Volcano Marathon Dormant

In anticipation of the Honolulu Marathon that I will be running on December 13th, I revisited this race report that has recently appeared in the 50 States Marathon Club newsletter.  In 2006, I had the pleasure of competing in the Volcano Marathon in Hawaii.

Although the Kilauea Volcano, the World’s most active volcano, continues to spill lava from its cones of Pu`u `O`o onto Hawaiian soil and into the Pacific Ocean as it has continually since 1983, the marathon that runs in and around its park has been cancelled.  A  press release on the Volcano Arts Center website (http://www.volcanoartcenter.org/) cites that “Sulfur dioxide gas and ash from the ongoing eruption continues to inundate several miles of the former race routes” and “concern and desire to protect the environment and cultural resources of the park” as factors for the cancellation and therefore deemed that the race was no longer feasible.

I hope this post will allow former finishers from the past 26 years of the Kilauea Volcano Marathon to reminisce about this gem.  To runners who were not fortunate to experience this race, may this account encourage you to seek-out and support those obscure and low-key events.

“Ultra-esque” Volcano Marathon

Having completed over 30 ultra marathons, I decided it was time to attempt my FIRST standard 26.2 mile marathon.  An important question remained:  Which marathon would be my inaugural one?

I was drawn to ultras in 2000 when a friend suggested that I run the Sulphur Springs 50K race in Dundas, Ontario instead of a marathon.  Although it was an epic struggle, I was hooked!  After running that first ultra, the thought of running a crowded marathon along city streets did not appeal to me.

In April, my wife Joanne and I booked our summer vacation: a trip to Hawaii.  A Google search revealed that during our stay, a marathon was being held approximately two hours away from our resort.  The Kilauea Volcano Marathon’s website billed this event as “one of the World’s toughest measured marathon”.  The race has a strict limit of 225 runners, suggests entrants have significant trail running experience and even recommends that runners wear protective clothing to reduce the chance of injury.  I certainly was not going to qualify for Boston, but it appeared that I had found my marathon.

We arrived on Hawaii’s Big Island on Monday July 24^th 2006, five days before the race.  Tuesday’s front-page headline in the Honolulu Advertiser read:  “HURRICAN DANIEL HEADS TOWARDS HAWAII”.  The storm was some 800 miles off the coast and was expected to hit the Big Island sometime late Friday or early Saturday morning…just in time for the race!  GREAT!  I had already run 11+ hours in the pouring rain earlier in the year at the Bull Run Run 50-miler, but I was not willing to tackle any distance in a hurricane!  Much to our delight, Daniel was downgraded to a tropical storm, then a tropical depression, and eventually forecasters announced that remnants of Daniel would only bring isolated showers to the Island late in the week.  Relieved, we spent the next couple of days enjoying the sites of the Kona Coast before loading up our rental car and heading to Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park.

After checking-in at the race headquarters and fuelling up at the carbo-load dinner buffet (featuring several types of pastas, meats, salads, Mahi-mahi fish and desserts) we retired to our studio cottage bed & breakfast for some much needed sleep.  Unfortunately, heavy rains pounded the metal roof of our cottage all night and not much sleep was had.  The marathon started at 6 AM, so we were up early for breakfast and other pre-race rituals.

The day began cold, gray, wet and miserable.  A light drizzle fell upon the 135 starters.  Then at 6 AM sharp, the starter gun was fired and the runners left the starting line.  A couple of minutes later, the sun slowly found its way through the clouds and it did not take long to warm up.

The start of the race at Volcano Park Visitors Center sits at 4078 feet above sea level.  The first mile of the race follows the park roads before entering the Ka’u Desert trail.  That’s right, DESERT!  The Kilauea Volcano, the World’s most active volcano, is surrounded by a desert and the first 13 miles runners must circle the volcano through the desert…and there is NO trail!  This section was somewhat surreal.  I felt as though I could be running on the moon (minus the weightlessness of course) on a combination of hardened lava rocks, deep and soft black sand, and crunchy charcoal.  I was expecting the lava to crack open and swallow me up at any moment.  Since there is noticeable trail, runners navigated their way from one tiny yellow flag to the next through this barren land.  Soon runners disappeared on the horizon and the sun’s glare made it difficult to spot the flags.  On several occasions I was 20 or 30 feet off course and had to zigzag back towards the “trail”.   Aid station volunteers along this section had hiked in and camped in the desert (no rain there, just lots of wind they said) the night before.

Volcano crater

We had now dropped over 1000 feet, although it really did not feel like we were going downhill.  At the mid-way mark, we were finally out of the desert, but we had to climb back up to the top of the volcano.  The next five miles ran along paved park roads (Chain of Craters Road) and basically all of it was uphill, but very scenic.  We were surrounded by hardened lava from past eruptions.

At mile 18 we entered another trail, this one an unpaved, grassy road called the Escape Road, in a humid rain forest.  Only on the Big Island of Hawaii can you find yourself in the desert and in the rain forest separated by only a few miles.  Climate and vegetation vary greatly in this corner of the World.  Four miles and roughly 800 feet later, we began the last leg of the race.  Since I had walked a lot during the previous uphill section, I was ready to do a bit of running.  The Crater Rim Trail is narrow and steep and circles the crater whose floor is 300 feet below the rim and two and a half miles across.  We ran past several natural steam vents, through the military camp and finally to the finish where runners received their finishers t-shirts and medals.

Vince on Escape Road

My time of 5 hours 17 minutes and 30 seconds placed me once again in the middle-of-the-pack at 65^th out of 121 finishers.  This time resembles several of my recent 50K trail times, such as The Ground Hog Fall 50K in Punxatawney, Pennsylvania and the Run for the Toad 50K in Paris, Ontario.  Several factors contributed to the difficulty of this race.  The elevation change, the heat radiating from the lava rocks, the humidity in the rain forest and the varied terrain make this marathon unlike any.  The Kilauea Volcano Marathon is not ultra-long, but certainly ultra-tough.

Minutes after my finish, the skies clouded over and the heavy rains hammered the island for the remainder of the day and night.  The rest of the week however, we were treated to clear skies and temperatures in the mid 80’s.

Aloha and Mahalo!