Race Recap: Valley to the Sea Half Marathon

Let's start off by saying that this is one of my favorite races of the year! It's a chance to run on the other side of the island, which is great because most of the training I did was on the west side where I live. To check out my Bibrave review of this race click on the following link: http://www.bibrave.com/races/valley-to-the-sea-marathon-and-half/4755?tweet=1#.Vu7UbfkrKhc

Since we are starting from the beginning, I don't feel like I trained as strongly as I did in the past for a race. After my 10K back in January it was a struggle to get back out there, work got a little busier and I had to put running on the back burner. But I finally got my sh!t together and got in some decent training.

Something that is always pretty cool was that packet pickup was at our Sports Authority. So we take advantage of that to grab some final supplies for our race. Alicia got a variety of gels, jelly beans, and blocks, where I continued using my Arbonne Fit Chews as I did in my training. Then as part of our racing tradition we always go to Mokeypod Kitchen, one of our favorite restaurants in Wailea, wither before or after a big race. We chose before this time, a great time to carb up! We love to eat family style, ordering many things and sharing them all. Our indulgents that night were Mahi-Mahi fish taco (shown below), jalapeno mash potatoes, roasted Brussels Sprouts, fresh veggies with a baba ganoush dip, and a kalua pork saimin bowl. Monkeypod is famous for their desserts and we couldn't decide on one so we got two: strawberry cream and chocolate caramel peanut (shown below).

We got home around 9:30pm and got our bags packed for the morning. I had feeling of excitement and dread as my alarm went off at 3:00am. I chugged some water to get everything working and got dressed. We carpooled to the race and I was the driver. Tracy and I got Alicia at 3:45 and Amie at 4:00. I was a quick be relaxing drive to Kihei. We had to park about a tenth of a mile down the road from the finish in free parking on the side of the road.

The race provided a shuttle to the race start up in Iao Valley. I was relieved to see charter buses this year, as they were school buses last year. After our comfy ride up into the valley we departed to the cold and misty morning.

The line for the port-a-potty was pretty long but we got in right before the race start. It was gorgeous up in the valley, a waterfall was running to the south and a light rain kissed us.

However it was pretty dark at 6am, sunrise wasn't until after 7am. We had been dreading the final .25 miles across the sand and were relieved when the race director said that it had been canceled and we would finish on pavement. I'd never heard so many happy runners after hearing that.

The race was then off at the sound of the gun, which was timed to match the full marathon start in Kihei. Due to the rain the road was pretty wet which made me very nervous. I kept quick feet as I made my way down the valley trying not to slip which I thankfully never did. It was hard not to go out to fast on an initial down hill but I realized I needed to slow my pace after my second mile or else I would burn out too quickly. The first three miles were all down hill then we crossed the road onto route 30 and we had flat ground for a little bit.

At this point I felt very comfortable with my pace and continued on faster than expected. I knew that there would be an uphill incline approaching so I popped a chew in. To my advantage it kicked in just in time. The hill wasn't steep but was long, so it felt like it took forever to get to the top. An aid station at the top was a sight for sore eye. I grabbed a Gatorade which was so strong that I needed to drink some of my reserve water that I brought with me. But I knew that it was all down hill from this point, literally.

As with my training, I was popping a chew every 2-3 miles depending on how I felt as the chews are not calorie dense. But at mile 10 another super strong cup of Gatorade really upset my stomach. I decided not to eat anything else. I checked my time and pace at mile 11 and if I kept it up a PR would be in sight. I had to skip a few songs on my playlist until I found my power songs to help me maintain my pace. Right before the last turn there was a small bridge over a creek and that's when I gave everything for my final sprint. I zoomed down the chute and got my medal. Much to my dismay and my sore legs, my running app still said I had .1 miles to go. So I gathered my strength again and ran circles in the grass until I hit 13.1.

I wasn't sure of my exact time but was curiosity was sated when the award ceremony began. I knew I was in the 1:40-1:50 range and when my age division came up and third place was 1:43:37 I was really defeated because I was determined to place and knew I couldn't have been faster than that. To my relief I had places second with a time of 1:43:01! My trophy was is hand carved frog that's hollow so it can make a traditional Hawaiian drum sound (shown right) SO cool right!

Then the rest of my friends finished! They all did so great and loved the course. I think that was the best part, having my friends enjoying my favorite race as much as I had had!


Cheers to a fantastic race and start of my running year!