#throwbackthursday

Ten days ago my husband and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary. Which means that two years ago today I was busy falling in love with Hawaii. I wasn't blogging back then, but I was running. In fact, running a race in Hawaii was the inspiration for starting a blog.

Tunnels Beach.

I was feeling nostalgic the other day and decided to read the race recap that I posted a few months later, when I finally got the blog started. I realized that I mentioned our honeymoon both started and ended with a run. If you have read the recap, then you know how it started (we literally drove from the airport straight to packet pickup!). So this post will be about how I managed to end our honeymoon a day early.

Nā Pali Coast.

I'd have to look back at my training journal, but I think we ended up running about 5-6 times over the two weeks that we were on Kauai. Ugh. I hope that doesn't sound like I spend most of my honeymoon worrying about training. I actually wasn't training for anything at the time and only ran when it tied in with sightseeing.

Our flight home left on a Saturday evening. On Friday morning, our last full day of vacation, I got a running map from the concierge and planned a 3 mile morning run with my husband. Our plan for the day was to run a few miles and then hike down to Queen's Bath (again).

Queen's Bath. Easier to get to if you don't wear flip flops.

The route that we chose was a paved path that ran along the road in some sections, then looped through a subdivision, and back on to the paved path. Please note that this was not a sidewalk. It was this black lumpy thing with huge cracks running across it.

As you might have realized, I have a tendency to be just a bit competitive. So when I realized if we ran just a tiny bit faster we would probably end up passing this other runner before we finished our run, well, I decided we should run a bit faster. And that is when I stopped paying attention to the lumpy broken black top and started focusing on reeling in my target.

Polihale Beach (7 miles of sandy beach ends in these cliffs)

And that is when I felt my left toe catch a piece of uneven pavement. There was no stopping it. I was going down. I tried to aim for the grass on my left, but that just resulted in me coming down HARD on my left elbow. and both knees. and sliding in a way that took off a lot of skin. I had never fallen while running before so I was kind of in a state of shock (don't worry, I've fallen twice since then so I'm really getting the hang of it).

After much swearing and making sure nothing was broken and more swearing I was able to hobble back to our hotel room. Kendall tasked me with washing the dirt/gravel/lava rock out of my wounds while he went out to find bandages. After he convinced the hotel employee that a band-aid was really not going to cut it, he returned with some gauze and tape.

There was a lot more crying and rock picking before I was all bandaged up. And in a lot of pain. It was still very early in the day, but our honeymoon was basically over. There would be no hiking to Queen's Bath (can't bend knees), no last bit of snorkeling (salt water in wounds), not even a quick dip in the pool (chlorine in wounds). I'm so grateful that this happened at the end of our honeymoon.

See you in a few years, Kauai!

We are hoping to head back to Hawaii for our 5th anniversary. I'm hoping to do a bit of running while we are there but I think I will need to leave the competitive edge at home. Three souvenir scars are enough for me.