May 15, 2015 at 3:49 p.m.
Rhinelander man finishes 18th out of 5,600 in Hawaiian half-marathon
Rhinelander man finishes 18th out of 5,600 in Hawaiian half-marathon
For him, running is more about the feeling of freedom than burning calories or improving cardio. It's the rhythm from pounding the road that he loves.
"I got into running when I was about 14," he said. "I've pretty much been running ever since. What I enjoy about it is the peacefulness of it. I'm kind of a high-strung person and running helps bring me down a few notches."
He's good at it too, and regularly competes in races. That's how, in the middle of April, Lapachin found himself crossing the finish line of a half-marathon thousands of miles away and in front of thousands of other runners.
"Every April, we close the shop and my wife and I like to take a big trip," he said. "Hawaii is often a destination for us. This year, we bought our tickets and then I started to look at races. I figured I'd just look, and sure enough, there was this big race going on. There were a lot of runners."
He happened to be on the island for The Hapalua, the state's biggest half-marathon. Around 5,600 runners from all over the world travel to Hawaii for the event, which starts near Waikiki Beach and travels through the streets of downtown Honolulu before winding around the volcanic crater of Diamond Head.
Lapachin said the course wasn't as daunting as it appeared and he knew he could run the race at a good, consistent pace.
"The strategy for me was to get a good pace and lock in," he said. "I knew that most of the course was pretty flat, so if I could lock into a good pace and get comfortable with it, I could put it in cruise. That's the plan anyway and it worked out quite well. I was shooting for one hour and 30 minutes, which is about a seven-minute mile. After awhile, I realized I was probably doing around a 6:30 mile."
As Lapachin made his way through the course, he said he appreciated the beautiful Hawaiian scenery.
"What's nice is that they blocked the streets," he said. "You just ran right down the street. The most beautiful part was toward the end when we went around Diamond Head (Crater State Monument). It was the most beautiful but the most hilly too. It was really pretty and it was so cool that everything was blocked off for us. The views to the ocean and the beach were pretty nice."
As he neared the finish line, Lapachin said he knew he had made pretty good time, but wasn't sure exactly where he was going to finish.
"I was hopeful, but I'm 42 years old," he said. "To maintain and to run fast as I'm getting older is a lot harder. I have to train a lot harder. I train pretty hard over the wintertime just in general."
When he finally finished the race, Lapachin finished in 18th place out of more than 5,600 runners, with a time of 1 hour, 27 minutes, 48 seconds. He said it was incredible feeling.
"It felt really good to finish," he said. "I was so tired. It's just a great feeling. That's as fast as I could have possibly ran that, and that's a good feeling. I don't look back and think I could have done things differently. I know I ran that race absolutely as fast as I could. Because of that, when you finish, you feel good."
Andy Hildebrand may be reached at [email protected].
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