Tag Archives: Maui Oceanfront Marathon

My Week In Review

Okay, really… it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m doing a weekly summary! I just ran a half-marathon last week! Of course I’m going to put my mileage in black and white! 😉 But actually, have you ever noticed that when you go on vacation, it’s not truly restful? You’re on the go all the time, so much to see, so much to do! It’s probably the most active you’ll be all year!! Hence, I’m documenting those miles because they totally count. I wore my Garmin watch all the time as I wanted credit for all those steps I took!

January 16 — Our first full day in Maui, the day before the race. This is the day I wanted to stay off my feet. I logged 7.85 miles… but only 1 of them was actually spent running. I’m sure the rest of them were spent lollygagging. My biggest mistake here was not wearing my running shoes the entire day.

January 17 — Race day! 17.75 miles or 34,901 steps. Cooool! I kinda like the way the steps log. They look way impressive. For those who don’t race or run, there is a lot of going to and fro’ on race day, so the set mileage of the race isn’t the only mileage you get.

January 18 — (Monday, in case you’ve lost track). Keeping in mind this is the day after the race, so with a lot of soreness and ouchies… 4.97 miles. One mile was dedicated to running… the rest were dedicated to visiting the pool, bar, and whatever food we could find and get to easily. We also meandered around the resort to stretch… it only hurt when we stopped. 🙂

January 19 — 5.49 miles. We walked to Castaway Cafe to have brunch, then hung out by the pool, just as it should be!

January 20 — 5.53 miles. Really, more of the same… blah, blah, blah, pool. 🙂

January 21 — 3.54 miles. Okay… this kills me. We spent the entire day on our feet at the Maui Ocean Center. It felt like we walked for miles and miles. This was the least amount of mileage recorded.

January 22 — 2.5 miles… homeward bound. Oh how sad. One mile was dedicated to running, and I’m guessing 1.5 miles was from traipsing around the two airports!

January 23 — 2 miles. First day at home… I don’t even know how I got 2 miles to be honest! Only 1 was actually dedicated to running.

January 24 — 3.31. A 2-mile streak run with the rest of it being logged as doing normal, boring, everyday tasks, such as grocery shopping.

Total miles (for the past 8 days): 52.94. I kinda wish every week could be this productive!! And if you want to get super technical, if I knock last Saturday’s mileage off, then total mileage for the 7 days would be 45.09. Proof positive we are more active on vacation than not, 😀

Great eateries in Maui:

Slappy Cakes — Fabulous breakfast/brunch food! Make your own pancakes on the skillet at your table or have them made. They also serve breakfast skillets and other breakfast items. 5 stars!
Castaway Cafe — I had biscuits and gravy with eggs. To die for! Best gravy ever! They’re a cafe on the boardwalk, so they serve everything. 4 stars! But only 4 because the service was a bit slow. They only had 1 person at noon helping the entire restaurant.
Maui Brewing Company — Home made chips/crisps! The burgers are wonderful! Apparently so is the Brisket Dip Sandwich! It’s a brewing company… beer is home brewed, so quite delicious as well! 5 stars!
Coconut Fish Cafe — With a name like that, how can you go wrong! A favorite amongst the locals! 5 stars! (I don’t usually eat my fries, but these I couldn’t resist).
Plantation House Golf Course — Views of the ocean were killer! Fish and chips were fantastic! 5 stars! Go there! This is a must if you’re ever in Maui! (Beware of very small parking spaces).

Sadly, I think that’s it for Maui for this year. Time to get back to reality as my training plan picks up again on Tuesday! But then again, training is half the fun, so I look forward to the challenge, especially as I’ve learned a lot from running the Maui Oceanfront Half-Marathon!

On a side note, I turned 49 today. Pretty soon my tag line is going to have to say “trials and tribulations of a 50-something novice runner…” Good thing my mind still thinks I’m only 21… and only 21 just so I can legally drink, 😀

Do you find that you’re more active on vacation than you are any other day of the year?

50 in 50 Marathon Quest’s View on MOM

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I’d like to start by saying thank you so very much for the encouragement and the kudos for this most recent race! Your wonderful support really does carry me through all of the madness… from the first step of the training cycle right on through to the finish line. I’m extremely grateful and appreciative for you! I’ve made some great blogging friends, and I feel truly blessed.

