Big Dog's Sports Hall of Fame 5K

After a great Saturday in Volcano, we were up early again to head to Hilo for Big Dog's Sports Hall of Fame 5K. I wasn't exactly sure how a 5K would end up the day after a half marathon, but we wanted to support Big Dog's event. Jason was still out with a bum knee, and my knee was hurting from the end of the half marathon. But I warmed up and decided to give it a shot. And we weren't the only one going for the double - Ray and Michelle Whitford, Andy Holbrook, Jon Kunitake, Steve Hunter, Lory Hunter, Steve Pavao, DJ Blinn, Alan Ryan and probably more were also racing both days.

Lots of high school and UH-Hilo cross country runners were out for the event as a training session, so it was a pretty young crowd. The course started on Coconut Island off of Banyan Drive and followed Banyan Drive out and up the Suisan Bridge and then followed the Bayfront towards the lighthouse and back. The course is a common one in Hilo and nice and flat. Big Dog gave us the race instructions...

and we were off...

About 16 minutes later, UH-Hilo runner Keoni Ucker was back in with the win, followed by Zach Johnson and Justin Pang.

Andy Holbrook (below in the Run Big singlet) finished in fourth. He flew in from Tennessee on Friday night, ran the half marathon on Saturday morning, Big Dog's 5K on Sunday and is planning on also completing the Running Faith event this Tuesday evening! What a vacation!

Andy was followed by several more runners, making the scenic turn around Liliuokalani Gardens.

Alan Ryan followed his half marathon up with a nice 5K as well.

About a minute later, Ray Whitford made the turn. That's him in the back of the picture. Jason got so excited when realizing Ray had a chance to go under 20 minutes that he started yelling at Ray and forgot to take any more pictures. Ray came in at 20:03, just missing the 20 minute mark, but still a good 50 seconds faster than his (recent) 5K PR.

Looking at the results, the first place woman, Kaylene Peric, came in right behind Ray, but Jason must have still been screaming, because we don't have any race photos of her. But here's a picture of her accepting her award:

In second place for the ladies was Kirsta Andrew:

followed by Lory Hunter tracking down Nina Hagemann, with Nina coming out 3 seconds ahead.

I came in next. I hadn't looked at my watch in a while, so I had no idea what my time would be. To my great surprise, I crossed the line in 22:21 - a 20-second PR! I should run two races in a row all the time - or maybe I should be wondering what I would have run for the 5K if I hadn't run the half marathon the day before! And I think I lost a couple of seconds when my hat was blown off by a truck during the run. I managed to grab it, but had to throw it on backwards to finish the run.

More finishers kept coming along past the beautiful gardens.

Steve Pavao and DJ Blinn had two nice recovery runs with their 5K on Sunday.


Jon Kunitake led Michelle Whitford in to the finish. I heard, but didn't see, that they were both extra polite at the finish line and couldn't figure out who should cross the finish line first. The results show them with identical times - nice job!

Richard Alderson and Malcom Makua finish strong:


After the race, Big Dog passed out the awards and door prizes from Big Island Running Company and discussed the rest of the day's festivities. Yesterday marked the induction of 7 people into the Big Island Sports Hall of Fame, complete with a luncheon, county and state proclamations and commemorative plaques. Unfortunately we had to get back to Kona and couldn't stay for the ceremonies. But you can read Big Dog's recap of the day, including full race results, on his blog. Also, additional pictures of the 5K are posted here.

Mahalo to Big Dog as always for a great event!