The Most Incredible Experience Of My Life
Its Friday now, and I'm back from Hawaii. I've been looking forward to updating my blog to share with you all my experience and victory in Honolulu. Usually, I'm not one to be short of words, but I've been thinking about how I'm going to re-create the experience, the emotion and the triumph that I went through last week, and still... I'm not sure there are words to justify the journey of the marathon experience. I'll do my very best.
We were greeted in Honolulu at 2:30am traditionally with the customary Hawaiian Lai's (real flowers that were fresh and smelled amazing). Even in the middle of the night the Hawaiian people we beautiful and friendly and escorted our group of runners to our buses to the hotel. We had a few days to climatize and get acquainted with Honolulu before the race, mostly we took it easy, but did get in a short run on Friday. Team Diabetes hosted a brunch for us the first morning that introduced us to all the trainers we've been working with over the last 4-5 months, the co-ordinators we've been communicating with and a breif overview of all the competitors Team D brought to Hawaii. In total we were 170 runners, and 120 supporters, our group was nearly 300 people in total. Of the 30,000 participants in the Honolulu Marathon, Canada was represented by 384 competitors, of which 170 were with Team Diabetes. Throughout the week, Team Diabetes hosted a couple of dinners for us, including a Carb-Loading Pre-Race dinner the night before the race, and a Victory Luau on Monday night (this was actually really funny..picture 170 people with extremely sore muscles whom can barley walk, hobbling around all dressed up at a Hawaiian Luau).
The Victory dinner was quiet emotional, there were a few speakers to congratulate us on what we had all accomplished. Only one member of Team Diabetes did not finish, she colapsed near the 30km mark and was taken to the hospital for mediacal attention, and ours last members, a husband and wife from way out in the Maritimes, crossed the finish line together holding hands after a gruling 12 hours. A speaker from the Canadian Diabetes Association was there to also congratulate us all on our fundrasing. Together, we had raised over $1.1 MILLION dollars for Canadians living with Diabetes and were able to fund a grant to a scientist in Toronto to continue his research. There was also a family there to speak and share their stuggle and challange through a life with Diabetes. The John Family touched everyone in the audiance with their story of courage and stregth and really helped us realize how our efforts to raise money and awareness for what people living with Diabetes are fighting was overwhelming and made me so proud to be a part of it all.
Race Day was incredible. The alarm went off at 2:45am I had enough time to get dressed, eat and get down to the hotel lobby to catch our shuttle to the start line for 3:30am. With 30,000 competitors arriving to a start line preparing for a 5:00am start.. the 3:30 arrivial was appropriate, and perfectly timed. We missed the 75 person line up for the port-o-potties all together and after a warm up in the park, headed over to the carals for the start. COMPLETE and UTTER MADNESS is the best way to describe this experience. Normally this is a busy street downtown Honolulu, but this morning, it's 5 miles of shoulder to shoulder runners anticipating crossing the start line. At 5:00am sharp the gun went off and the race started with an incredible fireworks display. It took us only 7 minutes to get to the start line (which shocked me) but was surprised that we never actually thined out. The first 10km of the race was winding through the downtown core of Honolulu where the Christmas decorations lit up the streets and business centres. It was beautiful to see the Palm trees with Christmas lights wrapped around them, but it was quite humorous to see that in Hawaii, Santa and Mrs Claus sport a different look than we Canadians are used to. Him in Surf shorts usually giving the commonly know hand sign for "Hang Loose" and her in a floral designed tini-bikini... (Now I'm sure I know what Mr and Mrs Claus do in the off-season).
The first hour and a half of the race seem to fly by. The spectators were up before the crack of dawn to cheer us on which made it all that much easier to get into it. Our first challenge came at kilometers 13-15 which took us up-hill up the side of Diamond Head (the infamous mountain at the peak of the island (you can see it in the palm tree picture). This would have been not so bad considering that I got to see the sunrise from the top of a mountain, except that the volume of runners still hasn't dispersed. We're still jamm packed together! To add to this uncomfortable, basically shoulder to shoulder state, the sun is now starting to rise... great for scenery, not so great for keeping cool. It starts getting hot almost immediately when the sun comes up. Just to give you an idea of what the volume was like- picture this.. your on a streetcar/bus at 5:30pm downtown Toronto in the middle of August on a sunny afternoon. You think that's bad??? Now you and all your streetcar friends go out for a run together....
