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Aloha All and Welcome to Hawaii Run, this is your internet resource for information about Hawaii running races, clinics, groups, and results. If you have any questions or any recommendations, please email us at hawaiirun@gmail.com. This site is solely for the benefit of Hawaii runners, so please let us know what feedback you have for us.

Mahalo and enjoy!

Todd

Worst training buddy ever

Thats right, I am the worst training partner ever...

I don't wait for others

I determine the workout (no suggestions)

I don't keep an even pace

I forget what interval we are on

I have to stop and go to the bathroom

My tummy hurts

I let someone else lead and sprint the end every single time

But luckily, some people agree to train with me...and I don't have to pay them or anything. Today it was Matt Stevens, Tim Marr, and his wife Mariane. We are all in slightly different phases, Matt is gearing up for the Chicago marathon and learning to fit running in between being a great father and a great teacher, Tim is coming back from a short break and trying to work on his running, Mariane is doing exclusively run training for the first time and gearing up to race for HPU in the fall. As for me, I am in a strange in between phase of building strength for a half marathon in Japan in September while not overdoing it. As a checkpoint I am going to Wharf to Wharf in late July. Mostly because I hear its a kickin good time, but also because I feel like its good to get your tail kicked every once in a while. It helps with my arrogance...speaking of my arrogance, it rears its ugly head in just a sec.

Ok back to the workout, 3 X 2.9k loops of Kapiolani park. 90 second rest. Essentially this is a tempo run which you can break up in your mind. With the added bonus (for me) of getting to run a bit faster than I normally would in a tempo. I like these workouts, and to be honest I never thought I would say that. Today, my legs felt like crapo, and there is no good reason why, but hey it happens.

As I said at the beginning of my post, I can be...shall we say...difficult. I gave a 2 minute speech before we started about keeping the first interval relaxed and just getting in to a good rhythm. Very superior of me considering I was running with Matt (more state titles than I have and not to mention the resident champ of the marathon last year) and Tim (pro triathlete) but they put up with my arrogance...thankfully.

I will give you one guess as to what I did as soon as we started...yep, I took it out hard. Whatever thoughts we had of staying in a group were shattered from the get go, and Matt and I tried trading the lead, but of course I had to cut him off at strange times and surge like a 8th grader. First interval: 9:31. Not unnecessarily fast, but it felt harder than it should have.

Right before the start of number 2 I only said one thing..."lets try and pick it up on the back part of the park" seems like a simple goal. We started off again and what happens when we get to the back of the park...my legs feel junk and I slow down...awesome. Matt leads the whole back part of the park till the last 1k, when I kick by him in a fit of glee. Second interval: 9:14.

No talking before the last one..Matt tells me he may or may not stay in for the whole time. It would appear my surging and cutting him off and just sitting and kicking on him makes for a hard workout...who would have guessed. That made this one a bit more of a solo mission, and as I rolled down the final straight slowly dying as the wind blows in my face (approximate estimate at wind speed, 212 mph), I could not help but think that I made this just about as difficult for myself as I possible could have....nice work Toddicus. Third interval: 9:12.

I feel like I have a lot of work to do before I am able to run an even paed marathon, but this is where is starts. While it might seem fun to run the first half with the Kenyans and see what happens, I don't think Honolulu would be a positive experience if I am toast at 14 miles. The body is not working perfectly at the moment, but with some help from Jaco and some long running, I think I should be good to go. I do consider myself sort of an 8 week specialist when it comes to building up, and so I suppose I do have plenty of time before September half marathon season begins.

T

The runner who swims

Thats right, for those of you who don't know it yet, I have taken up swimming. Yep, this runner boy is trying swimming. Why would I do something like that? Don't I have any sense in my tiny little brain that I am better at running than I am at any other sport? Well, actually, yes I do realize that I happen to be well built for spending my time on land. However, I see a few very big benefits to swimming for someone like me:

1) I get hurt more often than a 6 year old playing running back for the Eagles.

Most of these injuries are of the overuse variety, which cause me to run less. Swimming encourages me to run less without getting out of shape.

2) After 10 years of running I could feel my body losing an alarming amount of its athleticism as I had only seriously stressed it through running. Swimming is a great way to tax my body in a totally unique way.

3) I got some very good friends who support me.

Basically I have wanted to give swimming a serious try for a few years, but I would just get so discouraged at the fact that if you would compare my swimming to an animal, it would be some sea animal which barely moves. Thats right, I swim like a sea cucumber or perhaps an anemone of some kind.

