A woman may have unknowingly passed by the spirit of a supposed ancient Hawaiian warrior while running through a rainforest.
Kay Borleis was running the Hawaiian Ultra Running Team’s Trail 100-Mile Endurance Run on Oahu’s Honolulu Mauka trails in January 2019 when she had the eerie encounter.
“To this day, we still don’t know what it was,” Borleis, senior art director, said in a blog post.
The race, known as HURT 100, is a 30 kilometer loop through the rainforests that participants run five times.
Borelis’ friend Cassie was riding the fourth lap with her when Cassie took the photos, which she shared with friends and family.
Kay Borleis was running the Hawaiian Ultra Running Team’s Trail 100-Mile Endurance Run in 2019 when she encountered the alleged phantom
The dark figure is said to be a Night Marcher, which are spirits of ancient Hawaiian warriors who protected people so sacred that the common man was never allowed to look at them.
“After dinner we drive back to our Airbnb and Cassie gets a text from her mom. It was about one of the photos Cassie sent,” Borelis explained.
‘It was a “live” (moving photo) in which a dark figure dressed in a cloak moved past me as I was running.’
“Now I know my memory is pretty hazy after the race and even while racing, but I couldn’t remember passing anyone on that stretch of trail. Neither did Cassie, and she was very smart.”
Borelis noted that there were other uncharacteristic aspects of that day. She said she has been an avid runner since she was 14 years old and had never dropped out of a race before.
However, while walking that fourth lap with Cassie, she felt a sharp pain in her foot. She said it was so painful that she started whimpering and had to withdraw from the race.
She also said that the moon was orange and red and that a total lunar eclipse occurred during her visit.
Borelis and Cassie enlisted friends to help them decipher what the creature in the photo could be when they learned about the Night Marchers.
‘Legend has it that spirits of Hawaiian warriors roam the island and are called Night Marchers. They are ‘murderous shadows, demons, acts of vengeance that haunt the island. They are the rabid, galvanized spirits of ancient Hawaiian warriors, heroes and warriors,” Borelis said.
Borelis’ friend Cassie was riding the fourth lap with her when Cassie took the photos, which she shared with friends and family who pointed out the figure.
Borelis said she received backlash after sharing photos of her discovery online. Some people said it was photoshopped or disrespectful to Hawaiian culture
‘Upon further investigation, we learned that ‘ancient Hawaiian teachings state that any mortal who stares at or is viewed contrary to the demonstrators will die a horrible and violent death. Some people declare that when the mortal lies still, on the ground, bowed to the demonstrators, they show the Night Marchers proper respect, fear and reverence; and they will be forgiven and spared.”
Borelis said, “Luckily we didn’t see the so-called Night Marcher.”
According to Honolulu MagazineNight Marchers are the spirits of ancient Hawaiian warriors.
“In life, these warriors supposedly traveled at night to protect people so sacred that the common man was never allowed to look at them. Breaking that rule meant death,” the magazine said.
Borelis (pictured) said she’s still not sure what the creature is, but she still hopes to return to Hawaii to complete the HURT 100 and “maybe run into my old friend.”
Borelis said she received backlash after sharing photos of her discovery online.
“Our simple and innocent request to find out what was in our photo turned a bit violent. “We received messages calling us ‘Haoles’ and saying we had no respect for Hawaiian culture,” she said.
‘We even received threatening messages where people wanted us to meet a Night Marcher so that we would die a violent death. Less than 72 hours after we posted our photos, we deleted them.”
Borelis said she’s still not sure what the creature is, but she still hopes to return to Hawaii to complete the HURT 100 and “maybe run into my old friend.”