Hawaiian Fire's Aloha Monday - Master's & Marathon Week

Hawaiian Fire's Aloha Monday - Master's and Marathon Week
By, Ryan Miller

Aloha guys! Hope the week treated everyone well and that Holiday shopping is getting done because Christmas is right around the corner! While most places are freezing and the Holiday feel is in the air, we in Hawaii have remained at about 80 degrees with perfect weather for the entire month of December thus far. Not to say there is no Holiday spirit in the air but its not quite that bundle up by a crackling fire feeling going on over here. Instead we have been able to witness the very rare Eddie Aikau, followed by the always prestigious Pipe Masters which is set to finish in a day or so and finally the week culminated with the Honolulu Marathon! In years past I have always said, "I'll run that someday..." Well finally that year came and I along with Sean Kelly, Malia Yoshioka, and our Hall of Fame Office staff member from the past Allison Hamilton undertook the daunting 26.2 mile trek starting at Ala Moana, down to Aloha Tower, out to Hawaii Kai and finishing at Kapiolani park. The spectacle that is the Pipeline Master's event coupled with the annual Marathon made for a pretty exciting week and I'm glad I made it past the finish line to share with with everyone.

As most of your know from the past blog, the Eddie Aikau competition went off without a hitch and with some serious big waves. Luckily that massive swell managed to drop a bit while the perfect North Shore surfing conditions perpetuated allowing for the opening day and final jewel of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. For those of you not familiar, the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing event is the culmination of a year long excursion through all parts of the globe where the top 25 surfers in the world compete against each other for the number one spot and the title of ASP World Champion. Right around the middle of November the North Shore of Oahu is inundated with the all the best surfers in the world. Athletes from all over converge on this" 7 mile miracle" and call it home for a month or two while shredding up the best waves the Country has to offer. The first event is at the always respected and powerful Haleiwa followed by treacherous Sunset Beach. Both of these waves are a bit far out and while still entertaining to watch, neither has the allure of the one and only PIPE. With 10 - 12 foot hollow barrels crashing no more than 100 yards away the crowd is literally right in the action as the wave energy permeates through the beach. I am truly fortunate to have been able to witness this opening day and snap some first hand shots as surfers risked their lives on each wave to pull into that barrel that every surfer wants a piece of. Normally engulfed with 50 + surfers, these pros get to enjoy the legendary wave with only 2 or 3 others in the way along with the Hawaiian Water Rescue right in the channel in case anything were to go arye. These two factors push the surfers to the edge and made for some spectacular rides that evoked roars of applause, hoots and hollers from everyone on the beach. By now the competition is about finished with the final day happening tomorrow. We are yet to know who will win the Million Dollar Triple Crown Title but congratulations to Mick Fanning of Australia who was crowned the 2009 Association of Surfing Professionals Champion. Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!..Seriously guys if you have a chance to come to Hawaii in Early December it is worth it in every way! Less heat, less crowds, and more waves to WATCH. Notice I emphasize the word watch. If you have little or no experience with the ocean please for your sake for the fire fighters sake and for the lifeguards sake...do not mess with the North Shore. It will always win.

Speaking of winning, Congratufrickenlations to Sean Kelly. Out of the three Hawaiian Fire Ohana to run the 2009 Honolulu Marathon he was the first to cross the finish line! This race was no easy task which both Sean and Malia knew as they put in countless hours of pavement pounding throughout the months prior to the race. I can't speak for Allison although I'm sure there was quite a bit of preparation involved with her since she is quite the overachiever. As for myself...well lets just say the last two trips to NY and Denver weren't really an effective marathon training regiment. It was still up in the air as to whether or not I was going to run. As usual procrastination took over and I didn't catch the early sign up that was much cheaper than the $200 fee for regular registration. Luckily Malia's dad decided not to run to I took the honor of running as Alan Yoshioka. I could pass for a Japanese guy right? So 3:00 am came around and I made my way down to HF Headquarters where Sean and I decided to tack on a few extra warm up miles by walking to Ala Moana through Waikiki. It was actually kinda cool seeing throngs of people just start to converge out of nowhere and end up in a sea of 20,00o + runners under total darkness before the sun had even begun to rise. Still not sure if I was dreaming or not, I gave Sean a pat on the back, set the Ipod on shuffle, adjusted my Charger's Baby Blue Headband and the gun blasted off coupled with an impressive fireworks display overhead.

Hoping to keep pace with Sean he was instantly lost as the race was underway so I just prepared my mind for the challenge ahead. I will say that the yoga I had been doing prior to the Charger games definitely paid off. Keeping my breath regulated and only using my nose kept my heart rate down and allowed for a very comfortable pace. No matter what your doing in sports, business or whatever, breathing always is there and is essential to live. Next time your stressed or tired try to focus on just breathing for a little bit and see if it helps. So about the halfway point things were going good until my legs started to tell my brain that they were tired of working. Hoping I would be able to run the entire race I quickly accepted the fact that I was going to have to rest and walk for a few miles. I got to Noah's aid station (Mahalo Noah!) and learned Sean was about 20 Min ahead. Not caring who passed me or what place I came in I just wanted to finish and make sure it was before the Charger game started at 11:15! Around mile 20 is where gut check time comes into play and it was nothing short of that. I have to say it was hard to keep the ego in check as people who you would never think could run that far and for that long continued to stroll right by me. I just kept telling myself, "Screw it they trained you didn't just finish!" Finally I saw the guy in wooden clogs run by me and enough was enough. It was time to pump the music up and finish this punk ass off a run.

The home stretch was a straight shot on Kahala Ave up over Diamond Head and back down the crater towards Kapiolani park. Rage against the Machine was key to my success as was the POD "Charger's Anthem" playing continuously on my Ipod. With my last shot of adrenaline and a refreshing cup of beer from an "Aid Station" right by the Light House I managed to cross the finish line in 5 Hours and 24 min! It was a bit longer than I wanted, and involved much more pain than I had anticipated but it was a great and more importantly humbling experience to say the least. Congratulations to everyone that ran the race and especially to the HF Crew involved as well. 1st place went to Sean Kelly with a time of 4 hours 17 minutes, followed by a miraculous 2nd place by yours truly. Malia kicked some serious ass coming in 3rd at 5 hours and 41 minutes and last but not least Allison finished the job in 6 hours! Great job everyone that was involved. Mahalo to Malia and Alan for letting me represent the Yoshioka Family and even bigger Mahalo to Wisa for the post run BBQing at Kev's house where we got to watch the Chargers handle the Dallas Cowboys 20 - 17. I'd say this was a pretty good week in Hawaii and hopefully many more great weeks are to follow as the Holidays get closer and the NFL gets into Playoff Mode. Aloha Monday gang and we'll see ya next week!