Hawaii - The Wife's Perspective

We weren’t even supposed to go to Hawaii this year. We had talked about, dreamed about, and even invited another couple to go with us to Alaska over the summer for the Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon. Polar opposite destinations, right? It’s our five year anniversary this year so we wanted to do something big and Alaska was calling. But then I found out that we could expect to welcome a third little person into our world in August and all of a sudden a trip to nowhere to hike two months before delivery sounded like a very bad idea. Especially since I have a habit of going into labor early. So we did some research and quickly determined that there happened to be a marathon on the Big Island when I’d only be a few months along and much more comfortable. We promised Grandma that our days of asking for overnight babysitting were numbered, since she had already made it clear that if we ever had three watching them all would be out of the question, and she agreed to one last hurrah. Grandmas are The. Best.

We decided to do the marathon first, rather than as the end of our trip, so we flew into to the Big Island. We were on different flights (the consequence of using miles to book one of them) so Mike had a few hours to get to know the lay of the land before he had to pick me up. I was totally jealous. We flew into Kailua-Kona, so on Saturday we had to make the trip to Hilo, on the other side of the island, for packet pick-up. We took the long (and very beautiful) route, getting to the expo just in time for Mike to get his packet and pick up a pair of pink ladies’ running shorts. Because why not? Mike vacillated a bit on them but I encouraged him to go for it and stand out.

We stayed, as we usually try to, at a small B&B (http://www.halekaihawaii.com/). It was just a few miles from the Start/Finish and actually almost on the route itself. We had a little suite with our own lanai overlooking the harbor where you could almost always see one or more humpback whales surfacing and playing. It was wonderful.

When we got to the Start, Mike sized up the field, as usual. He immediately identified a youngish guy with dark hair as his only competition. I wrote him off because he was carrying water (you almost never see serious marathoners carry water). After the runners took off, I jumped into my car to find some much-needed coffee. According to Yelp there was a single coffee shop open (http://www.justcruisincoffee.com/), so it was easy to decide where to go. And then I headed straight up the road to approximately Mile 6. I had planned to go in to the 4 Mile Scenic Route a bit further, but when I started the drive I realized that it’s quite tight and it would be easier and more comfortable to keep the car on the main road. I didn’t want to have to end up parking somewhere where I’d be in the way of any runners. Already by Mile 6, Mike was in second place, almost 40 seconds behind the guy in the lead. Who was, of course, the guy carrying water who Mike had pointed out (turns out he’s an ultramarathoner, and those guys often DO carry water given that, well, they usually go so much farther). My spot also allowed me to see the runners after they turned around at the botanical gardens and started heading south again (about Mile 9.5), which made it quite an easy and comfortable spectating spot. There was also a rooster in the next yard to join in on my cheering for everyone who passed, which I loved.

From there I jumped into the car and drove a few miles down the road, to about Mile 14, then on to Mile 19.5, which was also Mile 22 after another turnaround. For spectating purposes, I love, love, love these small races that don’t shut down all the local roads (though I know it can be frustrating and sometimes scary as a runner). I vastly prefer marathons like this one, where you can more or less drive ahead of your runner the entire time, pull off, and see him as many times as you have the patience (and lungs) for. Of course, the trade-off for the runners is that there are far fewer people out there to cheer you on, but I saw at least another person or two every time I stopped, which was encouraging.

At Mile 19.5 I clocked that the first place runner was over 4 ½ minutes ahead of Mike, which is just a tremendous lead. At Mile 22 I even congratulated him and told him he had it. When Mike ran past a few minutes later I pointed out that he could just see #1 off in the distance, but he was pretty far down the road. 

There was nothing left to do but head to the Finish. At around 2:45 in, I started watching the clock, and at 2:50 I started getting really nervous. Mike had hoped to finish by 2:50, and I still hadn’t seen the first place guy yet! Finally I saw the bike pacer coming down the road… and right behind him I could see bright pink shorts! I never would have recognized Mike so early if he hadn’t been wearing them. At that point, I kind of lost my mind. I couldn’t see #1 but I assumed they had to be sprinting together for the finish, and that Mike could lose his lead at any second as he came down the Finish. I just know I was jumping and screaming and making a general complete idiot of myself. But I didn’t care. At all. In the picture right after Mike finished (which took up ½ of the whole Sports page), I look completely shocked, even more so than Mike. But to be fair, he had had a few miles to get used to the idea that somehow #1 (who we quickly learned was Billy, as better described in Mike’s post) had dropped off and he had caught up; I had had merely moments to process this information. It was, without exaggerating, one of the most exhilarating and emotional moments of my life. It was second only, I think, to the doctor announcing that my second child was a girl, when I had in my heart just known I was having another boy.

We stayed in Hawaii for another week, between the Big Island and Kauai, and we did lots of things and lots of nothing. You really can’t go wrong in Hawaii, no matter what you do. Or don’t do. Looking back now, having been home for two weeks, my sharpest memories are certainly of the marathon. Other things were really great, too, of course – seeing all the stars at night on Mauna Kea, taking a helicopter over the lava flow on the Big Island, the various hikes we took, exploring cliffs, hitting the beach, eating tons and tons of papaya, Mike’s speeding ticket (ok, maybe that one wasn’t so great)… I could go on. But you really only came here for the running story anyway ;)