Vacation running

Just a brief write-up of the two runs that I managed to get in over the 16 days that I spent in Hawaii.

I was reunited with my good friend Chris in Hawaii so we had to get out for a run or two. The first run was 5.8 miles (according to gmap-pedometer.com) and probably took a little under an hour. We kept an easy pace and enjoyed the scenery of the gold coast. We ran from the mega-house we were staying at down the resort streets past the golf courses. We continued out to the beach and into a residential area. We turned around and followed the coast the whole way back to the private beach that the mega-house overlooks. The views were spectacular but the sections of sand that we had to cross weren't much fun with shoes on. Great run in a great place with the guy that convinced me to start running marathons.

The second run was just a short 3 mile out-and-back on the roads of the resort. Chris and I stopped at one of the golf courses on the way back and took our shoes off to run down one of the fairways and back before lacing up again and finishing off the run. It was early enough in the morning that no one hassled us about running on the fairway.

It was good to finally try out barefoot running in a serious way. I'm sure I've run many miles barefoot when I was a kid but I hadn't tried it with any intent or agenda behind it. It felt okay and my legs were never sore. Granted we probably only ran 400 - 500 meters out of caution. Good enough to try again.

I wish I would have been able to get in a few more runs in Hawaii but honestly I was too busy:

Enjoying the beaches
Having fun with family and friends that I don't get to see often
Building sandcastles with my kids
Exploring volcanoes
Ssnorkeling
Scuba diving
Eating Shaved Ice

Running didn't rank that high when surrounded with all that Hawaii had to offer.

We stayed at a resort that was right off of the 'Queen K' highway where the bike and run courses of the Kona Ironman championships are held. Sadly the race was another 5 months away.

So what's that, 9 measly miles? I'll take it!