Friday 12/11
I made the early morning drive down to San Diego to catch my flight over to Honolulu via Hawaiian Airlines. For the second year in a row, I decided to fly out of SAN instead of LAX because the airfare was at least $250 cheaper. I guess that's enough for me to make the longer drive down to San Diego to catch my flight. I exited the 5 freeway at Washington St and parked in the Pacific Highway economy lot. Currently the rate is $13 per day. One of the best things about parking at this lot is that the shuttle driver will write down the parking spot that you've parked in on a card so you don't have to remember where you've parked. Upon your return, they will drop you off at your car.
I wasn't quite sure why I was in zone 2, but it was good to board early. For this flight I sat at one end of a middle row of 4 seats. There wasn't a passenger on the other end, so the two middle passengers shifted over. That made for a pretty nice flight to have some elbow room for once. It was however super cold on the airplane. I had to get out my windbreaker. During the flight, they served us a meal with complimentary wine.
Inflight meal
After landing, I made my way straight to the bus stop to catch The Bus into Waikiki. It was $2.50 for a one way trip. I got off at the Ala Moana stop and walked over to the Hawaii Convention Center to pick up my bib and meet up with my friend.
Mele Kalikimaka!
Find your name on the towel
Found my name
Me and my buddy David
After we were done with the expo, he needed to go shopping for groceries and I wanted to go check into my hotel. So we parted ways. As with most years, I stayed at the Banyan Club on Kuhio. It's conveniently located right in the middle of Waikiki, just one block away from the beach. Since I don't particularly like the beach, it doesn't matter how far I am from the beach. The main reason why I've stayed here most years is because they usually have the cheapest nightly rate out of all the places in Waikiki. However there are some drawbacks with this place. Right down below is a nightclub and it usually is pretty loud and attracts the hooligans every night. If you are a light sleeper, this is definitely not your place!
Microwave and fridge
Small kitchen
Living room/bedroom
I was supposed to meet up with a couple of my friends for dinner at
Side Street Inn. However I was pretty hungry, so I decided to walk over to the restaurant and get a head start. I got a seat at the bar and started off with a Side Street Ale. I then ordered the Side Soba with Kim Chee. While waiting for the food, I was watching the last few minutes of the Golden State Warriors game. It was followed by the lousy Los Angeles Lakers. Is the season over yet? The yakisoba started off tasting okay, but it was nowhere near as good as their fried rice. I sort of regret ordering it as it also cost more than the fried rice. I then regretted it even more as I got near the bottom... it was super salty and this was coming from someone that loves salty food.
Side Street Inn
Side Soba with Kim Chee
All gone
My friends texted me saying that they didn't want to eat so early and were going some place else. So once I had finished the plate, I left feeling super full... nothing out of the ordinary. However during the long walk back to my room, I felt progressively worse. About a block from my place, I felt really nauseated. I had to try very hard to not throw everything up on the sidewalk. Thankfully everything stayed down and I eventually felt better when I got back to my room. I drank some water and I still felt really thirsty. I thought about going to bed to sleep it off, but eventually I walked down to the nearest ABC Store to pick up some water. While I was there I picked up a Powerade for the race as well. I drank about half of the water before going to bed.
Saturday 12/12
I must be getting old as my stomach was still not feeling too good, so I stayed mostly indoors the entire day. I guess it was a good thing to rest the legs. Thank goodness one of my favorite movies of all time was on TV, The Ghostbusters! Did things really look that old back then? I laid out my running gear while watching the movie.
I ain't afraid of no ghost!
Mr Flat Runner
For lunch, I dragged myself outside to eat a bowl of oxtail ramen at
Ramen Nakamura. I ordered the usual combo with gyoza and fried rice. For some reason the ramen didn't taste as good as it had in the past. That's a shame since it's quite expensive. The next time that I'm back in Honolulu, I'll have to take this restaurant out of my usual rotation.
Oxtail ramen combo with gyoza and fried rice
On the way back to my room, I stopped by an ABC Store. I bought a banana, another large bottle of water, and two bags of Kona coffee. The coffee has been the usual present that I would bring home for my coworkers. I assume that it's good stuff. I only drink coffee after I've eaten a giant steak dinner.
For dinner, I walked over to the
Manichi Ramen located next to the Ala Moana Center to meet up with one of my local friends for some ramen. On the way there, I bumped into a fellow Marathon Maniac as he was waiting for a bus to go home. I got their Shiomaru tonkotsu and added eggs. It was not bad and quite flavorful, but I'm starting to not like eating heavy or super greasy food.
