Big Island International Marathon 2014

2014 was a year of changes for the Big Island International Marathon, as well as some weather-related challenges!  The weekend kicked off on Saturday morning with the Health and Fitness Expo at the Hilo Hawaiian Moku Ola Ballroom.  The big topic of conversation was what the weather would be like for the race.  With wind warnings and rain projected, everyone was stocking up on hats and Bodyglide.  Too bad we don't sell Run Big ponchos, because those might have sold out!

Photo by Marie Kuramoto

Later that evening after the vendors packed up from the expo, the ballroom was converted to the pre-race Carbo-Load dinner. In addition to the pasta selection, attendees were treated to a great hula show and random prize drawings.  Some of the prizes were Bioastin swag bags courtesy of emcee Eddie O and Big Island Running Company gear. 

At the dinner, I had the pleasure of sitting next to Michael Georgi, a Big Island International Marathon VIP.  He's won the race several times and finished this year's marathon in 3:32:13, winning the 60-64 age group and coming in 14th overall.  It was great listening to the stories of all the different races he's done. And he achieved his goal of setting the new course record for the 60-64 age group.

Me and Michael Georgi (Photo by Marie Kuramoto)

As we left the Carbo-Load dinner, we could hear the wind whistling off the ocean.  Runners staying at the Hilo Hawaiian might have lost some sleep listening to it rattle the windows all night long.  When it was time for the races to start, the wind was still blowing at Bayfront, but the rain had subsided for a time.  This year, race director Bob Wedemann adjusted the courses so that all runners started from Bayfront instead of shuttling people out to a start in Pepeeko.  The course ran north on the highway before venturing off onto the Old Scenic Road, with separate turnarounds for the half and full marathon.  There was also a staggered start as the marathon runners started at 6 a.m. while the half marathoners started at 6:15. 

When we showed up at the start line, we could kind of see that the tents used for post-race refreshments and massage had become a twisted mess, but the rain didn't start in full force until just after the gun went off for the half marathon. The rain was cold and stingy and made many runners (including myself) have second thoughts about continuing on the course. But luckily the rain subsided after the first mile or so and the run turned into quite a pleasant run.  We were already completely soaked, so any of the off and on sprinkles the rest of the race felt refreshing.  There were also several rainbows that made for beautiful backdrops on the course.

The first half of the race was a little challenging as you had to climb a slight hill out of Hilo and then run up and down through the gulches north of town.  But the scenery was incredible, as were the hearty spectators who came out to cheer people on (and offer donuts to the runners)! Once we reached the turnaround point, it was mostly downhill back to Bayfront before a short loop on Banyan Drive.  For me, it was great to be back running a race again after last year's battle with plantar fasciitis.  It wasn't my fastest half in 1:51:54, but I had a lot of fun running parts of the race with Sarah Nicola, Don Kirby, and Chitwin San Tun. Jason sat this race out and served as race photographer - more photos of the race are available here.

Men's top three overall

In the half marathon, Chris Gregory took first place overall with a time of 1:17:48, followed by Kelley Mckay in 1:20:20 and BIRC group member Brian Pruitt in 1:23:28.  The fourth finisher overall was the first woman, Kathleen O'Neil from Honolulu who finished in 1:24:01.  Abby Santurbane finished in second place for the ladies in a time of 1:30:27 and Chiho Morita was third in 1:33:49.  Full results from the half marathon are available here.

Brian, James and Ben

Big Island Running Company group members represented well with several top finishes in the half marathon.  James Resor, Don Kirby and Jon Kunitake all finished first in their age groups.  Ben Halpern and Sarah Nicola finished in second place in their age groups and John Ferdico took third in his age group.

