Kona Race Report – 2015

Saturday morning, Jamie and I arose long before the sun for our third year in a row of doing the Kona Run. My intent was to be up by 5 AM and on the road by 5:30, but that didn’t quite happen. I ended up waking up around 5:15 (oops), and we were challenged to get out of the house by 5:45. Thankfully, Jamie wakes up pretty well (after the first five minutes or so), and he got dressed and ate breakfast without any challenges. I went through great pains to make myself a coffee, and then ended up not even having it because I ran out of time. :/

I was trying to get to the race early, because I was excited to meet a blogging friend in person for the first time: Meg from Running Just As Fast As She Can was running this race is well, and I just had a feeling that I really enjoyed getting to know her. Could it be because her husband is a hockey player? Mayyyybe. 😉

Once we got there and found Meg, I discovered that I was right: she was funny and easy to talk to, and we had a great time talking and hanging out before the race. We got some pre-race pictures to get us warmed up for the event.

We headed over to the racetrack, as I explained to her a little bit about the logistics. This was her first time doing Kona, and I was happy to give her some pointers with respect to the race start and end, and of course, Heart Attack Hill. :p. We got there fairly early, and we even managed to hit the portapotties before the race. The lines are usually pretty long for those, so I was excited that we had no lines and plenty of time! (As was my bladder.)

When we got to the track, I looked around for the pacers, but I was surprised not to see any signs. Eventually, I did start to see the pacers show up, but I was disappointed to see there was no 65-minute pacer; 60 was the lowest they went.  Lorenda, I missed you!  (If you haven’t read the recap for our first Kona run, Lorenda was the 65-minute pacer, and she was awesome!)

I knew that there was no way Jamie was going to make it in 60 minutes this year, since his best finish was about 62 minutes, and that was a big feat for him about a year and a half ago. So, we just kind of hung out in the back, and Meg lined up with us. A quick starting line selfie…

…and we were on our way!

The Kona run starts out by running around the Northville Downs horse racing track. I honestly don’t know if the track is still used for horseracing, but it was all the time that I was growing up, and it’s kind of a neat thing to actually run around the track. We headed out probably in about a middl-11:00 pace, because of course, it’s always challenging at the beginning, and especially challenging around a racetrack with all those people. :/

One important thing I forgot to mention about the race: Jamie had a terrible head cold that morning. 🙁 He’d contracted the cold just in time for summer vacation to start on Wednesday, and he spent the two days prior to the race at home, resting and blowing his nose constantly. Thursday night, he had a hockey try-out, poor kid, but other than that, we let him rest. He woke up Saturday morning, still stuffy and blowing his nose, and I even asked him if he actually wanted to run the race.  He insisted that he would be able to do it, so we went, but as we were standing in line, ready to start, I asked him what his goal was.  He answered, “To finish.” Knowing how miserable he felt, and what a struggle it was for him to just breathe at that point, I told him I was totally down with that.

Now, back to the race: after you come out of the race track and get to the road, you are almost immediately confronted with “Heart Attack Hill.” Now, to be fair, people who actually live in hilly areas would probably laugh at this hill, but for those of us from the flatlands of Monroe County, it’s rather daunting.

Clearly, that picture was taken post-race, because there weren’t any cars on the hill when we made our way up. It’s hard to get a feel from the picture, but it’s actually pretty steep.  Jamie had asked me where it was as we were standing on the racetrack, getting ready to start, and I had pointed in the general vicinity of south west. I had actually driven down the same road the day before when I picked up our packets, I reminded him that after the “big” Hill, there was another, smaller hill, and I wanted him to be prepared. He was all, “I know, ” because, of course, he is a Kona a veteran. 😉

As we went up the first hill, I reminded him to just focus on his arm swing (either Katie at Runs for Cookies or my friend Renee taught me that, I can’t remember!), and to remember to breathe. When we got right to the top, we hit the 1 mile point, and then pretty soon, it was the second, smaller hill. I could tell he was struggling, mostly because he was having a hard time breathing through his stuffy nose, but he got through it. After that, there was a smaller hill up ahead, not nearly as intense as either of the first two. To my surprise, Jamie gasped out, “Is that Heart Attack Hill?” I started laughing. “No, you passed it a half a mile back!” I told him. Maybe he was too foggy from the cold medicine he took that morning to remember it. 😉

I had plotted out the water stations as being at 2 miles, 4 miles, and 5.25, but I discovered that the course map wasn’t quite accurate. When we got to the 2-mile point, and there was no water station in sight, he asked if we could just walk and take the water that I had brought with me, to which I of course agreed. He took a shot block and some water, and then he started up again within about 45 seconds. Northville is hilly compared to what we’re used to, and I could tell that the elevation gain, coupled with his difficulty breathing, were making it harder than usual on him.

