Ran the Maui Marathon yesterday. Apparently I was the first barefooter in 40 years of the event, and it wasn't hard to see why. The course ran from Kahului to Kaanapali, the surface was asphalt made of black lava rock, and after the sun came out it was baking hot (seems that 'Lahaina', the name of the town at the 22 mile mark, is Hawaiian for 'cruel sun'). By the end of the race it was 90 degrees and only 750 of the 1000 registrants finished.
Anyway, a tough run made tougher by the 'warrior challenge', which had us run 5k and 1-mile races on the day before, then be up at 230am for the shuttle bus to the marathon start. My final time was 4:02, 104th overall which will give some indication of the sluggish paces in this heat.
I did see a couple of folks running in VFFs, including one kid of around ten at the one miler on Saturday. I wore the Vibrams for that race, as it was at three in the afternoon, but did the 5k that morning unshod, in around 23 minutes. In summary Maui is a gorgeous route but a hard slow run. Bring your FiveFingers and think hard before accepting the 'warrior challenge' and killing your taper.
Anyway, a tough run made tougher by the 'warrior challenge', which had us run 5k and 1-mile races on the day before, then be up at 230am for the shuttle bus to the marathon start. My final time was 4:02, 104th overall which will give some indication of the sluggish paces in this heat.
I did see a couple of folks running in VFFs, including one kid of around ten at the one miler on Saturday. I wore the Vibrams for that race, as it was at three in the afternoon, but did the 5k that morning unshod, in around 23 minutes. In summary Maui is a gorgeous route but a hard slow run. Bring your FiveFingers and think hard before accepting the 'warrior challenge' and killing your taper.
