The Lew Crew

The Lew Crew
You got a long way to go Fat Stuff! Get out there and run!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Big Island International Marathon Through Today

All over all the paper work was "No Bandits". I would have loved to have been a legitimate participant, but they only have 300 slots for the Marathon which is ridiculous, and of course it was sold out a long time ago. They don't let any sign up on the pre-race day to fill the slots of dropouts, and we had a ton this year because of the disaster in Japan. A lot of the runners were coming from Japan, and only about half of them made it. It is super impressive that even that many came in the wake of a disaster a week earlier. Anyway, I signed up for the 5K. 4:30 A.M. March 20th, with a shirt covering my running number, I slithered onto the bus for the marathon and half marathon, and waited to get kicked off. A man came onto the bus and announced this bus was for half and full marathoners only, and then he left. Silently I rode up to the starting line. Got off the bus, and started to check out every ones numbers. All the numbers were either 1 to 300, or 700 to 1000. My number was 599. In the seas of people I only saw one other poacher with a 500 number. My head was stirring, and I was wondering how I was going to avoid getting caught. You don't want to get caught poaching a road runner event if there are other road runner events in which you want participate.  When they called for us to the start line I crowded into the center of the pack, and stayed as far away from the video guy as I could. The gun went off, I had done, I was able to start the race. The first half of this course is awesome before the freaky loop around second half of the course.

   It was so peaceful as the sun slowly rose over the ocean, trotting up and down the winding course. One of my biggest goals for the race was not to get swept up in the momentum of every ones pace as they wushed passed me. I held my pace, and let everyone pass. It sounds easy, but it is not. People have been preparing for this day for months, some a year or more. You feel great because it's the beginning of the race, and there is the energy of hundreds of excited people who all feel like Olympians gliding across the pavement during the first few miles. Those first few miles can destroy you for the last 6.2 miles if you over do it. Like a tree with the wind rushing past me, I stood my ground and kept my pace.

  The first 10-1/2 miles went smooth. I passed many of the people who flew by me at the start. Then when I reached downtown Hilo I could see all the race booths event people. I quickly decided to jump a fence, and head up into down town. I called Jaime, and told her to meet me in Kea'au in a couple of hours. I slowly plodded forward until I reached the dump in Kea'au. The girls had been waiting for me, and I had passed my pick up point. The girls came to get me, and we went home and mapped my run. The run only turned out to be 20-1/2 miles, but I was super stoked I kept my pace at the start and I didn't get caught.

  I ran a 16 miler during the next week, and another 6 miles. I ran 42 miles in a week, which was awesome. This week I was only able squeeze in 22 total miles, and that must be the only time my weekly total drops below 40 miles until the week before the Big Horn Trail Run 50 miler. I am going to call my sports guru Pat Lupton this week. He lives in Montana an is an incredible fitness trainer, and he is also a competitive Ultra-Marathon Athlete. I can't wait to get some professional advice.

No comments:

Post a Comment