Maui Half-Marathon Recap

A Runner's Ramblings: Volume 20; 7th Edition 
105.1miles run in 2025 races
Race: Maui Half-Marathon
Place: Maui, HI
Miles from home: 3917.5 miles
Weather: 73 degrees; 75% humidity 

It's getting a little tiring to continue to write recaps about races that end up like a dumpster fire. But you tell the stories of your runs whether they go well or go poorly if you want people to enjoy reading what you write. That said, I'm disappointed that yet another race fell into the latter category.

I started race weekend off in Maui by bumping into Jordan Hogan (Hasay) at the Expo and shared more than a few minutes of chatting. Her husband is from Mechanicsburg PA originally and that's the area where they have now moved to. I went to law school in nearby Carlisle so it was interesting to talk to them about that. It also made me so happy that I'm no longer hauling around 100 lbs of books to expos and sitting there signing them for people. Not that I don't enjoy conversing with runners but doing that for 8 hours twice in a row before trying to run a marathon is for the birds.

The night before the race I was trying to get to bed when I felt a bug on my arm, Long story short what appeared to be a few gnats.  I looked over at the lamp and there were dozens on it. I killed them all and then saw even more on the ceiling and elsewhere It appears they had gotten in under my door and were all over the room. So at 9:00 PM I had to switch bedrooms in this hotel and probably didn't get to bed before after 10:00 PM. With a 4:45 AM wake up call that was not exactly ideal.

This week I went to a physical therapist who was also a runner to try to ascertain what is going on with my left quad and my right calf. It all seems to stem from a muscle imbalance and to tell you that getting that answer was both relieving and frustrating would be an understatement. I've had a litany of random injuries and accidents and few have hurt as much as my left quad and not having a muscle tear or something more than simply an imbalance is annoying. I was given some exercises to do and I'll admit that I actually did them the day before the race. I find it hard to believe that this is what's going to fix my leg but I will definitely do it.

I booked my hotel to be at the start of the race according to the website and found out when I walked out of the hotel that it was still about half of a mile away. That's not the end of the world but also not what I was expecting. I got to the starting line with about 90 seconds before the gun went off. I positioned myself roughly where I thought I would be to run hopefully about an 8:10 minute pace and when the gun went off away I went.

In the pitch black darkness I could feel both my calf and my quad straining just a little bit but they felt far better than they did after my 3 marathons in six days two weeks ago. I was surprised when my first mile was an 8:10 and even more surprised when the second one equaled that time. Both miles felt relatively easy and I thought perhaps I was actually going to get a nice bounce back race. The third mile slowed me down a little bit but I was still pretty close to being on pace for what I wanted.

The course was an extremely simple out and back alongside the highway with sometimes there being a

complete lane blocked off for us and other times we were running on a wide shoulder. I guess you could say it's scenic because the ocean was to our right for the whole way out but I was more concerned about simply surviving the race. Not having to think about where to turn was definitely a big plus in my mind. There were also an abundance of aid stations and gigantic kudos to the race for making sure that both the water and the Gatorade were chilled with ice cubes. It was a cupless race so you had to bring your ow. The race provided a collapsible one that some clipped to their person. I simply carried mine in my hand. It was only mildly annoying to have to slow down while the people poured it into your cup and I guess that means thousands of cups not being wasted so that's good.

My 4th and 5th miles slowed me down just a touch more but I still felt that as soon as I hit the turn around things would change. I have an absolute plethora of examples of how when I run or race, somehow the minute I turn around and I'm no longer heading away from my goal my body switches to another mode. All of a sudden I drop 30 seconds per mile. I have joked that I wish I could trick my body into think I am always heading home but so far I haven't found out how to do that. I expected that trend to happen here as we turned around at the halfway point and actually began a small downhill run.

Unfortunately, the boost I was hoping for didn't come and my 6th and 7th miles continue to slow. This was indeed worrisome because I could feel the energy beginning to drain out of me. In the middle of the eighth mile I was forced to do a small walk break and I knew the last 4.5 miles were not going to get any better.

Basically from here until the end it was a combination of me running as fast as I could as long as I could until I could no longer run and was forced to walk. I began to negotiate with myself and get into the pain cave and look ahead to landmarks to get me to the next mile. Normally when the heat and humidity start to get to me I can fall back on my legs, especially my quads, which have always been the best part of my running physique. But after basically three years of atrophy with two knee surgeries and now these problems with my quad they are not what they were just a few short years ago.

The final few miles looked like the EKG of a person with an erratic heartbeat. When I could run it was roughly a 9 minute mile and then suddenly it would drop down to an 18 minute crawl. Time after time I will repeat this. I knew this was going to be a personal worst in my first ever half marathon over 2 hours.
As I stumbled down the finish chute and crossed in 2:11:26 I would have been more disgusted with my lot in life if I was not more concerned with passing out. I grabbed my medal and found some grass nearby and fell down onto it. This was an eerie similarity to the last time I ran in Hawaii which was also in Maui 15 years ago. I was also about a block away from where I was now when I also went down onto the grass in one of my worst marathons ever. I was helped into the medical tent where they were trying to potentially give me an IV but I knew I simply needed a little bit of rest time before too long I was able to actually get back up and make my way back to my hotel.

What I will take from this race was before it got hot and humid and got to me I was able to run some of my fastest race miles since my marathon in February. So there is still hope that I'm not gonna be perpetually getting worse in my races. However I have another half marathon in two weeks and then the final half marathon of my 50 state journey two weeks after that. I fully intend not to run one single bit between now and then and simply cycle and swim and work on getting my leg to where it needs to be. 

This is completely unacceptable and I will remedy it.