Race #95
I ran race #95 on a gorgeous day in one of the most beautiful states in the United States, and on the island of Oahu. The scenery definitely made the race a little easier than normal…it’s hard to have a bad day in paradise. I came to Hawaii with my nephew Hunter, and we got to spend a week there, seeing the sights and enjoying many fun adventures. But the real task at hand was running Half Marathon #95. The race started right off of Waikiki Beach, and I was definitely feeling good being so close to Mikie’s beloved Pacific Ocean. It was a mostly flat race, except for a long climb at about mile 10. Mikie was definitely there to give me a big push as that is a tough time in the race for a hill. I finished in 2:41:18, which strangely enough, was the exact time of the half that I ran last month.
The only other time that I have ever been to Hawaii was with Mikie, almost 20 years before. I found some of the pictures from our previous trip that I hadn’t looked at in a long time. I was actually able to recreate one of the pictures taken of Mike. It was actually taken very close to the start of the race. It’s amazing the serendipity of life sometimes, but it was beautiful to look back on memories that I now hold even closer.
I also knew that I wanted to spread some of Mikie’s ashes in Hawaii. It wasn’t one of his requested places, but since I was there, I thought it would be a perfect place to honor him. On our trip there, we went to many beaches along the North Shore and every evening, we would make sure that we were sitting on the beach at sunset. One of those beaches was Sunset Beach and I knew that would be a beautiful spot to spread his ashes and I wanted to do it at sunset. Sunset Beach is also known as a true surfer’s beach and because of its location, the waves are epic, so that’s also made it the perfect spot! The day that we went, the waves were pounding the shore and the sky had lots of beautiful clouds. I know that Mikie was smiling down on me while I left part of him in the crashing waves on this spectacular beach.
My next race is the OC Half Marathon in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa in May. Mike had run this race back in 2007, so this will be another special race, 17 years after he ran it.
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