My 5th Great Aloha Run (Walk)

The sound of winds howling and rain battering on our windows woke us up at 2:00 AM.

"Looks like you, Dennis, Dave and Kristin might not be able to walk today," said Art worriedly.

"What about you?" I asked.

"I'll still run," said Art.  He refused to let rain stop him.  At 3:00 we got out of bed and checked the weather map.  It was predicting strong winds and scattered showers throughout the day.

Our good friend, Dave and his daughter, Kristin joined us at 4:30.  We picked up my brother, Dennis at 5:00 which was a real trick since they had so many  of the roads closed.  The last bus was supposed to leave at 6:00.

When we got to Aloha Stadium, we found horrendous lines stretched, snaked and very slowly moving toward buses that must have arrived too late.  The Start time for the race at Aloha Tower in Honolulu was 7:00.  At 6:30 we were still waiting to board a bus.

We were finally able to board a bus to Honolulu and walked with 22,000 other people to the Start line.

Art jogged to join the runners up front.  We joined the throng of walkers, people with strollers, etc towards the back.

We started at a brisk pace.  Luckily the gusting 50 mile per hour winds were at our backs.  Well, I'm not sure how strong they were exactly, but it was recorded at 50+ in parts of the island and it caused trees and branches to fall.  It was cloudy, but no rain and the winds kept things cool.  High School bands performed for us along the route.

The sun was coming out so it was good to know we were nearing the freeway viaduct.

I made sure to drink some water at each water station as advised.

When we got to the 4 mile marker, I was ecstatic.

Kristin had an app on her iPhone that gave our pace and distance covered which was really helpful and encouraging.

Dennis' foot seemed to be working OK and the Motrin I took before the race helped my knees stay pain free.

It was fun to see the kaiko drummers performing again.  Their beat was motivating.

A rainbow greeted us at about the 6 mile mark.  We all oohed and aahed about it until we saw the rain clouds closing in on us.  The winds were whipping people's hats off their heads.

I was taking comfort knowing that there were a lot of people behind us.  Then we got a call from Art at the stadium saying he had been waiting for over an hour for us to arrive.  (Art came in #10 in his age group of 265 runners.  His time was 1:15:39.  Our time was more like 2:33 + a bathroom break.)

Then the rain started!

It didn't matter!  We made it to the finish line.  I could hardly believe it!

The race was easier this year.  I know it was because we had Dave and Kristin with us which gave us that extra energy, stamina and enjoyment that spending time with good friends always gives you.

We collected our Finisher t-shirts, bananas, cliff bars, water, coconut water and headed home.

We were really ecstatic, proud of ourselves and tired.