Justin Young Keeps By Sara Stover
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KeOlaMagazine.com | September-October 2021
ustin 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.
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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.”
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 From 26.2 to later, Justin ran 260 miles Hawai‘i’s Epic At 8:41am on Man 100-mile race, December 26th, while another Epic Justin’s run began Man participant went at Moku Ola (Coconut on to run around the Island) in Hilo. For the entire island. first 26 miles, Justin climbed “I thought ‘I could do that!’” 4,000 feet, reuniting with his says Justin, acknowledging twin daughters and wife at that he’s been contemplating a mile 15 in Mountain View. At circumnavigation since then. mile 20, near Volcano, Adam “During ultras, I experience and Keely McGhee brought him A 260-mile race around Hawaiÿi Island, Go Big took runner Justin Young of Pähoa to the extreme highs, lows, and edge of his limits and back again. photo courtesy of the Young Family. homemade pastries. everything in between. Maybe “They offered me freshwithin minutes of each other,” squeezed orange juice, too. It was a glorious, impromptu aid says Justin of the duality of ultra-running. “Where else can station, before I descended back to sea level!” exclaims Justin, you experience all those emotions in such a confined event? It reflecting on the assistance he received that day. The first makes me feel alive!” sunset of his journey cast shadows on Mauna Loa as Justin That duality is what made Go Big so appealing. “The event approached mile 60, where his supply box was waiting. As the seems like such a big deal, and it is, but it also doesn’t matter. clouds turned pink, he faced a dilemma: how to get the box to It’s meaningful and pointless at the same time.”