As we made our way through the subdivisions, Jamie surprised me by piping up with, “Is Northville an economically stable area?” I chuckled under my breath at his attempt to politely ask, “Do rich people live here?” I assured him that, yes, Northville is very “economically stable”. 😉

He ran consistently, with the exception of having to stop twice and blow his nose, until we hit mile four, when he once again took a walk and water break. Although it wasn’t hot, it had rained significantly the night before, and there was still a lot of moisture in the air, which didn’t help him either. We started up again after a minute or so, and as we made our way out of the affluent neighborhood, we both commented on a new house that we were quite sure hadn’t been there last year. It was quite pretty! But no, I did not take a picture. 😉 I did, however, take a picture of the pretty little brook that we crossed over.

The picture doesn’t really do it justice, but whatever.

As we neared the final water station, Jamie asked to walk one more time, and although it was less than a mile from the finish, I didn’t argue. After all his fast training runs, including last week’s great long run, I knew he could do better under normal circumstances, but I wasn’t about to push him in his current state. I could tell that he was struggling, and I just wanted him to finish without feeling miserable.

As we headed into downtown Northville, the houses became older and closer together. There wasn’t a ton of crowd support, but there were a few people in the subdivisions and also downtown that were out on their porches cheering, and I always made sure to thank them, and I even slapped hands with some adorable little “cheerleaders.”

As we made one of the final turns, and knew we were close, Jamie found enough energy to pick up his pace a little bit. We turned the corner onto the last road before heading down the hill into Ford Field, where the finish was. As we rounded the last corner, where I had notoriously tried to encourage him during last year’s run, and was rewarded with a very angry “Shut up!” as my thanks 😉 Jamie asked me not to say anything. I assured him I had learned my lesson the last time.

As we neared the end, the announcer saw our numbers and read off our names, James and Stephanie Hawkins. Then he added, “Looks like another father-daughter duo!” To which I incredulously shouted, “WHAT!?” Clearly he was just looking at the paper, and not actually looking at the two people in front of him. :p

Meanwhile, Jamie crossed the finish line in a sprint, and I was not quite able to keep up, crossing exactly a second behind him. I was proud of him for pushing himself at the end!

After we grabbed our medals, we headed over to a tree by the creek, where Jamie said down and rested. I asked him if he needed anything, and he said no, so I walked a few steps over to wait for Meg to cross. I was happy to see her just a few minutes after we crossed. It look like she had a great race! She didn’t even look tired or winded. 🙂

After I’d given her a hug and we’d make sure she got a medal, we all went to get our free bagels and my free banana. For a girl who used to hate bananas, running sure has changed that! :p

We got some post race pictures after we all caught our breath.

Jamie perked up a little bit after a rest, and although I know he wasn’t overly thrilled about his time, he was happy to have finished, and I was proud of him for even attempting it with the way he was feeling.

We walked back to cars, and Meg and I enjoyed talking some more.  I’m so glad I got to meet her, and I can’t wait to do another run with her! (Hopefully actually with her, this time, lol!) We had to stop at Meijers on the way home, and then, after we’d already turned out of the parking lot in the opposite direction, I mentioned that I should’ve stopped at Starbucks and gotten a coffee. To which Jamie longingly replied, “Can we go to Starbucks?” And then he gave me a comical, pathetic, “pwetty pwease” face that looks cute on a five-year-old, but hysterical on a 13-year-old. 😉 But of course, no matter his age, he still my boy, and I’m a sucker for him.

It’s decaf. I swear.

All in all, it was a great race, despite the challenges. Mostly, I’m just proud to say that my 13-year-old hockey defenseman has now completed SEVEN 10k races. I’ll bet there aren’t too many like him that can say that!

Thanks for reading!

PS:  The medal is actually a little cooler than last year’s, although none will ever be as cool as the first year we ran it.  You can’t tell from the picture, but the palm-tree is actually a cut-out part; it only looks green because of the grass in the back ground.