I have been a big fan of Xterra races since moving to Maui. The Adventure Fest is a newer race, and as such I had to try it out. I knew that this race would be a little different than the Xterra that I’m used to, which was good to already have in my mind because it really was different.

Race Morning: They had us arrive at 7:00am on race morning to pick up our packets. I was a little early, naturally, I found it to be a little disorganized most likely because they were just opening and getting everything organized. However there was a keiki (child) race which a lot of schools had teams put together which cause a lot of confusion. For me however, since I had already signed up was very easy for me to get my bib and shirt.

Then the waiting began for me. Just after 8:00am they began the Keiki 2K. They ran two different heats, one for girls and one for boys. They waited for all the girls to finish before starting the boys. It was really cool of them to offer this, the kids had a lot of fun and it was encouraging them to be active. I was happy to be on the sidelines supporting the keiki. Maui Spider Jump was one of the sponsors and hade four bungee jump trampolines set up for the kids to jump on once they finished.

Once all the keiki finished their race then they started the 5K. We had to wait for all the 5K runners to finish before they would start the 10K. This was pretty annoying for me as they usually have the 10K start first then start the 5K. Waiting around for all the 5K runners to finish was a drag because it was a hot and sunny day, no shade in the middle of the field, and only music playing to keep us entertained.

Finally it was time for the 10K to start, 40 minutes late. The course started down the field we were in then up a small staircase that took us into the trail. The first mile of the trail was up the side of the ridge in a narrow path. Once at the top we hit a paved road and went down a steep hill. At the bottom we cut through the bushes and crossed the creek bed, which was luckily dry. Then it was up a trail that took us to the Kapalua Village Trails, while ducking under fallen logs and jumping over some smaller branches. Once we got to the Village Trails we spent about half a mile on the paved trails before heading back into the trail. Running up this part of the course was pretty steep but really fun. At one point there was a fallen tree about chest height that we have to climb over, definitely a fun obstacle. At the top of the trail we made it to the duck pond and ran around the pond, into the woods and ran a switchback set of trails until reaching the duck pond again. Then our descent began. This part of the trail was not mowed down at all, just matted down from the runner ahead of me. The decent was pretty steep in some spots, but very fun with a mixture of terrain, dirt, pavement, grass, tree roots, and mud. When we made it to the bottom we went into a different trail that took us back to the trail down to the creek, back up the paved hill, and down the ridge back to the start.

The course was very well marked with cones, arrows, and course marshals to make sure that we didn’t get lost.

Aid Stations: There was 2 aid stations stocked with water and Gatorade, one of which we passed twice. So we would have had 3 chances to rehydrate.

Parking: There was an entire field where people could park and there was plenty of space for all the runners and their families. There wasn’t any parking fees either which was nice.

T-Shirt/Swag: The finisher shirt is totally awesome! The logo is a shoe print with the Xterra “X,” the Hawaiian Island with Maui in bold, a bike tire, and ocean waves all made to look like the tread of the shoe print. It’s not a tech shirt but it is a light cotton which is great to just casually wear around in the Maui heat. They also gave out Xterra temporary tattoos.

Regardless of the confusion with packet pickup and the delay in the start time I would still recommend this race. The course was very fun and really embraced ideals of a good Xterra race with lots of varying terrain to keep it exciting.