I would try to swim when injured in college but always give it up for aquajogging and elliptical because I just felt like such a rock in the water. (actually, I still feel like a rock in the water)

If I could compare what I look like in the water to something I have seen in my life, it would be Dustin Hoffman when he tries scuba diving in "The Graduate"



But luckily, because of reason number 3, I have been able to stay motivated and keep it fun and I have officially gotten over the hump from doing it every one in a while to doing it consistently. After a few moths of swimming I recently swam four days a week for two straight weeks, and I still suck, and I still get discouraged, but I am confident now I can stay with it for at least a few months. I am not yet ready to consider myself a swimmer, but I'm slowly getting better

To be honest, I have been shocked at how much swimming helps my running. I knew it would help, but I just could not have imagined it would make such a big difference. Partially I think I didn't appreciate the fact that if you exercise hard AND you can't just breathe in air whenever you damn well please, your cardiovascular system has to work its ass off to prevent you from passing out. But also, for the past few years I have wanted to run 80-90 miles per week, but would get hurt and miss time. Now I run 60-70 and swim. My legs don't get beat up, but my heart and lungs get the workout they need...totally cool.

Now, do I think I somehow stumbled upon the secret to running fast...nope. I think if your body can handle it running more will always be the most efficient way to get faster in running, but for a delicate flower like me, swimming is HUGE!

There is one, final, massive bonus for me to get in to swimming over the past few months. The people. If you have spent more than 15 seconds with me, you know I tend to be a bit of a talker. An enthusiastic talker. I always figured swimming would be hard for me because its not easy to talk when you face is underwater. However, there are some way cool people who swim and do triathlons, and as a runner I don't see them or appreciate them nearly as much as I should. The one thing I can be sure of, is that no matter what, I would never have given swimming a legitimate shot had it not been for a good friend, and there is no doubt I would have quit soon after I started were it not for the group of people I get to swim with.

Plus, maybe, just maybe, it might help me and my (slightly) large ego from blowing any running accomplishments out of proportion...because I have a constant reminder every few days that I might be able to move well on land, but I am a total schmuck in the water.

Toddster

Marathon.....not the gas station chain....the distance

Well, it seems inevitable now...I am going to run a marathon. To be honest it seems ridiculous that I have not run one already. But perhaps it has to do with the fact that the race is 26 miles long. When I was a junior in high school my coach (and mentor) Duncan Macdonald told me to never go towards the marathon unless your were physically ready for it. Well, considering I've broken down about as frequently as a Eurovan during my 10 years of running, maybe it was good that I waited. Also Dunc won 3 Honolulu Marathons so I am prone to listening to his advice.

I tried to play it conservative and watch out for my body by taking 6 days of rest following the half. I've taken up swimming over the past 4 months in an attempt to stay injury free, and during my downtime I was so happy to have something physical to get all my energy out without pounding on my body like running tends to.

Two workouts so far since my break....I will tell you about the more entertaining one.

1) 16 miles with 7.5 miles at tempo pace. Now, as a general rule, I like running fast....as fast as possible. This has led me to do way more speedwork in my life than is reasonably necessary for a distance runner, just cause I like moving fast. So the concept of a tempo that is 7-10 miles long just makes me want quit this distance running thing to do 4 X 200 in 26 with a 5 minute rest instead. I tend to easily get overtired, and nothing seems like a more dangerous way to exhaust myself than running hard for 40 minutes to an hour....I have another word for that...its called racing. Alas, we have stumbled upon my problem, I race my workouts....I am guilty and I wont even argue it. I just like racing too much not to get cranking pretty good once I start a long workout.

That being said, as I make the transition in to being a real life long distance runner, I am going to have to accept that certain workouts will feel easier than I might like. To help me learn this, Matt Stevens has allowed me to tag along with him in his Chicago Marathon build up. So this long run with tempo dabbled in was our first adventure in to true marathon training....and we added in a twist...a twist which now seems like a cruel and diabolical scheme to destroy me.

We decided that if we ran easy from Ward up to the Pali Lookout and then did a tempo run down to downtown, we would get our distance in and get some beautiful views along the way. The only real danger was sprinting across the pali, so we did it on a Sunday night, and I wore super short shorts so my white legs would glow like a beacon in the night. As an added bonus, running hard downhill would help us to build our legs for the long marathon road ahead. Considering the limiting factor in my half marathon felt like my legs, I was willing to give downhill running a try despite my fears that it would hurt me.

