My First Marathon

A marathon consists of 26.2 miles and on average takes runners 4 hours and 22 minutes to run. Never in my life did I believe I would run a marathon, but December 8 2019, I did. This is my story of how I did it and the events leading up to the race.

Ever since I was a young girl, I always wanted to be an athlete. My mother participated in triathlons and marathons throughout her life and posed as an inspiration for me. Growing up, I was always very active, participating in all different kinds of sports. I did enjoy running, but it was nothing serious and something I only did in gym class when necessary.

After I graduated high school, I was no longer participating in sports and found it hard to motivate myself to work out. It wasn’t until later that I fell in love with surfing, but I knew I needed to be doing more to keep in shape and keep a healthy body. The thought of the Honolulu Marathon would enter my mind from time to time, but I never thought I would be able to run 26.2 miles without any proper training. I started to run nonetheless just for exercise and to get outdoors when I wasn’t surfing. I’m not going to lie, starting off running is hard and painful in the beginning. Like anything though, the more you do it, the better you get at it. Slowly, running became easier and easier. My body started to crave the feeling of running and I started looking forward to going on runs.

In 2017, I ran my first half marathon. I had trained for months to do the race and at the end of it, all the training paid off. I felt good after the 13 miles and even thought to myself, “I could keep going”. At that moment I knew that one day I would run the Honolulu Marathon. In December of 2018, I signed up for the marathon along with my brother, my friend Alyssa, and Alyssa’s grandma, Sunny.

The beginning of 2019 was a rough start to my training for the marathon. I knew I had a year to train, and in knowing this, I slacked a lot. I had just gotten back from traveling for 5 months and was sadly out of shape. I would always run about 5 miles every time I went for a run, but it wasn't consistent. Starting at running only 3 times a week, slowly I amped it up to 5 times a week. Once a week I would try to run a long run starting at 7 or 8 miles. The closer the marathon came, the longer I made these weekly runs. Before the marathon, I reached up to 20 miles for my long run.

If you have never done long distance running, there is no real way of explaining it other than painful. Thoughts of doubt and giving up linger in your head once you hit the 2 hour mark and you realized you're only halfway done with the run. When I finally finished the 20 mile run in training, I thought to myself, “there is no way I can run 6.2 more miles”. Light headed from the heat and dehydration, sore legs and knees, and heavy arms make the last few miles almost unbearable. The fact that I had to work an 8 hour shifts after training runs, didn’t make the situation any more pleasurable. I would take a hot shower chug a Gatorade and sip on water while laying in bed trying to recover before my afternoon shift. I’m not complaining, but thinking back on it, I must have been a little delusional to put myself through that kind of madness.

The week before the race, I did a light 5 miles but nothing else. Drinking a lot of water and hydrating the couple days before the race is important and definitely helped me. The night before the race, I ate an early dinner and snacked on some bread before going to sleep early. Finally the day of the race came. The race started at 5 am, so we had to get up a 2 am to get ready and head to the start line. The amount of people that participated in the Honolulu Marathon was alarming and shocking to me. Thousands of people brought together at 5 in the morning to run 26.2 miles, we must all be crazy. As I started the run I began to ask myself, “Why did I think this is a good idea? Will I even be able to finish the race?”. Not the best commentary one should have before starting a marathon.

As the race went on, I found a steady pace and stuck with it. Around mile 18 my knees started to ache and my stomach started to growl, but still I went on. Seeing that everyone else was pushing on a trying to finish made me want to keep going too. Only stopping to drink some water occasionally at the water stations, I continued to run the whole marathon. I came in with the unofficial time of 4 hours and 25 minutes. Even through the pain, the amount of joy and happiness out weighed everything. I had finally done it and I was truly proud of myself.

In the end, I do think it is worth it. The long runs, sacrificing the weekends to run, the pain your body goes through. To know that you can do anything you put your mind to, is worth it in the end. Would I do it again? Yeah, hopefully. Maybe not too soon in the future, but yes I definitely want to run another marathon. It's a test to see how far you can push your limits and something to look forward to. So until next the next race, I’ll be training and waiting.

Eating Dinner later that night