This trip was plotted about a month before departure, I decided that I wanted to run a marathon in an attractive place, with an element of fun about it that would detract the seriousness of having to survive twenty-six miles, and also have a few decent brewpubs to celebrate afterwards. San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon seemed to fit the criteria perfectly, but city breaks get boring after a few days, so what then?

Going through the marathon.com website I noticed a race in Samoa six days after the San Diego Marathon, so it was then I decided a few days in the South Pacific would make good chill out time.

Now it was just a question of flight connections. Having been to the South Pacific before I knew of only one airline that would cover Samoa, and that was Air New Zealand, and guess what........they were having a seat sale, so the trip was on.

San Diego proved a great destination for a racing holiday, and I enjoyed running the marathon. It was certainly a little different to what i was going to experience in Samoa.

I arrived in Samoa on Wednesday after a ten hour flight from Los Angeles, plenty of time for acclimatisation, the island was beautiful, the people were friendly, I was told they have given up their cannibalistic tendencies, so everything was great, and it wasn't long before race day (Saturday) was upon me.

The race had an early start so I was up at 3:45am, time for a shower, two powerbars and one gel later, and I was off to the start, about a mile away for a 5:00am start.

It had finally stopped raining, after pouring down all night, that was until I reached the harbour when the heavens opened up. This was to be the start of of a tropical electrical storm that was to last the entire race (and some).

The race started on time, and I quickly realised the field was rather small. The marathon and half marathon kicked off together, with the course leading down to the coast road where you would at some point turn around and come back.

The first mile was OK, although the rain was torrential it was welcome as the temperature was 28 degrees celsius. It seemed like running into a black hole as there was no street lighting, it was pitch black, with the only way to navigate the route was by nature - the lightning lit up the road periodically - so all I had to do was memorise the twists and turns in the road.

Well I was plodding along and feeling strong, but the road was just going on and on and on, with no indication of a turnaround point. I asked a guy in a car who had something to do with the race, who informed me that I was past the eleven mile marker for the marathon.

After much venting of annoyance, I was given a lift back to approximately two miles from the finish line to complete the thirteen, it took over twenty minutes to cover the nine miles back, so I guess a PB was out of the question.

Well in the end I came in third in a massive field of eleven, two of which never finished, I can only assume they got washed into the sea by the floods pouring off the inland hills.

On the evening there was a presentation at the Yacht club, I recieved a hand carved wooden bowl for my third place and a apology for cocking up at the halfway stage. Apparently all the half marathoners overshot. They had in place a young lad with a red flag that was supposed to indicate to us the turnaround. We all thought he was just an enthusiastic supporter.

The marathon winner finished in 3:15, despite at some stage managing to run into the back of a static taxi, which resulted in the guy behind ploughing into him. I would loved to have seen it. Still the unique experiences of the morning were soon forgotten, after imbibing copious amounts of Vailima (local beer).

I suppose the moral of this story is always expect the unexpected when racing in the South Pacific. If you have a penchant for running in total darkness, electrical storms, water torrents etc, then Samoa just might just be for you.

Kev

N.B. This race in 2009, will be run under a full moon, to give natural lighting to the course, anyone interested?