But it was fun all the same.

Today I ran the Great Aloha Run. It starts at Aloha Tower and goes to Aloha Stadium, and is 8.13 miles (although I am not sure if they count the part where you run all the way around the stadium=).

Those of you who really know me know I have something of a complex about being on time. Märia says I start hyperventilating if it looks like I won't be 30 minutes early, but I don't think it is quite that bad. So the race starts at 7, so I leave the house at 5am. I drive down to the stadium, and get there by about 5:20. I drove ALL OVER, and couldn't find how to get in there! I wasn't even sure that was where I was supposed to be actually. I knew there was a shuttle bus, but wasn't sure if it was from the stadium to the starting line, or from the stadium after the race back to the starting line where you parked your car. It ended up actually being both, so some parked at the stadium and some down by Waikiki, but I didn't know that at the start.

So I am driving around, and EVERYTHING is blocked off. All of Nimitz was blocked off, and most of down town, and all around the stadium, so I couldn't figure out how to get in! So I just decide to drive down to the starting line (or as close as I can get) and everything down there was blocked off too!

Long story short, I ended up driving back to the stadium, getting there at 6:29, and jumping in the LAST shuttle bus headed for the stadium. Barely made it!

So we get to the starting line and everybody is pumped! They said that roughly 20,000 people were running. The cannon went off at 0700, and I didn't get to the starting line until something like 0710, something like that. Plus or minus a minute.

So I ran. It is amazing the people I saw. Lots of Japanese and European tourists. Children (I couldn't keep up with a kid who couldn't have been older than 7). Seniors (a guy who was easily in his 70s breezed by me). Lots of highschool kids and locals. Every quarter mile or so there was a musical group or cheerleaders or a highschool band or choir, cheering us on.

So I know what most of you are probably wondering. "How long did it take you Steven?" Well, longer than it should've. I don't have an official time yet. It will be posted on the race webpage within 72 hours so they say. But my iPod says it took 1 hour, 34 minutes and 51 seconds. I had a playlist of U2 all spooled up, and I press play when the cannon went off. So you can subtract about 10 minutes from that, the time it took me to actually get to the starting line. I guess It took me roughly 1:25 to run 8 miles, or basically 10 mins and change per mile. Kind of slow, but I made it without walking. =)

So Jason and I are going to be running in the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Diego in June! This was just a trial run for that. Wish us luck!