to see the shoreline below us. On my way back, I could finally see all the
large puddles. After that, I was able to
avoid them.
When I finished that lap, I took off my headlamp. I looked at my watch for the first time. I was surprised to see that my time for the
first half was only a minute slower than yesterday. I expected to be much slower, because the
wind was really wearing me down.
My goal at the start of the race was to run the first half
at a slow steady pace and then take it one lap at a time. Now it was time to start taking walking
breaks. I gave myself permission to walk
as much as I needed going into the wind.
Coming back, I would run the whole way.
After walking most of the way to the turn in lap seven, my
legs felt a bit stiff as I switched back to running. Fortunately, having a strong wind at my back
made running easier. In subsequent laps,
I decided to run at least halfway to the turnaround. I only walked the section where the wind was strongest. That tending to be the last half mile, as the
course began climbing above the cliffs.
There were other runners who were still wearing jackets or
rain ponchos. Going into the wind, they
would flap rapidly, like the wings of a hummingbird.
The last tenth mile before the turn went around a corner
above the cliffs. Here the wind was much stronger. I started calling that last turn “Hurricane
Point.”
Not that it was daylight, I could see the whole course
clearly. I finally got to see the big
waves being whipped up by the wind. I
also got to see a few runners who weren’t there for the first two races.
As I finished my ninth lap, I tried to tell myself I was
half done with the daytime half of the race.
That didn’t really work. At this
point, I was too tired to think beyond the current lap. In each lap, I had to get through the first
half with a fair amount of walking. Then
coming back was much easier. Instead of
counting down the remaining laps, I started to count down the number of times I
had to fight the wind on the climb to “Hurricane Point.” Even walking, it was more difficult going out
than it was coming back.
In general, there was less rain in the second half, but in
one lap, there was a short burst of heavy rain.
It was accompanied by stronger gusts of wind. Naturally, this started just as I was
climbing toward “Hurricane Point.” The
path got so slick that walking was more difficult than running. I ran until the last tenth mile. Then the wind forced me to walk. The wind got so strong on that last turn that
it was tough to make forward progress, even walking. I could feel the wind pushing the skin on my
cheeks.
As soon as I made the turnaround, the rain stopped, and the
sun came out. For the first time since
taking off my jacket, I started to get hot.
At this point, I only had a lap and a half to go. I knew I wouldn’t be hot on the half lap that
was into the wind.
In the second half of the race, my lap times varied between
25 and 29 minutes, depending on how much walking I did. With one lap to go, I checked my watch. If I could run that lap in 26 minutes, I
could break five hours. I knew I could
do it if I didn’t do too much walking, so I made an effort to run the entire
lap.
Early in each lap, we crossed a bridge over a small
channel. On my last lap, I saw several people
looking over one side of the bridge. I
stopped to see what they were looking at.
It was a dolphin. Unfortunately,
I didn’t have my camera with me on this lap.
After stopping briefly to see the dolphin, I ran the entire
lap. As I began the tough section, I
could see Tom Craven ahead of me. I knew
Tom expected to break five hours, so I tried to catch up to him. I reached him just after the turnaround.
Running the whole way, it took me 12 minutes to reach the
turn. That gave me 14 minutes to run
back. I knew I could do that easily. I got hot again, but running with the wind
was always easier. I finished in
4:56:08.
Today’s medal was a rooster. I added the new medal to my chain.
If you don't know why a rooster is appropriate, visit the island of Kau'i sometime. They're everywhere!
Breaking five hours meant I could once again get back to the
hotel in time for breakfast. French
toast with coconut syrup is quickly becoming one of my favorite post-race
foods.
Race statistics:
Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 4:56:08
Average Pace: 11:18
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:
326
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