Sarah Nicola

 

The Kirby brothers

Maggie Leite

Jon Kunitake

We are usually able to stick around for a bit to watch the marathon finishers come in, but the rain and wind this year didn't make that possible.  The race officials decided to hold the awards ceremony in the bottom of the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, so we missed seeing a lot of the marathoners finish. 
Harumitsu Yoshinaga was the first marathon finisher in a time of 2:51:11.  Second place went to Will Mroz of Philadelphia, PA in a time of 3:02:02 and third place was Todd Reynolds of Fort Worth, Texas in 3:04:06. Annette Leistad was the first female finisher in 3:27:34, followed by Yoko Yamazawa in 3:27:49.  Kona's own Brooke Myers was the third female in 3:29:09. Full results from the marathon are available here.

While the rest of us were out on the race course, the event also hosted a 5k.  In that event, Dayson Sato was first in 20:50. David Pinyerd (21:19) and Florian Nussberger (21:35) followed in second and third place.  Jordan Concannon took first place for the ladies in 22:13, while Keri Fujiwara (23:33) and Melissa Wilson (23:41) completed the top three. Full results from the race are available here.

Congratulations to all of the participants and mahalo to all of the volunteers who braved the weather to make it a first-class event!  Also, mahalo to race directors Bob and Joe Wedemann for all their hard work putting this event on!

Happy Mother's Day and Indy Mini-Marathon Recap

Last weekend, I was on the mainland to visit family ... and to run a race!  The Indianapolis Mini-Marathon is the largest half marathon in the U.S. with over 37,000 registrants and over 30,000 finishers.  This year, one of those finishers was my mom! Here's a little bit of her story in honor of Mother's Day.

In January of 2011, I headed to Maui to run the Maui Oceanfront Half Marathon and to visit my mom.  Somehow I talked her into running the 5k, even though she wasn't running at all at that point.  But she put on her game face and ran the 5k in 41:34.  Here we are celebrating after the run:

But she wasn't happy with that time and called me a couple of days later to see if I could make her a Couch to 5k Schedule.  Of course I was more than happy to help her out and sent one over.  With the weather and race schedule in the Midwest, I don't think she got a chance to race again until the 2011 Kona Marathon 5k. Although I can't find the official results, I think she lowered her time there to 38 minutes.  Over the course of the next several months, she found more 5ks to run in at home, ending up with a PR of 33 minutes and an age group award!

At this point, I think she finally started enjoying running (isn't that what happens when you start getting faster?).  The next challenge for her was a 10k.  So, I made her another schedule and we put the 2012 Kona Marathon 10k on the calendar.  She kept with it and increased her miles over the spring and was ready to go by June of last year.  She finished her first 10k in 1:13:45. 

As happy as she was to finish, she was also a little disappointed.  At the Kona Marathon races, only the half marathon and marathon finishers get medals, and she really wanted a medal of her own.  So she said that she was going to do the half marathon in 2013 and get a medal.  She kept up with her running over the fall and I made plans to run the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon in May, signing her up for the race as her Christmas present (and yes, I think she did actually appreciate the gift)!

This time I put together a schedule for the half marathon that she followed pretty faithfully throughout the spring, running all over the country, including Indiana, St. Louis, Maui and the Big Island.  One of the highlights of the training (for me) was getting to run a 10-miler with her in Maui. And then all of the sudden it was race day!

After a really rainy Friday evening and a somewhat worrisome rain forecast, we woke up to overcast skies, 59 degree temperatures, and no rain - perfect running weather.  We headed off to our corrals and got ready to run.  We were in different corrals, so I didn't actually run the race with her, but she managed to snap several pictures during the run:

In the corral before the start

The race starts out downtown and heads west past the Indianapolis Zoo and through the town of Speedway, Indiana.

On the course

Once through the town of Speedway, you actually run into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (home of the Indy 500) and run one loop (a little over 2 miles) on the track.

Heading into Indianapolis Motor Speedway

On the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Track

After coming off the track, you start heading back into town and the finish line. 

In the home stretch

Although she didn't get any pictures of them, this race has tons of on-course support, bands and entertainment along the way.  From the tap-dancing ladies to country cover bands to cheerleaders and the cast of the Wizard of Oz, you were constantly seeing something new.  And the aid stations were amazing - it seemed like there was one every 1/2 mile!

