Run The Marina Half Marathon

Run The Marina is AMAZING! Run The Marina is directed by Charlie Alewine Racing (CAR), the races are inexpensive and very low key. The Half marathon course is three big loops and the marathon is six. The first part of the loop goes around a fire station then goes through a neighborhood until you reach a turn around and go back to the aid stations. After that you run by a HUGE marina and you run up a bridge and then turn around.

Its 6:00 A.M. and I’m looking around seeing if I have a chance to be in the top three runners because the top three get trophies.

1, 2, 3 GO! I took off running in the front with my friend Deo (Deo has earned ten stars in the Marathon Maniacs several times and has done about three hundred marathons). I was feeling pretty good until I reached the Marina and felt like I was going to have to stop and barf in one of the trees.

Mile 4-8
I lost Deo after the first four miles and a girl doing the half marathon started getting closer and closer so I decided that I was going to try to lose her so she isn’t any trouble in the home stretch. Swoosh! I just passed the half way point and the girl was creeping up. Once she got next to me we started talking to each other and we would ask each other questions like in your opinion what is the worst part of the course? At mile seven I lost her and again I was close to the aid station, good I had enough time to grab water.

Mile 8-13.1
I was in first by a land slide from mile nine to ten but I was losing energy and the wind was strong so it felt like I was running with weights on my shoulders and it was harsh. Now I was at about mile 11.5 and another runner came by and gave me one of her GU chomps mmm apple I was chewing on those until mile 12.5 when I started going a bit faster and the girl was in sight but I was well ahead of her. Right when I saw the finish line I put on my warrior face and started sprinting. Bam! I finished in 1:56:14 coming in first place!!! I just won a half marathon! and I beat second place by about 2 minutes and third place by about six minutes. I was overjoyed when I crossed the finish. I was the only person under eighteen at the race and I just won it !!!

After the race I hung out at the aid station with Charlie, my dad, and my sister. About two hours later, Deo came in he finished in three hours forty four minutes and won the marathon! Deo was ecstatic that he not only did a sub four hour marathon, but he won the marathon too.

Shortly after Deo finished the marathon, a Jeep was pulling out of its parking spot and a Moped came flying by and hits the Jeep and the Moped rider flies over the Jeeps hood and landed hard on the cement. Charlie called 911 and me and my dad rushed over to help him, his whole body was fine except his knee, the paramedic said he had a soft tissue injury.

After the accident I ran on the course to look for my mom so I could finish with her. She was at about mile 26 when I caught her and we finished the race together. She finished in 5:19:40 :) it was her second marathon of the weekend. It was a great day.


Deo and I

San Diego Half Marathon at Petco Park Race Review

The San Diego Half at Petco Park is AWESOME! The start is right outside Pecto Park and it runs through downtown San Diego. The course is almost all flat except at mile 8 where there is “a growth opportunity” that lasted about 3/4s of a mile and then the last three miles is all down hill so you can have an ‘epic’ finish, as the race director said.

Mile 1-4 were probably the worst miles of the entire half which is strange because its when you normally don’t feel pain. Right when I passed the start line I took off like a gazelle running for my life and made sure to get right in front of the people taking pictures just in case they were good :). At about mile two I had severe side cramps and I was forced to do kind of a run/walk so I would run for about five minutes then walk for about ten seconds. As I run/walked past the fourth mile marker I noticed a bunch of guys working on building a ship and as I ran by I wanted to stop just to sniff the cedar wood mhhh!

At mile 5 my cramp was gone but I had random pains springing up from no where and I slowed down because there was someone with an iPhone playing music and it kind of helped me ignore my pain and keep moving. At mile eight the so called “growth opportunity” came along and I could hear people moaning “oh no.....” But I was ready and I wasn’t going to give up on my goal and for some reason I started going faster then before.

Woot woot I finished the hill! Now the rest of the race is all down hill which wasn’t too good. The thing about going down hill is that you're tempted to go super fast down and when you do that, you burn your quads and your feet feel like their being torched. Now the finish line is in sight and I can hear Rudy Novotny yelling “you’re all about to finish in one hour and fifty minutes!” As I came down to the tunnel to get into Petco Park and to finish I started to get a little bit emotional because I just beat my dad’s half marathon personal record! I finished in one hour fifty-two minutes and fourteen seconds, I beat my dad’s record by six seconds! My dad said I am officially the fastest one in the house.


After the race I cheered at mile 13 for a while until mom came to take me away from Ed the Jester who was cheering too so I could meet Meb (he won first place in America’s Olympic trials marathon). Meb told the audience in Petco Park that you should never let anyone look down on you and say you can’t do this you or can’t do that and that you should always follow your heart and chase your dreams. After Meb’s speech he came down and my dad yelled his name and he came over to us! He asked me if I did the race today and asked how fast I did it and Rudy told him that he better watch out for me :) Meb said "you're going to be fast when you're older!" It made me ecstatic. The San Diego Half at Petco Park really made my day.

Finish Chelsea's Run 5k

Finish Chelsea’s Run is a race that was set up to honor Chelsea King. Chelsea was an amazing student and athlete. When Chelsea was 17 she went out on a training run on a park trail when she was suddenly attacked on the trail she was running on.

The Finish Chelsea’s Run was developed to raise money to support Chelsea’s law. In Chelsea’s 5K sunflowers surround the start/finish and the people cheering have signs that show Chelsea’s words to live by like “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” - Eleanor Roosevelt.

There were 6,000 runners and in the beginning of the race my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest.

Runners set... GO! I heard Rudy Novotny yell at the start (If you don’t know Rudy he is known as the voice of America’s marathons). I was running with the elites for about a minute and 30 seconds. I was doing this race for time. The course itself runs on a street road and at mile 2 there is a rolling hill that ends at about mile 3. Right at the beginning of that hill you run by trees and when I ran by the aroma of trees surrounds me and I was engulfed by the experience. It reminded me of the looking out my backyard in Hawaii and just breathing in the fresh air.

At around mile 2.5 I experienced a “little” hill. The hill was extremely steep and I hugged the side to walk about half way through it. As got closer to the finish line I started to here people cheering and I heard Rudy yell “5 seconds left do you want to break 22 minutes?” Right when I heard that my body went on auto pilot and my body took over i started sprinting like someone was chasing me “5, 4, 3 ,2” right before the clock said 22 minutes I finished! When I finished to race I took off and ran to mile 3 to cheer for runners before anyone could stop me. In the end I finished 4th in my age division and 122nd over all.


-With Rudy and my Mom after the race-



-My Results-