Dean Karnazes was on his quest to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. I checked his website to see where he would be running in California to see if it was close to Long Beach. It was not. He was running in San Francisco and so I thought, well, I won’t be running with the legend. But then fate stepped in. I had booked my trip to Maui for a relaxing week of sun, fun, and a little rum. As fate would have it, Dean Karnazes was going to be running one of his marathons in Maui when I was there. I knew right then and there I had to sign up and run with him. When would I ever get this chance again? This is something I would remember for a lifetime.
Well, the morning of October 4 rolled around and I went to where a driver was supposed to pick me and about four other guys up to go to the start. We met at the finish line, or at least where it should have been. This is where I met two other runners. One guy was from Spain and the other one was from Japan and they had both flown out to Maui to run with Dean. I got to talking to Kazuhiko (Japan) and he told me his whole story—how he scheduled this trip and his fiancée was none too pleased about it. To soothe her, he married her the day before the marathon. I told him that was a pretty big concession. He told me the marriage wouldn’t be recognized in Japan as legal. I knew he and I were going to be fast friends.
Well, the driver came and picked us up and took us to the start. He informed us there were only eight runners total today and there would be no police escort and no official start line or finish line like you see on Dean’s website. They couldn’t fly it over. And to boot, Dean was running an hour late. You see, the usual Maui Marathon starts at 5:30 a.m. because of the heat. We didn’t get started until 9:00 a.m. Our support van was a rental SUV and they said since they couldn’t follow behind us directly because we would be running on the opposite side of the road, they would piggyback up ahead of us to try and give us water, Cytomax and whatever else they had. Dean finally showed up and had us take a few pictures and away we went.
At first I was running in the back with Kazuhiko and another guy from Denver who had his family following us in their car. I liked him. Right from mile 2 on, he was talking about the martini he was going to drink right after we were done. Unfortunately for me, he had a condo at our halfway point and that is where he stopped. He did invite me to join him in martinis. I imagine by the time I finished, he was sloshed. Lucky bastard.
Since we were running two-by-two, Dean would run with each group and chat a little bit. When he got to Kazuhiko and me, Dean thanked Kaz for joining him after getting married. Dean was very polite with Kaz and spoke in that way Americans speak to foreign people when they think they know very little English. Dean went on this way until I started joking with Kaz. It was then Dean realized Kaz spoke fluent English. I suppose we could have gone on with the farce for a few more miles, but it was funny while it lasted.
Well, it was hot as hell out there. When we met up with our support SUV, I would get two bottles of water—one for drinking and one for pouring on my head. This went on from pretty much mile 6 to the end. Speaking of mile 6, this is where I felt my muscles tightening in my lower back and left glute area (ass to the layperson). At first I thought nothing of it. So I went on with the run. Hell, I wanted to chat more with Dean and see what made him tick. How could I do that by dropping out at the 10k point because of a minor ass problem?
As I went on the pain got worse and worse, and I soon knew I was going to be injured after this run. “Brian, why didn’t you stop, you idiot?” you ask. Well, I’ll tell you why. By the time I thought about stopping, I realized I would still have to get to the finish line. This was a point-to-point course and our support SUV was long gone when the pain got really bad. I mean, really, what could I do? I couldn’t turn to Dean and go, “I can’t run any more with you, the man who once ran 325 miles nonstop, the man who runs 100-mile races often, and the man who is going to run 50 marathons in a row, because my ass hurts too much.” This just didn’t seem like a good idea. Even though I was baking in that Maui heat, at least I still had enough sense not to tell anybody my ass hurt.
During the course of our run, I think somewhere around mile 16, two guys dropped off from our pack and had to start walking. So, we were down to five. It was around this point that the four other guys were about 20 yards ahead and Dean and I were behind them. And for the next half hour of that run, he and I chatted and chatted. We talked about why he was running this Endurance 50 (he is trying to bring awareness to childhood obesity), what are some of his favorite races, how running is becoming so huge, especially the number of people doing half-marathons. He asked me how I got into running. I told him that long, boring story. He chuckled. He said, “You know, our stories are kind of similar.” I told him not to get any bright ideas about me running any ultras with him. Then he told me he was really getting worn down by the heat and that maybe we should have started sooner. I told him, “Nice of you to think of that now while we’re at mile 20 and it’s noon.”
We also talked about races where we have totally bombed out at. I felt like a fool telling him I bombed out once at mile 13 in a marathon. I said 13 miles to him must feel like child’s play and not to mock my story. He told me he hates it when you’re at about mile 20 in a marathon and you’re breaking down and people who have probably never run before are on the side yelling “You’re almost there.” He said, “Now, they mean well and I am so glad they have come out to support the runners, but you yourself know you still have a hell of a long way to go.” Two minutes after he said that, a guy on a bike came by and asked what mile we were at. We told him mile 20 and he said, “You’re almost there.” Dean then thrashed that guy in a violent fit. Just kidding. We both just laughed.
When we were coming out of a city called Lahaina, Dean was asking me how far it was to the finish. I told him in a couple of blocks we will see these huge hotels to our right and that will let us know we only have three miles left. Well, in two blocks we saw the hotels and Dean turns to everybody and says, “Hey, everybody, it’s just around this corner.” I turned to him and said, “I didn’t say that. Everybody, we have at least 3 more miles to go. Do not listen to this man.” Dean just started laughing. Well, 20 minutes rolled on and we were now hitting mile 25. So what does Dean do? He turns to everybody and says, “Hey, everybody, it’s just around this corner.” I shouted, “You just said that 20 minutes ago! Do not listen to this man.” Dean then started laughing. I would have joined him in the laughter, but my poor sweet ass was killing me now. The pain was excruciating. Fortunately, we were all shuffling at this point at a slow pace.
Finally, we reached the finish. The five of us finished hand in hand. One of Dean’s team informed him he had to catch his flight to Arizona in about an hour. Dean turned to me and said we should all go to his hotel pool and jump in with all our running clothes and shoes on. One of his team informed him that might not be a good idea. So, Dean hung out and chatted and signed copies of his books we were given in our race bags. We all took a few photos. Dean said thanks for running with him. He told me I made it easier on him by cracking jokes in the later stages. I just told him it was the heatstroke, not me. And then, he was off.
I haven’t run since that day. My ass still hurts too much. A once-in-a-lifetime experience and what do I come away with—a pain in the ass. I had to walk quite gingerly the rest of the trip, not that I didn’t walk gingerly before. But seriously, I really enjoyed the run. Talking to Dean was better than running with Dean. I was glad our group was so small that we got to chat like that for long periods of time. The better part was Kazuhiko and I exchanged e-mail addresses and promised to keep in touch. Why, as I am writing this, I notice Kazuhiko has sent me another e-mail. So, all in all, I may have gotten injured in the ass, but I came away with a great experience and a new friend. Well worth it!