After I finished my run, I headed back to the finish line to try to catch her finish.  She was hoping to finish around 3 hours, depending on how much walking she had to do towards the end. But I was getting text updates on her status and knew that she was going to crush the 3-hour mark.  As you can imagine, with 30,000 people I was worried I was going to miss her, but then I saw her. Unfortunately she was on the other side of the road, so I was only able to capture this photo with lots of other people in it.  That's her in the center of the photo in the pink Run Big top (of course!) with a khaki jacket around her waist.

She ended up finishing in 2:45:01 - a fantastic time for her first run. And she got her medal! I caught up with her at the end of the finishing chute and got a picture with our medals.

I was and am so proud of her! I don't know that she'll tell you she loves running, but she's sticking with it.  I know she does love the fact that she's lost a significant amount of weight, improved her overall health and reduced a lot of pain problems that she'd had previously.  And of course that she's done something she never really thought she'd do.  I haven't talked her into doing a full marathon yet, but she has said she might run another half marathon - maybe even the Kona half this year!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom and all the other mothers out there - runners or not! And hopefully this can also serve as motivation and inspiration for other people who may be on the fence about taking up running.  It's never too late to start!

Honoka'a 5k, Half Marathon and 30k

A week and a half ago, several of our Kona runners made the trek up to the Hamakua Coast to run in the first annual Honoka'a 5k, Half Marathon and 30k, a benefit for the Brantley Center. Race Director Steve Pavao timed these races so that people training for the Honolulu Marathon in December could fit in a good training race or long run. 

Race participants with race director Steve Pavao

For a first year event, there was really a good turnout.  All distances started at the same time and ran out to the highway towards Waipio Valley.  The challenge to this course is that the first half of all of the distances was downhill and the second half was mostly uphill.  Hopefully most people realized that and were able to conserve some energy for the second half, but I'm sure times were slower than usual for these distances.  In the 5k, Rob Van Geen took first place in 23:25 and Lorri Hays was third overall and first for the women in 25:36. Full results from the 5k are available here.

Race Winners Rob Van Geen and Ellis Andrews

The half marathon kept continuing on at a pretty good pace on the downhill before hitting the turnaround before Waipio.   From my spot, I was happy to see several Big Island Running Company runners in their Run Big shirts leading the race.  The men's winner was Ellis Andrews (1:41:01) who will be competing in this year's Ultraman World Championships, followed by John Ferdico (1:42:10) and then Chico Barrios (1:44:20).

Second place in the half - John Ferdico

Third place - Orestes "Chico" Barrios

I ended up in sixth overall and first female with a time of (1:52:01), not quite the time I was looking for, but ok for this challenging course.  And of course I kept up my half marathon tradition of coming in just a few seconds over a time (:01) instead of just under (:59).

Me and Race Director Steve Pavao

Several other runners also represented Kona and Big Island Running Company well, winning awards for their age groups, including Lisa Bryant, Sandi Shepherd, Jon Kunitake, Linden Villena, Ricci Racela, and Maggie Murphy. Full results from the half marathon are available here.

Nate (left) and Donna (second place female in half marathon)

In addition, Nate Stanis ran the half marathon distance in the middle of her quest to run around the island, which she just completed yesterday. You can read about her journey on her blog.

Jon Kunitake and DJ Blinn clowning for the camera

Thirteen runners continued along to Waipio Valley and tackled the 30k distance.  In addition to running to Waipio Valley, they also had to do an approximately three mile loop in Honoka'a after coming by the finish line for the first time.

Chris Gregory was the men's winner in the 30k with a time of 2:12:02 and Kona runner Julia Crawford was the women's winner with a time of 3:25:36.  Full results from the 30k are available here.

Chris Gregory

Julia Crawford

Thanks to all of the volunteers who helped make this first time race a great one.  We'll hope to be back next year - and maybe train a little more for those hills!

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!