It got Hot. Really hot, really fast. I keep on pace up to and passed the half way point at 21KM. After that it started to get a bit challenging, and then it only got harder and harder after kilometer 30. I hit a wall (a mental one, not a literal one thankfully)around this 30km mark. The heat was getting to me and my legs were starting to get tight. To make things worse, a blister that I had been running on (one of a few at this point) exploded and crippled me. HOLY CRAP did that ever f*#&'n hurt!!!!! After a few minutes the pain goes away and you actually feel better, but crap... those "few minutes" felt like longer than you'd think.
I was able to push myslef through the next few kilometers, but through the 32-36 KM's I found the part of the Marathon that I knew was coming, but knew I had no idea what to be prepared for. My leg muscles had passed "tightness" and I had to continue running in a shuffle like step because the motion of walking was actually more painful than running. When I say painful... I mean PAIN. I was having trouble breathing, the heat had made it hard to get my lungs to completely expand, and I knew I was begining to dehydrate because I had stopped sweating and was now only covered in salt. People had started to collapse at the curbside with cramping musles and the sounds of sirens and perametics calling for assistance became more prevelant as I continued through the race. People who had given up were sitting on the curbs with their heads in their hands, many of them crying. And although I never once allowed the thought of giving in cross my mind, the reality of what I was going through and what I was accomplishing kept choking me up and as I continued to run, the tears started to flow. When that emotion overcomes you, like anytime you get emotional, it's natually hard to take a deep breath. This combination, didn't do me any favors while trying to keep going. These are were I had to walk dispite the pain in my legs. I made it through to kilometer 36 were I had made it through "the wall" and caught my breath and felt good enough to start running again.
I was coming into another spectator point where I was letting the cheering from the crowd push me forward. I must have started running again for about 500 meters when KA-SPLAT!!!!!! The second blister on my other foot exploded leaving me again in that cripping pain. This time I knew it wouldn't last long, I just needed to keep going, but after the challenge I had just overcome through the last 5KM or so... this was like getting kicked when your down. There were spectators all over with signs and who would call you out "Go Canada, Looking Good, Your doing great" (our jersesy's said Team Diabetes Canada) and they would reach out to you and give you a high five, or pat you on the back as you passed. Thank god for them.
I made it though the next few kilometers knowing that soon I was going to reach the signs that told me the end was near. These kilometers were hard, and they kept getting harder. Finally I came out of a residential part of the route and saw a 40KM marker. TWO MORE KILOMERTES! I walked through the water station and stopped on the side of the road and stood bent over to put my head between my knees and prepare myself for these last 2KM's. I was going to finish strong, I was going to run these last two as strong as my first two... I was determined. I started to run, and it only took a few minutes before I was feeling good again. I'm not sure how I did it, there was a switch in my brian that I managed to find and I turned off all the pain and just ran straight through the last 2kms. When I saw the finish line about 1 kilometer out, I took out my ear phones and absorbed what was actually happening. I was finishing a marathon! The people were lined up cheering and yelling and clapping. I felt like I was sprinting, I was barley moving, but I felt like I was sprinting toward that finish. It was amazing. No words left to say. It was incredible.
We were greeted in Honolulu at 2:30am traditionally with the customary Hawaiian Lai's (real flowers that were fresh and smelled amazing). Even in the middle of the night the Hawaiian people we beautiful and friendly and escorted our group of runners to our buses to the hotel. We had a few days to climatize and get acquainted with Honolulu before the race, mostly we took it easy, but did get in a short run on Friday. Team Diabetes hosted a brunch for us the first morning that introduced us to all the trainers we've been working with over the last 4-5 months, the co-ordinators we've been communicating with and a breif overview of all the competitors Team D brought to Hawaii. In total we were 170 runners, and 120 supporters, our group was nearly 300 people in total. Of the 30,000 participants in the Honolulu Marathon, Canada was represented by 384 competitors, of which 170 were with Team Diabetes. Throughout the week, Team Diabetes hosted a couple of dinners for us, including a Carb-Loading Pre-Race dinner the night before the race, and a Victory Luau on Monday night (this was actually really funny..picture 170 people with extremely sore muscles whom can barley walk, hobbling around all dressed up at a Hawaiian Luau).
