Honolulu Marathon Race Report - Mark Shorter

I ran Honolulu Marathon on Sunday, December 13th. My results were as follows:

Finished 106 out of 20,321 overall 3/897 in my age category.

My final time:03:05:52 Chip time: 3:05:52, minute per mile pace:7:06,

10k time: 41:11, 1/2 way time: 1:28:11, 30k time:2:06:21, 40k time: 2:55:10

It was a tough race from 30k on. The day started out at about 23 degrees and clear. We started at 5:00am under a sky of fireworks. Each mile and every 5k were marked making it easy to check pace. There were aid stations with water, Gatorade, ice & sponges at about every 2 miles throughout the course. Compared to a normal year there was little wind and slightly lower than normal heat & humidity. The sun came up at about 7:00am and started to really heat things up by 7:30. There were about 16,000 or so Japanese runners in the event.

I managed to stay on pace up to about 30k then started to slow a bit even with consuming 7 gels and 8 salt capsules and Gatorade at each aid station. I pulled out every trick from my bag of tricks to keep my pace up in the last 6 miles, keeping my cadence up, using positive thoughts, segmenting the course, watching for my wife, Cara, at the bottom of the Diamond head Hill, and more. There is a good hill (Diamond Head Volcano) at 7-8 miles on the way out and 23.5 - 24.5 miles on the way back that certainly garners attention. While heading for the finish at 24-25 miles there were participants in 2's and 3's at 8 miles heading out on the course and thinking about what they had ahead of them gave me a little impetus.

Today I'll go for a nice scenic bike ride to Kailua & back (about 50 miles). It isn't too hard to stay motivated for training in Honolulu! Cara & I are in Honolulu until December 31st and we should move into our new condo on the water this week!

Happy training everyone!

Submitted by Mark Shorter