As many know and some don’t, My father was recently diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer. After the initial shock and disbelief I think we are all wondering why the research on this cancer is so lacking and why is there no way to detect it early. Research is the solution, at least it is a step in the right direction.
So my oldest sister emails me and says she wants to run the Kona Marathon for pancreatic Cancer research as a fund raiser, my step daughter suddenly gets a desire to run a marathon and my youngest sister just jumped into the mix. All I can relate to is how freaking hot it was running in Kona and think they are all freaking NUTS but…
I am never one to turn down a challenge so I am in.
June 28th, 2009
Kona Marathon
26.2 miles on the IronMan Triathlon course!
Woooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooo!
http://www.konamarathon.com/
This will be a fund raising event and when we establish our team I will post the link to donate if you so choose
Aloha! 
The weather was perfect, maybe even a bit chilly with a temp in the mid 50′s and clear skies. Parachutes were dropping in from above doing all kinds of really cool displays of skill and then 4 Apache helicopters buzzed the crowd. You could taste the tension in the air. It was Electric.
The gun went off exactly at 8 AM EST with military precision and runners all around the word started into the 24th Army 10 miler, the largest 10 mile in the world. The official registration was almost 28,000 runners although the web site states only 26,000.
My goal was to run at a 10 minute mile average pace and no walks; anything better than a 10 minute pace was icing on the cake. My trainer and friend who was assigned the number 1222, I was running with 16826, insisted I start in the front with him instead of in my group which was in a 2nd wave 20 minutes behind the official start.
When the gun went off these people in the front of the pack don’t mess around and for the first few miles I ran a pace faster than I have ever maintained. I passed some people and some people passed me but I held my own. My first 3 miles I averaged around an 8:30 minute mile then I dropped back into a comfortable 9. I say [I]comfortable[/I] but I have never maintained a 9 for longer than a mile or two and after 3 miles at 8 it was… comfortable.
The next 5 miles were just an exercise of maintaining pace and at the 8 mile marker my average pace was just over 9 minutes per mile. Then it hit me; the 14th street bridge in DC is a long miserable concrete bridge to run on and the climb of almost 3/4 of a mile to the peak of the bridge took its toll and I was seriously sucking it hard. Then as I crested the top I was hit with euphoria. My hands started to tingle; chills washed over me as my body adjusted, the pain went away and I went into the zone for the last mile and was able to finish with a bang.
Unofficial time: 1:34:29
Pace: 9:15 Min per Mil
Distance: 10.21 Miles.
Never walked
In the end, I blew away my expectations and smashed my goal.
When I get the official chip time I will post it.
Running | admin | 
October 10, 2008 7:41 am | 
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