The Victory dinner was quiet emotional, there were a few speakers to congratulate us on what we had all accomplished. Only one member of Team Diabetes did not finish, she colapsed near the 30km mark and was taken to the hospital for mediacal attention, and ours last members, a husband and wife from way out in the Maritimes, crossed the finish line together holding hands after a gruling 12 hours. A speaker from the Canadian Diabetes Association was there to also congratulate us all on our fundrasing. Together, we had raised over $1.1 MILLION dollars for Canadians living with Diabetes and were able to fund a grant to a scientist in Toronto to continue his research. There was also a family there to speak and share their stuggle and challange through a life with Diabetes. The John Family touched everyone in the audiance with their story of courage and stregth and really helped us realize how our efforts to raise money and awareness for what people living with Diabetes are fighting was overwhelming and made me so proud to be a part of it all.
Race Day was incredible. The alarm went off at 2:45am I had enough time to get dressed, eat and get down to the hotel lobby to catch our shuttle to the start line for 3:30am. With 30,000 competitors arriving to a start line preparing for a 5:00am start.. the 3:30 arrivial was appropriate, and perfectly timed. We missed the 75 person line up for the port-o-potties all together and after a warm up in the park, headed over to the carals for the start. COMPLETE and UTTER MADNESS is the best way to describe this experience. Normally this is a busy street downtown Honolulu, but this morning, it's 5 miles of shoulder to shoulder runners anticipating crossing the start line. At 5:00am sharp the gun went off and the race started with an incredible fireworks display. It took us only 7 minutes to get to the start line (which shocked me) but was surprised that we never actually thined out. The first 10km of the race was winding through the downtown core of Honolulu where the Christmas decorations lit up the streets and business centres. It was beautiful to see the Palm trees with Christmas lights wrapped around them, but it was quite humorous to see that in Hawaii, Santa and Mrs Claus sport a different look than we Canadians are used to. Him in Surf shorts usually giving the commonly know hand sign for "Hang Loose" and her in a floral designed tini-bikini... (Now I'm sure I know what Mr and Mrs Claus do in the off-season).
The first hour and a half of the race seem to fly by. The spectators were up before the crack of dawn to cheer us on which made it all that much easier to get into it. Our first challenge came at kilometers 13-15 which took us up-hill up the side of Diamond Head (the infamous mountain at the peak of the island (you can see it in the palm tree picture). This would have been not so bad considering that I got to see the sunrise from the top of a mountain, except that the volume of runners still hasn't dispersed. We're still jamm packed together! To add to this uncomfortable, basically shoulder to shoulder state, the sun is now starting to rise... great for scenery, not so great for keeping cool. It starts getting hot almost immediately when the sun comes up. Just to give you an idea of what the volume was like- picture this.. your on a streetcar/bus at 5:30pm downtown Toronto in the middle of August on a sunny afternoon. You think that's bad??? Now you and all your streetcar friends go out for a run together....
It got Hot. Really hot, really fast. I keep on pace up to and passed the half way point at 21KM. After that it started to get a bit challenging, and then it only got harder and harder after kilometer 30. I hit a wall (a mental one, not a literal one thankfully)around this 30km mark. The heat was getting to me and my legs were starting to get tight. To make things worse, a blister that I had been running on (one of a few at this point) exploded and crippled me. HOLY CRAP did that ever f*#&'n hurt!!!!! After a few minutes the pain goes away and you actually feel better, but crap... those "few minutes" felt like longer than you'd think.
