STATE #49 - Maui, Hawaii
Maui Oceanfront Half Marathon
Finishers: 552
January 15, 2016
A new year of races as we slide down the home stretch in 2016! I started a new job last week so asking for a day off right from the beginning to fly to Hawaii for the weekend was a bit odd but I guess to wouldn't hurt for everyone to start getting used to my odd life. I went in and worked from about 8-11:30am and then got an uber from the house to the airport in the rain. I had a small panic attack this morning because I straight up hate rain - and double hate driving in it. So of course, all the way to ATL I am stressing and giving myself a headache for no reason. I grabbed some southern food at the airport and boarded flight #1 to LAX around 1:30pm. I had some online shopping and some work to do which made the flight breeze by. After a quick layover at LAX, I boarded flight #2 to OGG (Maui) and spent that flight watching movies. I arrived in Hawaii around 9:50pm and was in heaven in the warm weather. I made my way over to Avis to get the car and talked my way up from a Cruz to a Mustang hard top. Thank you, Avis. The airport was about 45 minutes from the hotel so I got on my jolly way. I could tell I was driving along some canyons and could tell water was nearby but could not see a darn thing. I made it to the Westin, valeted the car and called my travel companion, Michael to see where he was playing.
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| Michael's version of grocery run - Oreos, Goldfish, Whiskey & Wine |
Michael is a friend from Auburn who works for Delta and is also running a half in every state. He started in 2015 and so Hawaii will be his 13th race. When I found out I was going to be going to Hawaii solo, I asked he would like to tag along and check Hawaii off his list and run a race with me. Took all of about negative 3 seconds of convincing him -- I mean, it's Maui! So I met Michael in the lobby and then we had a quick drink on the porch of our ocean view room that Michael had sweet talked the lady at the front desk into instead of the canyon view I had booked. We enjoyed the sound of the waves and caught up on life before retiring to bed. I had made big plans for the morning that called for a 4:30am wake up call!
January 16, 2016
Wake up, wake up! I had read that the best view in Maui was at sunrise from the top of Haleakala crater which was about an hour and 45 minutes away from the hotel. Factor that into a 7am sunrise and you have a super early morning. You only live once, right? So on our merry way we went in the dark (again) racing the rising sun up the crater. We probably missed a few blue moments of the sun coming up but got there just in time for some awesome pictures. I facetimed Mitch and Dr. Parres from the top of the crater because I was missing out on the Chiefs v. Patriots playoff game in Foxboro, MA so I at least wanted to try and send my good luck through the phone. (I attended 7 games this year and never saw them lose).
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| Sending good vibes via the Parres boys to the Chiefs Game from the crater |
After the sun was up, we tried to beat the crowd back down the mountain to grab some brunch at the Kula Lodge complete with banana macadamia nut pancakes, quiche and mauimosas with an awesome view.
Post breakfast, we decided to make the venture called the Road to Hana. If you have ever done Maui, you know this is 30+ mile highway that goes along the northeast coast of Maui. The highway has a 15mph speed limit and is the equivalent to a go kart track with one lane bridges, narrow lanes over cliffs, and switchback after switchback of blind turns. Note I am not a good driver and I would love to hear Michael's account of this drive - but in a Mustang it was SUPER fun!
We stopped at a few places along the way to get some photos including the Twin Falls, Hana Beach Park and Kaihalulu Beach (red sand beach). The entire trip out and back to Hana took about 5-6 hours round trip but it was well worth the trip. Unable to get a cell signal, I wore my Maclin jersey for the duration of the football game in hopes to send some good juju across the country but unfortunately was unsuccessful. Yes, you can all blame me for the Chiefs loss =(
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| Red Sand beaches |
We hit some traffic on our way back to the hotel but swung by the Pioneer Inn to grab out race packets in the little town of Lahaina and then raced back to the Westin to catch a few last minute rays of sunlight while we had the chance.
Michael is a very fun, outgoing, convincing human being so somehow we ended up with coffee cups of wine poolside. I don't even drink very often on a regular basis, much less 12 hours before a race! But by the time we went in to get ready for dinner I was already feeling the effects of my drink of choice. I'm worse than a teenager.
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| Hey - Can I drive that Mister? |
We made our way to a beachside restaurant called the Tiki Bar & Grill where we ate cheeseburgers, fries and calamari at the bar over beers. Again - why do I do this to myself? Post dinner, full and exhausted we head back to the Westin and crashed for the night -- after I set about 30 alarms for the morning.
