Race Recap: Kahakuloa Half Marathon & Relays

This is one of my favorite races of the year! It's a great time of year to be running, it's a super scenic course, and it's a great training run for my fall marathons. For my full race review on Bibrave click here. Proceeds for this race are donated to on organization that is restoring the Hawaiian Congregational Church in Kahakuloa. So running for a cause was just another reason for me to sign up.

I have to admit that I didn't train as hard as I should have for this race. I had recently started a new job and my training had been put on the back burner. But I got in a 10 miler with all hills a few weeks before and I felt confident enough that I would do great, maybe not beat last year's time but at least still do good.

I carbed up nicely the night before, got a great amount of sleep, and was all prepared for my 4:15am alarm. I had to arrive at the race by 5:00am to receive my bib and shirt as I couldn't make it to the expo the night before, due to my new work schedule. The only unforeseeable element was the weather. It was a cloudy day, so I was super stoked. More on this later.

My race buddy was a fellow co-worker and marathoner Lisa (middle lady in the picture to the left), and she was equally feeling slightly unprepared but ready to tackle it anyway. We lined up for the start and before we knew it we were off. To explain the course a little it is a constant battle of uphill and downhill along route 30 until you hit the town of Kahakuloa. There is maybe a quarter mile throughout the course that is relatively flat, then rest is all hills. For this reason there is also a 2 person and 4 person team relay available. I think the worse part about having the race be full half and relay is that there always seemed to be people blowing by me with so much energy because they were just starting. They didn't have to conserve their energy for 13 miles but could breeze through their 3 mile leg. But it was good to add the relays that so that the race would appeal to more runners and therefore more money raised for the Church Restoration.

I was keeping up with Lisa for the first 3-4 miles around the Honokohau valley, the steepest hill of the course. Remembering from last year breathing was key going up hill. I made sure to have certain songs on my playlist to help me keep my breath regular. I also was wearing my Trekz Titanium headphones. Where I love these headphones in every other instance this is where they were my downfall. The idea of these headphones is to leave the ears open to hear the surrounding as they play the music into you cheek bones. That meant that I could hear my breathing, I thought that it sounded different than usual so I changed my rhythm, WRONG. That with a combination of the humidity of the cloudy weather and lack of wind was a recipe for cramping as I wouldn't be able to supply enough oxygen to my muscles.

At about mile 9 I reached that point and everything was getting so tight that I had to reduce to walking. It was utterly defeating for me to have to walk because I know I can do better. For the remaining miles I ran downhill when I could and continued my power walking up the hills. I really did get to enjoy the scenery more than I anticipated this way. It's a route that I don't usually take so the view was very excited to me.

As I rounded the corner of the finish line I was so happy, I just wanted to sit down and stretch my cramping legs out. I finished in 2:26:26 which was 24 minutes slower than last year. But I was greeted with a glass of champagne from Lisa and my friends. Lisa who actually won the race for females placing 7th overall. I finished, so it is a victory for me, and I will be back next year with a vengeance to do better! Lessons learned is that I need to be prepared for different weather than I have trained in, and to stick to my training plan for the best results.