We got up to the lookout and it was crazy beautiful. Its definitely on my list of places to take people who are visiting the islands...its like you are looking down on nevernever land (not the ranch with the Jackson family, but the real nevernever land with flying kids who kick the shit out of pirates)

Problem is, its windy up there, and with the current length of my shorts...it was a little...shall we say...revealing for me to stay up there. So we figured one quick loop, take a peak over to the windward side, and back down the hill. As I swung around the corner, I literally ran directly in to a pack of twenty Japanese tourists about to take a picture. It was THE moment, the photographers back was to me, and they all had the smiles on and peace signs a-waving. Lets just say the presence of a 6 foot 4 white guy with approximately 3 total inches of clothing on was not a taken in stride. They started laughing hysterically (or was it screaming...godzilla style) and just dying. Matt flew around the corner shortly behind me and we immediately realized that we were not going to get around this mass of laughing tourists who literally continued to erupt for 20 seconds while Matt and I determined an appropriate plan of action. Neither of us spoke a word, but the best possible plan was to take evasive maneuvers and get away as fast as we possibly could. In reality it was a great way to start a tempo run, and then wind muffled their laughter was I ran back the way I came and headed down the hill.

The workout itself went surprisingly well. I experimented with taking Gel for the first time during a run (success) and felt relatively smooth the whole way. That was my main concern as I knew the running would be hard on my legs if I let myself get inefficient. Overall we ran pretty steadily until we hit King st, and then headed back to ward. I was pretty tired, but I was happy about the workout, and even happier when i got to hang out with Matt, Lesley, and his son Nate for the night. Friends and kids make my heart full...and I'll tell you why:

I have pretty much wanted to be a dad since I was 15 years old, so getting to hang out with kids is pretty much the highlight to my day every time it happens. Kids rule, and here is why. When I get really enthusiastic about something little (lets say, making a crumpled up piece of paper in to a waste basket) people thing its weird, but if you are 5, you can literally scream in delight and getting a piece of hard candy, and no one cares. I love being around kids because they accept my enthusiasm as if it were normal...and you cant beat that.

Adventures in Half Marathoning

Sunday was quite the adventure, but to describe it in adequate detail, I need to explain the crazy runner that I am.



If runners were flowers, this would be me.

I am, by any measure, quite a delicate flower when it comes to running. I've had my fair share of injuries over the years mostly because I am a pretty skinny kid with a funny habit of being overly enthusiastic about things...running included. That means when I start getting fit, I am prone to rocking workout after workout until my body says "screw you" and shuts off. Sometimes its from injury, and other times its just being overtired...but the result has been a lot of good races and a handful of pretty bad races mixed in over the course of my running days. The challenge in my running career has been getting to the starting line fit and ready to rock, once I'm there I usually perform just fine. Getting there can be a pain in the ass.

So after my 5k at Bananaman, it was important to get another big effort in while I felt my fitness was at such a nice peak. Another challenge was to run a serious effort at the half marathon distance. Believe it or not, this is something I have never done. Perhaps because I am a wimp, or maybe because of my delicate flower status as a runner. But with some time until my next big race, it seemed like a perfect time to cut down on volume a bit and experiment with a longer race. My only real success over 10k has come at the Great Aloha Run and the Maui Surf and Sand 15k, so I knew the challenge would be staying focused and keeping that composure when things got long.

The strangest thing about these long races, no one bothers getting excited at the gun and going out hard, I love the 5ks because even if I run 2:15 for the first 800, there will be someone nearby, just excited to run get out hard. My personal favorite is the Niketown 5k where approximately 20 Mckinley football players run the first quarter mile of the race in 60 seconds and then jog (or walk) the rest of the way.

Anywho, from the gun in the half, I could feel that I was completely alone. Luckily, I had a wingman, a partner in crime if you will. My hombre was non other than international superstar Matt Stevens. In an attempt to keep me from going out too hard or walking the 9th mile of the race, Matt woke up early and got on his bike to ride along next to me. He has a fancy pants computer on his bike which tells me how fast I am running in mph, so we figured out what pace that is for a 67 minute half and a 70 minute half and hoped if I had a really good day I would run somewhere in between these two numbers. Turns out to be about 507-520 mile pace. That sounded pretty darn hard.

My main worry was going out in 4:40 for the first mile, which I should not do any more because dammit I'm 25 and been doing this shit for 10 years, but lets just say pacing has never quite been my specialty...racing has. So off we go, a bit quick at a mile (458...an acceptable level of craziness for an enthusiastic runner like myself) up and over diamondhead relatively smoothly, and then the challenge of focus really started. From mile 4 I could tell you that 67 minutes would have been a tall order (even for someone with my copious amounts of height). Since I had officially made my goal 70 minutes, I just tried to stay relaxed and made a deal with myself not to look back under any circumstances.

