2010 Honolulu Food-a-thon

Travel and stuff
This year I flew on Hawaiian Airlines out of LAX on Thursday night. On the flight I watched a documentary on the Brothers Cazimero. Cool stuff. The girl sitting next to me had her music on pretty loud. I could hear her music even though she was wearing earphones. Once we landed in Honolulu, I took the shuttle over to my hotel.

The plane

I checked into my room at the Aqua Aloha Surf Hotel. The room was pretty dang tiny. There was no room for a desk. I kind of had to use the dresser as a desk. But there was a microwave oven and a fridge in the room. After getting settled, I went to sleep. It rained pretty much throughout the night.

Aqua Aloha Surf Hotel

Tiny little room... no space for a desk

Expo, packet pick-up, and food
The next day it was raining a little bit. I tried to walk to the expo in the rain but I started to get soaked since my shorts was not water resistant. So I went into an ABC store and bought an umbrella. If my right calf wasn't jacked up, I would've just ran to the Convention Center. I picked up my race packet and walked through the expo. The race lost Nike as one of their sponsors. You could tell because the expo was much smaller and the official race merchandise was not as good. It wasn't too bad, but not Nike quality. Before leaving the expo, I ate a sample of Zippy's chili. Good stuff.

Honolulu Marathon expo

I met up with my friend Ryan and we went to eat ramen at Gomaichi. I ordered the zasai tan tan men. It was good! I would love to come back here and try the other items on the menu. We stopped by Wal-Mart to buy stuff. I somehow decided to buy an Ironman mask and repulsor to wear during the race. It turns out that the repulsor was a bit too clunky to wear while running.

zasai tan tan men at Gomaichi

For dinner I walked over to Tenkaippin for some ramen. Good thing the rain had let up because I had left my new umbrella in Ryan's car. I ordered the kotteri ramen. The flavor was good, but the broth was way too thick for my liking. It had the consistency of gravy. But it's good enough that I'd eat it every day.

kotteri ramen at Tenkaippin

The next day I went back to the expo. Even though the rain had stopped and the weather was perfect, I decided to take the trolley to the expo instead of walking. I caught the trolley in front of the Duke Kahanamoku statue right next to the beach.

Duke Kahanamoku statue

Waikiki trolley

As I got off of the trolley, someone called out to me. It was a fellow maniac. She noticed my Las Vegas marathon shirt and said she remembers seeing me in the Vegas marathon when I was walking. I ate another sample of Zippy's chili. Then I walked over to the Ala Moana Center food court to eat lunch. I thought about eating at Curry House, but instead I tried out Sobaya. I ordered the ten don with soba. It was at best fast food quality, edible and got the job done... hunger gone. I think next time I will have fish and poi at a different stand.

ten don with soba at Sobaya inside the Ala Moana Center food court

Ryan and I went to carbo-load at Genki Sushi. I thought the face wasn't too genki. Nowhere near good sushi but some of it wasn't bad. The spicy tuna, natto, and ikageso sushi was pretty good. They kept filling up my cup with hot tea, so the service was good. I tried to ask if they had mirugai or amaebi, but they didn't know what I was talking about. I tried the hot dog sushi which was kind of like eating spam musubi.

Genki Sushi - kaiten style

hot dog sushi

After dinner we went to Bubbies for some mochi ice cream. I got vanilla, lychee, and green tea. After I got dropped off at my hotel. I got all of my race stuff ready for the next day.

mochi at Bubbies

Pre race stuff
I ate 3 Larabars and drank my usual orange juice. I got ready and walked over to Kapiolani park to ride the bus over to the start. I hit the portapotties a few times and waited near the start line.

gender specific portapotties

"Nothing new on race day" is pretty much the golden rule to running a marathon.
New things for me on race day:

1. iFitness belt to carry my camera (first time)
2. Ironman mask
3. Cytomax in my handheld

Goals A, B, and C: have a fun race and finish

1st half
I lined up near the front to get a clean start. I took off the mask at the first aid station. It was hard to breathe, I couldn't drink anything, and had no peripheral vision with the mask on. I tried tying it to the iFitness belt, but it kept bouncing up and down. So I held the mask as I ran and I was very tempted to give it to some kid. The right calf was already bothering me before I got to the 5k mark. I had a hard time climbing up Diamond Head with the bad leg. I had to walk a few times before the half which prevented me from arriving there under 2 hours.
5k: 0:25:44
10k: 0:54:07
21.1k: 2:03:35

2nd half
I got tired of carrying the mask so I ended up wearing it on the back of my head for the rest of the way. There was a lot of walking since the calf was hurting. As usual it led to ankle and hip discomfort as I compensated for the calf strain. Near the top of Diamond Head, I finally took out my camera to snap a picture of the ocean view. I forgot to take a picture of the pink Hello Kitty house. Near the finish line, I slowed down to put on the Ironman mask. As I ran in, the spectators were getting a kick out of the mask. The announcer gave me a shout-out saying it must have been hot running in the mask.
30k: 3:13:42
40k: 4:45:00
Finish: 5:00:33

A view from the top of Diamond Head

Ironman running the final stretch

Post race
After finishing I walked over to take a picture with the hula girl. She really liked the Ironman mask. Then I went over to pick up my finisher's keychain and finisher's shirt. I returned to my room and got cleaned up. I then recovered by drinking my beers. After watching some tv and taking a nap, I went back to Genki Sushi to continue my recovery.

Ironman loves hula girls

Finisher's shirt

2 of my buddies waiting for me in my hotel room fridge

The next morning, I went back to Kapiolani Park to pick up my finisher's certificate and to meet the champions of the race. The line was long to pick up the certificate. They also gave out a newspaper with the official results. I then got in line to meet the champs. I was able to get autographs from both of them.

Women's champ - Belainesh Gebre 2:32:13

Men's champ - Nicholas Chelimo 2:15:18

Before leaving for the airport, I stopped by Running Room where my friend works. After saying my goodbyes, I headed over to Zippy's to eat some chili. I ordered some with a large Orange Bang. Good stuff. I walked back to my hotel, checked out, and got picked up by the shuttle bus for the airport. It was kind of sad going to the airport. I wish I could've stayed longer.

Zippy's chili

Post race thoughts
The iFitness belt worked great. It works much better than my SPIbelt. Anyone want a slightly used SPIbelt is welcomed to have it. Just drop me a line or an email edit - SPIbelt already spoken for. The Ironman mask was obviously a bad idea. It's great if you want to get a taste of what it's like to run with asthma. I have no idea how Darth Vader does it every year. But it did make for good photos. The Cytomax worked pretty well. I mixed it a little thick since I decided to run the race without sucking down gels.

Can't wait to run it again next year!