Jamesy wrote a fun article detailing the Maui Oceanfront Marathon. I know my “race recap” was brief and to the point… it was hard and it hurt. But if you’re curious and would like a bit more of a detailed description, go visit his site. He actually makes the pain sound somewhat humorous!

Speaking of pain, we suffered our worst about 48 hours after the race, per normal. Neither of us could walk very well, which called for a great relaxing day hanging by the pool! As of now, my feet have mostly recovered… I’ll lose a few toenails, but hey, it happens. I’ve realized I need to stay with my Brooks Glycerin shoes for every race from here on out as I don’t have feet problems when I race in them, AND, I need to stay about a full size larger than what I normally wear because, yes, my feet do swell that much (the ones I wore in MOM were only 1/2-size larger).

As for James, his calves are still a bit tight, but he’s gradually getting better. He has one more week of recovery before he starts his next training cycle, so he should survive as well.

Next race for us will be local… the Lake Sammamish Half-Marathon on March 5th, in 41 days… just enough time to lose all the weight we gained on vacation. 😀

50 in 50 Marathon Quest … Maui Oceanfront Marathon Recap

Aloha! Echoes Of My Neighbourhood #6

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Aloha from sunny Maui!

While the race here wasn’t all that we hoped it would be, the recovery has been fantabulous! We’ve had lots of these to ease our pain…

Fabulous views…

Great pool time (for which I had to paint my nails as they are completely destroyed and black and blue from the race… it’s one of those silly foot photos so be glad I did, but you might still be able to see the bandaids)…

Lots of fun and different sights…

Gorgeous flowers…

Lovely Koi…

Breathtaking sunsets…

And daily outside running… yes, the streak continues, blistered feet and all!

It’s been a fabulous vacation!

Thanks to Jackie at A Cooking Pot and Twisted Tales for the Echoes Of My Neighborhood challenge! This is my special neighborhood for the week!

Pre-Race Jitters

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Yes… pre-race jitters. I have them. James has them. It’s that exact energy that propels us to the finish line. In the meantime, I’m doing what I can to keep from freaking out. Like sharing my pictures from today, 🙂

We did go for our streak run early this morning. I wore the GoPro on my head to see how that would work. It’ll be fun to see what it picked up, but I haven’t had a chance to even see yet.

Three generations… they all walk the same and have the same leg build.

We wanted to stay off our feet as much as possible for most of the day, although that didn’t seem to happen. We ended up walking to breakfast. Did I mention my in-laws from Boise were here also? James’s dad will be running the 10K. (We all ran the FitOne Boise Half together in September).

Breakfast at Slappy Cakes. Carb loading with pancakes!

Then we had to maneuver to downtown Lahaina for packet pickup, which was across from the famous Banyan Tree. An amazing sight. There was no expo as this is a relatively small race.

After packet pickup, we went to the in-laws’ hotel for a small afternoon happy hour, then back to our hotel room to put our feet up. By day’s end, we had put in just over 6 miles (per my watch).

Flat me is all ready to run… Go Hawks!

James has arranged for a wake-up call at 2 a.m. He has to catch the shuttle bus at 3:15 to take him to somewhere 26.2 miles down the road. He has a start time of 5:00… mine starts at 6:30. And once again I ask myself… why, why, why do I do this… but then I remember… ah yes, it’s for the bling…

We Have Arrived!

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It has been a long and tiring day, but we have finally arrived… happily and joyfully… in Maui! Even the child, who got up at the unholy hour of 5 a.m., is feeling happy-happy-joy-joy!

Things started off great! Traffic cooperated in Seattle, so we were able to get to the airport with enough time to eat some breakfast before the plane left. Yay!

When we finally arrived in Maui around 3 p.m., we went directly to the rent-a-car place. Did you know chickens run wild and free here? I kept hearing a rooster crow, and I couldn’t figure out for the life of me where it was coming from. So I had to go investigate. Indeed… they were just hanging around the parking lots waiting for people to feed them (tourists are so very kind)!

After that, it was off to the store for supplies for a few days. And we went on from there to our hotel.

We were so happy to get to our room finally!

