Honolulu Marathon, On a Whim

At the finish line with a time of 5hrs 17mins

Last week I ran and finished the Honolulu Marathon, something that I decided to do pretty much making up my mind a week before the race. It was my first marathon and also it would be the longest time I have ran barefoot, but seeing as how this would be my only time to run this marathon, I decided what the heck.

I was thinking about running in the marathon on and off for about 3 months with no real effort put forth to attend it. The furthest I have ever run before was just over 9 miles and that was in shoes. The longest I have ever ran barefoot was for maybe 50 minutes. Like I said earlier, it was going to be the only time I could run this marathon, and I thought to myself, I am going to do it and why not do it the right way, barefoot.

Once I finally decided I was going to run the marathon, I had one week to prep. There was no way I was going to be able to train in any manner that would help me. The only thing I could think of to do was go for a couple barefoot runs around 3 miles to help keep my feet in shape as best I could. For the last 3 days before the race, I did no running for fear of hurting myself and not being able to run.

I showed up nice and early, around 2am, to get a parking spot right next to the finish. I sit around and watch as the field of just under 21,000 slowly fill the street in front of the Ala Moana Mall over the next 3 hours.

Around 20 minutes before the start I spot an unusually tall man walking through the crowd of people with an average height of around 5'7" around in a purple shirt and purple kilt. It was a fellow barefoot runner I had found and contacted through his blog named Christian Peterson. He flew out from Minnesota to run the Honolulu Marathon and raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through their Team In Training program in honor of his father.

We talk and start the race together. The start line is packed with people from serious runners to people, mostly Japanese, in an assortment of strange get ups from random Japanese cartoon characters, to wedding dresses, to a group of 40 people running with 80's theme attire.

A barefoot Santa throwing up the Shaka, my kind of guy

The race stays fairly crowded making for a hard time for us to navigate through the crowd and get around the slower runners, little did I know that this would be a downfall later on in the race for me. We run down to the Aloha Tower and start the loop back towards the start line running by the Honolulu City Lights.

We hit our first aid station. Christian stops to fill up his water bottles and I grab a cup and try and find a dry spot to stand so my feet dont get soaked. It didnt make a difference. There was no dry place to stand and it would be the same for every aid station. Crowded, hectic, extremely wet and not very good for my bare feet.

We make the loop passing the start line and head towards Diamond Head running through the Waikiki Strip. It was weird being able to run down the roads that I normally would be sitting in traffic on. After we run down the strip we see the finish line straight ahead but we take a slight left around the finish line for the marathon. Just after we made the left by the zoo and the finish line, we hit the finish for the 10K walk.

Just after we passed the 10K mark I see some porta-potties and I make the decision to stop. Christian asks if I wanted him to wait, I tell him to keep going and I would catch up to him.

 Getting through the crowd up Diamond Head

I start running again and head up Diamond Head. The road is jam packed with runners slowly drudging themselves up the hill. I feel great, and am passing runners left and right, trying to find my way around people. I get stuck in the crowd and am forced to slow down several times where people talk to me about running barefoot. I get the usually "look he is running barefoot" continually throughout the race. A few people actually have a conversation with me while running.

I make my way along the course, making sure to stop at every aid station and grab a water or a Gatorade because the sun is starting to come out and I know that it is going to get hot out real quick.

At mile 10 I feel a blister starting to form on the outside of my left foot. I continued on and soon realized that I was giving my self a blister from cutting back and forth trying to get around people. I continued on trying not to aggravate the blister further.

I hit the 12 mile marker and the blister is starting to become a nuisance. I stop, take a seat on the guard rail and take a look. I make the call to put on my Vibrams. I am thrilled to have made it 12 miles barefoot. The longest barefoot run I have ran before was around 4 miles. Taking into account that I have not been training to run a marathon barefoot, I was very happy to make it that far.

I strap on my Five Fingers and keep on running down to the turn around point in Hawaii Kai. Its getting very hot out and I still have not seen Christian. I keep on running enjoying the view. Then at about mile 21.5 I see him again.

I catch up and talk to him for a little. I feel great. I dont feel exhausted or tired at all. He looks like the heat and humidity have really taken a beating on him. I run with him a little bit and he tells to take off and finish, I tell him I will be there at the finish waiting for him.

 With the finish line right around the corner I continue on as the crowd of runners slowly became a crowd of walkers. I head back towards Diamond Head for the last hill before the finish line. It seems like the hill never ends. Near the top I start to get a cramp on the backside of my left knee. It hits me like running into a brick wall. I stop at the last couple aid stations and knock back a couple cups of Gatorade at each.

I hit the 25 mile marker, 1.2 miles left to go and boy was my leg hurting. I would run for about 100m and then have to walk so I decided to walk for awhile and finish on a strong note.

That little walking turned into alot of walking and I ended up running only the last .2 of the marathon.

I crossed the line and walked down the chute, grabbed some Gatorade.I finished with a time of 5hrs and 17mins. I don't care about the time. Like I said I had not even in the slightest bit been marathon training, never mind barefoot marathon training. I was plenty happy with the fact that I ran the first 12 miles barefoot and the last 14.2 in my Vibrams. My goal was just to finish it, irrelevant of the time it took.

I walked around for a little while waiting for Christian to finish. Not to far behind me he came across the line. I shook his hand had one last conversation with him and then we parted ways. Him to meet up with his team and me limping over to get my finisher's tee-shirt and medal. I crept back to my car, legs absolutely hurting.

Me at mile 24

When I got home I did nothing but sit around the rest of the day, or should I say lay around. My right foot was hurting more then everything else, and I feared the worse. The next day with my legs feeling great and my right foot killing me, I go see the doctor. Sure enough, I got a stress fracture in my foot.

This was not a one time thing. When I first started running barefoot I stepped on a rock the wrong way and injured my right foot some months ago. Its been mostly pain free aside from the occasional pain when I land on something wrong. I dont blame my injury on barefoot running, I blame it on my lack of preparation for the marathon. Given the same circumstances, would I do it again? Absolutely.

I have not ran at all in the past week and very limited walking around. I am trying to minimize the impact and help speed along the process of healing so I can get back to running again. The Great Aloha Run is in February and you can bet I will be there with no shoes.