Ekiden 5K March 8, 2015

This fun run was a pleasant surprise. My sister Jessica was visiting from North Carolina. She does a 5k or 10k every month. Since she knew she was coming over here, she decided to sign up for a run. The best run available was the Ekiden 5k. I've never heard of it before, but signed up anyway. Unfortunately, none of our cousins signed up. 

A few days before the run, we got an email. I disregarded it, but Shell, who reads everything, noticed that it was a relay race. I was confused. I read the email thoroughly and saw that it was indeed a 5 person relay race. Since only Jessica and I signed up, we had to join another 3 people to run the relay. 

Jessica and I were irritated because it would mean we would have to wait for people to finish, unless we were the first two running, then we could bail. So we set that as our plan. The other shitty thing was the agenda. Team check in was between 7:00-7:45am, opening ceremonies were from 8:00-9:00am, the run at 9:00am.

After hard partying the night before, I woke up with a mini hangover, but felt okay overall. Jessica woke up early too. Mom, who was going to drop us off, wasn't in the loop and we told her at the last minute that it was a relay race and that we would be there for a while. Mom was game and drove us to the event. 

We checked in at the last minute and teamed up with 3 other people from Japan. To our surprise the event was exciting. Our teammates were so excited to be here and we couldn't resist being excited as well. They asked us our names and did some ice breaking. It took me a while but I remembered their names, something a little hard for me nowadays with all the stress at work. Their names were Kazu, Yoko, & Miho. They were so nice. Kazu knew English and actually went to school in New Hampshire State to get a graduate degree in Business. Yoko & Miho were friends, but they didn't speak too good English and of course we didn't speak any Japanese, so we relied on Kazu to translate.

I volunteered to go first. The group let out a big cheer because I was the brave runner to run first. Jessica went second, Miho third, Kazu fourth, and Yoko was the anchor. 

We took some pictures and immediately felt a bond and a dedication to the team. It was 8:50am, I walked up to the start line and was ready. The gun went off and I shot out of a canon. I started my run keeper app and saw that I was running at a 8:00 minute/mile pace. Woah, I thought to myself, I slowed down, but not very much. I was flying, hungover and all. My pace was 8:30 minute/mile and I wasn't letting up. I started separating myself from the pack and headed towards the next pack at an 8:30 minute/pace. At about the 2k mark, I headed up Diamond Head Road passing people. I couldn't get to the next level of runners as they were probably at a 7:30 minute/mile. I kept my pace until I finished the 5k. My time unofficially was 26:03, a 8:27 minute/mile. By far the fastest 5k in my life. The transition zone was another 0.2 miles, I heard my mom, Kazu, Yoko, & Miho cheering me on. I ran faster in the transition zone to Jessica. I passed her the sash and she was off.

I was greeted by the Japanese, my mom and felt instant happiness. I got my medal and some gatorade. I also went to retrieve my snacks and lanikai juice drink. We waited for Jessica to arrive and cheered her on. 

Miho and Kazu went and completed their heats finishing in a respectable time. Yoko was the anchor. As she approached we cheered her on and decided to run with her to the finish line. What a feeling! We finished the 5 person relay race in about 1 1/2 hours. Can't wait to see the official results post. 

After the run, we took a picture with our medals and said our goodbyes. Probably will never see them again. But it was a moment when we crossed paths and had a good time. 

Jessica, mom & I went to go eat food and eat shave ice and relax at the beach. 

More information can be found Honolulu Festival 2015