Run for the Whales 1/2 Marathon

It's hard to believe that its already been a week since I ran the Run for the Whales 1/2 marathon in Wailea, HI on Maui island. This is one of the few positives that I can actually attibute to the recent economic downturn. My initial 50 state plan (a soft, evolving plan that it is) had me doing a race in Hawaii as my 50th state because I wanted to be able to spend time while there. Post Chicago in early November last year I stumbled upon $455 airfare from IAH nonstop to Honolulu. Confirming that the fare was indeed a deal with co-workers that had recently vacationed on the islands got me to book an early February Thursday to Thursday roundtrip flight. (I had located a 1/2 marathon event in Maui in early February using half2run.com's Find a Race tool.)

I completed and opted to mail in the $35 registration form in order to save the active.com processing fee. I then talked to co-workers about what islands had what and booked my interisland flights making sure I was in Maui come race day. I opted for 3 nights on Maui, 3 on the big island of Hawaii, and 1 night on Oahu on the backend of the trip. While booking the flights I also reserved cars on Maui and the Big Island as part of a package with Hawaiian Airlines. I opted for the Kona side of the Big Island based on another friends recent trip to that island.

A couple of weeks later, I booked lodging for all 3 islands; my goal was to keep the trip somewhat on the cheap side. All of my lodging came in between $100 and $200 a night so that was pretty reasonable. There are some resorts in Hawaii that are destinations in themselves. That wasn't my goal; I was out the door before 6 am 5 out of the 7 morning while I was on vacation. With only one day of running over the past 8 days this post is more about the trip than the run.

When I arrived at IAH the morning of my flight,I learned that my 8 1/2 hour flight from IAH to Honolulu was oversold. They were offering a $500 travel voucher to give up seats for a later flight. The flight involved an overnight stay in Los Angeles with a 1st class flight to HNL the next morning. I briefly considered it but had everything booked already and didn't want to cut into my time in the islands. The thought of having Continental actually coming out $45 in the hole was appealing but I passed on the deal.

You know you're on a long flight when you are able to watch 2 movies and are fed twice. Once I arrived in HNL, I had to go through baggage claim and go back through security for my interisland flight to Maui. I ended up giving myself too much of a cushion when booking not knowing how crowded the airport would be. Once I arrived in Maui and got through the rental car line, it was getting dark. I managed to find my way to my hotel on the south side of the island in Kihei traveling in darkness.

The next morning, I woke up at 4 am to head up to the 10,000 plus foot summit at Haleakala National Park. With the right weather conditions, you can see neigboring islands from the summit. My morning was overcast but still created a beautiful sunrise above the clouds. On the way up to the summit between 8 and 9 thousand feet, a red lightening bolt started flashing on the dashboard of my car started flashing and I had practically no power to accelerate. Having already passed the park entrance, I was able to turn the car around on the narrow road and coast to the lower level park visitor center. Safely at the parking lot, I turned the car off and counted to ten and restarted it with no problem. Whatever the problem was reset itself. I was able to proceed up the mountain to the summit still in the dark without issue. Sunrise was nice but not awesome given my weather conditions; there were rays of light coming through the clouds that looked cool. I went on 3 short trails in the park avoiding the longer hikes as my 1/2 marathon was the following morning.

My initial plan was to spend the entire day in the upcountry. As the weather at the summit was cold, I wore jeans and a T-shirt with a sweatshirt, wool hat and gloves. Not hiking long, I wrapped up Haleakala National Park sooner than planned. Nothing else upcountry really jumped out at me and I was near the road to Hana so I opted to make the Hana trip hoping to get beyond Hana to the Haleakala lower park entrance to hike to waterfalls at Oheo Gulch. The Road to Hana was beautiful as advertised and a really fun drive to boot. Lots of curves and one lane bridges made the drive interesting. The hike at Oheo Gulch was a 2 mile one way hike that took you through a bamboo forest to Waimoku Falls in the National Park. I only wished I had packed shorts for that hike but the jeans and T-shirt worked fine. The bamboo forest was an incredible site; I had no idea bamboo grew that tall!!!

When I returned to the hotel right before 5 that afternoon to officially checkin (the office was closed when I arrived the previous evening; my key was taped to the office door in an envelope), I learned that the guest next door to me was also running the 1/2 while the office manager was running the 5k. I chatted briefly with my hotel neighbor and we decided to drive to the start together. He had run it the year before so knew where to go; I learned driving up the next morning that he was originally from the UK and had been living in Honolulu the past few years for work.

