“Let’s do a marathon in Hawaii!” – I said

“It’ll be fun!” – I said

I have just returned from my five-day Hawaiian getaway, which included a quick little tropical marathon for me. I have been stirring for some time in what my next marathon would be. In early July, I made the commitment to make the Kaua’i Marathon my second, although this didn’t give me a ton of time to train and be ready. Luckily, I am more than halfway there at all times. I have been consistent on my workouts since well before the LA Marathon in March, so with just some additional long runs included, I wasn’t too worried about being ready for Kaua’i in the shorter training period I allowed myself. 

I picked this specific marathon because my Fall working schedule is bananas, and now understanding how the “rest” part goes post-event, I knew I needed a week’s cushion after to be a normal human being again. Training through summer was a lot better than expected. Summer on the Westside of Los Angeles hasn’t really hit us with the hot streak until this past week. My real fear with this marathon was training on the hills. I found myself running a hiking train once a week after work, two miles of straight-up incline, then I would run down the 2 miles, as well. I felt confident about this training method, until one day I saw a snake on the trail, and thus decided to give up on the hiking idea altogether. Indoor cycling really was my saving grace and my preferred training method to add some resistance and hill training into the mix. 

While running, I knew I wasn’t going to surpass some amazing time. During the run, I really tried to remind myself to enjoy the views and not get caught up in the pain. Surprisingly, I did as good of a job as I could with this. Since it was pouring rain for 12 miles straight, I locked my phone and watch away in my belt pouch to avoid water damage. With this, for the first time ever on a run, I didn’t have music. Listening to the sound of the rain, the roosters, and my breath was quite the trifecta. 

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