Kona Half-Marathon - Kona, Hawaii

It's easy to smile while standing at the finish line before a half-marathon especially when said half-marathon is in Hawaii.

My smile is partially due to the excitement at being in Hawaii but also in relief and pride. The relief was from having reached my fundraising goal of $5600 as a member of Team Challenge, the endurance training program run by the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. I spent 4 months running around central Jersey with the other members of Team NJ, all of whom were preparing for the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon which was about 2 weeks after and $1400 cheaper than the Kona Half Marathon aka my race. I was helped in my training knowing I was raising money for a disease (ulcerative colitis) my mother has suffered from for over 20 years. My original plan was to run the race and drink the great wine with my Team Challenge teammates and otherwise enjoy the Northern California wine country.

Picture Paul Giamatti in a bright orange singlet!

I like to think I am in better shape than Mr. Giamatti.
Want to race, Paul?
Consider that an open challenge.
You're going down, Giamatti.
But I digress...

Like many plans, mine involving running and drinking wine on the left coast was interrupted. I do not know how many other plans are laid to waste by the Hungarian Orthodox blessing of a marriage outside Indiana, PA but mine was and therefore I decided to continue my training and fundraising with a short deadline and higher goal to go to Hawaii.
My backup plan was Hawaii...
Life is rough...

My life is certainly not difficult, but the 13.1 miles of Kona Half-Marathon wiped the smile from the above pictures right off my face. If you look below, the half-marathon was an out-and-back 6.5 mile course which started off along a scenic coastline for the first 5 miles but the turned around behind a Home Depot.

I finished the race in 2 hours and 35 minutes, well off the pace I had hoped to set. I managed to run the first 7 to 8 miles, but after that my running was sporadic at best. I have a number of excuses including but not limited to starting off too fast and running by myself, but I will save those because they do not really matter. I am not a competitive half-marathoner (or runner or athlete and have not been since November 16, 2002) and so I am just glad that I finished. I will try to do better if I run another half-marathon.

I did the best I could.

You can see I have something close to resembling a smile on my face below.

Then again, maybe that is just a look of utter exhaustion.

Regardless of what the look on my face means, I managed to finish. I raised a large sum of money for an excellent cause and I know the people who matter most were proud of what I did.