Running in Paradise

I'll chronical all of my running in Hawaii here. It'll be two weeks worth of running, some descriptive and some not so much so.

Running in Hawaii is like so many other activities in Hawaii. A true pleasure. Yes, it's running in paradise. We spent the first two nights staying with our friends Rita and George on Maui, and then the next twelve nights in the Lihue area of Kauai.

Saturday, March 21
After the previous day's long trip, I didn't feel too awful. I'd planned to do this run with Rita (George is still recovering from knee surgery), but Rita needed to sleep in. So I went out alone. Rita and George live in Kihei. When we used to stay at a Maui hotel, we weren't too far down the road in Wailea. So that's the direction I ran. It was like old times - almost like going home again, to run past the old Renaissance hotel that's now being torn down. I also ran on the Wailea ocean path for a while and looked for whales. An easy 10 miles in about 90 minutes. Great stars. Beautiful sunrise.

Sunday, March 22
This time I did manage to run with Rita. I did 2 on my own first, but then the two of us ran towards Wailea once again. We started at 9.5 mpm pace, and then picked it up to 8.5 pace for the return. So once again it was 10 miles in 90 minutes, this time verified by Rita's gps. Great stars. Beautiful sunrise.


Monday, March 23
Now in Kauai, I thought I'd do this 14 mile run that I'd done several times last time I was here (2005). It takes me up Rice street, through downtown Lihue, and eventurally up a dark deserted road to Wailua falls. Only problem is that I got lost trying to find the dark road in the dark. I did another road instead, and then accidentally made a good sized loop and then returned to Nawiliwili. I also ran up by the local high school looking for a track, but there isn't one there. Still another beautiful run in paradise.

Tuesday, March 24
I didn't run in the morning, and wasn't going to run at all- we had this big time hike planned. See my separate post about the hike, but afterwards I had to run back down the road to our starting point to get the car whilst Debbie waited. After 10 extremely tough miles of hiking in 9 hours, it wasn't easy to run, but I managed. Call it 2 miles in 19 minutes.

Wednesday, March 25
Extremely sore and tired from the hike, I managed to drag myself out for some extremely slow miles around the nearby golf course. They're also building a lot around there, so it's pretty interesting. Another beautiful sunrise. 5 miles in fifty (50!) minutes.

Thursday, March 26
I felt a bit better, and I explored a new road today. Can't think of the name of it, but it is deserted for about 5 miles and winds west and south, more or less parallel with the main road. Also goes by the Menehune Fish Pond. It was pretty durn dark out there. I cut over to the main road (Nawiliwili) for the last few miles, and I picked it up pretty well on that downhill section, even managing to get to sub-8 pace for a measured mile. Altogether 9 in 79 minutes.

Friday, March 27
Another gorgeous sunrise, but then aren' they all? (the answer is yes). I just realized that I haven't missed a day of running here yet. And today I was up early for a company conference call (that wound up getting postponed) so I was out the door early. I did 16 miles at about 9 minute pace, mostly on that same deserted road as yesterday, and some over onto Kipu road. This was a pretty good medium-long run for me.

Saturday, March 28
I dragged myself out and did about 4 miles around the resort, airport and golf course. I'd forgotten that the roads do make this loop. It's not the prettiest whilst running by the airport however. I also did some extra unsuccessfully trying to get into the nearby stadium track.

Sunday, March 29
It was time. I'd done the run to Wailua Falls a couple times last time I was here, and dad-gum it if I wasn't going to do it again. I like this run - it's challenging and beautiful. I run three miles into and out of the town of Lihue. This isn't good when there's traffic, so this run is best on Sundays or very early. No traffic today. Just to the north of town, a road leads 4 miles further to the falls. The road is almost entirely deserted. And it's dark! The payoff at the falls is really cool - the falls are really big, and the road is right alongside. I made it to the falls in 61 and a half minutes. This was mostly uphill. Then it was back down to the resort, and this I did in 58 and a half, reaching home in exactly 2 hours. I was exausted, but it was a really nice run. I'll do it again, probably Tuesday.

Monday, March 30
A streak is a streak, so I dragged my weary bones out and did 2 very slow miles around the resort.

Tuesday, March 31
I had measured the nearby deserted road that I'd been putting so many miles upon, and it's 6 to the end where it meets the highway. So of course that's what I did today. It's amazing what measurement can do. Suddenly I was running much faster than I did before when I didn't know the distances. Well, maybe not that much faster. 53 1/2 minutes going out (and that's mostly uphill), and then 48 and a half minutes back down. Another great sunrise.

Wednesday, April 1
For some reason I decided to try that same route again. 12 miles two days in a row? Can that happen? You're asking the guy who once did the Tahoe Triple, but who's only a shadow of that former runner. But I did manage to do this run a second time. And faster too! 52 minutes out, and once again, 48 and a half back. The ole legs really took a beating on those hills, especially the down hills.

Thursday, April 2
Another easy day. I only ran to the end of the Nawiliwili pier, stopped to admire the sunrise (best yet) and then back for 2 miles total.

Friday, April 3
I did the 14-mile run to Wailua Falls once again. 1:57. I've written a little story about this run as a separate post.