And yes… James and I are still streaking. Shortly after I took the above picture in our suite, the two of us were kitted up and on the treadmill, making sure we got in our runs today no matter what (it was too dark to run the outside and unfamiliar territory, although the weather was just gorgeous). And yes, it was semi-painful to have to streak today because we both wanted and were more than ready for our Friday Happy Hour, but we couldn’t start happy hour until after our run.

So, we’ve landed, arrived at the hotel, completed our daily run, and guess what we’re doing now?!! You know it!! Cheers!!

Smashrun Badges

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It’s taper week in my household, but we’re still streaking! After logging my 1-mile run last night on Smashrun, I earned 5 badges. This is what makes running so fun! It’s all about the accomplishment and bling! And Smashrun gives you all kinds of incentives to just keep you going!

I have earned the “Chill Runner” badge! I love this! Everyone knows I’m not a fast runner, although I’m working on improving. In the meantime, I simply embrace the fact that I actually run period! What I love about this is the description of the “chill runner!” Because “I am chill.” Hahahaha! “I know how to take my time and enjoy my runs.” Yes! Amen!

Another badge I earned was the “Easy Runner.” Again, read the description! What a brilliant way to encourage slower runners! Love! I laughed so hard and was so appreciative of this badge! The description sounds almost like the infamous Honey Badger! I love being associated with the Honey Badger’s attitude!

Okay, there may actually be some hard-core runners out there who think that I’m disrespecting the sport by taking my slow running so light-hearted; not so. I’m slow, but I work hard at getting faster. It may take me six months to knock another minute off my pace or it may take me a year, but I’m okay with that because I’m faster than I was when I started this journey, and I plan on being faster next year at this time. When I’m 70, I’ll be the one crossing the finish line at the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run with only 5 seconds until cutoff.

In the meantime, I love being a “Chill and Easy Runner.” Because that’s how I roll baby!

Sunday Ramblings

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On frozen pond… but soon to be in warm ocean! 🙂

One week from today, James and I will be running in Hawaii at the Maui Oceanfront Marathon, him the full, me the half (just in case you missed that news in every other post I’ve written for the past 3 months). Gone will be the snow and ice… only sun and fun! I’ll probably be mostly packed for the trip by day’s end even though we don’t leave until Friday. I figure, hey, why not. Goodness knows I won’t be needing any of my summer clothes here anytime soon!!

Our custom bibs for the race came in the mail yesterday. James’s is because he’s running all 50 states (yes, I’m running all 50 states too, but I won’t get mine until later). I opted for a different bib… one in honor of my big brother. He died this past November from cancer. He loved Maui. He got married there, and he went back every year. I felt it was appropriate.

As well, the streak lives on. Yes, sometimes I only run 1 mile, other times I run more. I like looking at the overall picture. While I don’t train for the full-distance marathons, nor do I train to be Speedy Gonzales, I feel these runs are actually helping me to get stronger. As I said before, I’m getting really good at running 2 miles… now if we can just switch that up to say, “I’m getting really good at running 13.1 miles!” Eh… you never know what the year is going to bring!

And in other news, the Seahawks won their football game today (so sorry if you’re from Minnesota, but hey). If you didn’t happen to watch the game, it was unreal. The Seahawks were leading the game 10-9. Minnesota had the ball with less than a minute to go. All they had to do was kick a 27-yard field goal, and the game was theirs. We’ll just say that The Vikings did not have a good day. (Laces out, people, laces out!) Seahawks advance in the playoffs to face the Carolina Panthers next Sunday. The 12th Man Flag will be coming to Maui with us for a little fan support next week. But… we’ll be in the middle of our races when the game is on, so we might miss the outcome. Still… very exciting stuff!

Also, James wrote a great article about running apps here just in case you’re shopping around. So if you’re a technical geek (like we are), go check it out!

Hope everyone has had a great weekend! Are you an extreme sports fan? Did your football team play today? If you ran Disney, show off that bling!!

The Streaking Has Begun

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Meep thought he’d try streaking with me… THAT certainly didn’t last long, especially after I turned the treadmill on.

I feel so much has been accomplished already in 2016, how can I possibly do more?! Okay, kidding… that’s just my humor trickling through.

