The plan for the race was for my crew (Jess and Doug) to meet me at every aid station starting at lap 2 through the end (no crews are permitted at aid stations for the first lap). Every time I came into an aid station I would swap out my 1.5 liter camelback bladder for a new one, grab anything else I might need, and then get back out there. Doug was planning to start running with me for my 5th loop of the course.  

It all got started right on time at 6 a.m. in the dark. I was actually pretty calm at the start of the race. I knew that this would no doubt be the most physically demanding endeavor that I had ever undertaken, but I was okay with that. That’s a big part of why I had signed up…I wanted to challenge myself beyond what I had done previously. I had completed a couple of 50 milers before this race but never really hit a point during them where I really had a feeling that I was truly at my limits.  

We all started off jogging a little bit at the start but quickly settled into a quick hike up Hog's Back. Hog's Back is about a 600-foot climb over the course of a mile along an ascending ridge with roots all over the place that you repeatedly have to step over. At the start and throughout the rest of the race, Hog's Back actually didn’t bother me. I had read so much about it and how brutal it was, that it really didn’t faze me. I quickly just got into a rhythm, kept my cadence going with my climb, and just pushed up the hill. I had already scouted Leg 1 earlier in the week, so there weren’t any surprises. But there were rolled ankles. I rolled my left one twice. Neither very serious, but this was a major concern of mine going into the race. I can’t say how many times I thought “run a clean loop” meaning “don’t roll an ankle”, but I still did it. Luckily it didn’t swell up, and short of a minor roll of my right ankle on loop 2, I wouldn’t roll either of them again throughout the race. Bullet == dodged.  

I came into the first aid station (Paradise Park), filled up my water bladder, poured some more of my energy mix in there, and kept on going. One thing I did to keep aid station transitions to a minimum was to have two small pre-measured bags of energy mix in my pack that I could easily access and pour into my camelback. No need to hit my drop bag. I was in and out of aid station 1 in about 90 seconds.  

The highlight of loop 1 was definitely when I tried to touch wrist bands together with Berit (another runner who I had met in advance of the race). The course is laid out in such a way that in several sections you’ll pass runners going in the opposite direction. The wrist bands successfully touched (it’s a HURT thing…runners do this…maybe a little weird but we were desperate for positive vibes) while we were energetically saying hi, which was the exact moment when I stopped paying attention for ONE SECOND, stepped off the trail and went down. We both got a good laugh out of it and went on our separate ways.

The descent into Nu’uanu was surprising to me…it was STEEP at the top, and super muddy at the bottom near the stream. The stream crossing itself was a lot of fun and I managed to stay dry here throughout the race, but that climb was by far my least favorite. I didn’t like it in lap 1, and by lap 5 I was dreading it. I think I had it in my head that since I didn’t think Hog's Back was that bad, after I finished leg 1 things would get easier. Ha. Not so much. What ended up happening was that descending into Nu’uanu and then ascending for the last leg of loop 1 back to the start/finish really brought me to a low place. I haven’t read about other runners experiencing this in any race report that I’ve previously read, but coming into the start/finish at the end of loop 1 was the low point of the race for me mentally. My time was more or less where I had expected, but I was worried. It was MUCH harder than I had anticipated, and the magnitude of the race (distance, elevation, duration) was getting to me. I was your text book “negative thinker” at this point in the race. Thoughts were all over the place…people I would be letting down if I dropped out of the race (stupid I know, but in the moment it was real), all of the wasted time that I had put in throughout training, Doug and Jess being there and putting in their effort only for me to drop, just all sorts of negative thoughts. I was never at risk of dropping after loop 1 as I as still in a relatively good place physically, but coming into that aid station I expected to be in very high spirits and I most definitely was not. I caught Doug and Jess off guard a bit with how down I was. That’s just not my normal state. Coming in and out of that aid station was rough.  

My first loop time was 4:29:45. I had roughly predicted 3.5-4.5 hours, but 3.5 hours was a dumb target. That was never going to happen. I took the “you can’t start too slow!” approach at the beginning of the race, so I was happy with my time, but absolutely nothing else.  