January 17, 2016
RACE DAY! I woke up feeling horrible. Not really hungover but probably a nice mix of tired, dehydrated and...wine. I sort of crawled around getting ready and we were out the door by 5:40am with a 6:30am race start. Neither of us had looked into where we were going or where to park (so unlike me, I know!) so I just sort of winged it and found a parking lot, no problem. It was a pay to park and neither one of us had a card so we ended up having to negotiate a deal with some lady for her to pay for us to park. Hawaii -- such nice people!
We made our way to the start line with not a ton of time to spare, and by 6:30am we were off - in the pitch dark! The entire race was along one road except for the first half mile of the race. After leaving the start, we made our way to the coastal highway taking a right out of the town. The next 12 miles would all be along this one stretch.
Sounds miserable, right? Wrong! The 12 mile stretch was all along the ocean! With the waves crashing to our right and the sunrise coming up over the mountains in front of us - it was an unreal sight. The entire time I have been running my races, I knew Hawaii would be one to remember. Since I wasn't feeling all that well, I decided to just enjoy the views and try to stay positive about the race because it's HAWAII!
Michael ran with me for the first 2 miles, and then ran a few paces in front of me (Katie Bodine style) for the next 4 miles. Some of the aid stations we ran past were awesome and super encouraging with spray bottles to mist us and tons of cheers. A few surfers had posted up along the shore as well blaring music out of the car for motivation.
The race was an out and back, so once we got to the turn around, Michael and I agreed that he should probably just take off since I knew I was moving at a glacial speed. We hit the turn around at the perfect time to get the sun at our back instead of in our face for the return trip to the finish.
I took an energy gel around Mile 8 which helped for a little bit, but I was still feeling a little off - like I just couldn't keep a good pace. (
NOTE: I figured it out...I didn't have Chick-Fil-A #7 breakfast before this race...mystery solved) Doing my best to stay positive, I continued to cheer for those runners who were still making their way to the turn around. Since we were in Hawaii, everyone would just respond with the "shaka" hand signal which I thought was way cooler than it probably really was.
I started counting down the miles and song and finally saw the street where we turned to go back into town. It was seriously hot at this point and I tired to keep myself from thinking "I just want to be done" and focused on thinking "this is the last race before the grand finale!" I knew the stretch into town wasn't super far but I couldn't see the finish yet so I just kept trotting along. I finally saw Michael and did my best to wave and act like I wasn't dying so he could get some good pictures and then I took off.
Emotional, as always, I dug deep and found that last bit of energy to power down the home stretch to the finish line. As I crossed under the finish, I heard the announcer say "Coming across the finish line is Ashley from Atlanta who has just finished running her 49th state! Congrats Ashley!" I guess I had forgotten they asked for an interesting fact during registration but everyone gave a big cheer.
Michael met me for a photo and then we went to get water and food. He was super chatty and I just could not catch my breathe. I was probably a little harsh, but I grabbed a couple waters and slices of pineapple and told him to just give me a minute as I sat on the beach trying to get my body to an okay state.
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| Giving Michael's shadow a hug |
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| Snap Chat Checkin! |
Once I had gotten close enough, we got a couple of photos and then head back to the hotel for some sun and relaxation. Michael had an earlier flight and left around 11am whereas I had the entire day to sit on my butt in the sun. Thank goodness.
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| OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 49 states down, 1 more to go! #DREAMBIG |
I got a late lunch around 3:30pm and then watched the sunset over the ocean by the pool where I saw a humpback whale breaching off in the distance. It was whale season and I was sad I hadn't seen one yet so that was quite a treat.
Once the sun went down, I took the car down to the town where the race started. I got some gelato and then found this awesome coffee shop with a deck over the ocean where I drank a Macadamia Nut Latte and wrote some postcards until it was time to head to the airport for my late night flight.
Was the entire trip less than 72 hours? Yup. But it is a surreal feeling to know that my next post will be my last and finale race in my journey to finish 50 on the 50!
See ya'll March 19th!!
P.S. - Here is a little demonstration of what heat and dehydration will do to your body - presented by my FitBit data:
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| Heart Rate during Race #48 - 140 avg. bpm |
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| Heart Rate during Race #49 - 169 avg. bpm |
Moral of the story - stay hydrated and listen to your body.
49 states down, 1 more to go!
#DREAMBIG