Original broth tonkotsu with egg
Me and my buddy Ryan
Sunday 12/13
I woke up early to get ready for the marathon. My friend and I agreed to meet up at 2:45 am to go catch the bus to the start. It was her first Honolulu Marathon, so I offered to show her the ropes.
**TMI Warning**
I had not been feeling well since eating at Side Street Inn and my bowels finally gave up with keeping the shit together... literally. I started off with my normal bowel movement then it went south in a hurry... I was pretty much pissing from my butt hole for the next hour or so. After I felt like I had gotten everything out, I hurried to finish getting ready. I also ate a banana to try and calm down my bowels. The pectin in the banana should dehydrate my stool. I met up with my friend at her hotel and we walked over to Kapiolani Zoo to catch the bus over to the starting area. After being dropped off at the Ala Moana Beach Park, we walked up to the public restrooms at the western end of the park. It was a much better alternative to using the portapotties. I definitely had to go again. After I was done, I forced myself to eat my protein bar hoping that it would plug me up for the race.
At about 4:15 am, my friend and I walked over to the tennis courts just in front of the starting line to meet up with fellow Marathon Maniacs for the pre-race photo at 4:30 am. I normally don't care too much for these photos, but it's always cool to meet new people that share the same passion for running marathons.
Marathon Maniacs
After taking the photo, we hopped into the starting corral. We weren't very close to the front as they had a barrier this year along the sidewalk. While in the corral, it took a while for my watch to acquire a satellite signal. After some final announcements in both English and Japanese as well as our national anthem, we were sent off on our way with a lot of fireworks. If you run this marathon, be sure to watch out for runners that have come to a dead stop to take photos and/or videos of the fireworks!
My friend and I started off running together. By mile 2-3, I knew that it was going to be a long day for me. I had developed a throbbing headache from the high humidity. I was constantly looking for the aid stations so that I could dump more water on my head. Both of my feet were feeling better, but without the training miles, there was no way that I could go the entire distance without crashing into a few "walls" along the way. I told my friend that I would try to get it done in under 5 hrs, but it was looking more like it will take me about 5:15 to finish. After about 160+ marathons, you kind of can tell what your body can and cannot do. It was 7th time running the course and it was pretty nice to be able to pass along the course knowledge to my friend. Going up Diamond Head felt better for my legs. I was having more trouble running the flats and downhills. Leg cramps started to creep into my legs just as we were coming up to the Kalanianaole Highway. Thank goodness they were passing out Power Gels. We got through the halfway mark at about 2:15. As we got to the loop around Hawaii Kai, I hit a wall. Thank goodness they had Power Gels here as well. I tried to motor on, but the sun was out and I was slowing down. It was nice of my friend to stick with me for about 3 hrs as we passed mile 17. I was definitely holding her back as my pace kept dropping and I wasn't about to run any faster with these worn out legs. So off she went just as we ran past the accordion lady. I walked a lot and got to see some of my friends still heading out to Hawaii Kai. It was such a relief to finally get off of the Kalanianaole Highway where I got to see a couple of my local friends cheering on the runners as I turned the corner for mile 22. It was really slow going for the next three miles as it was a gradual climb up to the top at mile 25. Thankfully there were a group of people passing out beer and giving out free hugs. I got both. Then it was a downhill mile down to the finish line. I squeezed whatever I could out of my legs for the final stretch that would seem to go on forever. Thank goodness my GI never bothered me during the entire race. I still think that ever since I've switched to GU Roctane electrolyte capsules that the ginger inside it has saved me from GI distress.
Click
here for my Garmin data.
Finish line
My friend found me in the finisher area and she really wanted a snow cone. She was sure that other runners had some, but they were not to be found. I took a banana and she had a few of the malasadas. After taking my annual finisher photo with one of the hula girls, we went to go get our finisher medals and shirts. We bumped into a few of our fellow Marathon Maniacs. One of them had just finished a marathon in all 50 States all under 4 hrs. Amazing! I'm just trying to get all of them under 5 hrs.
