Race reports · 2023 · by Michelle
Hibiscus Half: my day, and Jay sat on the easy pace
I ran 2:12. Jay sat on a pace that was easy for him and kept me on it to a PR. A chicken joined us at the top of Diamond Head.
This was my day. We'd decided that before the alarm went off, and everything about the race followed from it.
The setup
A year earlier this was our first half marathon, and since then we'd done a marathon, a January half, two 10Ks, a windward half, the Hapalua, and the Honolulu Triathlon seven days before this one. I had a PR in my legs and I knew it, which is a strange feeling for someone who usually walks up to a start line expecting the worst. Jay had a 70.3 six days later and no business racing a half, so the roles were set before we left the house: I was the engine and Jay was the governor. He'd pick a pace that was easy for him, hold it exactly, and keep me on it, and our friend Ed ran with us too, so it was three people and one pace.
The race
Hibiscus starts early out of Kapiolani Park and it needs to, because Memorial Day weekend in Honolulu is already summer and the heat and humidity are there before the sun is. The course takes you up and around Diamond Head and back through the flat, exposed miles that decide every half on this island. At the top of Diamond Head a chicken joined the race for a while, which is what happens on Oahu, and it's in the video.
I held the pace through the climb and through the heat after it, and it wasn't comfortable, but it was steady, because Jay was right there being boring on purpose and I didn't have to think about anything except staying with him. That was his whole job that morning, to be boring and steady and not chase anything, and he'll tell you it was easy for him, and it was, and that was the point.
I finished in 2:12:23, a PR! Jay crossed one second later at 2:12:24, which is what pacing somebody looks like on a timing sheet, and it's the one number on this site I'll repeat as often as I feel like, and I feel like it a lot.
The next day, Memorial Day, we did Murph at the gym, a mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 air squats, and another mile, without the weighted vest because Honu was five days out. Jay will tell you that was probably not a good idea five days before a half Ironman, and he's right.
What it taught us
What the day taught us has its own page: couples training comes down to knowing whose day it is, and matching watts has very little to do with it. When the day belongs to one of us, the other one's race is to disappear into the pace and make it feel easy. Jay finished fresh, which was correct, because six days later in the lava at Honu it was his day and nobody was pacing him.
Shoes, since people ask: Jay raced in New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080 v12s, which had already done the long runs, because nothing new on race morning is a rule in our house, and it's mine as much as his. I don't do new on race morning, and honestly I don't do new on most mornings (routine-based, that's me).