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.
 

 

3 comments:

  1. Ouch...running in sand is not for sissies.You will probably have calves of steel after that. Sounds like a fun race...and the finishers medals are very cool. Congrats to you and Jason both. Him for his placing and you for surviving sand,seaty earbuds and wet shoes.

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  2. Wow- sounds like an awesome race! Those finisher medals are great!
    Congrats to you both.

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  3. YOU are a righteous babe! I'd do that race just for the medal.... don't quote me on that....

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