WELL the big day is almost here. Ko‘olau Trek turned
into mere fun runMore than two years in the making, the one and only Great Trans Ko'olau Trek over the unopened H-3 highway will go off at 7 a.m. on Sunday in four waves.
For all of its problems and all of the criticism I've leveled at it, I do hope all goes well for the runners.
They're the most important factor of all here.
I will be watching the race from a press vehicle on the course, keeping my fingers crossed that this beautiful but strange race venue is safe.
The H-3 was not designed for runners.
Two-foot-wide barriers with blinking lights will be positioned along both sides of the elevated highway, which is 160 feet above the ground at some points with 34-inch guard rails.
Ropes strung along the barriers and the presence of course marshals at regular intervals are supposed to reinforce the safety precaution.
This will leave about 20 feet of width for the runners to pass.
A hospital station will be set up under the mile-long Trans-Ko'olau Tunnel. Injured parties will be transported there by golf cart or ambulance.
Now, if you haven't been keeping score, there have been a few modifications to the original race plan.
Instead of 100,000 runners, there will be about 17,000.
The race will not be entered into the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest timed footrace in history. Race organizers now want to say it's the largest first-time event ever put together. It might be.
There are no elite runners "twitching," as race director Dr. Jack Scaff put it, to be part of the event. There are no world class runners in this event -- period.
Instead of a $100,000 prize purse, as was ballyhooed in earlier H-3 race newsletters, there will be no prize money at all.
That has deterred all but Amy (Legacki) Manson, a noted American road racer with a world class personality. Manson is not one of the country's top female runners but she's one of only two elite competitors officially invited by the Trans Ko'olau Trek.
IT is unlikely that any open or age group records established on the 10-mile race course will be nationally recognized.
One reason is that the event, while certified, will not be sanctioned by United States Track and Field (USTAF). Scaff said he is not concerned about that.
Another reason is that the elevation drop of the course exceeds what is acceptable to USTAF -- one meter per kilometer.
Yet another reason is that the timing method being used is imprecise. Finishers will not be timed individually as they are in the Honolulu Marathon.
Instead, they will be "block timed," at preset intervals.
When there is no individual timing, USTAF is reluctant to recognize age records.
But if you're not worried about getting an accurate time for the entry fee you paid, the lack of precise timing will not bother you.
MY biggest gripe about the H-3 event is that it's been so long in the making and yet it has not developed into much more than an event the size of the Great Aloha Run.
And just like the Great Aloha Run, it lacks competitive focus. Without any world class competition at the front of the field, what should have been an intense athletic contest is just another weekend road race in Hawaii.
My other major gripe with the H-3 race is that half-baked ideas like the mega-numbers, the Guiness record, and the hefty prize purse were all delivered to the media as fact.
Now that the laws of logic have cut the Trans Ko'olau Trek down to size, let's hope the organizers are better at executing it than at planning it.