honolulu

2012 Honolulu Marathon

On December 9, 2012 I ran in the 40th Annual Honolulu Marathon. It was my first marathon, one run to raise funds for my sister-in-law as she battles cancer, and ultimately a success. While I’ve typed out a full play-by-play of the race, for brevity’s sake I’m just going to share a few bullet points to mark the 26. 2 miles.

Highlights:

The Run to Nuke Cancer. Y’all donated $1500 to help my sister-in-law and her family as she battles cancer. That’s $500 over my original goal of $1000. AMAZING. I’m a beyond grateful!
Running over Diamond Head during the sunrise.
Amazing views of the Pacific Ocean from Kahala.
Sharing a race with some incredible elite runners including Olympic Marathon Medalist Wilson Kipsang (who won the Honolulu Marathon – see his time below). Seeing those folks whiz by during out-and-back portions of the course is incredible.
Finishing my first marathon!

Things that Went Well:

My previously bothersome little toe held up like a champ. No blister, no irritation. I just slathered it with Vaseline before running and it worked!
I hydrated perfectly – I was never thirsty and didn’t have to take a bathroom break.
Talking to God. He kept me distracted and I swear he answered prayers for wind. The tradewinds finally showed up during the race and cooled us off!
I stuck to my strategy for dealing with heat and poor air quality: slow, steady pace; listening to my body; tons of fluids; and use of every aid station.
Finishing! My final time is below. As of writing, I finished in the top 18% of my age group, the top 17.5% of all women and the top 26% of all racers. I was pretty down on my time after the race was over, but then I’ve remembered that we Honolulu Marathoners ran in much harsher conditions (heat, humidity, vog) than most U.S. marathons. (Also include the race winner’s time, just for fun)

Things that didn’t go well:

Around mile 22 or so, I was sure that my lack of a longer run than 16 miles was an issue. I was straight-out suffering and wished I’d been able to tell myself “but you know you can do this.” from experience. Guess I can now!
Sun protection. I applied sunscreen before the race but the combination of sweat and regular cold water showers (there were mist tents and cold sponges at some of the aid stations) washed the protection away. I’m not burnt, but I may or may not look like I fell asleep in a tanning bed.
GPS Watch discrepancy. If you’ve ever run a race with a GPS watch, you know that the distance registered on that watch and official mile markers rarely line up because it’s nearly impossible to run the originally measured course. Sometimes you’re ahead of the mile markers, and sometimes you’re behind. Unfortunately, my watch had me .2 miles ahead of the mile markers. This means that when my watch ticked over to 26 miles and I said “YAY! Only .2 miles left!” I actually had .4 miles left. And I knew it. Big morale bust.
Hotel. Because of parking issues and distance from my house, I would have needed to awaken by 2:30 to make it to the start line on time, so instead I booked a hotel near the start line so I could walk over. I did this with the understanding that Honolulu buses would take me back to the hotel (the start and finish lines were 2 miles apart). Except I forgot to bring bus fare. FAIL. So, I ran 26. 4 miles (see GPS watch above) and then walked 2 more….oops! Do they make 28.4 bumper stickers?

Funny Moments:

Over half the runners in the Honolulu Marathon are from Japan and in an effort to share their inspiration with Americans, many of them printed mottos on their shirts in English. Or Engrish. Cases in point: An elderly Japanese gentleman had a shirt that read “I am not a virgin!” and another Japanese national’s shirt said “Do Not Retire!” and featured a photo of a man crawling. Translations : “I have run a marathon before!” and “Don’t give up! Keep running!” SO FUNNY.
Because we were running down city streets we ran under a number of stoplights. I slowed my pace several times when lights turned yellow and almost stopped at one red light. Guess those are good habits.
A friend from my running club ran the whole marathon in a taco costume. She was raising funds for Girls on the Run of Hawaii. I enjoyed all the costumes, but seeing that taco go by was priceless.

As I write this on Sunday night, I’m throwing back Advils and icing muscles like it’s going out of style. I’m most proud of all of you who supported the Run to Nuke Cancer – humanity IS good! I’m satisfied with my showing in the marathon and so glad for the experience.

I’m also confident that I’ll never run a hot-weather marathon again. To be honest, by about mile 20 I wasn’t having fun anymore, and I’m just not competitive enough to do something that makes me miserable for bragging rights. I won’t close the door on trying a cooler weather race some day – now that I’ve finished 26.2 in summer weather, I feel like I could own a race in 60 degree weather!

My next goals will relate to speed. I’m running much faster these days than I was a year ago and I’d like to knock out some super-speedy shorter distances, so I’ll be joining my running club for track training nights starting ~~next week~~ next month.

Linking up with Jen at That’s What She Read, Jess at Tooth N Nails, and Mallory at From California To Kansas for #BragAboutIt Monday.

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Filed Under: Dirt, Fitness, Hawaii, Running Tagged With: honolulu, marathon, running

Seeing the Moon

5 Dec By Sarah Pardieck

In just four short days, I’ll run in the 40th Annual Honolulu Marathon and the rocky path that’s led me here has finally overwhelmed me for the better.

Amazing, kind, generous friends and family members helped me far exceed my goal in raising funds to support my sister-in-law Rachel and her family as she battles cancer. Humanity is good, y’all. So good. Thank you again to all of you who’ve pitched in. And, there’s still time to donate!

