Pedal Til Ya Puke, Run Til Ya Ralph

Two Sundays ago now, there was plenty of hill climbing on the Big Island. In Waimea, Big Island Road Runners hosted the Mana 10s, a 10k and 10-mile run on Mana Road, which had an elevation gain of over 500 feet.  Wayne Joseph posted the results on his blog - 10K results and 10-Mile results.  Congratulations to Chris Gregory and Molly Schmelzle for winning the 10-mile run and Richard Egley and Noe Waller for winning the 10k.

In Kona, we were part of the best-named race on the island - the Pedal Til Ya Puke, Run Til Ya Ralph.  This run starts at the bottom of Kaloko Drive and climbs a couple thousand feet over 6.5 miles towards Hualalai Crater. And, as the name suggests, it's not just a run - bikers can take on the challenge, too.

The participants this year were really charging up that hill! Penn Henderson rode the bike course so fast a decade old record fell.  Penn's 38:08 beat the old record of 40:00 by nearly two minutes.  His wife, Rani Tanimoto took the ladies' bike victory in a time of 50:21.  Here are the two champs:

Tai Scarborough took second in the Pedal Til Ya Puke with a time of 43:13, followed by Sean Maynard in 45:41.  Second for the women was Roberta Hickman in 53:26, with Shirley Pratt following in third in 1:02:01.

Shirley Pratt and Janet Higa-Miller at the finish. Photo by Jay Plasman

For the Run Til Ya Ralph, Jason edged out Karl Honma (59:01 to 59:42) to take the victory.  However, Karl then turned around and 18-seconds later took off on the Mad Dog Mile (his namesake race) and won that race in 7:29.

Karl "Mad Dog" Honma with his family and Jon Kunitake

The Run Til Ya Ralph women's title was won by Alexandra Herd in 1:14:11.  Zoe Sims took second in 1:25:06.

Zoe Sims gets escorted to the top by two cyclists.

For those who weren't quite up to tackling the full 6.5 mile distance, there was also the Papa Pea Pedal or Plod, which started 3 miles up the hill and covered the last 3.5 miles of the course (definitely the steepest portions).  No cyclists competed in the Papa Pea Pedal this year, but there was a good turnout for the Papa Pea Plod.


Ryan Porche was the first plodder to the top with a time of 38:05.  For the women, the results say Amanda Schiff took first place, but I believe she only did the Mad Dog Mile.  Ciara Blaber was listed as second in 40:13.

The Mad Dog Mile was the final race, which started at the finish line, ran out 1/2 mile and turned around to climb to the finish.  As mentioned about, Karl Honma took first overall, followed by Amanda Schiff in 9:21.

LavaPeople - almost at the finish line!

Full results are available here.

The most welcome sight of the day.

Congratulations to all of the participants!  And special thanks to Lexi DeCarli and Allyson Prater for taking most of the photos at the race!