Kona Marathon 2011

Wow - it's really been a week and a half since the Kona Marathon races. Where has the time gone? Jason reminded me it's time to get a blog post up on the races, since he's already posted about his race from July 4 (make sure to read his post here, too!). So here's our belated recap of the Kona Marathon weekend.

The fun and excitement started on Thursday afternoon with a talk story session with Frank Shorter before the group run. Frank signed autographs and talked about his experiences as an Olympic gold and silver medalist. Then he joined the group on the group run. Many mahalos to Frank for returning to Kona and taking the time to hang out with us!

On Saturday, Big Island Running Company had a booth at the Kona Marathon Health and Fitness Expo. We also shared the booth with Frank Shorter and Eddie O Designs. Eddie O Designs was offering race shirt customization on site, which was a great deal for runners. If you're interested in having your race shirts customized, come by the store and check out what he can do for you.

We had a good day at the expo, with the big sellers being our logo shirts and nutritional products. Special thanks to all of our helpers, including Rose Lorica-Ombac and my family members - Mom, Dad, Randy, Greg, Diane and Catherine. We couldn't have had such a successful day without you!

Unfortunately between packing up from the expo and closing down the store for the day, we weren't able to make the Carbo-Load dinner on Saturday night, but we hear that was a great success.

But we were up bright and early for the race starts on Sunday morning. Jason and I made it down in time to watch Frank Shorter address the runners and make the official start announcement for the marathon. After those happy runners started off, we did our last minute preparations for the half marathon. At 6 a.m., it was our turn to get started by Frank Shorter, who (surprise, surprise!) actually jumped in to run the half marathon, too!

Jason started a successful day for our training group by going ahead and winning the half marathon in a time of 1:17:53. He was followed in second place overall and first female by Bree Wee in a time of 1:20:53. Coming in third was Thomas Meeker of Mattawan, Michigan in 1:22:53. (Does anyone else think it's interesting that the top three all finished at 53 seconds in their respective times?) Full results from the half marathon are here. Thanks to a great running partner in Chitwin San Tun, I managed to cross the line in 1:46:06, good for 11th woman, but still 7th in my very competitive age group.

Here are pictures of some of our group members who completed the half marathon. Sorry if we missed you, the morning was a little hectic! There are also more photos available here.

Chris Prater (and 10ker Danny Becker)

Jarle Nordstokka

Chitwin San Tun

Al Doran

Kellie Kurashige

Sandy Miller (honorary Oahu member)

Kristina Sawaya and Lee-Ann Heely

Maggie Leite

Our running group also had big participation in the 10K. Locals Penn Henderson and Rani Tanimoto took the overall men's and women's titles in the 10K race. All the other results are here. Here are some photos of the 10K group:

Mercedes DeCarli

Kevin Prater

Matt Sutherland and Jen McCord

Christine DeCarli and Kim Marr

Becky Prater

Kym Tagawa

Cherry Ward

Garrett Oka (and Jason)

Paul Incardona

Jenni Rhodes

In the 5K, Cody Bergfalk came in first overall in a time of 18:26. The women's winner was Kristiana Van Pernis in 22:23. 11 members of our group completed the 5k, too! Results from the 5K are here and some pictures are below.

My dad, Randy Minas!

Age Group Award Winner Faith Yamakawa

Age Group Winner Duke Becker

Last, but not least, three members of our group completed the full marathon distance. Marathon regulars Danny Jesser and race founder Jon Kunitake were joined by first time marathoner Peter Ballerini. Overall, the race was won by Justin Gillette for the fourth time and by newcomer Valeria Sesto. Full results from the marathon are here.

Peter Ballerini

Jon Kunitake

After a brief rest following the races and awards, it was time for the Big Island Running Company training group post-race party! This year we moved to a bigger location in Kahaluu and pretty much filled up the pavilion.

Special awards were given out to people who came the closest to matching their guess for their race time, including Jen McCord and Kellie Kurashige who both came within 2 seconds of the times they guessed! There were also secondary awards given to those who came in the fastest compared to the times they guessed. Finally, four individuals received special recognition - Peter Ballerini for completing his first marathon after starting running a year and half ago; Jason Heady for being the original member of our training group even when he was the only one coming; Chris Prater for going the extra (5) mile(s) and helping Uncle Jon finish the race after he had already completed the half marathon and Rose Lorica-Ombac for all her help chipping in at the race expo.

It was a great year for our training group and congratulations to everyone who completed the races! Special thanks to Mizuno for sponsoring the group and providing training shirts, to Domino’s Pizza in Kona for supplying pizza for the post-race party, to Eddie O for printing our training shirts and some prizes, and to Marvis Hanano for donating some prizes!

Our group runs continue, so come out and join us at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. A lot of our members are continuing to train for one of the Rain Forest Runs in Volcano or other local races throughout the summer, so there are plenty of people to keep you motivated!