Maui Run for the Whales

Last week Jacob and I traveled with my family to Hawaii to participate in Maui’s “Run for the Whales” half marathon. We were super excited to get out of the snow and enjoy Hawaii, but we were really nervous about the race. We had been trying to train, but it was too icy to run outside and so we had to battle for treadmills at the gym. Needless to say, we weren't as prepared as we hoped we would be by the time we got on the plane. It was a long plane ride.

Running a half marathon in Hawaii was very different then running a half marathon in Moab. It started the day before when we wanted to drive the length of the race so we could see what kind of terrain we would be running. The problem was that the map they gave us for the race was only 7 miles long. At this point we began to question the validity of the race, but we decided to keep our mouths shut and enjoy our shortened run.

We arrived around 5:45 to check in and get ready for the race to start at 6:30. I decided to bring my phone on the race to provide some motivating tunes, which meant I could also document the whole thing. Somehow I landed number 6. I worried that they had the wrong impression about how fast I was going to run this.

It really was a beautiful area, as we waited for the race to start I snapped this one:

And we did wait! The race didn’t start until 7 something… and when we all finally headed to the start line, I looked back and realized there were probably only 200 people actually running this race.

I decided I would document the race every few miles and grab some footage of how we were doing. We were still feeling pretty good at mile three:

Soon after mile three we discovered where the other 6 miles of the race were hiding. They were going to make us run the top 6 mile loop twice. We were not very happy people because we didn’t want to run the same terrain twice and we did not want run up the giant hill we had just conquered again. I won’t post those videos because, well, it wasn’t a happy time. We were revived around mile 8 when I looked out at the ocean and I saw a whale! I was so excited I started yelling to Jacob about it, and the other runners around us kind of laughed. But hey, that was exciting and I needed something uplifting at that time.

I will post one more video of the finish. It’s a little ridiculous, and I’m not really sure why I’m posting this on the internet for everyone to see….

We finished, and that’s the important thing. Try not to look at our finish time in the video, it's not that great. After the race we had a pretty great trip. We took surf lessons,

I wish you could see Jacob's face better because it's absolutely hilarious

^ I love this picture of Stephen...

went whale watching, we zip lined through the mountains, swam at the hotel's awesome pool with huge slides and the world’s only water elevator, drank fruity drinks out of pineapples, and went scuba diving.

^ this is the eel we saw

We didn’t want to leave, and have been regretting the decision ever since.

Adventures in ZOMBIE filmmaking:

Jacob typically helps the company Orabrush keep up a weekly vlog, and luckily for us they decided they wanted a ZOMBIE youtube video.

It was pretty exciting because we had enough money to call up Chris Hansen who is a professional special effects makeup artist in Salt Lake City. He has worked on a ton a movies in LA like Underworld and Hellboy, but he talks like it was no big deal. He made seven zombie masks for us which are awesome (we kept two but Jacob had to swear he wouldn't wear it around and scare me). And then Chris and his team also put zombie makeup on 8 others. Of course, I volunteered to be a zombie with full makeup. When we showed up on set, Jacob was totally disgusted. He wouldn’t look at me for about half the day. He kept saying "thats not my wife". Take a look:

I know I look really gross. Please don't judge me or remember me by this.

The idea for the video is a first person shooter, so the video is supposed to look like you are playing a video game. Jacob built a helmet cam which is pretty sweet.

We also now have a ZOMBIE POLICE story. I was walking to the beach last week (Hawaii trip will be the next post) and I was telling the story to my family when a guy walking by us stopped. He had to admit he was listening in ask questions like "why were you dressed as a zombie?" evidently it was a good story to overhear. So I’m starting to think that this story is pretty good.

It starts with a location- we were shooting in an abandoned juvenile jail. It’s a super cool, huge building that’s been left to slowly fall apart.

Now let me tell you, we HAD a locations permit SIGNED and DATED. So we were not just messing around, this was a professional shoot.

During the day the zombies had a lot of down time which they spent exploring the super cool building. Some zombies decided to check out the roof which is full of barbed wire and other hazardous but awesome materials. While they were exploring, a couple zombies grabbed the air soft guns, which we had taped the orange ends to help them look like real guns. What we didn’t realize was next door and up the hill is an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. Go figure. So now what we have is: zombies on the roof wearing masks, jumpsuits, and holding guns. A teacher saw our weapon bearing zombies and called the cops. School goes on lock down.

We go on filming oblivious to the situation. For an hour the cops have us circled, with four snipers aiming at the zombies on the roof all assuming that we are planning to shoot at the school. During a break in the filming one of the zombies decides to take a walk on the road. The cops pull their guns on the kid, cuff him, and put him the car. Some of the other zombies witness the event and run inside yelling. We are all in masks and costumes so we have to hunt down Jacob who doesn’t look intimidating to talk to the police.

They were pretty nice, they just asked that if we film with guns again to give them a heads up. In the end, we think the Cops were just relieved that it wasn’t real.