In a recent chat with my friend and recent Ironman World Championship finisher Lisa Ledesma, I learned two things — one good, one bad.
First, the bad. Qualifying for the Boston Marathon recently got even harder when the Boston Athletic Association announced it adjusted qualifying standards. Lisa pointed out that qualifying standards will be five minutes faster for all age groups, starting with the 2020 Boston Marathon.
That was disheartening to hear.
I’ve been wanting to return to Boston since I ran there in 2006. It is the holy grail for marathoners. My qualifying time for my age group was 3 hours and 40 minutes. The last two years, I’ve run the Honolulu Marathon in 3:43, coming up short both times. I’ve started cranking up the training again, turning to the legendary Basil Scott for help, with hopes of besting that elusive 3:40.
That will no longer be good enough Now, I must run their qualifying standard of 3:35, and even than, that probably won’t get me in. Because Boston receives so many applications, it limits the field and fastest qualifiers register first. So, I have to run more like 3:30 at Honolulu on Dec. 9 to be in Beantown’s marathon in 2020.
I don’t believe I have a 3:30 in me, at least not in Hawaii’s heat and humidity. I don’t easily get discouraged, but I was now. To run even close to 3:30, frankly, seems an impossibility.
But Lisa’s second bit of information could prove helpful in my quest for Boston. She spoke of training runs up Kealia Road to the Spalding Monument, and how that made a difference in her races and helped her nearly qualify for Boston.
That’s all I needed to hear.
So recently, I headed up past the Kealia post office, my first visit to Spalding Monument. Let me get right to the point: This two and a half mile run to the monument is crazy beautiful. Despite a tough climb on this paved road, the rolling green pastures, the mountains, the brush, were breathtaking.
I normally hate running uphill. Not here. I couldn’t help but love it. I passed cows, bulls and horses. Only a few cars came and went. Just me and this beautiful, smooth, windy road. The air seemed cooler, lighter, than along the ocean path. It was easier to breath.
The best was yet to come.
After reaching the monument, the road splits at Kauai Ranch. Right takes you on a dirt road/trail to Anahola. Left, it comes out near Kapaa High.
On this day, I turned around — and was rewarded with the greatest 2.5-mile downhill run ever.
The sweeping ocean views that went on and on and on were mesmerizing. Amazing. A few times, I had to stop just to stare. I turned and looked all around. Simply stunning. It’s another world up here. Montana on Kauai.
The wind rustling in the trees and pastures, the blue skies, the mountain air, made this surreal.
Surprisingly, not everyone knows this or has even been to Spalding Monument. In a recent conversation with a friend who has called Kauai home 25 years, she said she had never been there until this year. She too was struck by the beauty, coming and going.
I ran hard, all the way down, sweat stinging my eyes, feeling fast and fit and strong. I didn’t feel like the old man who started with creaky steps that morning. I felt like a young man. I charged all the way back to Kealia Beach and the ocean path, bounding along, gasping for breath, smiling, stopping to soak in the moment, to revel in it. It was glorious.
I don’t know that I’ll ever be fast enough to qualify for Boston again. I may never get back.
But Kealia Road and Spalding Monument will always be there. And the only qualifying standards for this course, that I know of, are heart, desire and respect for the beauty that abounds.
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Bill Buley is editor-in-chief of The Garden Island. He can be reached at bbuley@thegardenisland.com
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Kauai’s Spalding Monument
Historian Hank Soboleski wrote the following (edited for length here) for his Island History column published in The Garden Island on April 29, 2018: On Sunday afternoon, April 20, 1930, dedication services chaired by K. Miyasaki and S. Takata were held at Kauai’s Spalding Monument, which had been recently erected by Japanese residents of Kealia in honor of former Makee Sugar Co. owner Colonel Zephaniah S. Spalding (1837-1927). Spalding Monument was constructed of concrete and lava rock two miles above Kealia at the junction of what was then called the Government Road, now known as Kealia Road, and Valley House Road, presently designated Hauaala Road. Mounted in the center on a large stone was affixed a plaque bearing the likeness of Colonel Spalding, and below that plaque, another plaque bearing an inscription with the date of Spalding’s birth and death. Perhaps since the 1990s, both plaques remain, but the likeness of Col. Spalding on one plaque, and the inscription on the other, have been defaced.
