The weather looked pretty nice when I rolled out of my driveway at 03:00. Coming over the Like Like, the weather was still good. I had high hopes for the first dry marathon in years, but as soon as I hit Manoa, the freeway turned wet, and I knew it was not to be.
All along the way from Kalihi, there was this person in a blue Mazda Protege 5 driving all erratically – speeding up, slowing down, cutting in and out of traffic, etc. Kauai plates and a “choose life” magnetic blue/black ribbon summed up the user demographic nicely. Who was this this clown? I ended up following the person all the way into the KCC parking lot! Who was this clown? One of the other wheelchair escort volunteers, that’s who!
I parked next to Mitch and got everything prepped and put together. His relatives from the mainland were back again for another year of escorting. Root was nowhere to be found. I had called him as I rolled from home. Hmm… Just about 04:00, the rain hit. It was a really heavy downpour – like I couldn’t read the license plates on the opposite row of cars in the parking lot heavy. It let up in time for the 04:30 roll-out, but the roadway was covered with deep puddles and flowing rivers of nasty leprosy water. I had put on my front fender as mojo against the rain, but it apparently didn’t work.
We got to the start and followed the last chair out as part of Mitch’s tail group. Root showed up in time for the start. The racers were having a bit of a problem with grip on the hand hoops from the wetness. We were told that there were an estimated 25 chairs at the pre-race meeting, but it looked like not much more than a dozen. The last chairs were swallowed up by the lead runners and the press truck before Iolani Palace, so we sprinted ahead to the next group around AMSC. A chair had gone off the course at Piikoi and flatted. The next chairs held their lead over the runners until the Zoo, where one was overtaken at Paki, and the other going up Diamond Head. I hung back just in case they passed the runners going down Diamond Head or that avenue below KCC, but that didn’t happen.
Root and I passed around a dozen or more riders from the middle group cruising down Kilauea Ave. Considering we were there to escort the wheelchair competitors and not be out on a leisurely Sunday fun ride, I sprinted ahead to catch Mitch, who I assumed would be with the next chair. I lost Root at this point for a little while. I passed around another half-dozen cruising middle group escorts until I caught up to Mitch just before Aina Haina. We rode on for a while, but there were no chairs ahead. I pulled over at the Kiawe-thorn park for a restroom break, and waited for unsupported returning chairs to jump in with. The first five chairs went by with the full complement of escorts. Some of the straggleing middle group riders showed up and eventually some of them jumped in with lone outbound chairs in that void between the lead runners and the pack.
Root had gone out to Hi Kai with Mitch, but returned, seeing no unsupported chairs. We both ended up riding back in when we saw the press truck coming back ahead of the lead runners. The course was now heavy with throngs of people, so there was no way to cross the course and shortcut back to KCC. We ended up riding all the way back to Kapiolani Park and going up Monster-rat to the parking lot.
After group pictures it was pancake time at Kahala Zippy’s.
D = 41.77 km (25.95-miles), Vavr = 19.3 kph (12.0 mph), Vmax = 46.2 kph (28.7 mph), T = 2-hours, 08-minutes
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