Hapalua Half Marathon #2 Monsoon

Gosh!  I hate waking up at 3:15 in the morning.  But we did.  We picked up my brother, Dennis at 4:30 and headed out to Waikiki for the 2nd Annual Hapalua (Half Marathon).  Art thought it would be safer to have Dennis with me since we'd be there before the sun rose.  I'm so grateful I have my brother to help me and my sister-in-law for sharing him on one of her rare weekend days off from work.

Last year, Jon ran this race with Art.  This year Art would run it alone.  Our children Jon and Tiffany will be running in their own Half Marathon in Washington, D.C. next week.

We parked at the Honolulu Zoo (which is in Waikiki) a little before 5:00.  By around 5:15, the lot was full.  It had stormed furiously during the night and we were glad the rain appeared to have stopped.

"Let's bring umbrellas", I said.

"You just need one", said my optimistic brother.  "I doubt it'll rain anymore."

We passed Port-a-Potties with already long lines.

We walked toward the starting gate around 5:30.  Art had given us detailed notes on what time and where he would be during the course of the race.  We knew he would be passing the starting gate area around 7:28 which would be about the half way mark before heading up Diamond Head and then the finish line around 8:23.

We wished Art good luck as the race was starting.

Our kids texted their encouragement from Chicago and Baltimore.

Hawaii's elite runners ran first.  They had an earlier race start handicap.  This is called a Chase.  Almost half an hour later the super fast Kenyan runners would "chase" them to the finish line.

Just as the Hawaiian blessing was given and the Star Spangled Banner and our state song, Hawaii Ponoi were sung, it started to rain.  The race coordinator joked that the rain was a Hawaiian blessing.

And then it poured!  Deluged! Cats and dogged! Cloudburst! Drenched!  Torrential!  It was unbelievable!  We've never been in a race where the skies just opened up and let loose like this.

Dennis and I stood under a store awning on Kalaukaua Avenue waiting for the rain to abate when I realized my feet were getting wet.  Good grief!  The storm sewers were backing up.  I hate to complain because Art was running past us without an umbrella, but sheesh!

Art had planned for Dennis and me to wait comfortably at a restaurant and grab a breakfast while he ran the first half of the race, but it was raining so much that we decided to wait there for a little more than an hour when he'd be passing us again so I could take some photos.

I got to cheer for some runners and clapped my encouragement.  It felt a little odd because there was only one other person who was out in the rain making noise.  Still, it was nice to see runners suddenly grin or wave their appreciation.

Oops!  This wasn't Art. Just kidding.

And then, there he was, close to the time he predicted. He's flashing his LOVE hand signal for our granddaughter, KC.

It was hard to get a great photo of Art as he whizzed by.

And then he was gone, heading toward Diamond Head.

When the rain became a drizzle, Dennis and I went back to the car to wait out the weather.

At about 8:00 we decided to walk toward the Kapiolani Park finish line since we were expecting Art around 8:23. 

Oops!  Art miscalculated!  He came in earlier than expected.  As I was jockeying for a good place to stand to take the photo, there he was!  Doggone it!  I almost missed him.

The rain started to fall even harder so we decided to just head home instead of staying for any of the after race treats.

I was concerned when Art told me that he'd gotten a nosebleed running up Diamond Head.  I've never known him to get one before.

Surprisingly, Art's race time was a mere 44 seconds slower than last year despite the fact that he was carrying extra weight from his drenched shirt, shorts, shoes and hat.  He came in #10 out of 27 runners in his 65 to 69 age group.

The drive home showed us that the Hawaiian monsoon was all over the island.

Well, that's another Hapalua done.  I'm sure he's planning to do a 3rd one, rain or shine.

Hapalua Half Marathon Interview

Saturday was a day that had us feeling like we were constantly on the go.  We hit the road by 8:45 and didn't get back until the afternoon.

One of the most important things we needed to do was pick up Art's running gear for the Sunday Hapalua Half Marathon in Waikiki.

We went to the Hawaii Convention Center where Hapalua racing bags with t-shirts and bib numbers were being passed out in a rather small room.

Some people stopped us and talked to us in Japanese so Art pointed to me.  Oh brother...  My mother has always warned me to try to avoid speaking Japanese.  It's deceiving because like a child I can sound fluent if you don't know the language, but I'm actually using ungrammatical, sometimes nonsensical vocabulary and sentence structure.

They said they wanted to interview us about the Hapalua for a Japanese TV station.  I told them that Art was running, but could not speak any Japanese.

No problem!  They had a translator.  Thank goodness!  All we needed was for all Japan to hear my Japanese and my mother having a heart attack and collapsing from the shame of it.



It was such fun to see Art being interviewed about how he trained, where he lived, if he'd participated in any other races, etc.

When we got home and told mom, she asked which station had interviewed him.

We'd forgotten to ask.

While you are reading this, Art will probably be running the Half Marathon.

I will try to get some Half Marathon photos even though it will be dark when we head out on Sunday morning.

Hey... I wonder if the television crew will be out there on Sunday.  Wouldn't that be fun if they caught Art coming in?  Hopefully, I won't fall asleep in the car like I did last year while waiting for him to finish and miss the excitement.

Honolulu Hapalua Half Marathon

Art had signed up for the Inaugural Honolulu Hapalua Half Marathon last year before he knew that Jon and Sarah would be coming to visit at this time.

Art wanted Jon to race with him since they'd never run in a race together.  Jon was hesitant because he'd not run such a long distance in a long time.   Art said he could just run slowly with him and do it for fun. 

So here we were again getting up at 3:45 in the morning on Sunday to head out to Waikiki for the 6:00 Start Time.  Poor Sarah is still battling her cold, but wanted to be there for the father and son event.

I was amazed that Sarah was able to pick them out in the 2,600 runner crowd.  After the race started, Sarah and I went back to the car and fell asleep.  I can't believe we actually fell asleep!  We got up JUST in time to rush over to the finish line to see Jon come in.

Jon's official time was 1:51:19.  He placed 285 of the approximate 2,600 runners and 48th out of 159 men in his age group.

A little later Art came in flashing his special sign for his granddaughter in Illinois.  His official time was 2:13:45 and he placed 577th overall and 13th of the 30 men in his age group.

Here they are together... elated and laughing about the wind pushing them back as they ran up a hill at the 9 mile mark.

We are continuing to have unseasonably harsh weather in Hawaii.  We really dodged the bullet in Maui and were so sorry to hear about the devastation on Kauai.

The cool weather for the Hapalua was ideal for the racers, but the wind made it a challenge.

 

Wearing their medals, they were able to receive their freshly cooked malasadas, bananas, iced coffee, bagels, shave ice and oh yeah.... water!  We sure didn't receive goodies like this at the Great Aloha Run or the Honolulu Marathon two years ago.

Kapiolani Park was packed with runners and supporters!  It was fun to feel their excitement.

They stretched a bit and then we headed back to the car.

Since we still had over an hour on the meter, we decided to walk along Waikiki where we almost never go.

We stopped at the Duke Kahanomoku statue where the race started earlier.

 

We saw mountains of sand where the city was working on dredging sand from the ocean and putting it back on the beach.

We headed back to the car and headed to Zippys restaurant to have our celebration breakfast.  The rest of the day was spent recuperating.  

Jon and Art both soaked their legs in Epsom salts and are feeling quite fine.

Heaven knows what they all want to do tomorrow.  I'm exhausted and I didn't run at all.