Hoops and a run in Honolulu

‘A’OHE PU’U KI’EKI’E KE HO’À’O ‘IA E PI’I
(No cliff is so tall it cannot be climbed) – Hawaiian proverb

In my professional life, I’m a teacher and guidance counselor at Académie catholique Mère-Teresa in Hamilton.  We are a school of approximately 300 students, but our boys’ basketball team manages to compete with the province’s largest schools.  I credit the success of our program to our Head Coach, and my good friend, Martin Vaillancourt.  Martin grew up playing basketball in Québec, was a member of several provincial championship teams there, and later played for the Rouge et Or at l’Université de Laval.  I on the other hand, have never played competitive hoops, but have always had a certain passion for this game.  With my 5’5 frame, I guess I just have a secret yearning to be as tall as them!!

Before Martin’s arrival at our school, one of the many teams that I coached was the junior boys’ basketball squad (we had no senior teams at the time).  During those early years in our school’s history, we got thumped pretty badly, losing regularly by big margins.  When Martin was hired, with his basketball credentials, I gladly handed him the reins and volunteered to become his assistant.  Thanks to Martin’s expertise and hard work, we are now one of the strongest teams in Ontario, having won three consecutive OFSAA ‘A’ Championships.

One of our best recruiting tools is our bi-annual trip to Hawaii.  This tradition started in 2005 and will hopefully continue for many years to come.  In December 2009, the ACMT Jaguars made their third trip to the island of Oahu to compete once again in the Palama Settlement Christmas Classic.  As luck would have it, this year’s tournament dates coincided with the Honolulu Marathon.  We therefore planned to leave Hamilton a couple of days earlier, thus extending our Christmas break and allowing the coaches to participate in the race.

Martin is a big guy.  At 6’7 and nearly 300lbs, he obviously does not have the prototypical size of a distance runner.  I guess that over the years, a bit of my love of running has rubbed off on him and he decided to take up this wonderful pastime too.  Just over a year ago Martin decided that he would run his first marathon in Honolulu.  In the year leading up to this event, Martin completed two ½ marathons, the Sulphur Springs and Run For The Toad 25K races, and he faithfully followed his marathon training plan designed by his new running coach, Grimsby’s Doug Flis.

A major sponsor of the race is Nike.  Lo and behold, who was there working the Nike gait analysis treadmill and booth?  Clad head-to-toe in Nike apparel, another good friend and training partner Scott Myers was there!  Tough job…almost as tough as mine!  I had not seen Scott since we ran the Iroquois 100-miler in mid-September.  It’s pretty sad that I had to travel to the South Pacific to see my buddy who lives 3 miles from my house in Burlington! 

The Honolulu Marathon is the fourth biggest marathon in North America.  Race day welcomed over 23,000 determined runners (14,000 of which travelled directly from Japan) toeing the start line.  The event began at 5AM in order to get most of the distance covered before the Hawaiian heat sets in.  Martin and I woke up at 3AM in order to ensure we had plenty of time to catch one of the shuttles that transported runners from Waikiki to the start line at the Ala Moana Beach Park a few miles away.  With the largest and loudest fireworks display that I have ever seen before any race, the sea of runners was set off in the dark through the streets of downtown Honolulu towards Waikiki and eventually up Diamond Head Road.

Honolulu Marathon elevation profile

 By the time I had ascended Diamond Head, the sun had risen and it didn’t take long before it got hot and humid.  Unfortunately, this next section was an out-and-back along Kalanianiole Highway with no shelter from the sun’s penetrating rays.  The interesting part about this section however, was encountering all the runners, more specifically the leaders, as they raced to the finish.  Seeing the Kenyan’s glide effortlessly along the pavement was awe-inspiring.  I was at about the halfway mark and the leaders had a mere 5-6 miles to go!  On my return trip, I crossed Martin at about this same spot on the course.  Although there were thousands upon thousands of runners, Martin’s 6’7 frame towered over the countless Japanese runners surrounding him.  When he forwarded some race photos to his running club friends, they jokingly baptized him with a new nickname.  Some now referred to him as Godzilla!

Hawaii is one of my favorite places in the world, and the Honolulu Marathon provided some spectacular views of this island paradise.  The last couple of miles were the most scenic as we were treated to some beautiful coastal vistas with beaches on one side and mountains on the other.  The fact that the final miles were also run downhill made this section even more enjoyable…as pleasurable as the late miles of a marathon can be I suppose!  

The finish is along this stretch in Waikiki

 I crossed the finish line in 4:11:32 (chip time).  This was my second marathon in Hawaii.  My first Hawaiian race was the 2006 Kilauea Volcano Marathon which has since been cancelled over “concern and desire to protect the environment and cultural resources of the park”.  Martin’s time of 6:03:59 was about 30 minutes slower than he had anticipated, but considering the conditions and a nagging leg cramp at mile 18, he was nevertheless extremely pleased with his first marathon and wore his finisher’s t-shirt proudly.

Since the marathon was early in the trip, we both recovered fast enough to allow us to enjoy the “must-do” tourist attractions such as hiking in the Valley of the Rainbows, snorkeling in Hanauma Bay and climbing the dormant crater of Diamond Head volcano.  Oh yeah, we also had a basketball tournament to coach!  After a slow start with an exhibition loss to St. Georges of British Columbia, our Jaguars got into a groove and progressively got stronger as the tournament went on.  We followed up the loss with back-to-back wins over two Hawaiian schools.  First we beat Punahou (President Obama’s former team) by 8 points, and then easily defeated Marydale High School by more than 30 points.  These wins put us in the finals against a third Hawaiian team, Millilani High.  This was an extremely exciting game as both teams like to play at a fast pace.  We were down by 9 points at the half but battled back and eventually won 85-79 in a high-scoring, high-octane game!  This win was particularly special as the group we had with us wasn’t our full squad and the players who usually don’t play many minutes had a chance to prove themselves with their hard work and determination.  It was certainly a Monumental Effort by these young athletes!

Jaguars 2009 Palama Champs

 The entire team has agreed to wear our Hawaiian gear:  t-shirts or Hula shirts, sandals, board shorts, shell leis, along with our gold medals on our first day back at school.  This will undoubtedly help us kick-start our fundraising for our return to Hawaii, and inevitably another running of the Honolulu Marathon, in December 2011.

Tagged as: monumentalefforts, people