Doan Chung-Hernandez

We did it, we ran our first run together. The Great Aloha Run is approximately 13 km or 8.15 miles and happens every year in Honolulu Hawaii on the 3rd Monday in February or on Presidents Day. Proceeds go to non-profit organizations here in Hawaii.

The night before I worked my ass off and didn’t get home till past midnight. It was really busy and I didn’t have any time to eat dinner. I didn’t realize this until I had already gotten home and was too tired to even care. I haven’t mention this before but we have this crazy geriatric neighbor who’s also a landlord, potential drug maker, seller what-ever. My point is he has drama like every other day at all hours. The night before the marathon I got probably 3 hours of horrible sleep due to his loud, obnoxious drama. We woke up at 5:00 a.m. and didn’t have time to even think about breakfast before we got ready and bolted out the door. There was tons of traffic due to the run so we ended up getting there late but so were a lot of other people. When we got to the stadium we took the last bus down town where 25-30,000 people waited to run their happy ass back to the stadium.

We walked up to this large mass of runners waiting to hear the gun fire off.

The sun was just coming up. This is us before the race. Yes, I wore my diva glasses the whole time.

The gun fired and that was it, ready or not baby lets fucking make it happen. We basically had to walk up to the start up line even after the gun went off because it was too crowded to even run.

Hillary supporters stood at the started up line to show some support. This was very exciting for me so I gave a shout out, “yeahhh, Hillary for president!” This apparently excited them because they all responded with a shout back, “yeahhhhh!” It was awesome.

When I first saw the map of the route I was hugely disappointed with it. Hawaii is so beautiful and we have to run here. That’s preposterous. However, there’s an up side to this. During the run I realized that we were shaded for most of the run. This allowed runners to stay cool and not feel so fatigue, therefore we had more energy to run. Fuck the scenery when your running over 8 miles, all you care about is shade and water.

This is my sexy baby. Right now he wants to kill me but one day honey you will thank me. This photo was taken at about the 6.5 mile mark. No more shade.

Overall, I have to say it was such a great experience. On my next run I would definitely do some things differently. For one, I obviously brought my cameraa, but I forgot to export the photos from Ray’s birthday to my laptop. I had to go back and erase photos just to be able to take photos of the run. I thought I had charged my Ipod the night before but I failed to open up my monitor so I actually ended up depleting what was left of my battery so bringing it was a complete waste and extra unnecessary weight to carry around. So on top of making sure my Ipod is fully charged I would get different head phones. I would get new shoes. I’m still running on the same shoes I got over a year ago. I would eat dinner the night before and have a small breakfast that morning. I would try to get a full nights sleep and leave early so we don’t have to rush. So basically I would do everything different next time around but I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m super proud of Ray and I because we basically ran the whole thing. Ray had so much heart. You could tell he really wanted to run the whole thing but we had to stop a few times because both of our knees were really hurting. Oh, that’s another thing, I would wear a knee brace next time. But we never stopped for more than a few minutes before we were back jogging. After the race Ray and I drove See’s candie got some truffles and then waited for California Pizza Kitchen to open. Ray smelt like ass but I tell him till after lunch because I didn’t want to have to go home to shower and change and then come all the way back. After lunch we came home and past out for like 6 hours. It was the best sleep I’ve had in a long time.

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Guess what, I’m officially a registered voter. Today Shane, Ray and I all drove down to the DMV and registered to vote. I always wanted to be more involved politically but held back because it didn’t matter; my voice wouldn’t be heard because I still wasn’t a citizen, so I thought. I got a letter in August 2007 stating that my application for citizenship had been denied and that I was ineligible for naturalization because I was already a citizen, as of September 27, 1993, the day my mother became a citizen. I can’t tell you how upset and relieved I felt all at the same time. Thousands of dollars I’ve spent and my parents spent and not to mention countless hours. Oh and how do you put a price on the emotional anguish I had endured. Most of you haven’t had to deal with the INS. They are ignorant, dense fools that have huge authority complexes. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to tell one of them to fuck off but refrained because I didn’t want my paper work to accidentally get thrown out. Anyhow, I did ask them if I had to go through the whole process, several times, since my parents became citizens while I was still under the age of 18 but was told that it didn’t matter I still had to go through it since I didn’t take the oath with mom. Well, obviously that was a complete lie but I guess it doesn’t matter now because I can vote and I will.

Now, who will I vote for. I’m liberal and I’m a democrat. If you ask me I think the government is way too involved in our lives. My vote is definitely going to Hilary Clinton. Like I said, I haven’t been too involved in politics in the past but I’m changing. I’ve watched a few debates, thanks to our roommate Shane. I’m actually torn between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton but I really think it would be something amazing to be able to see a female president in my life time. Ray’s voting for Hilary too, which I think is pretty cool that we’re both for the same person and for the same reasons. Also, she’s making health care in America her first priority and I think it’s an issue that needs to be address big time. If you haven’t seen Sicko you ought to. I know a lot of people hate Michael Moore but this film is really an eye opener that many of us can relate to. I for one hate the fact that my parents have to travel to China to see a doctor because it’s cheaper for a plane ticket there and back, hotel, food, doctor and other travel expenses than it is to go see a doctor here. How retarded and sad is that. And every time I see them it’s like they can’t wait to get older so their social security kicks in. It’s so sad that American treats their people this way. Also, Ray’s been needing to go to the doctor for several reasons, from is shoulder to his elbow, to his weird stomach pains, to his teeth. It brakes my heart. Anyhow, I haven’t been religious about keeping up with who’s for what and that sort of stuff and to tell you the truth I probably won’t. I’m just not passionate enough about politics. All I’m saying is now I have no reason not to be more involved and I’m starting by voting.

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