Honolulu Marathon

[quote]rain, rain and more rain wrote:

I would like to hear from David Monti and Boy Wonder on their observations and experiences of yesterday.

It rained at 2am and again at 4am, but the real rain came when we were all in the staging area at 4:40am. Everyone was huddled together waiting for the 5:00am start and here comes this 60 second shower. It's not called a 60 second shower because it only lasted a minute (it lasted 10 minutes!), it's because the intensity of it is equal to standing under a shower at home and getting completely soaked to the bone in that minute's time. More rain came around 5:25am and there were lots of ponding on the roads Ala Moana near Kalakaua and Paki near Monsarrat. Some people experienced some light showers out Hawaii Kai way, but when the sun did come out and it was quite bright and strong around 9am.

The real experience was the mud fest at Kapiolani Park. People were slipping and sliding and skating across what used to be grass. When you stepped off Kalakaua and up to the curb in the refreshment area it resembled Woodstock and the surface road between the Nike souvenir tent and the bandstand had six inches of muck. It was this bad back in 1987, so if you come back in 2027 I guess we can expect a repeat of these conditions.

26.2 miles for another ugly finisher t-shirt. Bright Yellow, that incorporated an old design used by Bjorn Skrimstad back in the early 80's but updated with their copyrighted Kukini runner.[quote]

Back home from Hono and here are my comments -

Yes, the rain at the start was a little much. I'm from Portland so rain is not that bad, but when it pours and soacks you to the bone before the race has even started, well that is not fun. I chafed in a few places I never in 1,000 years would have put body glide on and my feet afterwarsd looked like two giant raisins. All in all though the rain was not a bog deal to me. The warm temps - 72 and the humidity (paper said 89% at the start and weather stat for the airport said 90% at 700a) made the race challenging and I think is the main reason for the slow times.

The race needs to move the t-shirt tent closer the finish and post some signs to get you there. I got lost in all the Japanese tents and my shoes, which were relatively clean at the finish now have that nice deep red-brown mud stained into them.

I liked the new chip they used. Much better than the actual chip. I like the fact I could just peel it off my number.

T-shirt. I like the color and the design is not bad. A lot better than my 1995 shirt, but not as good as 97 or 98.

Congratulations to Lawrence Merrifield, Jr. who was 32nd overall and 2nd in his age division running 2:46:29 and to

John Stolz who was 73rd overall and 1st in his age division running 2:57:38.

Of course, if they had run CIM the week before in Sacramento they might have both gone five minutes faster, but it's hard to predict that their weather would have been nicer than Hawaii's.

A friend mentioned in the first mile as we ran down Ala Moana Blvd. that with all the bodies so tightly packed together that it felt like a steambath.

I was out on the course a little longer than Boy Wonder and when I finally removed my shoes I had dish pan feet.

David Simms is taking a lot of heat because of some technical glitches with his equipment.

http://www.sai-timing.com/works

No new technology can guarantee themselves to be fool-proof as evidenced by this guy I know. We are standing in the rain in the starting corral 15 minutes before the start I look down and ask him, "Where's your chip?" He thought he'd be clever and stuff it inside his shoe. Guess what?

He didn't get any split times or finish time.

The packet pick-up volunteers worked diligently explaining to everyone how it works and how to peel the Avery Dennison label off your number and lace it onto your shoe and be careful not to bend it or fold, spindle or mutilate.

My favorites were the few I saw running out to Hawaii Kai on Kalanianaole Hwy while I was running back to the park. There they were with their timing chip labels still affixed to their number which was pinned on their chests. Still not as bad as the ones that pin their number on their backs despite the clues they might pick up from the sea of 20,000+ runners around them that all are wearing their numbers on their front.

A couple of links to local news stories on the timing snafus.

http://starbulletin.com/2007/12/11/news/story01.html

http://honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071211/NEWS01/712110362/1001

Most of the claims are overblown as the majority of the mistakes were human errors made on the part of the participants who mishandled their timing chips.

Weather update!

It is sunny and warm and the trades have returned.

Oh my! I'm sure my buddy David Simms was more than sick to his stomach race day and has since lost plenty of sleep. It's like your worst fears realized...not that dissimliar to the bad/hot weather the first weekend of Oct in the Midwest that adversely affected many races. Dang. But he's a big boy and will do his best to retrieve and release accurate results for those deserving such.

As has been noted, because the tech is so new, many runners probably didn't put the tag in the proper place. Man. This is tough on several levels. I hope things get worked out.

To help those that weren't in Honolulu on December 9th get a visual on the muddy mess at the finish line area comes this story from today's newspaper

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071218/NEWS01/712180333/1001/NEWS01