Maui Marathon Race Recap

Since it’s a point-to-point course, the race starts 26 miles away at the airport so you have to take a shuttle there.  I got up at 3am and got on the 4:15 shuttle that was superclose to our hotel.

I got to the race around 5am and amazingly Pam found me in the mass of people.  It was great to see her and walk to the start with her before lining up way behind her; she was gunning for a PR and I was trying not to hyperventilate at that point.

The race started right at 5:30am and it was still dark out; it was weird running a race in the dark but the weather was perfect at that point – cool-ish with a little wind.

I started very conservatively mostly because I was so nervous about how I’d do in the later miles: I was probably more nervous about this race than any other.  I just didn’t know how my body was going to handle it so my goal as to expend as little energy during the first half as possible.

The first 6 miles I ran all around 9:30 min/mile and hit 6.5 miles in 1 hour.  The sun rose around that time, but it wasn’t too hot yet and we had a nice tailwind that I was seriously thanking the Lord for.

The first half of the race is surprisingly hilly; mile 7 was about a 1.5 mile decline and then you climb to over 1000 feet around mile 11. 

After the first hour I sorta settled down mentally and wasn’t so nervous about the rest of the race; sometimes the pre-race anxiety is worse than actually running it.

I hit the halfway mark at 2 hours and the sun was full-on out and hot by then.  The course also flattened out completely at that point, and it was fun to finally run right beside the ocean.

Water station Hawaii-style.

I just wrote in the refueling post about when I take gels during a race, but yesterday I changed it up: I ate 3 gels at mile 10, 16, and 21 instead of the normal 4 that I do.  Between the heat and the fact that I felt like I wasn’t running that hard, I didn’t think I needed more.

I turned my music on at mile 14.5 which helped a lot and tried to zone out and enjoy the views.  I wasn’t feeling that bad but it was so hot out.  I grabbed at least 1 full cup of water or Gatorade at every aid station; I felt full from drinking so much but was still really thirsty.

Love those overhanging trees.

I passed mile 20 in 3:01 and was still feeling good.  At that point I thought I could have a chance at breaking 4 hours so I started running around 8:30’s but the heat was also starting to really get to me.

The last 3 miles were really hard simply because of the heat -I could feel my body temperature rising and there wasn’t any shade.

We ran through Front Street in Lahaina where all the little shops and restaurants are which was fun and took my mind off the heat for a minute.

Finally the end was in sight and I ran to the finish surprised to see everyone – Jaymo, my girlfriends and their husbands cheering me on.

They made me a sign on a beach mat and even had the announcer yell for everyone to go on skinnyrunner.com.

I had told them all not to come to the finish but it was really fun to see them all there, and it was perfect because the finish was right by our hotel. Thanks girls!!

My garmin says 3:54:49; official results haven’t come out yet but Pam said I got 2nd in my division or something.

LOVE this picture.

Thanks to 26.2 Apparel for sponsoring me in this race and giving me clothes to wear so I didn’t have to run in my mumu.  Even though I was soaking wet, my clothes didn’t chafe at all and weren’t heavy either.

Tagged as: hawaii, hot weather running, race recap