Nate Kahaiali’i fled Lahaina fire with orange Nikes. Sunday, he’ll wear them in New York City Marathon

With the raging Lahaina wildfire approaching on Aug. 8, 2023, Nate Kahaiali‘i fled his Wahikuli home with only some clothes and his orange Nike running shoes.

His mind was on the Chicago Marathon coming up in two months, and he figured he’d grab some running gear for training before returning home. The 33-year-old couldn’t imagine that he would never see his home again, or that nearly his whole hometown would be burned to the ground.

The morning after the tragedy, Kahaiali‘i and his mom sat down at a beach park picnic table and cried.

“I was scared. I have no clue what’s in store, what the future looks like, because what was home is now gone,” Kahaiali‘i said.

He also wasn’t sure if he was mentally or emotionally ready for the grueling 26.2-mile race in Chicago. 

“But my parents kind of pushed me, encouraged me to go and run it, so I did,” Kahaiali‘i said.  “Then I changed the mindset to: ‘It would be good to run for Lahaina.’” 

So he ran the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in October 2023. And like Forrest Gump, he kept running. He completed the Honolulu Marathon in December and the Tokyo Marathon in March. And on Sunday, he’ll be running in the TCS New York City Marathon.

As always, he’ll be wearing his treasured orange size 13 Nikes. And, he’ll be adorned in his signature red “Lahaina Strong” shirt, which he sells to raise funds for his hometown. 

“Running in those shoes is for me symbolic of Lahaina running with me, and so that’s like the people who have lost homes, the people who’ve lost loved ones, the people who call Lahaina home, they’re running with me as well,” Kahaiali‘i said.  

He is returning to the city where he ran his first marathon in 2022. Before that, he’d never even run a race farther than a 5K, which is 3.1 miles. 

Now he does multiple marathons a year and has checked off three of the six World Marathon Majors — Tokyo, Chicago and New York City. He’s hoping his shoes, which have already logged 173 miles, will hold up for London, Berlin and Boston.

Running has always opened doors for Kahaiali‘i. He was born and raised in Arizona until his dad, feeling homesick for the islands, moved the family to Maui when Kahaiali‘i was in first grade. As the new kid at Princess Nāhi‘ena‘ena Elementary School, he didn’t know anyone, so he’d run around the playground for fun by himself. The other kids started to notice. He was fast, and they wanted to race. 

“So that’s how I kind of made friends, was through running,” Kahaiali‘i said. 

Kahaiali‘i ran because he wanted to play other sports. But eventually running became more than just something he did on the soccer pitch. It became a way to stay in shape. Then he ran into a friend from Lahainaluna High School who convinced him to sign up for the New York City Marathon. Qualifying was tough, but he gave it a shot and got in.  

“I was really just jumping into the deep end of the pool when it comes to long-distance racing, but I’ve been pumped ever since,” he said. 

Marathons, he learned, are “truly a test of your limits and also your spirit,” and now he’s become a big advocate for the physical and mental benefits of the sport. He runs to train, but it’s healing for him, too. As a health and Japanese language teacher at his alma mater of Lahaina Intermediate, he runs in the late afternoons after school is out, getting in three to four runs a week with a longer run on the weekends. Before the fire, his route took him around the Wahikuli neighborhood where he grew up. 

On the day of the fire, the last picture Kahaiali‘i snapped from the home where he lived with his parents and older brother was of a plume of black smoke in the distance. He and his brother went up on the roof and could see the flames. They told their mom to pack up some items just to be safe. The family stayed at home as long as they could until police knocked on their door with orders to evacuate. 

“And that’s when my heart kind of sunk, and the reality of like, I think this is going to be the last time we’re at our home,” he said. 

Kahaiali‘i was still optimistic that they’d be back and took his stuff mostly as a precaution. He didn’t expect to return to crumbled heaps of concrete, burned bikes and hollowed-out cars. 

As a teacher, Kahaiali‘i had to juggle his own grief along with his middle school students. Displaced families were scattered across the island, and one student who’d been about to enter Kahaiali‘i’s sixth-grade class had died in the fire. His teachers had described him as a great student with an incredible family, and it just felt “so unfair, this family being taken away from the community.”

Kahaiali‘i told the kids they could always come to him and taught them how to handle emotions like stress or anxiety. He shared that he’d also been depressed after the fires and encouraged them to talk about their feelings with a counselor or trusted adult. 

“It might feel impossible to talk or let someone know you’re going through this,” he said. “I felt that, too, but it was honestly one of the biggest helps for me. And so just kind of letting them know I can relate to them. I lost my home as well.” 

Since the fire, Kahaiali‘i and his family have been living in a Kīhei condo covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They’re hoping to eventually move in to the state-run modular home village in West Maui, Ka La’i Ola, which is projected to house 1,500 wildfire survivors for up to five years.

During the Chicago Marathon in October 2023, Kahaiali‘i ran to benefit the Red Cross. His story made national news, and by the time his orange Nikes hit the pavement in the Windy City, people who’d seen him on TV were cheering “Lahaina Strong” as he passed.

In the New York City Marathon, he’s part of the New York Road Runners’ Team Inspire, a group of runners with compelling backstories. On Thursday, he was on a marathon expo panel titled “Why We Run: Stories from the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon.”

This weekend, he’ll have fans 5,000 miles away. On a digital whiteboard at Lahaina Intermediate, his students have scribbled their guesses for his finish time in New York. Kahaiali‘i’s best finish so far is the 4 hours, 14 minutes and 11 seconds it took him to run the Tokyo Marathon earlier this year. This time, he’s hoping to break four hours.

He’s running for his students, their families and a town that’s shouldered so much tragedy in the past year. 

“I hope people from the community can feel that they may not be here physically in New York or on these runs, but I hope they know their spirit is with me,” he said. “I can feel their energy, I can feel their support. Every step I take, they’re taking those same steps with me.”

Kahaiali‘i’s progress can be tracked through the TCS New York City Marathon app under his bib number 12104. Updates can also be found @runforlahaina on Instagram.

To purchase Kahaiali‘i’s apparel with all proceeds going to Lahaina Strong, visit runforlahaina.threadless.com.