Race reports · 2023 · by Jay
Kailua 10-Miler: the windward side, with wind
Ten miles on the side of the island where the trade winds come ashore, so the second half is either with the wind or into it.
The windward side is the wet, green side, the one that looks like the postcards. It's also where the trade winds come ashore, so any out-and-back over there has a leg with the wind and a leg into it, and you don't get to pick which one you run for the second half.
The wind
If you race over there, look at the wind before the gun and figure out which direction is the hard one, then run the easy direction like the hard one's coming, because it is. The people who go out fast with the trades at their back and come home into them are usually the ones you pass at mile eight, and we've been those people at least once, so this isn't a lecture so much as a confession.
Two races in one week
Ten miles around Kailua sits right between the Great Aloha Run and a half marathon, which is why it fits a spring build so well. The problem in 2023 was that it landed in the same week as the Great Aloha Run, which put two races in one February week, and that was more than the plan needed. It turned out fine, mostly because neither one was a goal race and we ran both at an effort that left something in the tank. It wouldn't have been fine if we'd raced them, and we knew that going in, which is the only reason we didn't.
For me, this was a good morning: 1:21:54, second in my age group, a month before Michelle's win at Ku'ikahi. For Michelle it was a harder one. Two weeks before this she'd hurt a rib, and she still ran it, 1:44:52, eleventh in her age group. That month the plan was in pencil, and some of it happened, and this was one of the things that did.