Saturday before race day I woke up early and got a nice 2 miler in before the sun rose. The rest of the day was a busy day with our last soccer game and potluck. We spent a lot of time in the sun but tried to take it easy. "Easy" got snagged when the kids coerced us to run in the afternoon. Run as in chase them on their bikes. I was careful not to pull, strain or hurt anything.
After making my favorite pre-race pasta dish (we usually have this meal at Bravo's but we're trying to save money) I got everything ready and was ready to hit the sack super early in anticipation of a 2:45 am wake up call. Then hubby alerted me to the fact that we were on a tsunami watch. SAY WHAT?!!! Being the superstitious athlete that I am I began wondering what message I was supposed to take from this act of nature. Was it a sign? A sign that I was being let off the hook because I was in no way ready for this race? A sign that I wasn't meant to run 18 miles? A sign that if I raced the 18 miles at race pace I would get injured? So many thoughts going through my head. Was I really off hook? If I didn't run this race would I be able to run the marathon? How was I going to text myself. How was I going to prepare. My race friends and I texted one another in disbelief.
Being that the waves were to hit at 10:38 pm and that the race was at 5am and was pretty much on the water I didn't think the race would be on. We went to bed early anyway and decided to check after 11:30 pm if the race was on. At 2 am I woke up, saw that it was cancelled and messaged my running peeps. We decided that we'd sleep in and go out and run anyway.
After a slow start we got to Kapiolani Park at 6:30 am decked out in our racing gear sans bib and decided that we'd go out and see how far we could run. Since Mike was sick and I was nursing an aching arch/ankle/calf coupled with such a late start and minimal training we just wanted to get some sort of long run in (I really wanted the 18.6 so that I could wear my PF Chang Tshirt but wasn't going to push the issue). Our first ascend up Diamond Head in a long time killed and I wasn't feeling so confident after mile 1. The good thing was that my foot felt good. I was super happy that my new socks by Feetures that were recommended by our fab salesman at The Running Route had my feet felling like they were running in a cloud!!! On the route we saw many people running with their bibs on. I took my first gel at mile 3 and we ran on. When we got to the gas station I asked Mike what he wanted to do and we decided to run onto Kalanianaole. That would ensure that we'd at least get double digits. We kept running into the sun at about a 10:30 pace which is what I was targeting for this race. It's a full minute slower than I've been running other races but I didn't want to risk injury. We stopped at each beach park to take pictures of the ocean--which was flat and full of people. Tsunami? What tsunami!!!!
We saw my friend Lori T after the first or 2nd beach and she was looking very strong. We kept on going and decided to head to the church which is the 16 mile mark. At the church Mike said to keep going so we decided we'd run to Hawaii Kai and turn around there. At this point I realized that my poor injured right foot was being forced into pronation by all the dipping driveways. Every 5 feet for 4 steps it was pronate, strain, ouch. It was a huge revelation!!!! Running on uneven sidewalks over and over was what was killing my feet. DUH!!!! At that point I switched to running on the more-even road and my foot felt much better. This huge revelation made me feel so much better about my injuries as I now had a plan to get better before the marathon (no more uneven surface running!).
When we got to Hawaii Kai, the 8 mile mark we stopped to take pictures of the ocean before turning around and heading back. That's when we ran into Glenda and Clyde who convinced us to run the loop with them. Why the hell not? Mike whispered to me that we were going to hit 20 today and I just smiled. Running with Glenda and Clyde was just what we needed as we were able to talk story and not really think about the running. We made the turn and headed back to the start feeling pretty strong and keeping our pace.
When we got to the gas station we looked at the time and realized that Mike needed to get to work so we opted to run through Kahala instead of the Marathon Route. That last 3 miles on the Marathon Route is mentally tough for me so maybe it was a blessing in disguise. As we neared Diamond Head I told myself to run up strong and I was able to. No mantras needed!!! At the bottom of the hill Mike said we may as well go for 20 so we did. An unexpected 20 miles done!!!!
Let me tell you, I feel much more confident heading into November, 5 weeks left with this 20 under my belt. I feel like I can rest my foot, not push to hard and begin properly tapering. I think the slower non-race pace really benefited me today. I guess this whole tsunami thing was a blessing in disguise.
So, another huge milestone accomplished on my journey to marathon. It was a great surprise and such a huge confidence booster. It was also need because it was my 301st day of my running streak and brought me to 1494 miles total for the year. I cannot believe how far I have come and I am thankful for my running husband and running peeps for their support.
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