The race had a little over a hundred half marathon participants. The course was pretty hilly for the flatlander that I am. There was nice shade in Wailea and Makena on the way out to the lava fields and the turnaround point in La Peruse Bay. The lava fields had no shade protection and the black lava rock seemed to radiate the heat if anything. The terrain in the lava field was rolling hills with bigger hills in Wailea. I started out maintaining an 8 minute per mile pace and held that through 9 miles. When I got back to the hillier part of teh course where the shade was i ended up walking some and backed off the pace. I finished at 1:47 and change per my Garmin; the "accurate" timing as adertised by the race had me over a minute slower at 1:48. Accurate involved tearing off race tags at the finish and I guess writing the time down whenever. My Garmin also had me right under 13 miles so not sure how accurate the course was. Overall, it was a fun experience. I believe they had more whales than humans along the course. They had post race massages at the finish.

After cleaning up from the race, I explored the west side of Maui and the town of Lahaina. I attended the Old Lahaina luau that evening; one of the couples at my table were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary with a month long stay at a condo in Maui. Talking to them about their trip, I learned that they were planning a day trip to the Big Island of Hawaii followed by a couple of nights in Oahu around the same time that I would be there.

My last morning in Maui, I woke early again for a 6:30 boat trip to Molikini Crater for snorkeling. This was my first time snorkeling and it was neat to see all the colorful fish in the crescent shaped crater. After 45 minutes there, we headed to another location to try and see big sea turtles. We were only able to see one where they sometimes have many. As the boat operator said.... this is nature that we were dealing with so its not always predictable. After cleaning up, I checked out of the hotel and spent a little time at Big Beach in Makena before heading to the airport for my afternoon flight to the Big Island.

On the Big Island, I stayed at a bed and breakfast in Captain Cook, south of Kona. The bed and breakfast was at the top of a hill off highway 11 (highway 11 circles the Big Island somewhat). The road off highway 11 was right under a mile with a steep incline and varied road condtions. It made the road to Hana seem like an interstate highway. The view from the bed and breakfast was incredible.

My first morning on the Big Island, I slept in. After breakfast at 8, I headed north to Waikoloa where I had an early afternoon helicopter tour booked. The helicopter tour turned out to be a great idea for the Big Island as there was much ground to be covered. I was able to see lava flowing from Kilaheau volcano in a crack in a lava tube on the path to the ocean. We were also able to see the red hot lava flowing into the ocean. On the return flight, we flew through lush, green valleys with huge waterfalls on the northern side of the island. I spent the afternoon on the northern side of the island hiking some in the Pololu Valley.

I spent the next day in Volcanoes National Park. There are a ton of trails in the park. The actual lava flow into the ocean is now outside of the National Park on the Hilo side of the volcano. I made the drive to see the lava flowing into the ocean at the same place that I had seen it by air the previous day. All we could see the day I went was the white clouds of steam from the hot lava hitting the water. The prior day the actual red hot lava could be seen..... one of the not knowing what to expect with nature things again. My day in Volcanoes NP was another long day as I headed out around 5 to get a head start on my day.

I slept in again the next morning. At breakfast, I found out that the hike to Captain Cook monument was fairly long. I would've been pushing making my afternoon flight to Honolulu if I made the hike, so I decided to spend time in Kona instead. I checked out a farmers market and saw the start of the swim for the Ironman event.

I arrived in Honolulu around 4:00. After getting my rental car, I was in rush hour traffic on H1 (interstate) with a huge downpour. What mapquest showed as an 18 minute ride to Waikiki took over an hour and a half. My first impression of Oahu was that I wasn't in paradise. I finally got to my hotel and the rain stopped and I spent time walking around in Waikiki. Later that evening I decided that Waikiki is a combination of Chicago's Magnificent Mile with all the chic shops meets New Orleans Bourbon Street with street performers (moving statues, musicians, etc). The beach/ocean thrown in is a nice touch as well.

I made an ealy morning trip to the Pearl Harbor memorial the next morning. I was able to secure a ticket for the first boat to the memorial. While walking around the memorial, I ran into the couple that I had met at the luau in Lahaina days earlier. The memorial was really special; they are working on a new visitor center that will open in 2011 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the bombing. I drove back to Waikiki, checked out of the hotel and made the short drive to Diamond Head. I hiked a short .8 mile up the crater to get awesome views of Oahu. Like the rest of Oahu, the Diamond Head hike had many more people than the other island hikes that I experienced. I then headed up to the North Shore of Oahu. The North Shore in winter has the big waves that attract surfer from all over the country. It also had a more rural feel similiar to the other islands. I killed an hour or so on my return to the airport at a mall outlet before returning my final rental car.

All in all, this turned out to be a great vacation. I will long remember capturing my 35th state. I don't think I'll be spending 8 days in West Virginia in August when i go after number 36. But I'm sure it will be an experience in its own way.