Then loop 2 started, and while climbing Hog's Back I got out of my funk. Pretty huge turnaround. Basically, I took an inventory of my body, realized that physically I was okay, and that this crap was all just in my head. Sure, I was a bit tired and my stomach was bothering me (more on that later), but my legs were functioning, my ankles weren’t swollen, I hadn’t taken any rough falls, things were “fine”. Taking inventory of my body and realizing that I was okay was a big deal. It got me back to focusing one of my few key points I listed out for myself going into the race: “Trust your training.” Sure, I hadn’t done much elevation training or training on this terrain, but the fact that my legs were fine after 4 hours and 30 minutes gave me a tremendous boost. After thinking of that point, I remembered another one: “embrace the challenge”. I had signed up for this race BECAUSE it was going to be hard and push me mentally and physically. So what if I got to that low point earlier than I had anticipated. I was there and I needed to realize it and get past it. Then there was the third point, and one that I’d keep coming back to throughout the rest of the race. “Stay in the moment.” I needed to focus on what I was currently doing, which was hiking up Hog's Back. Then I needed to get over and down to Manoa Falls to see Jess and Doug at Paradise Park. That’s all I needed to be thinking about at that point in time. Thinking about how much I still had left to go wouldn’t help me, so I stopped doing that.  

That hike up Hog's Back is when all of this thinking went through my head. I had done a lot of mental preparation leading up to this race, and the technique that saved me here was something I read about in one of Scott Jurek’s books. After he would suffer an injury or at a really low point for him in a race, he’d work through his body and take inventory of everything. Granted, this was probably never 20 miles into a 100-mile race, but for me it was. And going through that exercise and realizing that everything was actually okay helped me to gain enough positive energy to get to the other key pillars that I had rehearsed. For the rest of the run, all negative thoughts that briefly came into my head were quickly dealt with. I of course thought from time to time how much more I had to run, but then quickly got back to the moment. The times that I tripped and completely ate it throughout the course I was able to quickly regain my focus and carry on (again, nothing was that seriously injured, so get moving). And the repeated climbs up and out of every aid station I was able to embrace them as individual challenges and tackle them one by one.  

By the time I came into Paradise Park on loop 2, I was in a much much better place. Doug and Jess, to their credit, had realized that I was not in a good spot at the end of loop 1, and so they were SUPER positive when I hit that aid station. But I was positive too! It was basically a short fun little party.  

Unfortunately, I messed up my nutrition basically from the words “GO!”. I had planned on taking in 300 calories of my carbohydrate mix every 2 hours, and then supplementing that with an energy shot flask that I had on me every now and then. The goal was to consume 1000 calories every 4 hours. 600 from the energy drink, 400 from the shot flask, 250 calories/hour, good to go. Yeah I messed this up. Lap 1 I went through my Camelback 3 times (900 calories), and most of my shot flask, so came in around 1300 calories for that first loop, or almost 300 calories per hour. Looking back at it now, I actually wasn't as far over as I thought I was at the time, but think it contributed to my stomach being in knots and my having to visit the bathroom a few times over laps 1-3. My stomach pain started on lap 2, and I figured it was because I was taking in too many carbs, so cut back on my shot flask. This seemed to do the trick. Lap 3 I started sipping on it again and got more or less back to my 1000 calories / 4 hours that I was targeting. Crisis averted. But thank goodness there were bathrooms at the aid stations.  

One other very strange thing that happened was that my teeth got SUPER sensitive to anything sweet. There was a point where I took a swig, swished it around my mouth, and immediately had shooting pain from all of my teeth that had become overly sensitive to the sweetness. I was able to get past it by not swishing it around anymore and not letting it touch my teeth, but wow. That’s something I wasn’t expecting. It literally took days for that sensitivity to go away, but I’m happy to report that I am able to eat cookies again. Just in time for 6 Girl Scout cookie boxes to arrive. Thanks, Cadie!  

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The rest of lap 2 was relatively uneventful. My mood stayed positive and I only slowed down a bit, coming in with a lap time of 4:56:37.  

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Lap 3 started off just fine and I rolled into Paradise Park at around 5:30 pm. Sunset was just after 6 pm, but with the large majority of running taking place in a very dense forest, it was already dark enough to warrant a headlamp, so with Jess reminding me I put mine on and started into the next 13 hours or so of running in the dark.  

