Hot and humid — but nevertheless Great — Aloha Run

Last year, I ran the Great Aloha Run — an 8.15-mile race between Aloha Tower and Aloha Stadium. This year, due to injury, I walked it. What I missed last year by running it? All the people who finish and then run the same route back. That's 16.3 miles! Judging by all the people running back, this state has a whole lot of fit people.



Of course, the year-round good weather makes for easy outdoors time — lots of running, hiking and water sports. Hawaii last year was ranked the fifth fittest state in the nation according to an annual report. There were more than 27,000 registrants for the Great Aloha Run (known locally as "The GAR"), a 10-year high.

The weather was mild, but far from great — our famed tradewinds have been gone the last week or so, allowing "vog" (volcanic smoke and particulates that mix with low clouds) to make our daytime skies hazy and hot. The humidity was way up there and we started to feel it around 8 a.m. as the sun rose and started cooking us. But my team walked briskly and we were done in about 2:10. It was all worth the effort to keep our — and Hawaii's — fitness humming.

SIDE NOTE: The end of the video is seriously low-res — my Kodak Zi8 froze and died right after we got past the starting line, so I had to use the video on my little Sony point-and-shoot digi camera. The Zi8 promised to behave next time.