Pain Pain Go Away

Sunday was the Honolulu Marathon. It has been raining all week long and Sunday wasnt any different. I was in bed by 9 with a 2AM wakeup call that came REALLY fast. We woke up, got ready, ate a breakfast of bananas and toast with peanut butter and made our way to the start two miles away.
Here we are right before we left...
Notice the full grown stache. And how totally unhappy he was to be racing.



The weather was great outside - a little chilly (for Hawaii) and no rain. We walked up to the start and got pretty close to the front. This race is sponsored by Japan Airlines and has thousands of Japanese that come over and race, so we were surrounded by non-English speakers. Right as the gun went off there were fireworks - best marathon race start ever! Then the rain came. It came down hard. Like Houston-rain hard. I love running in the rain so I was loving this. I started out really slow which is totally not like me, but I knew that I needed to go easy to try and preserve my leg as much as possible. Miles 1-4 were fairly uneventful. It was totally dark outside since the start was at 5AM, so we were running through downtown Honolulu barely able to see anything. I was wearing a new band on my leg to add compression to my IT band and hopefully give me less pain, and I guess it worked a little. Instead of no pain after 2 miles, I had no pain until 6 miles. We were in Waikiki at this point, and my leg was killing me. I was willing it to go away. We climbed up diamond head and when I got to the top, I knew I wouldnt be able to make it 26 miles. I have never ever pulled out of a race for anything, so this was a really tough decision for me. It even took me another two miles to actually pull out. We got to a point where I could run the 3 miles back home, or head out to Hawaii Kai and finish the race. I decided to go home, and after 5 minutes of running towards home I contemplated going back. But I knew if I finished, I was going to have to start my therapy all over and miss the Houston race, so I continued home. I am still bummed about it today, but know it was a good decision.
I got home and started tracking Chris on the computer so I could meet him at the finish line. After 20K he was estimated to finish at 3:15 in his first ever marathon. I got dressed and left to head back to the finish line. I was watching from 2:55 - 5 hour finishers and never saw Chris, so I decided to go back home and see if he was there. He wasnt, but came home a little later. Turns out he was killing it up to mile 15 and then it all went downhill. He got really sick (either from the gatorade or cliff shots) and couldnt run anymore, so he walked the whole way home. He was pretty beat up when he got back, and vows never to do another one. I told him that feeling will last about 2 months until he forgets the pain he went through and actually wants to better his time (I think he can definitely do a 3:10 if he gets his nutrition down). All in all it was a bad day for team ryerson-huk, but I am so proud that Chris finished even when he felt that sick and I hope he decides to do another one with me! I am also glad I decided to pull out when I did. I know in my head that I have to lay off running to get any better, but I really hated to quit. I am hoping that the Houston race will be pain free.

And even though it doesnt feel like it in Hawaii, it is almost Christmas, so I decided to torture the dogs again and dress them up. Here is Liko in his elf hat.