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As many of the 50 staters, Hawaii was my last state. Difficult and expensive to get to, I wanted to make this a destination than just my normal in and out.

When planning, Maui fit almost perfectly with the 3/4 week cycle of of the preceeding 4 final states, but It fell in the middle of school, and being just after the Christmas/New Years break, made it unpopular with work. Nonetheless...

Flights from Manchester were too hard, so I chose Delta out of Boston. This meant a night on-airport so that my daughter Em and I could make the early flight, and we drove worn Wednesday, parked off-airport and shuttled to the hotel. Up at 4:30, and to the airport at 5:50 was perfect for our 7AM flight.

6 hours later, we popped out in Seattle, with enough time to get to the next flight. Em and I weren't seated together -- she had a window and me an aisle -- but I switched with middle in her row and I moved her over

6 hours later, after Em had some awful ear pain on decent, we made it to Maui, quick through baggage and into a rentel car.

I couldn't get into the Hilton properties, and the Marriott was too expensive, so I had settled for the Maui Beach Hotel, a converted Howard Johnson's that was a bit tired and worn, but fine.

Get to packet pickup -- many 50 staters there, and 35 of us finishing the states in Maui, the classy race director had given all of the expectant finishers bib number 50. He freaked us out a bit with an email that the delivery of gateraid had not made it to the island, and we were limited to 1 stop that was to have it

Em and I spent the rest of Friday at the beach (along the race route) and visiting the Aquarium (also on the route)

Saturday, we packed an overnight and my race stuff, and headed for a night at the Marriott, to be at the start. We played on the beach and pool there, then we walked to the Four Seasons, to Carbo load at Ferraro's, where unbelieveably, I ran into a neighbor (the guy up the street) who has a place in Maui.

We walked up to the Start at 4:30 where they gave us a traditional Hawaiian prayer, complete with conch shells. I met up with Eric (who was running his first) and Susan who was supporting and driving Em, and Mark Grandanico (also finishing, from Maine) who I have run 7 marathons with

The expectant finishers took a picture together

The race director (Les) had the 50 State finishers and the top-charity earners line up in front for the start

It was still dark and in the 60s. Many of us wore headlamps.

Eric was a little faster than I, but I caught him in a couple miles, when we saw his wife and Em.

We stripped off our head maps and sprayed on sunscreen at 10

I held a decent pace thru the first 10, but I lost a step by 13, where we passed the aquarium and entered the hill of the Pilani. The sun came up and it got Hot.

I had to let Eric go at 15, but I kept in in sight for a few miles

We saw whales, but I couldn't get a picture. Em got a few and a nice pic of me. I got a gatoraid refill from her at 16 that I badly needed

The last few miles were very hard and hot...

And then I was done....

We spent the rest of the week having fun: Playing at the Beach; Old Lahaina Luau; Horseback riding at Ironwood; Whale Watch Cruise on the Pride of Maui; and Driving to the top of the Volcano

So what's Next?