Maui, HI 6:00 am
Pace: 8:59 Avg HR: 146
For my last run on Maui, I wanted to do something different, so I got up a little earlier and drove down past Big Beach to the point where I turned around on the first day. Not far from there is the place where the map says your car rental agreement is void if you go past it. I thought it was going to be a dirt road but it was paved the whole way, just really narrow. It goes down to the south end of the island through a nature reserve. The road cuts through lava flows that, in some places feel like you are running on Mars (I've never run on Mars, but I can imagine). The views were awesome too, watching the sun come up over Haleakala. I had to work my way around a few puddles left over from Wednesday's rain, but none were very big until I got to La Perouse Bay. There was really no way around the water that stretched across the road because there was a cactus-looking plant on either side. It didn't have sharp thorns, but kind of slapped you like fish. I ended up wading through part of it and then kept running into the parking lot of the bay. That's where the road ended. But I saw a trail, so I took it. The trail went through another lava flow and then went along the beach.
The beach trail was mostly hardpacked sand and rocks through trees and jumping over washouts. But then it started to stink like a dead animal and there was a lot of poo everywhere. Then I looked down and saw a footprint and thought "hmmm, that looks like a pig's foot." As that thought is just starting to register I see three wild boars about 30 - 50 yards away. So, I peed a little, turned around and did some speedwork. There, I've admitted it. I'm afraid of wild pigs. I actually think they were running away from me, but I wasn't taking any chances.
When I got back to La Perouse Bay I continued on to that big puddle. I was still a little shaken up from the pig encounter and in no mood to go wading again, so I waited a minute or two until a hippie van showed up. The hippie guy and his hippie girlfriend had spent the night at the Bay in their hippie van. So I hitched a ride across the puddle with the hippies. Thank heaven for nice hippies.
The rest of the run back was pretty uneventful. A lot like the first half, but in the opposite direction. I had planned on doing a ten-miler this morning, but by the time I got back to the car I decided that six was enough.
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