Finisher photo
We then walked back to our hotels. I thought that this year's medal and shirt were the best out of the 7 years that I've run this marathon. I was pretty disappointed with last year's shirt. Leading up to the race, I was feeling pretty lousy and thought that maybe I would take a break from running this marathon after this year. After toughing it out and getting to the finish line, as well as receiving a nice medal and shirt, I just might have to return for one more year! I wouldn't be much of a Marathon Maniac if I didn't, right? :) It's also very hard to resist the discounted registration fee for US residents in January!
Finisher medal (front)
Finisher medal (back)
Finisher shirt (front)
Finisher shirt (back)
For lunch, I went downstairs to eat at
Marukame Udon with my friends. They texted me while they were in line, so I went downstairs and hopped in line to join them. This udon restaurant is also one of the reasons why I like staying here. It's not unusual for the line to wrap 2 or 3 times blocking most of the sidewalk at all hours of the day. When it was my turn, I ordered their large niku udon. I added 2 pieces of shrimp tempura and a spam musubi. I was barely able to finish the udon as my appetite had not fully returned. I took the spam musubi up to my room.
Niku Udon
I kind of dozed off in my room while watching the football game and didn't get to
Yard House to meet up with my friends until almost 4 pm for the post race/birthday party. They were there at 3 pm. I had two Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA's and a slice of the birthday cake. The guys at the table where I sat left to go catch the sunset at the beach. Since I don't like the beach and was still feeling super worn out, I said my goodbyes to the other table and walked back to my room.
Back at my room, I again dozed off watching TV and barely woke up in time to meet up with my friends to eat a late dinner at 9 pm at
Duke's Waikiki. I guess that my brain must have been pretty cooked as I had walked past the place and had to double back. Once we got seated, I started with their Whiskey Wipeout. My friends got the Korean sticky ribs and let me try a rib. Then for the meal I ordered the mahi mahi baked Duke's style. My friend got the Opah with sauteed mac nut and herb crusted. We both divided up our fish and shared.
Whiskey Wipeout
Korean sticky ribs
Baked Duke's style mahi mahi
Sautéed mac nut and herb crusted Opah
On the way back to my hotel, I got flagged down by a couple of blonde girls. Girls like them don't talk to guys like me... ever. One of them asked me where I was from. I replied, "California." I started walking away since my spider-sense was tingling. So she asked where I was headed. I replied,"back to my hotel." In the distance I could hear her say, "okay..." I guess none of that exchange was what she was expecting. She was either trying to have a good time on an unsuspecting foreigner's dime and most likely rob him, and/or they're a couple of prostitutes or undercover cops. This was the second time that I've been coming to Honolulu that I had been approached by one of these "girls" while taking a stroll through Waikiki. I swear I must have some sort of label on my head.
Monday 12/14
I woke up feeling much better, but I was still pretty beat up mentally from yesterday's hot and humid marathon. I ate the spam musubi and a banana for breakfast. Originally I was going to get to the park before 9 am to get in line to pick up my finisher's certificate and a paper with the results, but I waited until almost 10 am (check out time) before I checked out and started walking over to Kapiolani Park. Thank goodness there was no line for my bib number range.
Finisher certificate
After picking up my certificate, I walked over to the nearby
Teddy's Bigger Burgers to eat an early lunch. I ordered their Biggest Bacado with a small order of tater tots. Man, that was good! I pretty much love anything that has bacon and avocado.
Teddy's Biggest Bacado with small order of tater tots
My friends were ready to head to the airport, so I hoofed it quickly over to their hotel to grabbed a ride with them. Their flight was slightly earlier than mine, so they invited me to tag along. I was grateful for the ride as it saved me $2.50 and more importantly a slow ride on The Bus. We originally thought about having lunch at a Zippy's along the way to the airport, but later thought it would be too risky in case we get delayed on the way to the airport.
Getting through TSA wasn't too bad as they had brought out the bomb sniffing dogs. We were allowed to keep our shoes on and didn't have to take out our bag of small liquids. After getting through security, we hung out at a food court until it was closer to our boarding time.
I sat in the same seat as my inbound flight. It was a shorter flight heading home, but it felt uncomfortable. It felt better when I removed my shoes as everything was still kind of swollen from the marathon. We were served a complimentary meal and a Merlot.
Inflight meal
After landing in at SAN airport, I made my way over to the section for the courtesy shuttles at the ground transportation island. It took a while for the shuttle to arrive. I was starting to think that I was waiting at the wrong spot as the pickup spot was shared with hotels and other off site parking lot courtesy shuttles. The drive home felt long, but at least there was no traffic at that time of night.
