I'm an active Yelp member who attended a sanctioned Yelp event called, "Yelp Kicks Butt: City…read moreRunning Tours," held on August 9, 2015 here in Honolulu, Hawaii on Oahu & I'm sharing my experience about what it was like. Here goes:
I am not a runner or an all-out fitness person but I am an exerciser (haha for making that word up!) from time to time either regularly or periodically depending what I'm doing in life.
The Yelp event (there's a selection process) sounded like a such an interesting way to exercise bc it included seeing the sights around town within the Downtown Honolulu to Ka'kaako area. Instead of taking a bus, train, car, truck, or tour bus, we Yelpy exercisers would go green & do it by foot! Duration of the run normally goes 1-1.5 hours to cover about 4.5-5 miles. I read the link to the vendor's site (in my Yelp announcement email) and thought, "Hey, why not?! How often does one get to do that?" What a cool & absolutely novel idea! :)
I was excited to try it out! Wahooo!!!
Well, our group did it in under 2 hrs! Yes, indeed, some were faster! YAYs to either case?! Teehee
Yelp Kicks Butt: City Running Tours!
I did get to see the downtown sights & see things that I normally just pass by in a moving vehicle. Awesome!
Did it kick my butt? Yep! Hehe
It was a great workout! I've got my running and walking in for the year! Haha jk! Hopefully not! :/
Here's my explanation of our route:
0- Every good runner knows to stretch first to let the body know it's gonna do something strenuous. Yovo led us thru two sets. Then we ran a little loosely at first to warm up.
1- Pace was good for me at the beginning thru Ka'kaako past BJ Penn/Sweat & Soul where we stopped for a tour explanation. I ran right behind Yovo along with other Yeeps also so I could hear what he was saying.
2- Crossed the street at Fisher Hawaii to cut thru the now former Eat the Street parking. Just before the ETS lot, we snapped a shot in front of a small painted bldg.
3- We continued thru the ETS lot past the Fire Station to stop briefly for a tour talk,
4- then headed on Queen St. past the school/church, cemetery, to Kawaiahao Church for a quick talk & pic.
5- After that we went on King St. to see Honolulu Hale at the water feature & front doors for quick talk,
6- then across to the Mission Memorial brick building, looked up the center of the huge black art object just before the Frank F. Fasi Municipal Building, & cut thru turned left just at the cemented path before the State bldg which leads to the back side of the Hawaii State Public Library.
7- After the street light turned green, we continued running toward King St. & crossed the street to see King Kamehameha's statue where we did a brief talk & snapped a cool pic with our famous King. Say, *Cheese! :D * for the King!
8- Next, we crossed back (King St.) going thru Iolani Palace for quick info talk,
9- the State Capitol building where we saw Queen Liliuokalani's statue & did a quick info talk,
10- Ran along Beretania to Richard Street & to Alakea to cut thru the park area on King Street. I started slowing down (long story-my knee has pain but isn't injured) into a brisk, walk-sometimes-short-runs just after the park to Aloha Tower.
11- At Aloha Tower, we took the elevator in groups up to the observation deck. How cool. It was my first time there!
We got a couple group pics & had opportunity to use the restroom & refill our water bottles.
12- After admiring the beautiful views in each direction of the observation deck, we went downstairs to head around back near the pier & ran back out past the boats back on to Ala Moana Boulevard. It was during this stretch that I walked w/some other Yelpers. Yovo checked on us just before taking off to head the majority of our group.
13- Yovo then loyally returned to check on us just as we passed Cooke St. TY, Yovo! Just after reaching Ward Ave, he took a fun picture of us doing a jump. Haha! Too funny! :)
14- Back at Jamba Juice on the corner of Ward Ave, we received our celebratory Jamba Juice from Maka K. Woohoo! TY, Maka! I needed that cold blast!
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Who attended:
IDK!
Really!
Well, ok haha It was a nice-sized group of running/non-running Yeeps! :D
Not good enough? (Sorry for the brief list! :/)
I would have chatted with more Yeeps (=Yelpers) except that quite honestly it's not as easy for me to talk while running a brisk pace (sorry, Yeeps!) .)
Nonetheless, I was able to get in brief conversations w/some of our group during tour guide explanations or just after taking off for our next run hehe :D
Thank you to Emi H., Maka K., Yelp Hawaii, & City Running Tours for allowing me to join in this creative, invigorating, & fun exercise event!!
Thank you, Yeeps, for keeping me company on this long (unusual for me bc I usually just do 4 times around a track = 1 mile!) run!!
Maybe I'll be in body pain tmrw (which turns out I wasn't :D Yay!) but, hey, it was alllll worth it!! :D