I was able to push myslef through the next few kilometers, but through the 32-36 KM's I found the part of the Marathon that I knew was coming, but knew I had no idea what to be prepared for. My leg muscles had passed "tightness" and I had to continue running in a shuffle like step because the motion of walking was actually more painful than running. When I say painful... I mean PAIN. I was having trouble breathing, the heat had made it hard to get my lungs to completely expand, and I knew I was begining to dehydrate because I had stopped sweating and was now only covered in salt. People had started to collapse at the curbside with cramping musles and the sounds of sirens and perametics calling for assistance became more prevelant as I continued through the race. People who had given up were sitting on the curbs with their heads in their hands, many of them crying. And although I never once allowed the thought of giving in cross my mind, the reality of what I was going through and what I was accomplishing kept choking me up and as I continued to run, the tears started to flow. When that emotion overcomes you, like anytime you get emotional, it's natually hard to take a deep breath. This combination, didn't do me any favors while trying to keep going. These are were I had to walk dispite the pain in my legs. I made it through to kilometer 36 were I had made it through "the wall" and caught my breath and felt good enough to start running again.
I was coming into another spectator point where I was letting the cheering from the crowd push me forward. I must have started running again for about 500 meters when KA-SPLAT!!!!!! The second blister on my other foot exploded leaving me again in that cripping pain. This time I knew it wouldn't last long, I just needed to keep going, but after the challenge I had just overcome through the last 5KM or so... this was like getting kicked when your down. There were spectators all over with signs and who would call you out "Go Canada, Looking Good, Your doing great" (our jersesy's said Team Diabetes Canada) and they would reach out to you and give you a high five, or pat you on the back as you passed. Thank god for them.I made it though the next few kilometers knowing that soon I was going to reach the signs that told me the end was near. These kilometers were hard, and they kept getting harder. Finally I came out of a residential part of the route and saw a 40KM marker. TWO MORE KILOMERTES! I walked through the water station and stopped on the side of the road and stood bent over to put my head between my knees and prepare myself for these last 2KM's. I was going to finish strong, I was going to run these last two as strong as my first two... I was determined. I started to run, and it only took a few minutes before I was feeling good again. I'm not sure how I did it, there was a switch in my brian that I managed to find and I turned off all the pain and just ran straight through the last 2kms. When I saw the finish line about 1 kilometer out, I took out my ear phones and absorbed what was actually happening. I was finishing a marathon! The people were lined up cheering and yelling and clapping. I felt like I was sprinting, I was barley moving, but I felt like I was sprinting toward that finish. It was amazing. No words left to say. It was incredible.
Imediately after, I saw the peramedics tent and thought it would probably save time and drama if I just wondered directly in there... I was disoriented, stumbling, in alot of pain and couldn't catch my breath. The only other thing I saw was the mist showers that were spraying cold water about 100 feet away. I decided against the medics and thought I would try the cold showers first. Ultimately a bad idea, but I gave it a go. I stumbled through the mist and disoriented and with blurry vision I left the finishers coral. There were ALOT of people, I couldn't find my Mom or anyone else that I knew. It was hot and I still couldn't breath. I did my best to keep going in the direction of the open air where there were less people. I got there, and fell to my knees and colapsed to the ground. Thankfully, I happend to fall over basically into the other medical tent. Someone helped me up and took me into the medic tent to recover with some electrolites, ice and cold water.
I recovered just fine, and eventually made my way back to the hotel to begin what was going to be a long recovery period. I sat in the coldest bath I could stand to help my poor legs, but then fell into bed and stayed there. It took days, nearly a week actually, for my muscles to repair themselves, but today, I'm home and am feeling great. Hawaii was incredible, and I will without one ounce of hesitation will be doing another marathon as soon as the warmer weather arrives in Toronto.
For anyone who has ever thought about completing a marathon, or for anyone who has never even considered it before... do it. The reward is so far greater than the pain and the journey through what your mind and body can accomplish is so exceptional, there is nothing I can say that will do it justice.
I'm going to stop here, but there will be more photos and more to tell about the rest of the trip soon. The last thing I want to say is Thank You. Thank you to all who contributed to my campaign, I was able to raise just under $6,700 in the end. Thank you to every single person who said "Good Luck" or "I'm proud of you" or any well wishes to me through out this 10 month experience. Even the smallest donation, and every ounce of support was overwhleming and meant so much to me.
Aloha & Mahalo
posted by Sarah @ 2:21 PM
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