Hilo2Volcano...a brief overview (pt 1)

Here's a short overview of events that occurred during the ascent up the slopes of Kilauea this past weekend. Pardon while the participants continue to either come down from Cloud Nine in completing thier first ultra-marathon or clearing the clouds from their crania...in my case I'm still 'defrosting'!
Race began at 6am with 'roll-call' by the 'Big Dog'! Was so dark that we barely find the start line! The ultramarathoners (foolhardy) took off half an hour prior to the start of the teams.

A light drizzle fell about 1/2 an hour into the event, with temperatures at sea-level in the cool 70s. That would change drastically as the runners made thier way up the 'hill'.
About 2 hours later, the rain started coming down. The lead pack had reached about 1000 ft amsl, with temps starting to drop a bit. While there were a few major ascents, most of the road from mile 11 on remained a steady incline that one would hardly notice if they weren't running 31.4-miles.

By mile 20, things were starting to unravel for some. It was getting cold as the runners got intot the 2000 ft elevation range. The clouds were rolling in and even though the showers became intermittent, there was a good deal of moisture in the air. The roads were pretty wet, so vehilces passing by would send a good mist into the air. Visibility began to decrease so one couldn't quite see what lay on the horizon.

In reaching the 3000 ft amsl level, there's alot that goes through one's head, especially after running over 3/4 of a marathon distance uphill and in bad weather conditions. How much further? Why am I doing this? I'm hungry!!! For my part... I'm frrrrreeeezzzing! (Having less than 5% body fat has it's disadvantages...having the common sense not to put on additional clothes makes it worse!)
The elevation brings about another little problem for some...hypoxia. The mind is already beleaguered by the distance covered, with the lower amount of oxygen concentration in the air things start to become a bit more dramatic.
Upon reaching mile 26, runners were to make a right turn onto Wright Street (no pun intended) and proceed PAST the finish area, continuing down about two miles until they sighted the turnaround area. Few problems here...small arrows along the very edge of the pavement don't constitute a good marker for drenched, cold & tired runners to look for; having these same people go past the finish seems like plain torture; and a turnaround point shouldn't be a small insignificant cone with a small u-turn arrow drawn around it! Anyway it was agreed upon by most that those last two miles back to Cooper Station were either the hardest miles ever ran or just plain fun!
All finished within the allowed seven hours, though a bit drenched and cold (some more than others). Nothing a nice hot tub, a few beers, and some great grinds can't fix.

We all had a VERY memorable experience. Want to thank all for thier support, especially our three SAG wagon drivers. Moreover want to send big Mahalos to our party host Billy who let us 'soak it up' in the tub and hang at his awesome house!

More pics from the day to come!