Maui Course Conditions Update

VIRTUAL MAUI (Click for full-size images)
Maui Prince Beach	Heartbreak Hill	Bike elevation grid	Oil Tank
The Plunge	Makena Beach	Spooky Forest	Finish!

THE SWIM

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Kahuna’s cannon blast marks the 9:00 a.m. start with more than 500 competitors lined up in the sand. As racers charge into the shorebreak at the Maui Prince Beach, the majestic West Maui Mountains reach skyward on the horizon. Surf is forecast to be 1 – 2 feet, so getting in, getting around the buoys, and out of the water should be easy (in relative terms, of course). The open-ocean swim is two laps of a 750-meter, counter-clockwise course with a 150-meter beach sprint between laps. There’s been a slight change in the path swimmers will follow. Two bouys mark the short corners of uneven rectangle that sits perpendicular to the beach. A short run to transition on the Maui Prince luau grounds sends racers off on the 30-kilometer mountain bike.

THE BIKE (32-kilometers)

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Competitors are not allowed to pre-ride the bike course

Weather forecasters are hinting at near-perfect race day conditions – great news for the second and most treacherous leg of this race. The steep climbs and descents have claimed more than a fair share of victims. Lava rocks the size of softballs flip racers over like pancakes, leaving them with a mean case of road rash. The good news is rains should hit the summit of Haleakala (web cam) overnight Saturday and settle the dust on the course. Prior years, the course was so dusty racers couldn’t suck in enough air to feed churning muscles. Bikers ahead churn up dust clouds for the bikers behind, making it hard for followers to read the terrain. Others years torrential rains washed out the course, leaving massive potholes all over the course. But this year has been relatively mild. Just enough rain to pat down the red dirt and feed the kiawe trees (so those nasty thorns stay put on their branches), but so much that it trashes the trails.

THE RUN (10-kilometers)

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Bike-run transition brings racers back to the luau grounds. Runners get a little break from the demand of the volcano’s harsh ascents for the first mile or so. Then begins the work of tackling the lower slope of Haleaka to the spot known as Oil Tanks that meets the bike course. The next mile reaches back down to the ocean through Cactus Alley. Gravity gives a little a relief, but the rugged terrain demands the racers’ attention. Once back at sea level, another half-mile stretch of deep sand on Makena Beach awaits. Scrambling through the next section of rough outback means runners must duck under kiawe branches, and hop over fallen trees, while trying avoiding those pesky roots buried just below the surface. The saving grace on this portion of the course is the shade of the Spooky Forest. By this time of day, the heat has kicked up. Fortunately the  prevailing cool tradewinds are doing their best to stick around through race day. The final two-tenths of race cross Black Sand Beach, another classic Hawaiian white sand beach and a final run along the oceanfront golf course to the finish at the Maui Prince Luau grounds.

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