Justin Young Keeps Moving!
By Sara Stover
Justin Young was drifting off to sleep on what seemed like a grassy knoll near South Point when a roar of thunder shook the night. The thunder woke up a dog, which woke up its owner, who then turned on the light of what Justin could now see was a house.
It was a fitting way to wrap up Justin’s first leg of the Go Big Race, a 260-mile circumnavigation of Hawai‘i Island and the farthest the 43-year-old math teacher had run so far.
The Duality of Ultra Running
In 2010, Justin ran his first marathon in Tucson, inspired by a friend’s father who was a marathoner. After running the Hilo to Volcano 50k in 2017, he decided to test his limits on a bigger playing field.
Six months later, Justin ran Hawai‘i’s Epic Man 100-mile race, while another Epic Man participant went on to run around the entire island.
“I thought, ‘I could do that!’” says Justin, acknowledging that he’s been contemplating a circumnavigation since then.
“During ultras, I experience extreme highs, lows, and everything in between. Maybe within minutes of each other,” says Justin of the duality of ultra-running. “Where else can you experience all those emotions in such a confined event? It makes me feel alive!”
That duality is what made Go Big so appealing. “The event seems like such a big deal, and it is, but it also doesn’t matter. It’s meaningful and pointless at the same time.”
Justin and his family live a quarter-mile from Ahu‘āila‘au (Fissure 8). After being evacuated when Kīlauea erupted in 2018, he cherishes being home for the holidays more than ever. With the decision to start his 260-mile journey on December 26th, Justin committed to running around the island, hoping to make it home by New Year’s Eve.
Without a firm plan for where and when he would stop, and who would meet him to provide supplies that he couldn’t carry, Justin decided to take a leap of faith. “What’s the worst that could happen?” he replied when his wife, Michelle, expressed concerns about who would help. “If I needed anything, I knew eventually I would reach a town, and find a store.”
From 26.2 to 260 miles
At 8:41am on December 26th, Justin’s run began at Moku Ola (Coconut Island) in Hilo. For the first 26 miles, Justin climbed 4,000 feet, reuniting with his twin daughters and wife at mile 15 in Mountain View. At mile 20, near Volcano, Adam and Keely McGhee brought him homemade pastries.
“They offered me fresh-squeezed orange juice, too. It was a glorious, impromptu aid station, before I descended back to sea level!” exclaims Justin, reflecting on the assistance he received that day. The first sunset of his journey cast shadows on Mauna Loa as Justin approached mile 60, where his supply box was waiting. As the clouds turned pink, he faced a dilemma: how to get the box to mile 80. Coincidentally, Waimea runner Michelle Suber was in the area and stopped to offer help—she was able to take his supplies for him!
Although Justin’s initial plan was to avoid sleep altogether, he failed to factor in the draining effect of running in the tropical sun. As he packed up his gear, threw on a jacket, and contemplated sleeping, he received a welcome text. “My buddy, Jacob Fansler, planned to drive out and crew for me!”
After relocating from the aformentioned driveway entrance near South Point, Justin finally slept. Two short hours later, nature woke him with more thunder, accompanied by rain. For the first time in the race, Justin questioned what he was doing.
Jacob had driven 90 minutes for the sole purpose of meeting Justin at 4am with coffee, so although it was difficult to wake up to rain, Justin had to get moving. Refreshed by the turmeric-ginger elixir Jacob provided, Justin carved his way up the coast, where Michelle Suber, Brooke Kinsler, and Bree Wee were waiting to cheer and crew.
“They got me safely through Captain Cook’s shoulderless roads,” a route that Justin admits is too dangerous for runners. After making it to the Māmalahoa Bypass Road at the hottest time of day, Justin was delighted to see Patrick Stover approaching, ready to pace him on the same stretch where the two met while running a few years prior.
“The run started out about me, what I could accomplish, and how far I could go,” Justin says. As his race progressed, it became clear it was not. “Not even close. It was about us. I was just the guy running.”