Why the hell won't I look back? you might ask (you are quite smart...I'm impressed) I don't look back - or at least try not to - so that I am focused on myself out there. Focusing on what I'm doing in a race is simultaneously the hardest thing and the most important thing I can possibly do. I always tell the people I coach never to look back, and then I proceed to fight myself from looking back in my own races. I know how you feel people!! I want to see what is going on back there too, but its just not worth it :) By looking back you effectively accomplish 2 things: 1) You waste some energy because you don't run quite as smooth. 2) You show the people in back of you that you are worried about them. I can't tell you how many times I have been behind and seen them look back and say to myself "haha, I got you now sucka!!!" (ok, I'm not that cool to think about stuff so clearly in a race...I think my thought process probably is more caveman-esque....like "run faster....other guy tired")

So I focused as much as I could on being smooth and technically sound and actually felt pretty good, but as Matt gently reminded me, I was closer to 520 pace than 507 pace. At the turnaround, holy crap, it really hit home that I was totally alone. It took a few minutes of running back down Kal hwy before I even got to the next person in the race. I have always considered myself a pretty crappy time trialer and a much better racer, but in recent years I have gotten better at pushing myself. Luckily I got to run by some killer aid station workers who always carried me for about a quarter mile just off smiles and giggles.

I quickly took stock of the current situation. It was a tad windy but overall nothing too bad, and I figured the quicker I finished the less heat related problems I would have to deal with...so I made a concerted effort to move faster, trying to pick it up a bit on the way back. At 10 miles I was just about 53 minutes, and let me tell you, the prospect of running 5k more at that point did not feel particularly appealing. Staying focused on being smooth was becoming increasingly difficult. As I climbed back over diamondhead I am confident I could legally be considered a race walker. There was very little lift left in my legs and my arms were crossing over my body much like a psych ward patient in a straight jacket.

Luckily, Stefan, Stackhouse, and a small cheering squad of swim buddies were right across from Outrigger to give me a little life just after 1k to go, which I used until 600 to go when my legs were just seriously gonzo. Normally I can find a way to be springy and light on my feet at the end of a race, but not today. I tried to keep my composure as best I could but I felt like whatever I was doing looked more like a skeleton doing the macarena than actual running.

Official time, 1:10:02. Right now that fact that I was that close to breaking 70 minutes does not bug me, but if that ends up being my PR, I will be pissed :)

In retrospect, the effort was quality (I would estimate I had the post-race brainpower somewhere between chimp and monkey), as I had a very hard time recovering from that race, and the fact that I was so well clear of the field has to be a nice indicator that this was a great long distance race. I feel like I have a lot to learn when it comes to long distance races, as I only took water over the entire course, and definitely felt my legs were slowing me down instead of my heart and lungs. Overall, it was a great learning experience and I'm happy to have run as well as I did.

If you made it this far, God bless you, my ramblings have finished...that's all from me. Time for a few days off and a few days of hard swimming and then I'll start crackin towards my next big race (Wharf to Wharf in Santa Cruz at the end of July)

Toddicus.

Welcome To Summer Running

Aloha Runners,

We have a few new links to the right, once that shows local running races on Oahu and another which displays the various running groups which meet in on Oahu. Feel free to browse the different calendars, and make some time to join the different running groups. The hardest step of any run for most of us is the first step, and meeting with people not only motivates us to get out the door, but making those connections is one of the best parts of this great running community we have here in Hawaii.

Todd

Running Group Calendar

Hawaii Race Calendar

About Us

HawaiiRun is a website devoted entirely to benefit the Hawaii running community. That's a picture of me, the current webmaster of HawaiiRun, and a huge running fan.

Regardless if you already consider yourself a local runner, competing in all the major races or if you have never run before and are just looking for more information, please browse around. If you don't run or are looking for motivation (which all of us need from time to time) check out the running groups calendar, which will show you when people from Hawaii are meeting to run.

If you are looking for a distraction in your day, check out my blog. I invariably get myself into some funny situations during my life as a runner, manager, and generally intense twenty five year old rascal. Hopefully my blog will give you a smile along the way, and help you see the fun side of running.

Thanks a bunch for visiting the site, and give me a honk if you see me running on the roads, I'll be the one with the short shorts.