21Things About The Valley To The Sea Half Marathon

• It's on Maui. Sweet.
• It starts in the Iao Valley, a lush, tropical, verdant paradise.

• It finishes in Kihei. I love point to point runs!
• Approximately 8 km are downhill. That is a good way to smash your quads.
• Everyone started really fast because the first 2 miles are straight down. I, for once, started conservatively and picked off a few later who I'm assuming were paying for their fast start. That was fun.
• The leaders (including Jason) were off so quickly I literally never saw them.
• I, for once, passed people on the uphills. Noa has had me working on running hills, and funny how when you work on something, you actually improve.
• There were aid stations every two miles. They were my "carrot", as I only allowed myself to walk when I was drinking from the tiny Dixie cup they gave me (except for the sand part - more on that later).
• We were lucky it was overcast, as the only shade was the first two miles and a later stretch of about another mile. At least we didn't need it.

• It was King Kamehameha humid. I was sweating so much that my ear buds slid out of my ears a few times. TMI?
• There was cool scenic stuff along the way, including some tropical gardens near the beginning.

• It was a race with mainly "real" runners (unlike me, I'm a total fake).
• It was a race with mostly women, which is really cool.
• The first race of the day was the race to the porta-potties from the buses that shuttled everyone to the start line.
• There was about 4 km of a flat section into a headwind, and it was deceptively hard!
• Miles 12-13 were along a beach, in the sand. I ended up doing a lot of walking in that section. Turns out that's quite a long way to run in the sand, especially at the end of a race.
• I took a few soakers to the legs running along the beach from crashing waves (it was that or run in the soft sand further up; I chose surf).
• Thanks K-Swiss for the drain holes on the bottom of my Kwicky Blade-Lights - they worked like a charm!
• It felt soooo good to run on the pavement again for the last couple hundred meters.
• It has my favorite finisher medal of all time.

• Jason was 2nd overall, and first "old guy". He is a righteous dude.

 

 

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