The Chase

It's been a busy couple of weeks here in Hawaii. Two weekends ago, Jason and I headed to Oahu to participate in the first ever Hapalua.  The Hapalua is a half marathon in Waikiki organized by the same people who organize the Honolulu Marathon.  Back in December, I won free entry into this race (and the Honolulu Marathon) by guessing the winning men's time within 3 seconds.  So of course, I had to go run it!

Jason was lucky (and talented) enough to be invited to participate in a special part of the race - The Chase.  The premise behind the Chase was that 12 local men and 12 local women would race current Honolulu Marathon champion Nicholas Chelimo and former Honolulu Marathon champ Jimmy Muindi to the finish line.  Since those two athletes are world-class marathoners, they had to make things interesting by providing head starts to the men's and women's fields.

Men's Start of the Chase

The women received an 18 minute head start on the Kenyans and the men received a 9 minute head start. The first person to cross the finish line (man, woman, Kenyan, local) would win the race and $5,000.  The first ten people to cross the finish line would receive part of an $11,000 purse. Local Big Island runners Bree Wee, Rani Tanimoto and Ali Herd (who attends college in Oahu) were part of the women's field for the Chase and Jason was part of the men's field.

Conditions that day were rough to say the least.  I thought the wind at the Honolulu Marathon was bad, but it was nothing compared to this race.  It felt like we were always running straight into a 30 mph wind! At least the rain cleared up before the race, although that did leave it a little humid there.   The race started at the Duke Kahanamoku Statute in Waikiki, headed out towards Ala Moana, towards Chinatown, then back past Ala Moana to Kapiolani Park and up the back side of Diamond Head before finishing in Kapiolani Park.  The Diamond Head hill was a killer, which was not helped by the gusty wind coming straight at us. 

Jason in the Chase

At the end of the day, though, the Chase turned out to be a great event.  Oahu runner Thomas Puzey passed all the women and finished in first place with his time of 1:10:24 (or 1:01:24 adjusted time).  Another Oahu runner Dany Malley came in second in 1:10:38 (1:01:38 adjusted).  Bree Wee represented the Big Island well and finished first for the ladies in third place with a 1:21:05 (1:03:05) and didn't get passed by any Kenyans!   Chelimo finished in 8th place with a time of 1:05:05 and Muindi finished in 9th with a time of 1:05:18. 

Rani Tanimoto was the 4th woman finisher and won her age group with a time of 1:26:35.  Jason finished 15th in the Chase with a time of 1:18:38, good for third place in his age group.  Another Big Island runner Sal Salmi placed second in his age group with a time of 1:21:05.

Sal Salmi

Big Island winners!

Those speedy runners had to wait around a while until I finished the race. 

Jason and Rani post-race.

The race didn't go exactly as I was hoping it to, but I'm ok with the outcome.  I finished in 1:46:42. That is slightly faster than I was on pace to run, though.  I was really struggling with about 2 miles to go. At that point, DJ Blinn pulled up alongside me.  I wasn't that surprised to see him, since that's about where he usually passes me before the finish.  But this time, I decided to stay with him.  I picked it up and ran with him for about a mile before pulling away and finishing a couple of seconds ahead of him.  Huge thanks to him for getting me back that extra minute!

Almost finished!

This race was really well organized for a first year race.  The aid stations were well stocked, although a little spaced out in a couple of areas.   But the post-race refreshments were great.  Like the Honolulu Marathon, they had malasadas at the finish. But this time they also had Shave Ice! I think Shave Ice is now the perfect post-race food. 

On our way to the Shave Ice!

Special thanks to Penn Henderson (who took all of the pictures in this post) and Sal's wife Maureen for being super supporters that day! Congratulations to all of the other Big Island participants, too!

After the race there wasn't much rest for us as last weekend was the Big Island International Marathon and Expo in Hilo.  Since we set up at the expo, there was a lot of work to be done last week.  So I'm catching up now and will hopefully have a post up about that race soon.