My experience of the Kaua'i Half Marathon

You can view photos from the race in my last post.

Here are some highlights from the half marathon on the island of Kaua'i:

• I finished the half marathon in 2:15:56, which is high (not great) for me. Two reasons why so high: 1) I didn't train as well for this as I have for my past two half marathons, and so my IT band started acting up. More on that below. 2) This half had a crazy quantity and grade of constant incline - the first 6 miles were entirely up-hill!
• Friends Aaron and Maria Katz finished in 1:58:42 and 1:57:55, respectively. Despite the uphill battle, they were able to come in under 2 hours for their first half marathon ever! Congratulations!
• It rained - no, poured - on us two or three times throughout the race. The temperature was a moderate 70 - 80 degrees the entire race - not bad!
• The views were unforgettable. Unfortunately, I decided not to bring a camera or camera-enabled cell phone for the race, so I didn't get any action shots, but will find someone who did and post them here.

My splits:

• Mile 1: 9:34
• Mile 2: 9:57
• Mile 3: 10:12
• Mile 4: 10:20
• Mile 5: 10:10
• Mile 6: (big hill) 11:58
• Mile 7: 10:48
• Mile 8: 10:41
• Mile 9: 10:03
• Mile 10: 10:07
• Mile 11: 11:08

I stopped getting splits at mile 12 and 13 due to mechanical failure (my iPod was harder to use after all the downpouring of rain on it, and it was my stop watch for the race).

I actually slowed down throughout the race, despite the fact that miles 1-6 were uphill and miles 7-13 were all pretty much downhill, and this is because my illiotibial tendon started to ache pretty badly. This was an injury caused when I did the Las Vegas full marathon in 2007, and it's something I need to see a physical therapist about soon or it's going to continue to impact my times. My goal would be to eventually beat my Personal Record (PR) of 1:55, but I signed up for this half marathon with the intention of simply experiencing a race on the islands of Hawaii, and this race was created with the goal of becoming "The U.S.'s most beautiful marathon race." I say they have a pretty strong chance of winning that title, and I believe registration numbers will pick up year over year.

Overall, it was an excellent race. There was a large service staff. They were able to get each service station (9 of them throughout the entire half marathon course - that's a LOT!) sponsored by different companies who each brought out a lot of water aids. The start and finish lines were well-organized with photographers, RFID chips for time tracking, aid stations like free beer, food and massages.