A Few Malihinis: Races and Randoms

The Ultimate Kaua'i Trail Run (aka "Mud Run") fell a week after Brady's half marathon. Owen has been talking about this race for years and I signed up to run with him. Kate reluctantly agreed to run it, saying, "I hate mud SO MUCH! Why would I ever do this?" She talked herself into it.

The start was a mess. There were more than 1,500 people crammed into a bottleneck trail start, and many of those people were walkers. My excited kiddo was ready to race and so anxious about taking a solid 8-10 minutes before we could even jog. Once we hit that opening, though, he was off. He ran so much faster than I expected, but I knew it was "only" 5k so he could keep going. O has some endurance.

At the 2.2 mile water station, I told Owen we had less than 1 mile to go. The hills were getting steep and the sun hot, and his little face was bright red. He pushed ahead and kept running. The race kept going and going and going. I did not have my watch (it's white and this was a mud run), so I had no idea how long we had been running, but I knew it was much longer than a mile. At one point, at the top of a gorgeous vista, I saw the cars. They were far away. We were not close to finishing. However, by then, Owen had made friends with a kid named Xavien a few years older and they continued to pick people off, as well as pick strawberry guavas gobble them as they ran. At a few steep cliffs, I worried about Kate. Was she behind me or in front of me? I knew I had not passed her but maybe she was behind the big group of walkers, too. I worried she would need help down the slick, steep sections.

Finally, we hit the finish obstacles. I was given a huge bag of sand to carry as I ran up and down hills, and the kids raced ahead. Xavier and Owen agreed to finish together. I was so relieved to see Kate at the finish line, already done.

She WON for all keiki. She is FIERCE.

Owen ran the entire race.

This race was incredibly fun. It was also 5.5 miles. I thought about all the kids who I passed during mile 1 and knew it was going to take them hours to finish. It was hot and the water stations were few and far between. The cliffs were steep in some sections. So, my mama heart was anxious even though my family loved it.

We were rinsed off with a fire hose after jumping through big pools of mud.

Meanwhile, Zachary ran his first Cross Country race of the season in Waimea. It was toasty and the course was dreadful. He concluded that the race was harder than he expected. He placed 4th for his team. I felt for him when he arrived at the mud run. He wanted to race so badly and it was painful to do the CC race over his favorite mud run.

A few days later, Brady had double hernia surgery. It was his first time under the knife and under anesthesia, and I'll never forget his loopiness. He asked me questions multiple times and had to pee over and over from the IV. After I picked him up, he slept the rest of the day, still drugged and confused. Our friend did his anesthesia, and told us he gave Brady a good cocktail because "red heads have a lower pain tolerance." Ha! Like Zac's 5K, Brady was surprised by how hard the days after surgery felt--so much pain, so little sleep aside from the first foggy day, and so little ability to care for himself. He was also surprised and second guessing himself from the bloating that lasted a couple weeks.

Dad was out for weekend activities and Owen was plenty happy to pull treasures from his bin and play at the counter.

We are still going strong on our protein shakes introduced by Cory and Kristen. We let O have a little many mornings. He begs for the "Ninja."

Just a bit too many bubbles in this bubble bath but made for great pictures.

Owen's had a string of illness since starting the school year. COVID, a cold, and then hand-foot-mouth. Unreal! He was covered and even 8 days after the onset of spots, his doctor saw him and commented that it was a classic case and "Wow! You are just covered!" This is him finally feeling better and showing very few spots after over a week.

A race in Lihue that we all went to support. It was so fun to cheer Zac on together. He had a strong finish and this race started his string of 3rd place finishes for his team.

The temperature and humidity were stifling that day. No matter what, the girls' race time always had better weather conditions. They'd arrive each Saturday at 6:30am to race after the girls at 8:30am--and of course it was cooking by then. The one afternoon race (pictured) included nice, clouded conditions for the girls and roasting sunshine in the 4pm heat for the boys.

So. Many. Gnats.

Owen has been so cooperative with all his new piano lessons, and jumped right in on the daily practice when Ms. Lois took over lessons since school started. I wondered if it would be a tough adjustment since he has more to do now than when I taught him, but he is stepping right up for the challenge.

Racing at Kapa'a High:

Island School hosted the next race. They have the best course, although all the courses could be better! One funny thing about Cross Country here are the potlucks after every race. Did you run a 5k? Great! You should eat as much as possible on an upset running tummy.

Love that Kate is so into running that she went out of her way each Saturday to get up early and go watch the races.

Her desire to get up early and cheer her brother on came the morning after her own Middle School Invitational where she won 2nd place of all middle school females! So exciting to cheer on my little miss long legs.