Running on Faith Recap

Yesterday marked the official release of Kona resident Jason Lester's new book Running on Faith. To celebrate that release, Jason hosted a 5k/10k race, as well as a book signing at Coconut Grove Marketplace. The race was organized by TriFreaks out of Seattle and sponsored by Zoot, Big Island Running Company, The Vitamin Shoppe and the Never Stop Foundation. Since Jason was running the 5k, I had to watch over the store, so I wasn't able to get many pictures. Luckily, Jano Soto took some great shots, so the photos in this post are all his. Mahalo Jano!

When originally envisioned, the race was going to have an entry fee. However, thanks to some course rearrangement and additional sponsor support, they were able to offer the race for free. And as everyone knows, people in Kona love a free race! Although only about 100 people were registered prior to this week, almost 200 additional people registered in the two days before the race, for a total of approximately 280 runners!

The course started at Coconut Grove and went south on Alii Drive. The southbound lanes of Alii Drive were closed for the race, making a nice wide running area. The 5k turnaround was at Alii Gardens Marketplace, while the 10k turnaround was at Magic Sands Beach. The race started at 6:30 in the evening, so many of the runners got to experience a night run. Special thanks to PATH for providing some blinking lights for the 10k runners!

Jason Lester poses in front of the start/finish line before the race.

Jano's wife Paola ran the 10k.

Runners head down Alii Drive.

Finish Line

Awesome finish line shot!

Official race results have not been provided yet, but we will try to post those as soon as we get them. From what I remember from last night, Jason won the 5k, with Andy Holbrook coming in second (in his third race in 4 days!). Third place went to Brandt Mabuni, with Ray Whitford taking fourth place. For the ladies, the top three places went to cross country runners from Kealekehe High School and Makua Lani Christian School. In the 10k, Justin Butler finished first, Chris Tremonte was second and Mattijs VanMaasakkers (another honeymooner!) finished third. For the women's 10k race, Monica Price was first, Kym Kiser finished second, and Angel Mabuni was third.

Post-race, participants hung out and listened to music provided by Eddie O, enjoyed pizza, popcorn, chips and salsa, and free smoothie samples from Tropical Frozen Yogurts, and got their autographed copies of Running on Faith. It was great to see so many people out enjoying this night running event, especially all the first time racers! Hopefully this will be the first of many races for them.