Brooklyn Half Marathon

As you know from the previous post in the past 48 hours I hiked all three peaks of Olo Mana, Stairway to Heaven, Hanauma Bay Ridge, and Kokohead stairs.  I then spent all night/day travel from Hawaii home to NYC.  I arrived at 10 pm.  While unpacking and getting settled at 2 am I decided to be a volunteer for The Brooklyn Half Marathon.  So I went to bed at 2:30 am, got up at 4 am to be in Brooklyn by 5:15 am.  I helped out as a starting line marshal, telling people which starting gate they could be in.  After the race started, we did a little clean up.  I was done at 7:45, it just so happened that I was in my running clothes, so I walked back down to the starting line, to see the situation.  The cones were still set up outlining the course, so I turned on Nike+ and took off.  

I began running and surprisingly caught up to the last place person just shy of mile 3. He was walking, so don't give me to much credit.  Soon after I started passing more and more people. After a while I was right with the pack.  About 9 miles into the race my knee started to hurt.  I had to slow down some, but was determined to finish what I started.  I ended up crossing the finishing line in 1 hour and 48 minutes.  At that point I had passed 969 people.  If I was to insert my time into the official results I would have been 762 out of 1,809 in my age category and 3,800 out of 14,160 overall.  Not bad for my long first race.  I've got the running bug, I then went home and registered for 9 more races in the next couple of months, I better hit the streets! :)

    

Hawaii

I haven't been completely inactive while in Hawaii.  Instead of running around NYC, I'm running up mountains and volcanic craters.
My first day on the island I hiked up Kokohead stairs: 1060 stairs up the side of a crater, when you get to the top it's an amazing view of the crater and Hanauma Bay.  

The next day I hiked to the first peak of Olo Mana, my favorite hike on the island.  
Then a scuba diving trip to the bottom of the ocean. 

I then went on a hike to Pu'u Manamana ridge with my friend Timber.  It was an epic hike.  I'm afraid words just don't do it justice, even this video does't really capture the experience.  It's hard to describe the feeling of standing on a small ledge on top of a ridge, over looking hawaii.  The sights, the smell, the nerves, everything combined into an experience that can only truly be understood first hand. 

After a few days of fun I had to get to work.  I was in Hawaii to help IONA Contemporary Dance Theatre produce their summer salon series La Madonna.   The show was a huge artist success.  So much hard work from the production team, volunteers and dancers.  
Honolulu Star Advertiser Review

I was able to find a little time off.  One evening I went to the World Fire Knife Competition at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

I also made a quick trip over to the big island and did a 7 mile round trip hike out to the lava field. 

After the show was over I had three days of freedom left, before I had to head back to NYC.  The first day I spent the day driving to the north shore, stopping at some of my favorite spots, like the macadamia nut farm, Pounders beach, Sharks Cove, and Waimea Bay.  The Second day I hiked all three peaks of Olo Mana.  This is the view from the 2nd peak of the 3rd peak.  It's all ropes and rock climbing from this point on.

My last day started at 3 am when I got up to go hike the  Haiku Stairs, AKA Stairway to heaven. This hike is a 3,900 step metal staircase, leading up the ridge to the top of the Ko'olau Mountain range. It was built for access to a satellite dish. It is now closed to the public, the only way to hike it, is to arrive before the security guard does, hence the 3 am start time. (This video was made when I hiked it last summer)

After a quick nap, I went and hiked Hanauma Bay Ridge and my favorite workout Kokohead stairs, that's now a total of 4,960 stairs for the day, if you are keeping track.  As my farewell to Hawaii I stopped by another favorite location, Spitting Cave to say good bye, soaked in the Kahala Hotel hot tub and then headed to the airport for a long night/day of traveling.   

Run 60 To Be Continued...

Well, I'm afraid we are going to have to take a little hiatus.  I have accepted a gig in Hawaii.  So I will be gone for 4 weeks.  It's not possible to turn down a working a vacation in Hawaii.  I had a goal to cover lots of ground before I left, but instead I was busy packing and getting ready to leave.  The night before I left, I HAD to get out there and run.  I ran around Columbia University at 9 pm on a Friday night.  Everyone else was going out for the evening.  I always get some weird looks when I'm out running when I should be partying, lol.  I did have a drag queen offer to run with me, to bad she had the wrong shoes on.  


Time: 9 pm
Distance: 6.29 miles
Time: 55:03 Minutes
Music: Darren Hayes

Run 59

I ran past the famous Apollo Theater today.  Also passed 2 different Little Caesars pizza and lots of people carrying $5 hot and ready.  It's rare that you can eat a meal in NYC for 5 bucks, let alone get a whole pizza.  So even if it's not the healthiest meal, especially after a 6 mile run.  I ended up there at the end of my run, boy it was yummy. 


Time: 1 pm
Distance: 6.44 miles
Time: 53:15 minutes
Music: Jamie O'Neal

Run 58

Quick run today, not much to say, other than my only obstacle was the best part of the run.  Marcus Garvey Park, it interrupted my path, but was full of spring flowers and blossoms.  Not to get too philosophical on you, but maybe there's a reason for some of life's obstacles.  


Time: 1 pm
Distance: 6.08 miles
Time: 49:47 minutes
Music: Darren Hayes

Run 57

Tried to do a quick, uninterrupted run today.  I knew I had an easy path, no obstacles, so my run should have been a piece of cake.  Instead I had a hard time getting motivated.  I felt lazy and my feet were heavy, lol.  Not really sure why.  Maybe it's because I hadn't been in a few days? I didn't feel like I was in good shape.  I wanted to stop after mile 2, but some how I pushed through, ran over 7 miles and at a decent pace (8'13"/mile).  


Time: 6 pm
Distance: 7.16 miles
Time: 58:57 minutes
Music: Savage Garden 

Run 56

Forget getting in shape, forget distance and a fast past. Today's run was all about hitting the jackpot. I ran 7 miles between 110-115th streets, but since the $640 million dollars jack pot lottery drawing was that night, every time I saw a lottery sign, I would stop and buy one ticket, I ended up with about 17 tickets at the end of the run. Just think what a great story that would have been if I won, surprisingly I didn't win.
    
Time: 2:30 PM 
Distance: 7.06 miles
Time: 1:17:38
Music: Random