My 3rd "Great Aloha Run"

You know you've got good friends if they're willing to risk pain, wake up at an ungodly hour, and walk with you for 8.15 miles in a Charity event.

It's true that I didn't want to do this. I'm not a fan of walking in the tropical sun or getting up when it's still dark outside. Art wanted to run the 8.15 miles and have me do the walk. Actually, he just wanted me to get out there to train and exercise. I refused to walk 8.15 miles by myself.

My brother and sister-in-law said they would act as back-up instead, to pick me up if something happened. Several other friends just chuckled. Art's cousin (who walked with me last year) couldn't because her knee is injured.

I figured Diane (my childhood friend from kindergarten) would also say, "No." However, she and her husband, Dave took pity on me and said, "Sure we'll do it."

I nearly dropped the phone.

That's Diane and Dave with me at the Great Aloha Run EXPO this past Saturday where we picked up our tracking devices and bib numbers.


Diane has back problems and my knee has been hurting me. I took Aleve before we left for the race. However, a half hour before we were due to leave, Diane called to say she suddenly came down with a bad stomach. Dave said he would still walk with me.


We left the house at 4:30 AM, a half hour before last year and it made all the difference. We didn't have to wait 45 minutes in traffic and sailed right through to the Aloha Stadium where we quickly caught the chartered bus to Honolulu's Aloha Tower.


The Star Spangled Banner was sung before the start of the race, followed by our Hawaii anthem, Hawaii Ponoi.


Art left to join the Runners.

Dave and I stayed on the right with the Walkers. Most of the following photos were taken by Dave using my camera. He is an amazing professional photographer.


With 25,000 runners and walkers, it took a while to walk to the starting gate. I could hear our racing chip go off as we passed through the gate.

And we were off. That's Honolulu in the background.


Just as it was getting a bit too warm, the race course took us under the viaduct.

Then there were a few little hills to go up and down as we neared Aloha Stadium. School bands and radio stations lined our way throughout the race course. We passed alongside Pearl Harbor.

And suddenly we were at the finish line! Dave is such great company that he completely distracted me from concentrating on my bum knees.

We bettered our times from the past two years by about 15 minutes or so.


The time listed here is not quite right. Our actual time according to Dave's iPhone was more like 2 hours 42 minutes. Last year, it took me and Art's cousin 3 hours 1 minute.


We collected our Finisher t-shirts, banana, water and pastry for our efforts. Art's finishing time for the 8.15 mile run was 1 hour 18 minutes.

Dave and I shared a burst of euphoria about finishing without a mishap and bettering our time. We enjoyed catching up and sharing some of our philosophy about life throughout our 2 hour 42 minute 44 second walk. We missed Diane, but we're thinking she may agree to walk in next year's Great Aloha Run.

I thought this would be my last Aloha Run, but now I'm thinking... who knows? Maybe.