Scholarship 5K 2011

Big Dog makes announcements at the Scholarship 5K

This past Sunday morning, over 80 people showed up at Coconut Island in Hilo to support two young members of our running community - Hana Scully and RJ Barroga. These two high school seniors are the 2011 recipients of the Big Island Road Runners' $1,000 scholarships. Wayne "Big Dog" Joseph posted a great write-up on these students on his blog. Scully will be graduating from Hawaii Preparatory Academy and heading to University of Hawaii at Manoa. Barroga attends Keaau High School and plans to attend Northern Arizona University. We wish both of these young runners much success and many years of happy running!

RJ Barroga and Marie Kuramoto

Barroga and his coach

Scully and her coach

Members of Keaau's track and cross country teams came out to support RJ Barroga

It was also great to see so many people out supporting the Big Island Road Runners and Big Dog's scholarship efforts. Billy Barnett took first in the 5k with a time of 16:41; Jason finished second in 17:27 and Lyman Perry was third in 18:12. On the ladies' side, I finished first in 22:38, followed by Lory Hunter in 23:16 and Kelly Freitas in 24:39. Full results from the races are here.

Congratulations to Hana and RJ and to all the race participants. Also, big mahalo to Big Island Road Runners and Big Dog for hosting this great event and continuing to encourage running in the younger members of the community!

This weekend in Kona, Queen K Tri Club is offering an assisted high tempo 13.1 mile training run. This run works well for people training for Honu or the Kona Marathon or half marathon, but is open to everyone. The run starts Sunday, May 22 at 7:30 a.m. at Old Airport and runs down Alii Drive. There will be aid stations approximately every 2 miles and the run is FREE! Big Island Running Company will have an aid station out there, so we look forward to seeing everyone Sunday morning!

Polar Bear's Pinto Bean and Pinata Biathlon 2011

A few days after Cinco de Mayo, we did our celebrating at Polar Bear's Pinto Bean and Pinata Biathlon yesterday morning. Of course this race also honored another special group - moms! Happy Mother's Day and congratulations to all the moms who came out to participate in an active Mother's Day event!

The race started off with a 3/4 mile swim. That bright orange buoy was very visible, but also looked very far away. I think most people were a little anxious about this longer swim distance (I know I definitely was). But the nice thing about the longer swim is that everyone spreads out pretty quick, so you're not swimming on top of each other the whole time. I managed to find a couple of feet to swim with and was pretty happy with my swim time (under 28 minutes).

Then it was on to the 3.1 mile run. Pretty standard stuff - everyone out enjoying a nice run on a beautiful Sunday in Kona. Actually, people may have been appreciating it a little more yesterday, since we've had a ton of rain in the last couple of weeks, so a dry, clear morning was something to enjoy. My run came in under 24 minutes, for a total time of 52:29 (about 20 seconds faster than the last time I tried this distance).

Here are some pictures of the moms:

Lee-Ann Heely

Christine DeCarli

A mom pacing her son

Time for dads, too - Peaman and Papa Pea

Kym Kiser and her daughter

Lisa Bryant

A mom pushes her son in the jogger

More photos are available here (not all the photos were of moms!). Special thanks to Nori Becker for taking photos after her swim today. Unfortunately, the camera battery died before the end, so we didn't get everyone!

Full results from the races are available here. In the main distance, Chris Lieto took first in a time of 36:49, followed by Kirk Mitchell in 42:13 and Dale Fediuk in 43:19. Anita Leao was the fourth finisher and first woman in 43:51. Lori Montgomery was second female in 49:36 and Serena Chamberlain was third in 51:06.

For the peawees, it was a close race between Kaiden Leito, Duke Becker and Kanaipono Eckart. Kaiden came in first at 13:54, with Duke and Kanaipono taking second in third in 14:00 each. Must have been a photo finish!

Following the race, the Westfalls passed the Perpetual Pea on to one of the newest, yet most energizing Peaman participants, the Lieto family! Congrats to them! It's great to see a pro triathlete and his family coming out to support the local community events.

Next weekend is the Visitor Industry Charity Walk on Saturday at the Mauna Lani and the Scholarship Run 5K in Hilo on Sunday as we inch closer to Honu and the Kona Marathon!