I had to take about two minutes out of the bank for the climb up Pay n' Save hill. I was expecting to see Ian/Dad on the climb but they were nowhere to be found. This was a disappointment because I was having a great run and was looking forward to telling them about it. At the top of the hill, we had to turn away from the Energy Lab and do a short out and back section to Henry Street. Dad and Ian were waiting at the out and back. That cheered my up enormously. Ian could tell that I was on a bit of a high and warned me to watch my heart rate. I was running 138 at the time and told him no problems. This was about 8.5 miles into the run and I was still feeling very good.

Away we go, into the lava fields for a dose of nature's truth serum (Mark Allen's description). The run out of town is not visually interesting but the men's field was running in and I enjoyed cheering Peter Reid, Ken Glah, Tim De Boom and Greg Welch. There were plenty of fast age groupers heading into town. No one looked like they were having an easy time of it. A couple people were fighting cramps.

After a few more miles, I was stoked to see Lori running by looking very strong. She would go on to run the first sub-three hour marathon for a lady in Kona. Not very far behind was Karen Smyers and she also looked very strong. Around this part of the run, I started having a little trouble pushing my HR up to 140 and as a result, I ran at least two miles at slower than eight minutes per mile pace. I arrived at my estimate of the halfway mark with nothing left in the bank (i.e. at an average pace of eight minutes per mile).

Based on how I was feeling, I realised that sub-10:45 could be possible if I continued to push. At that stage, I made a commitment to myself to do my best to keep the HR at 140. I was talking to myself, using positive affirmations, grunting, heavy breathing, anything to keep pushing. Emotions inside me were running high and I knew that I was a bit on the edge. I was having trouble calculating my mile splits. I wasn't using the lap function because I wanted to keep the lap on my overall marathon time. I have no idea why this was important to me.

Eventually, I could see the large palm trees that line the entrance to the Energy Lab and that perked me up. I knew that I would be getting my letter from Luke and Vangie in my run bag and that gave me something to anticipate. I had read the letter in advance and also written some extra words to myself. Although, in my state, I couldn't remember exactly what I had included.

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