I’ll only mention one goal which James and I are aiming for this year… run streaking… or running streak… or whatever you want to call it. We plan on running at least 1 mile every single day of 2016. And, so, the streaking has begun. If you want to read more about James’s goals for the year, I encourage you to visit 50 in 50 Marathon Quest… he has a great summary written.

On January 1, before we went out for our first run of the year, we did manage to check out and sign up for a couple of cool running and tracking apps such as Map My Run and Smash Run (I already play with Nike+ and Strava). We enjoy the charts and graphs and the kudos and badges, and a lot of them have different challenges that you can sign up for. Hey, why not… I’m running anyway, may as well see what it’s going to get me! If you happen to have any of these apps, I would love to have you as a friend/running buddy!

Streaking

Day 1: 2.1 miles on the treadmill… (or at least until my watch said 2.1 miles… I have all my apps connected to my watch, so whatever the watch says, goes).

Day 2: 2.1 miles. I braved the outdoors and 20-degree weather just so I could get some outside time. At least the sun was shining. I took the GoPro out and tried recording video. So not only did it take video, I guess I also had it on burst mode, or something, because I had a whole slew of pictures to sort through as well. AJ got a kick out of watching the video because you could hear my feet (clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop) and my heavy breathing. The child thought it was hilarious to turn it up full sound. Time to research video-editing software.

Day 3: This was actually supposed to be a long run for me. The ground was frozen, the roads were icy, and after 30 minutes it started snowing. Snowing!! James and I met up at a sports park (he was a good little runner and put in 12 miles) and I ran circles around the soccer fields as there wasn’t much ice there, at least until it started snowing. Then I had to call it a day. That got me all of 2.3 miles. This training cycle has been such a huge disappointment in the ways of distance for me, but I’ll not dwell on that. I am getting really good at running 2 miles though!

Upcoming races: I was looking at James’s sidebar on his blog, and he has a whole slew of races lined up for us this year. Maui Oceanfront in January (14 days!), Lake Sammamish in March, Salt Lake City in April, RNR Seattle in June, Missoula in July, FitOne Boise in September, and Onward Shay Boise in October. We’re officially registered for the first 4, and when we get back from Maui, we’ll register for Missoula. They’re all full-out halfs and fulls except for Lake Sammamish… it’s only offered as a half. Okay, I think I need a nap now.

Side Note: The ‘Hawks kind of rocked the house tonight! I may be an Arizona native, but I’m a 12th Man through and through. Go ‘Hawks!

We had fun with the selfie stick

Time to get this party started! Bring us your best, 2016! We’re ready for ya!

And how are your New Year’s ~~resolutions~~ goals holding up so far?

Back In The Saddle

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Another Christmas has come and gone, but happily the holiday celebration continues! We still have New Year’s Eve coming up!

We had a wonderful Christmas weekend, and Santa was super generous this year. AJ got his very first desktop computer, but to be fair, he had saved his money and paid for half of it while James paid for the rest and bought him the monitor. He’s one happy gamer.

And I actually got the Go Pro I asked for with a helmet mount. I tested it out on my run today and snapped a few pictures. I wore it on my head over my visor and it did get a little heavy on my forehead after the first hour of running, but it was tons of fun to play with.

I’m not too keen on the fish bowl effect, but I guess all you have to do is change the aspect ratio, although I need to figure out which is which. I’m not a photographer in any shape or form, so it’s something to be researched. On my next run, I’ll try out the video part of it.

Speaking of running, I’m completely healthy now and have recovered from whatever winter bug was going around. Hence, back to my long runs on Sunday. And as there are only 21 days until my Maui Half, that’s a really good thing. I was almost concerned. I managed 118 minutes of activity today with most of it running. The wonderful thing is that my legs were strong, whereas last week when I first went out, they felt like floppy noodles. I’m beginning to think I wasn’t fully recovered at that point as that just didn’t make sense when they were completely rested. Anyhoo, I didn’t go full out, but I’m so excited that the little graph thingy shows me running more than walking. When I first began this journey back in July, I was nowhere near that ratio, and I love to see improvement in black and white and on charts and graphs, not only from how I feel. Again, today I am thankful for that stoopid treadmill and my forced interval training.

