Maui Marathon

 Marathon #5 for me may not have knocked off another state but it did knock off another Hawaiian Island and I learned so much from this marathon. First off, this race was brutal. Tough was an understatement for me. Hubby and I flew over to Maui Saturday morning, Sept 20th. We rented a car and spent the day exploring areas of Maui we hadn't been before and favorites we had. We drove the island, stopped at a local winery, had some tasty food, relaxed at the hotel and went to bed early the night before the race (7:30pm!) for a 2am wake up race morning.


View from inside a cave at Wainaps. Beautiful - Love it here!

Race morning came quick.... Up by 2am... Or I suppose finally pulled myself out of bed by 2:30am. Got dressed and ready - ensuring I followed routine and had everything I needed with me. Grabbed breakfast and we headed to the shuttle buses. The last bus left no later then 3:45am so we had to make sure we got there in time. We got to the buses around 3:30am and we were on our way. The buses drove us to the start line and dropped off us where we had to run the 26.2 miles to get back to the hotel.

The pre-race was great at Maui! Plenty of port a potties - which is always a plus. Any runner knows that a place with enough port a potties that doesn't require waiting in line pre race is pretty awesome! The Maui marathon also had some fruit and other stuff at the start which was a nice touch given how early we all had to make our way over and food options were limited unless you bought stuff the night before (Which we did) but it was still nice to have the option!



View from our hotel the night before the marathon - Breathtaking!

And it was so Hawaiian - Before the race started they had a fire dancer come out and perform which was pretty awesome! After that we made our way to the start line where a bit of a fiasco occurred. A drunk driver drove into the crowd of runners at the beginning. Luckily for all of us he was going super slow. He clipped one of the performers, a drummer and dragged him but luckily he sustained just minor injuries. Thank goodness. It was quite the adventure to a start of a race and I am thankful no one was more injured and he wasn't going fast!

About 10 minutes after the original start time of 5am we finally started. Right away it was super hot and muggy.... By a half mile in I was already sweating. Never a good sign. My coach and I had set a time goal of 4:40 for this marathon which was a small PR off of my previous time. I figured out my time goals for different mileage points. I ran a smart half, I banked a bit of time because I knew there was a couple miles of hills between miles 9 and 12. By the time I got done with the hills I was a couple seconds a head of my goal time. By the half marathon mark I was a couple minutes a head of time to hit my 4:40 goal. I was feeling good - strong. My legs felt great.

By mile 15-16 I started feeling what seemed to be a side stitch on my right side. I tried what normally works to get rid of it. Though, it was weird because I haven't been getting them recently and especially not that far into the run. I couldn't get it to go away... By mile 22 it had made it's way down my side and further into my lower abdomen. By this point I felt like someone was taking a knife and stabbing me and twisting it around while doing so. It was so painful! I couldn't kick it. So I'd stop and walk for a bit until the pain seemed to subside and then run again and then it would rear its ugly head again. So I spent those miles run/walking trying to keep the pain manageable. It was terrible.

And to top it all off it was HOT - Brutal. And the course had no shade. The sun was full blaze by the half marathon mark. I was saturated in sweat... So much so I could hear my feet squish in my shoes because of how wet they got. I did everything right - Fueled and hydrated how I should but I couldn't get rid of the pain in my side. But god knows, I was going to finish.

And finish I did. Almost 40 minutes past my goal time. Though somehow, with my second best marathon time still. I met my hubby at the finish line and found out he had a pretty brutal race himself and he also got his second best marathon finish time.

So far - that was not my best race. It was not my toughest set of races (3 marathons in 41 days beats that) but when the wonderful volunteer put the beautiful medal around my neck for some reason I felt like I had worked the hardest to earn this medal over others in the past. It was such a good feeling! Earned another medal, another race and learned a lot about myself along the way.

The course itself was beautiful - Amazing scenery and the course support was well done. The volunteers were great and I was thankful for their encouragement and random spectators encouragement along the way. The aid stations were great, well stocked and the volunteers were great. Maui put on a beautiful and well supported race. So far if I had to recommend a Hawaii marathon out of this or Honolulu I'd choose Maui in a heartbeat.



We finished!!

Finishers medal!