Training hasn’t gone as planned. Injury, illness, circumstance and even my own flippant attitude have stumped me at regular intervals. I’m going in to the race with four fewer miles on a long run than I’d planned, but with great confidence that even if I have to crawl across the finish line, I will finish.

I’ll be running the race without my magic feather. You may recall when I ran the Maui Half, I briefly thought The Gentleman wouldn’t be with me on race day. We managed to spoil the Army’s plans on that day, but this time the mission of our armed forces wins: The Gentleman will be working many time zones away from me on race day. Bummer.

In addition, Mother Nature is doing her best to thwart all the race runners. A choking vog currently hangs over the island and our weather reporters are pretty sure it will join us on race day. When vog comes over the island, folks here sneeze and cough for days, suffer dry eyes and blurry vision and wake each morning with sore throats. This nasty combo of microscopic volcanic particles and noxious volcanic gases is no joke, and this asthmatic gal isn’t excited about running in it.

Mostly I’m overwhelmed that I’m going to run a marathon. WHAT THE HELL? Just three months ago I was promising anyone who would listen that I would never run a marathon. If someone had told twenty-something me, “Sarah, you’ll run a marathon when you’re 33″, I would have rolled my eyes and laughed.

But, I wouldn’t be laughing in disbelief. I’d be laughing at my own audacity, my very-typical blind, unearned confidence in conquering ridiculous goals (if only I could muster the confidence to order delivery pizza over the phone). It’s such a “Sarah Move” to commit to achieving some great feat, to only marginally adhere to best practices for success, to arrogantly shrug my shoulders at unforeseen obstacles and, with only God’s grace to blame, somehow soldier through.

I realized today that this unusual pattern of behavior marks many of the things I’m most proud of in life. Good things happen when I just go along for the ride, ignoring the rules, any sense of caution and the nay-sayers. Meticulous preparation, contingency planning and over-analyzing lead me to disaster. Who knew?

So, this Sunday I’ll push confidently on, thinking of the radical generosity of the people in my life to reach out and help someone many don’t even know. I’ll grit my teeth and keep placing one foot in front of the other, come what may, because in the end I was never the one piloting this plane anyway. I’ll run without worry, thinking on my most favorite of quotes, posted at the top there, which reminds me that in every difficulty, in each moment of trouble, some great beauty exists, if only we’d take the time to look up.

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Filed Under: Dirt, Fitness, Running Tagged With: honolulu, marathon, vog

Still Running

15 Oct By Sarah Pardieck

UPDATE: When I originally wrote this post I grappled with when I’d let it go live on the blog. I usually link up with Jenn for Mercy Mondays but I decided a post to Nuke Cancer took precedence. Reading back through this, I realize the story below is an opportunity for mercy – one in which feelings of gratitude to God translate into easing the suffering of another. Check out more mercy with Mercy Mondays.Is it a coincidence that I finished my half marathon and immediately shifted blogging gears to a focus on food? Burning calories makes me thinking of ingesting them, I suppose. After updating you readers on my PR run in the Maui Half Marathon, I left with you with my very ambiguous next step:

“I’m going to start very slowly training up to that distance [marathon]. I’m retaining the right to decide I’m not having fun any more…”

It’s cute when I try to be non-committal isn’t it?

Reality Check: I’ve registered for and will run the Honolulu Marathon on 12/9/12, and I’ve got a great reason for doing it.

I shared a while back that my sister-in-law, Rachel, was having surgery to remove a tumor in the front part of her brain. The surgery was successful in removing most of the mass and pathology showed that the tumor was indeed malignant. Rachel, who is a firecracker, traveled a rough road healing from the surgery and is now battling cancer with a chemo and radiation combo.

When I rounded the last corner in my half-marathon I engaged in my usual end-of-race routine: I started to pray and thank God for giving me a healthy body that can run the miles and for always running beside me. I was really overwhelmed with gratitude and realized I wanted to pay that gift forward. Rachel has always been an active person and right now her energy is focused on healing a body that has and can cover many miles.

She and her family are also facing the requisite staggering medical bills and the loss of her income as she fights this cancer, so I decided I would run the Honolulu Marathon as a fundraiser for her treatment. I hope you’ll consider sponsoring my miles – every penny will go to Rachel and her family and all the glory to God. After all, He’s given us incredible bodies, capable of finishing all sorts of tough races.

For more information and to donate Click Here

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” (1 Corinthians 9:24)

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Filed Under: Dirt, Fitness, Running Tagged With: cancer, honolulu, marathon, run to nuke cancer, running

Tourists in Our Own Home

9 Jul By Sarah Pardieck

We’ve been in Hawaii for two weeks now and for the past week we’ve felt like tourists here. Like dirty, rotten, annoying tourists. Because we pretty much are. We left our temporary housing at Tripler AMC and moved down to a hotel at Waikiki so we could more easily enjoy beach time. I’ve called the last week our honeymoon-we-never-took because the holiday in the middle of the week meant we couldn’t do any of the business part of moving and were forced to relax.

So without further ado, here are some of the touristy honeymooner things we’ve been up to. And here’s to moving in and no longer being tourists!

Beachfront dinners by torchlight