For the past three years now, I have spent the last Saturday in July at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park for the Volcano Wilderness Run. It’s become a whole weekend affair immensely good for body and soul.
You could join us you know;
Mark your calendar now and plan for it next year: July 28, 2007. What a tremendous Ho‘ohana Community adventure that would be! You have a choice between 5 miles (Walk or Run), 10 miles, and marathon.
We drive up on Friday afternoon, and pamper ourselves for two nights at one of the Volcano Village bed and breakfast cottages, surrounded by rainforest, and feeling we are on blessed earth. It is a time when the yellow kahili ginger are in majestic bloom, and their scent pervades your senses with a kind and gentle delicacy. When it is clear, you are privy to what surely must be one of the rarest displays of starry lit skies on the planet, and when it rains the respectful quiet will reveal more pattering sounds than you’d thought nature’s watering could make.
Rain or no rain, our Sunday morning tradition has been another short three or four mile run to keep our tired legs somewhat limber, with the dawn-kissed Volcano streets seemingly made for our routine. We always wake early, but feeling incredibly refreshed no matter the run results the day before. Somehow, your subconscious is fully aware you are in a special place, and daybreak is not to be missed. By 7:00am we’ve already done the miles, showered and changed for a pre-breakfast stop at the Volcano Village Farmer’s Market.