Race Recap: Fun in the Sun Ohana Run

I'm so fortunate this week to have my parents visiting me here on Maui, all the way from upstate NY. We have been planning this trip for months, what activities we are going to be doing, what restaurants to eat at, etc. But the thing my mom wanted to do that most was to run a 5K with me.

To give a little background on my mother, she had gastric-bypass several years ago in response to some health concerns: diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, and obesity. The procedure took care of all of that, helping her to drop about 120 lbs and made all her health problems vanish. It was after the surgery that she got into running, never really thinking that she would be able to run a mile in her life. Now she loves to run and cycle whenever she has the opportunity.

Ever since I moved here she has been dying to run a 5K on Maui because of all the pictures I post of my races, and since we have never run a race together before. So I was on the prowl looking up races on Maui trying to see which ones would be great. To our misfortune the time she is here is right between races, and we would miss them just by a few days.

But that didn't stop my mom! She told me that if there weren't any races then we are going to make our own. My first reaction was to laugh at her because she was so determined to do this that I almost thought she was joking. Boy was I wrong! Then next phone call I got from my mom in February was her inquiring about my shirt size and the sizes of all my friends. Me being Sammi-skeptic asked her why, and she said "Well we can't make our own race unless we have some racers too."

At this point I realized she was getting down to business. So I gathered all my running friend's shirt sizes, and to my surprise a box arrived at my door in about a week. A big box from Rockford, Illinois. Me not ordering anything, carefully cut around the tape and opened the box slowly waiting to be pranked. To my utter surprise and shock it was full of race shirts for me and all my friends. My first thought was "Holy shit my mom wasn't kidding."

So at this point it was just about a week out before my parents arrived. I was busy making plans for when they're here and all I had left to do was to create a 5K course. There were so many things to consider that it was almost overwhelming. Where to run? Should there be hills? Should we run on the beach? Trail run? Morning run? Night run? Sunset run?

It was at this point that I was cruising around Twitter and saw a post from @nuunhydration asking for the best cross training tips. My response to that was to make your cross train workout a destination activity, so make a coffee shop or restaurant your ending location as a reward for your efforts. Then it hit me, we could run the beach walk on Kaanapali and finish at Duke's Beach House for brunch afterwards. The next phase was to figure our a day that all my friends and I were off so we could run. Much to my surprise, the star aligned and we all had a Sunday morning off. Perfect! It took me months for me and two other friends to have a matching day off, so for four of us to have the same day off while my parent were here was like a miracle, star aligned, hallelujah choir singing, totally meant to be.

On race morning we all met at the parking lot at Duke's and then car pooled to Canoe Beach Park for our start. Figuring to leave the cars at the restaurant so they would be there when we finish. We couldn't have asked for better weather: no vog (volcano smog), a nice stead breeze, sunny with a few clouds, and tons of waves. The course itself was very easy and simple: follow the beach walk path, led by signs, all the way to the end which is at Duke's.

It ended up being one of those fun group runs where we all took turns running in the front and back, and with different people. It made it so much more fun that way. My dad would occasionally sprint ahead of us so that he could get action shots of us running down the path. Then we all let my mom win the race, of course.

To our dismay Duke's had no power due to a car accident, so we went elsewhere for brunch. We drove up to Seahouse which has great food and is right on the shores of Napili Bay. So we still got our ocean view with brunch. AND we still cheersed to our victory with a round...or two of mimosas!

Cheers to the beautiful end of creating my own 5K and running my first race, and hopefully not last with my mother!