Carl Siegel soon joined Patrick, and the trio ran down iconic Ali‘i Drive into Kona. “On my way to the pier to meet Sara Stover and get fuel, my knee began hurting. I still had 135 miles left to go.”
Illuminated by the setting sun, Justin left Kona behind. As he headed out to Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway, he began hallucinating.
The Power to Keep Moving
While a little caffeine helped his mental state, it did nothing to ease the pain, and Justin was concerned. Fortunately, Will Hubert took over crewing and employed the strategy of driving ahead two miles, running back to Justin, and moving toward the parked car with him until Simon Werrel arrived to crew.
“I met Simon a month before at a race. Now here he was, ready to get me through the night,” Justin remarks. Fueled by yet another act so kind it powered him through the knee pain, Justin made it to Waikoloa around 12:30am, where he rested under a coconut tree.
“My favorite part of the journey was going until I felt I should rest and then snoozing on the side of the road. Even a few hours is like pressing reset.” After his siesta under the stars, Justin awoke, and began the next leg of his Go Big Race.
“My knee pain was minimal and I was moving really well before the sun came up. Then, I hit the downhill into Kawaiahae and the pain returned,” recalls Justin. “At that point, Brooke showed up and although I could barely powerwalk, quitting was never an option.” Barring an emergency, Justin had no alternative than to keep moving, this time with the support of 73-year-old Joe “Fireball” Loschiavo and his traveling aid station.
Hot and exposed, the route from Kawaihae to Hawi was brutal. Crewed by Joe, Justin took the turn up and over Kohala Mountain Road. “My knee was no better. There was lots of walking, but what a view!”
Upon hitting 200 miles in Waimea, he and Joe stopped at the spot where Sylvia Ravaglia, a fellow Big Island ultra-runner, was tragically killed by a car in 2020.
“We had just stopped to say aloha to Sylvia when my family pulled up! What a powerful moment!” After that, Justin headed to Honoka‘a, running stronger than he had all day. He was alone with his thoughts for 45-minute stretches at a time. Suddenly, a noise rang out of the darkness and he wondered if the hallucinations were kicking in again.
“It got louder! Then I realized that Michelle Suber and her daughters had come out to cheer. What a mental boost!”
A Beautiful Journey
Once Justin reached Honoka‘a, friend and fellow marathoner Joe Barcia took over crewing duties, keeping Justin at a 4mph pace until sleep deficit caught up to him. “I needed some sleep if I was going to finish, so I forced Joe to leave me on the side of the road.” Justin awoke at 2:30am. He packed up everything he would need to finish, put on a base layer of clothes, second layer, and rain jacket, and powerwalked a few miles in the cold. Although he eventually warmed up, he was about to face the hardest part of this exhausting challenge.
“At 240 miles, there was no one to help. There was nothing but darkness, and it was lonely.” Walking even a 20-minute mile was leaving Justin winded and barely able to talk himself through the next step.
“Keep moving! What? I stopped again!? No, don’t sit. Keep moving!” were the words on repeat for the next hour. Then, the sun rose out of the desolation and Justin could see the supply box that Joe left for him in Pepeekeo. What’s more, he was no longer running solo.
76-year-old ultra-runner Les Martisko was on hand to pace Justin the last 10k. “Les and Joe Fireball are truly my inspirations!” he admits.
Justin enjoyed a calm finish with his daughters and relieved wife at the tree on Moku Ola, where he first began his 260-mile endeavor.
“Physically, I was the one who got around the island. But the people, the views, the diversity, everything about Hawai‘i got me around the island,” says Justin of his three-day, three-hour, and 52-minute experience.
“The runners across the island truly showed him the aloha he deserves,” adds Alyx Barnett, Go Big Race director, and Justin’s coach. “They made Justin’s journey a beautiful one.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to complete it without them,” says Justin, agreeing that his accomplishment was nothing short of a community effort. “We did it Big Island!!!” ❖
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