First: I just want to apologize for the delay. Internet in Hawaii was so slow at our hotel I wasn’t able to even bring up FB some days. Once we returned home (after sitting in the AMC terminal for 6 days waiting on flights) I decided to just focus on getting ready for Christmas than re-living this race! But without further ado…

Meanwhile, on Hickam AFB, Hawaii:

The alarm sounds at 1:30am… we shuffle out of bed…still dazed from the weary night of sleep I barley feel like I got. I rub sleep from my eyes and sneak passed Nola’s pack n’ play at the end of our bed. (We stayed at a friend’s house the night before the race so we wouldn’t have to worry about waking her)

I slip downstairs to the half bath and change into my race outfit I put together after arriving in Hawaii (there was a lesson learned here – I’ll write about that another time). I bought a new Brooks running shirt (my fav brand) and a new pair of CWX compression Capri’s. The pants go on about as easy the first time you ever tried to put on panty hose – I stop midway through the struggle and wonder if there is something I am doing wrong because I didn’t think getting these things on would be THAT difficult! I chuckle to myself as I almost fall over trying to wrestle these tights up my thighs.

I come out of the bathroom and smell the sweet aroma of turkey sausage cooking. Shane is already in the kitchen making up our pre-race breakfast. I’m calling it pre-race here but it’s the same thing we had been eating all week for breakfast: scrambled eggs and turkey sausage. We agreed the morning of the race wasn’t the time to try something new. We had prepared our pre-race nutrition the night before. I started getting it all out of the refrigerator so I wouldn’t forget anything: baggie’s of peach slices, check!, baggies of applesauce w/ protein powder mixed, check!, and copious amount of gels, check!

As we sit down to eat our breakfast I feel my jittery nerves start to show – I push them back and try to enjoy my meal. We chitchat about the shuttle times and how we hope it isn’t raining. We calculate how long it should take me to meet-up with Shane at the mile 14 aid station and agree that will be the best spot.

We clean our plates and head for the door. As soon as we’re outside I can tell that it has already been raining and there is still a light drizzle in the air. We make our way downtown to the Kapioloni Zoo parking lot. Anxiously pacing towards some people lined up for buses we realize we have to pay a machine for the parking. (OMG! I can’t believe the parking isn’t free) It’s 2:30am – who else would be parking here right now! I hold our spot in the ever-growing line of people at the parking meter ticket machine –thingy and Shane runs to the car to see which space we are occupying. He gets our ticket – $11 for parking!

The lines for the buses are getting longer and longer but I stretch my neck out to see that the buses line around the block – the pamphlet said to get there early because the buses may run out! And…I believed them! Lol!

On the bus ride to the start line I sit next to an older Japanese woman who speaks impeccable English and she tells me this is her 10^th time to run this marathon…and last year she ran the Naha Marathon (goes just the weekend before) and then flew here and ran this one! I was impressed to say the least but it made my confidence grow that I could totally run this thing! I tell her it’s my first and she looks so excited for me! I then confess that I’m 2.5 months pregnant and she stops talking to me with a look of disgust on her face. I forgot for a moment that I’ve been told before that Japanese people don’t do the same things physically that American women do while pregnant, that they are much more cautious than we are. Shane and I snap a picture of ourselves on the bus and my excitement grows! I can feel the energy of the other participants and I am eager to get to the starting line.

The bus stops and people clamor to the front, squeezing through, and bursting out onto the pavement…I jump out and immediately wonder which way the port-a-potties are. We navigate through a muddy field that separates the official starting area and us where there are port-a-potties as far as the eye can see! The street isn’t too crowded at the moment but we have gotten there early. We see lots of interesting costumes – mostly Christmas ones and mostly on the Japanese runners.

Shane stays with me as long as he can until we know it’s time for him to start figuring out how to get to the mile-14 aid station before the runners take off.

I stretch, eat my applesauce concoction exactly 30 minutes before the start, and pace around. I was advised a few days before the race (by someone who has run this 3x before) to start as close to the front as I want because most of the racers do and after the gun goes off people just walk or jog and you have to spend a lot of time dodging them. SO – with this in mind I position myself conservatively at the 3hr finish line. The mayor comes over a loud speaker and tries to rally the crowd but people aren’t really playing along. The want us to yell different things to show how excited we are…not many people stop their conversations to play.

The crowd gorws and I start to feel a little smooshed in! The crowd moves forward in a wave of anticipation. I find myself trying to make eye contact with someone – anyone. I just want to nervously talk to someone – but most people are there with a group or a friend so I just stand there thinking about this whole year. How in this very moment all of my training, planning, talks with Jeanne, my blog and so much more – how it has all lead me here – to this very moment… to this very starting line in Honolulu, Hawaii. I appreciate for those few minutes all the runs I have had with all the different women of WOOP back in Okinawa…all of the rallying we have all done for one another and all the support I have received for my blog. I realize that I’m not nervous anymore…I’m ready.

Someone yells something over the microphone and I hear the sound of what I think is a gun but then see a bright light over everyone – I look up and it’s the most beautiful display of fireworks I have ever seen. This was our starting gun – the fireworks. People start to walk…we all chuckle to one another saying what a great job we’re doing so far! As I cross the starting line pads I press the start button on my Garmin. We start to jog now. I look up one last time to stair at the beauty of fireworks in the night sky and then feel the overwhelming urge to cry…I feel accomplished already and I haven’t even run this thing yet! I bring myself back to reality, choke back my tears and I plug my iPod into my ears. I focus and I begin to run.

I’m really careful not to get carried away in the crowd and I stay at a 10min pace. People are stopping in front of me to take pictures of the fireworks that are still going off and I find myself zigzagging all over the place – I’m wasting precious energy doing this and I get a little annoyed but then I realize that they’re just having fun. That’s what these things are all about for people like them and myself. It’s for the experience and the memory…this is my first marathon…and I am sharing this with the baby that’s growing inside me, and my husband (when I make it to mile 14).

I smile inside and out and stop caring what others are doing around me – until some little Japanese guy cuts me off in the middle of the street and I stumble into a pothole!  As much as I would like to think this is all some amazing experience and everyone is just happy to be here I am well aware of the competitive nature and drive we all have in us or we wouldn’t be here. I prepare my elbows for some bumping and start running to get out of the crowd. Within a few miles the crowd thins just a little. It isn’t until later that I learn there are 22,000 people in this race.

I let my music take over and just run. Once we circle back to the downtown area to head out towards Diamond Head I start to pay more attention to what is going on around me again (about 3 miles into the race). The entire downtown Wikiki area is decked out in Christmas lights and cheering crowds of people in PJ’s! It’s not even 6am and people have been out here waiting for us to run by so the could wave banners and cheer.

My legs feel great, I feel great, my music is energizing and the cheering crowd makes me smile.