Keiki Fun Runs and Papa Pea's Birthday!

Again, another prolonged absence from blogging.  Since our last post, the Big Island has hosted the Ironman Hawaii 70.3, a Queen K Tri Club 20k and 20 mile training run, the Kukio Challenge, the Kona Marathon Keiki Fun Runs, and Papa Pea's Birthday Biathlon! This post will catch you up with the last two at least.

Photo by Kona Marathon

This past Saturday, the Kona Marathon crew hosted the Keiki Fun Runs at Kona Commons.  These are always a popular event with distances ranging from 100 yards for the 1-4 year olds and up to one mile for the 11-14 year olds. The event was a huge success with almost 200 kids participating!  Full results from the race are available from JTL Timing.  Congratulations to all the keiki, especially those from the Big Island Running Company Training Group!

Here are some photos from the day, courtesy of Kona Marathon:

The bouncy house was a huge hit

Race Announcers Danny Jesser and Eddie O with Assistant Race Director Randy Ashley

Race Start

Look at them go!

Bigger kids getting their start

All the volunteers

The next day, the big kids got to play with Papa Pea's Birthday Biathlon and Salute to the 70s.  The distance for this race was a 1/2 mile swim and 2 mile run.  It seemed like a while since I'd raced a Peaman event and I was a little rusty.  The swim was ok (just at 20 minutes), except for the zig zag pattern I managed to make in the ocean, but the hard part this time was the run (finish time of 36:25)! Go figure.

Photo by Christine DeCarli

The race came down to a sprint toward the finish with Bree Wee taking first in 24:45 and Peter Parisi finishing second in 25:23.  Full results are available here. 

We have a busy week this week.  First, tomorrow evening is the King's Trail Summer Solstice Runs hosted by Team Mango out at the Natural Energy Lab.  These are 7 mile and 4 mile trail runs with a 1-mile keiki run.  Events start at 5:00 p.m.

Then on Friday evening is the Aloha Friday Run presented by Kona Marathon at Kona Commons.  The 3 mile fun run/walk starts at 5:30 p.m. and goes from Kona Commons to the Old Airport Walking Path and back.

Saturday is the Kona Marathon Health and Fitness Expo at the Keauhou Beach Resort from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Big Island Running Company will be there along with approximately 20 other vendors.  They will also be screening "The Spirit of the Marathon" and hosting several speakers.  For a full schedule, go to Kona Marathon's website. Following that is the Carbo Load Dinner at Keauhou Beach Resort.

Finally the main events for the Kona Marathon kick off Sunday starting at 5:30 a.m. with the full marathon; 6:00 a.m. for the half marathon; 6:45 for the 10k; and 6:50 for the 5k.  It promises to be a busy, fun week! Good luck to everyone participating!