Hilo Marathon Weekend 2012

Race director Wayne "Big Dog" Joseph and wife Randee (Photo by Marie Kuramoto)

After a week spent recovering from the Hapalua and packing up the store for the Big Island International Health and Fitness Expo, we headed out early on Friday evening for Hilo.  Jason drove the rented cargo van with the merchandise and I took the little car over. We arrived just in time to check in at the Hilo Hawaiian and head down to the Carbo-Load Dinner.  The Carbo-Load Dinner is always a great event - good food, a chance to catch up with friends from the Hilo side of the island, great entertainment and fantastic door prizes.  This year was no exception.

 A group of young hula dancers from a halau in Hilo performed several beautiful numbers.

(Photo by Marie Kuramoto)

And Marie Kuramoto (aka the "Queen") managed to get on stage and perform as well.

(Photo by Marie Kuramoto)

Marie, DJ Blinn, David Hammes, and Cowman are the remaining four participants to have run every single Big Island International Marathon and all completed the race again this year.  Here's a photo of Jason and I with three of the four:

David, DJ, Marie, Jason and Melissa (Photo by Marie Kuramoto)

The prizes were also great - Jason won a BJ Penn shirt and I took home a lovely orchid!

After the Carbo-Load dinner, it was off to relax and get to bed in preparation for the big day the next day.  No, not the race, the Health and Fitness Expo!  In a lot of ways, this is even tougher than running the race.  We unloaded the van and started setting up before the crush of people flooded in.  They opened the expo doors at noon and we were steadily busy for the next two hours! Special thanks to Ali Steiner and John Ferdico who made the trip over to Hilo for the 5k and also provided invaluable help at the expo.  (No pictures of the expo, since we were too busy!)

After the crazy first two hours, things slowed down to a manageable pace for the rest of the afternoon.  But it was still a long afternoon spent on our feet.  We closed down the booth at 6 p.m. and then headed to Cafe Pesto for another carbo-load dinner before the run. 

An early night led to another early morning as we headed out to Pepeekeo for the start of the race at 6:00 a.m.  Both Jason and I were doing the half this year (the first time for Jason since he usually runs the full).  However, we were both a little worn out after doing the Hapalua the week before and the expo on Saturday.  But this race is beautiful and one of my favorites on the island (or anywhere), so we wouldn't have missed it.

Cowman made it to the race and got a photo with the four remaining original runners:

(Photo by Choy Bacor)

Cowman and Steve Pavao (Photo by Choy Bacor)

Then it was time for the race start:

(Photo by Choy Bacor)

(Photo by Choy Bacor)

This race always starts in the dark, but in some years you can watch the sun rise over the ocean.  Not this year, though, as the skies remained cloudy and rain was a factor pretty much the entire race.  Of course that made for some pretty scenery and loud, rushing water.  Here are some of the views you see during the race (and some pretty good looking runners, too!)

Rick and Lee Otani (Photo by Choy Bacor)

Happy Runners (Photo by Choy Bacor)

Keith Marrack (Photo by Choy Bacor)

Jason had a good race and ending up winning the half marathon in 1:18:33 (about the same as his time last weekend).  Second and third places went to UH-Hilo runners Zach Johnson (1:27:01) and Justin Pang (1:28:31).

In the ladies' half marathon, Amy Masuyama won with a time of 1:42:31, Nikka Takane was second in 1:43:06, and Mandy Lemes was third in 1:44:36.  I finished in sixth place for the women, first in my age group with a time of 1:47:10 (or about 30 seconds slower than last weekend). 

Full results from the half marathon are available here.  We attended the half marathon awards and got some pictures of our age group winning friends:

Marissa Bryant-Manago

 

Keith Marrack and Danny Becker

Andrew Langtry and Rob Van Geen

Steve Pavao

When we were heading back to the dry van, we saw DJ Blinn sprinting to the finish line after completing the full marathon.

Marie with her grandkids after the race. (Photo by Marie Kuramoto)

Unfortunately we didn't stick around for much of the rest of the marathon finishers or the marathon awards, since the weather was so rotten.  Congratulations to all of the marathon finishers, though!  Curtis Huffman won the race in 2:39:31, and Mai Fujisawa was the winning female with a time of 3:07:25.  Full results from the marathon are available here. 

And we missed all of the 5k, too, but results for the 5k are here.  Ian Smith won the race, while pushing a double jogging stroller in the rain! Kelsy Rushing finished in second place and was the first female. 

As you can tell from the photos, the weather was far from ideal for the race, with lots of rain coming down.  We were so impressed with the volunteers who stuck it out all day long, getting soaked and still doing it with a smile.  Mahalo volunteers! 

A huge mahalo also goes out to Wayne Joseph and his wife Randee for putting on another fantastic Big Island International Marathon, even while coping with some personal health struggles. Throughout the weekend, I never saw either of them without a huge smile on their faces. Thank you both for all you do for the race and the athletic community!