Go Pro Pics

Anyone ever play frisbee golf? The above is a frisbee golf park. I passed it on my run. Right down the street from it is a game store that sells specialized frisbees specifically for this sport. They’re hard little disks, not the usual frisbees you’d toss for your dog to catch. I’ve not tried it yet, but maybe one day.

Above is a charming little house out in the middle of nowhere across from the trail. Lots of room for a little animal farm, goats, chickens, a couple of cows…

Okay, I didn’t take this one with the Go Pro… it’s just Jamesy all decked out for watching the ‘Hawks. But we won’t talk about that…

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! Stay healthy out there… I’m seeing lots of little germy bugs going on everywhere!

What are your plans for New Year’s? Will you be running January 1st?

Weekend Wrap

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As I decided to write whilst partaking of wine on Friday night, I actually only have the weekend to “wrap” about (hehe, I make myself giggle).

I went Christmas shopping on Saturday because, yes, I AM one of those last-minute shoppers! Holy Checkout Line!! This was in Target and it stretched at least half the length of the store! However, I was totally impressed with the organization of the mass amount of people. It was not your typical C.F. There was no crowding or nastiness, every checkout line was open, and they got us through as quick as they could. Unfortunately, a man got right behind me, was trying to get the attention of someone across the aisle, and made one of those horribly loud whistles with his fingers like he was calling for his dog. Rude much?!! THAT did not impress me. I glared. One does not need to whistle that loudly when one is on the inside of a building, especially when standing 2 feet away from another person who is not aware that they’re about to get a hole in their eardrum.

Anyway, after a lovely Saturday afternoon nap, Jamesy and I spent a good part of the evening wrapping presents as our youngin’ was staying the night at a friend’s house. We took complete advantage of him being gone! We turned on my most favorite Christmas album by Michael Bublé, pulled out the wrapping paper, tape and scissors, and had a good old fashion wrapping party. I got a great video of James singing and dancing. He’s not letting me share it… yet… but know that I have it and will probably have it for a long, lonnnnng time (insert evil laugh here… I now own him).

We even got to watch a movie! This is not something we usually do as we try to go to bed early in preparation for long-run Sunday. However, we actually decided to turn a movie on after we’d had enough of the wrapping! We watched Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. I thought it was wonderful! Neither one of us got tired or wanted to doze during it as it kept us on the edge of our seat. We like those suspense movies, what can I say!

The creek overfloweth…

Sunday was a big day. I hadn’t run for a week thanks to my chest cold, so I had to get out no matter what to see how I was feeling. I had 10 miles on the schedule. No, 10 miles wasn’t happening. My legs were nice and rested, but at the same time they felt quite weak. It’s hard to believe that a week’s worth of down time could cause them to feel like floppy noodles. I did a nice 5K, the loop around our house, and managed it okay. It didn’t even take me as long as I thought it would with as much as I was having to walk which kind of tells me my intervals on the stoopid treadmill have paid off, because when I was able to run, I was running much faster than I had before. Yay. Guess the treadmill isn’t as stoopid as I made it out to be.

And it was finally perfect weather conditions for a run. No rain, no wind… just overcast and in the 40s… normal and beautiful. Good thing, too, because James had his time-trial 20-miler. His goal was to run 20 miles in 3 hours. I won’t spoil it for you on how it went… you can visit 50 in 50 Marathon Quest for the final result. Will he run another sub-4-hour marathon in January… or has he taken his plan too lightly this time around and did he take a whole 4 hours to run the 20 miles?

Oh, and hey! The Seahawks won again today! We’re in the playoffs now! Doesn’t get any better than that!!

Is anyone else a last-minute holiday shopper? Who saw Star Wars this weekend? If you’re a runner, how did your long run go?

I’m linking up with Holly from HoHo Runs and Tricia from MissSippiPiddlin for their Weekly Wrap! Thank you ladies! All are invited to link up and share!

Never A Dull Bling

The trials and tribulations of a 40-something novice runner

Tag Archives: Maui Oceanfront Marathon

My Week In Review

50 in 50 Marathon Quest’s View on MOM

Aloha! Echoes Of My Neighbourhood #6

Pre-Race Jitters

We Have Arrived!

Smashrun Badges

Sunday Ramblings

The Streaking Has Begun

Back In The Saddle

Weekend Wrap

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