If you are looking for an excuse to spend a little time in paradise, I highly recommend running the Maui Marathon. Next year’s event is scheduled for September 21, so there is plenty of time for advanced planning. If you’re not sold yet, let me tell you about this year’s event.
I booked a package deal through Marathon Tours – the travel agency recommended by the official website (www.mauimarathon.com).
The accomodations were downright luxurious. I chose 4 nights of hotel, airfare, rental car, and trip insurance. It was a little over $1,100 for one person (a little cheaper per person for two).
Aside from all the possible activities to enjoy while on Maui, there is an expo associated with the run. The expo is fairly small, but has plenty of discount gear to purchase. I took advantage of a “low stress” chiropractor, free of charge.
The run is a point-to-point run that covers a good portion of the island. The day of the run begins with a bus ride out to the start at 3:15am! It seemed as though they must have had every school bus and driver on the island for transportation. There were 2,226 runners total.
The race start is at 5:30am, an hour before sunrise, complete with the sound of conch shell horns and tiki torches. The first hour of the run is great – cool temps, primarily flat, and plenty of sugar cane fields for quick “relief” if needed. After the sun rises over extinct volcano Haleakala, it’s a different story. The hills aren’t really that bad, and the scenery truly gorgeous as you pass Maalaea Harbor. Rather, it is the heat the sunrise brings with it that makes it challenging!
The race planners do as much as they can to help. First, by the time the sun rises, you are facing directly away from it. I brought sunglasses and didn’t even use them. Secondly, they have water and Powerade every mile, with an added bonus of sponges soaked in ice-cold water. The “iced sponges” made all the difference for me.
I had a really great time on Maui and recommend the marathon for anyone. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that they ran us almost entirely on the left shoulder of the road, and it was difficult to find level ground to run on.