As usual, Jason and I had to split this one up, so he timed the race while I got to run it. And thanks to Maggie McCleery for sharing some of her photos with us!
Everyone lined up and got ready to run:
Since all the races start together, it's a little difficult to tell who's racing which distance. At Bubba Gump's the participants in the Golden Fox Gallop started to turn around. Coming in first in that distance was Jake Lacey in 7:29, followed by Max Musacchia (8:20) and Michael (Teagan) DeCarli (8:26).
The runners in the Dragon Dash had to climb the hill by the Royal Kona and then turned right to make the loop past the Royal Kona and Huggo's before finishing back on Alii Drive. Carl Millen came in first in that distance in 12:41. Ruben "Shark Bait" Ruiz was second in 13:49 and Mike Masuda was third in 14:12. And some of the participants in our last Couch to 5K group came out to run, too!
The runners in the Terrific Turtle Trudge finally got to turn around just past Royal Poinciana at Living Stones Church before heading back along Alii Drive. Allen Wagner was the first place finisher in a time 28:25, breaking the course record that Jason set last year by just a few seconds. Tai Scarbrough came in second, finishing in 31:50 even while pushing his son in a baby jogger! Bree Wee was the first female and third place finisher in 33:00.
I was a little bit worried about this race from the beginning because it had been a rough week of running for me. And I knew what I had done the race in last year and all I was really shooting for was getting under 38. But I wasn't even sure that was going to happen. On the way out I tried to keep the pace under control but pushed it a bit to keep up with a pack of runners, including Kawika Singson. The two of us ended running the majority of the race together, and I think it really helped both of us keep the pace going. Kawika pulled away on the way up the last hill, but I managed to keep it pretty strong after the top of the hill. I never caught up to him again, but I did finish in 37:28, over 30 seconds faster than my run last year. I was definitely pleased with this effort and am looking forward to the next couple months of racing coming up!
This weekend's Team Mango event has been cancelled due to permitting issues, but some people are getting together around the same time to do some informal swim-bike-run training. Also on Sunday, there is a run on the other side of the island - the Waikaumalo Challenge at Waikaumalo Park at 7:30 am. There are two distances in this run, 4 miles and 7 miles. The course is on the Old Scenic Route, so it's a great practice run for the start of the Big Island International Marathon and Half Marathon.
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