Running Oʻahu

I am a runner, not a racer.  I love running, but for me it is about the running, not the speed, not the best time, not the PR.

I’d rather have a scenic run or an adventure, than a fast run.  I like runs that are worthy of a hundred or more photos.  I like runs that are enough of a challenge that afterward, people ask, “You ran where?”

I am in the Army.  Yes, that means on active duty — I play soldier every day.  I am assigned to a unit in Hawai’i, and am just back from a year in Iraq with them.

I am in a running mood.  During my year in Iraq, I got back into running – more to help deal with the stress of it all than anything else.  I trained for and completed the 2009 Honolulu Marathon, mainly for the joy of putting in the miles getting ready (though the beer at mile 20 was pretty good, too).

So, I am going to see what the island of Oahu has to offer for fun and exciting runs.

I run alone.  I use an old iPod with some cheap noise-canceling headphones.  I am a huge fan of my Garmin Forerunner 305, and I use it religiously.  I often run with one of my camelbacks — either a stripped down 60 oz one, or a larger 100oz one that has more bells than whistles that I really need but works very well.

I find routes through either books or the web.  I lay out my plans in Google Earth.  I never get the run right the first time, which is just fine with me because I enjoy exploring as I run.

And no, I am not fast.  An ideal run would be 13 to 15 miles through the jungle and up a ridge.  If I take less than 100 photos on a run, there’s something wrong with the run or I ran out of battery.  Oh, and I use a Fujifilm Z33 WP.