Around this time I started to get a bit more tired both mentally and physically. I had decided to hold off on taking caffeine pills until the start of Lap 4, which in hindsight turned out to be several hours later than I should have. Coming down into Nu’uanu (aid station #2) you make it all the way down to the stream and then parallel to it for maybe a quarter mile or so before the path takes you down to a stream crossing and into the aid station. While running parallel to the stream I lost a bit of focus and turned too early to head down to the stream. The course was very well marked…blue ribbons mean “do no go this way”. I didn’t make a conscious decision to go past them, I just stopped paying attention to them. I got down to the river…definitely the wrong way. This wasn’t a big deal as it was only a minute or so back to the trail, and then I was across the river and into the aid station. Again, I decided to forego caffeine pills, loaded up on water, and then headed back out….and immediately took another wrong turn. Same thing, I just put my head down to look at the terrain, didn’t look up to spot the flags, and turned the wrong way as soon as I crossed the river. This time it took me a few minutes before I realized I had made a mistake. I came to a split in the trail, and neither of them was marked with any flags. This made it obvious that I wasn’t on the right trail and had to backtrack. A few minutes back the way I came and I was back on track. The third mental lapse came after I had climbed up and out of Nu’uanu. I was on a section of trail that was supper runnable and with absolutely no turnoffs. But this particular section of trail really went for quite a ways without there being any ribbons of any sort (because there were no turnoffs…so no ribbons necessary). But when running for a couple of minutes without seeing a flag, I got worried that I was on the wrong trail and backtracked. While backtracking I convinced myself that I MUST be on the correct trail as there weren’t any turnoffs that I could remember, so I turned around and continued back in the correct direction. I went forward for a few more minutes, and then thought “but what if I’m remembering wrong?”, and proceeded to turn around and head back in the opposite direction (I was on the correct trail the whole time). Thankfully another runner came by and saved me. She looked and sounded like she knew where she was going, so I turned around and followed her for a few minutes, we passed a flag indicating we were on the correct trail, and all as well again. She was fast…I didn’t see her again.  

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Coming into the end of loop 3, one of the first things I did was take a couple of caffeine pills. They sharpened me up mentally, and I didn’t have any more issues with navigation throughout the rest of the night. My lap 3 time was a good bit slower. I was getting tired, got lost a few times, and was now running in the dark. My time didn’t bother me at all. 5:50:46.  

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Loop 4 was all in the dark and my legs were basically shot by this point. I was still hiking uphill at a good clip, but downhills I was now jogging less and less. My legs just weren’t having it. I was jogging where I could, but I was definitely becoming a struggle bus. Doug surprised me during this loop and started to pace me for the last leg of loop 4 (he was originally going to only do the last 3 legs). This was uncharted territory for him, as joining me this early meant that he would be out there with me for about 28 miles, 10 hours, and approximately 7000 feet of climbing and descent. He was eager and ready to go, maybe a bit too eager as it turns out as in crossing the stream out of Nu’uanu he slipped into the water and got one of his feet wet. An amusing start to the leg for me at least.  

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I was really starting to hate the climb up and out of Nu’uanu, but after climbing it with Doug we only had to do it one more time. My loop 4 time was my slowest yet, but I was beyond caring. Relentless forward progress. Get uphill with purpose, and just make it down as quickly as you can. Watch your footing and don’t get injured…that’s all that was going to keep me from finishing. Loop 4 time:  6:56:16.  

Loop 5 was a grind. There really wasn’t much running happening, and when I did jog I’m pretty sure Doug was able to keep up by walking slowly. The highlight was when I felt a blister pop on my left foot. That was a first. The pain subsided after a few minutes, we continued to make progress, the sun came up, and we descended back down into Nu’uanu for the last aid station. I was swearing a good bit at some of the steeper parts by this point. Doug made a clean stream crossing into the last aid station, Jess was again there waiting to greet us and help top up our water (I was scolded a bit for slacking on my water drinking for the first time of the race…my bad), and then we headed back across the stream…where Doug fell in. AGAIN. This one was solid. Both feet in the stream above his ankles, right as we started on the last leg of the course. Haha. For those keeping score at home, that’s a 33% success rate at Doug managing to cross the river and stay dry. Maybe he was just doing it to lighten my mood. It worked.  

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At this point I was also fixated on finishing in under 30 hours. This was my secondary goal, and I was relatively confident I would make it just fine, but by the time I was 28 hours into the race my ability to do simple math wasn’t that great. It did give me something to try and think about during that last leg back to close out the race. I was passed by a few runners during this last leg that had significantly more energy than I did at this point in the race, but I crossed the line to cheers, ringing cowbells, and a very happy Jess at 29:18:41. My loop 5 time was 7:04:15, only a bit slower than my loop 4 time (because they were both slow as molasses).  

Finished