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!

Race Report: Peavine Falls Run

The Peavine Falls Run is a classic Birmingham, Alabama race.  It takes place in the very beautiful Oak Mountain State Park, just south of Birmingham.  Always run on the Fourth of July, this race is never short on heat or humidity.  It is also not lacking for hills.  The course runs up the road to Peavine Falls (which is now entirely paved; in the past it was dirt), which is a climb of about 550 feet over 3.5 or so miles.  You then turn around at the blessed water stop at the top and head back down.  When you're about a mile from where you started, you turn onto a rolling, wooded section of singletrack and head for the finish.  The total course is about 8.2 miles.  Because of conditions and terrain, this is always one of the more challenging races around and is quite popular with those who like challenges and the insane.  Falling into at least one of those categories, Erica and I could not resist the race.  (Both of us have done this race several times in the past, yet still keep coming back.)
Race morning was about what you would expect for Birmingham on the Fourth--probably around 80 degrees with full blast humidity.  Soon after the gun (and the pre-race prayer asking God to take pity on the poor runners about to run up the hill), I settled into 4th place and got ready to do some climbing.  I managed to reel one suffering soul in during the climb to the top but found myself about 1:30 back of the lead two at the turnaround.  As you might guess, the trip down was a lot more fun than the slog up, but I gave up more ground to the leaders.  I finished in 52:19, which was good for 3rd place.  As I crossed the finish line, the announcer told me and the finish line observers that third place was good for $50,000.  Since this race cost only $5 to enter and had a field of about 400, I quickly surmised that the race organizers had found a way to tap into federal bailout/stimulus funds.  It turns out, instead, that I had actually won $20, which was still a nice return on my investment--especially since Erica paid my $5--and more than enough for some delicious postrace Chik-Fil-A.

Erica wasn't too far behind, cruising in at 54:14, which was the first female and 6th overall.  Her stated winnings of $100,000 turned out to be a tidy $50, which was promptly invested into provisions for her Fourth of July party.

The winner was of the race was Scott Strand of the Trak Shak.  Scott is a very accomplished runner and a Birmingham legend, so I couldn't feel too badly that he leaned at the tape and beat me by 4:07.  Full results are here.  After the race, Scott and I discussed his impressive run and the unique facets of the running store biz.  We were also joined at the race by spectators Wendell Braswell (famous for his crewing duty during the Hilo to Volcano relay), Jenny Clay (famous for drawing Big Island Running Company's logos), Robin Hollon (who took the photos in this blog post), and Jason Hollon (who shared in the running fun experience).

Jason H, happy to be home:


Jenny tried to inspire a finishing kick by Erica, but it was not to be:

King's Trail Summer Solstice Run

A post on the Kona Marathon will be up soon, but in the meantime, I wanted to make sure I recapped a great run put on by Carl Koomoa and Team Mango. Apparently, back in the day, there used to be an evening run on Alii Drive that occurred on the day of the Summer Solstice. However, due to the growth of Kona (i.e. more traffic) and the growth of the race, the organizers put the race on hold for several years until they could find a safer place to host it. Well, the time has come and this year Team Mango revived the Summer Solstice Run out at OTEC. These runs were at a perfect location, with a start and finish right along the beach!

They offered three different distances - a seven-mile run on the King's Trail, a four-mile run on the beach road to Pine Trees, and a 1-mile beach run. I opted to join the four-mile version, since the King's Trail run seemed a little too technical for me. But 9 hearty souls conquered the longer and harder race. Here they are at the start (and special thanks to Jano Soto for taking the photos)!

Kris Kiser won in 42:57, followed by Kawika Singson (43:29) and J Ashford (49:47). Only two ladies completed that distance with Paola Soto finishing first in 57:39 and Sarah Higgins coming in next in 1:03:33.

Paola Soto cruising to the finish

In the meantime, the 4-milers were sent out on our course:

The beach road is fairly hard-packed sand in most places, but there were some deeper sandy portions and some pretty rocky areas. With the Kona half marathon only days away, there were some tense moments as I tried to make sure I didn't twist an ankle and made it to the finish line in one piece. In the four-mile run, Mike DeCarli came in first in 30:49, Danny Jesser was second in 32:47 and Harry Yoshida was third in 33:38. Kym Kiser was next and the first woman in 33:56, while I followed in 34:51. Vanessa Swanson was third in 38:13.

Finally, the keiki completed a 1-mile run on the beach, with Sienna Levine finishing first in 8:34, followed by Tanner Levine in 9:23 and Cody Evile in 10:05.

Full results from all of the races are available here.

Following the race Carl (aka Gecko) passed out the awards, which were great koa bowls and tikis. Since the races were fairly small nearly everyone received an award.

And once that was done, there were even more raffle giveaways. I came away with a bioastin bag filled with all kinds of goodies! Mike DeCarli (above) won some great Rudy Project sunglasses and someone else won a Rudy Project helmet.

All in all, this was a great event that hopefully continues and grows in the years to come. Mahalo to Gecko for putting this all together. And the night ended in the best way possible - with a Hawaiian sunset:

Papa Pea's Birthday Biathlon

I just realized it's been three weeks since our last post. It's not that there hasn't been anything going on, but maybe too much going on! Honu has come and gone, and 24 Big Island residents were selected to participate in the Ironman World Championships in October. The first annual Ka'u Half Marathon, 10K and 5K was held on June 11, followed up by another successful Queen K Tri Club training run on June 12.

This past weekend had two options for the whole family. First on Saturday were the Keiki Fun Runs hosted by Kona Commons in connection with the Kona Marathon. As always those events were a blast to watch. Some kids are natural runners and others need some coaxing from mom and dad. Overall, it looked like all of the kids had a great experience. Results from the runs can be found here. Unfortunately, I was volunteering that day and didn't get a chance to take any photos.

Then on Sunday, everyone gathered again to celebrate Father's Day and Papa Pea's birthday with Papa Pea's Birthday Biathlon.

Race honoree Papa Pea sprinting to the finish (even with his injured shoulder).

The event distances were a 1/2 mile swim and 2 mile run. After doing a long(ish) run before the race, I decided just to swim while Jason tagged off me for the relay. Needless to say, I was the weak link on that relay team. But I did manage to have a pretty good swim (for me), getting under 20 minutes for the first time ever. I think the course must have been short! In any event, we managed to finish sixth in the Split Peas division in a time of 30:21.

Jason in the final stretch.

Full results from all the races are here. There's been some discussion as to the results not being quite right this time around, with the first three people listed in the full race actually having completed the peawee distance, but we're not sure about that. Also, there are several entries listed as "No Name Provided." After much studying of the results, I think we've concluded that those individuals completed the run only event and therefore didn't have a relay partner. Anyway, since we're not exactly positive on what happened, we'll move right to the pictures.

Allyson Prater

Mark Curry floating on air.

Garrett Oka

Lee-Ann and Christine having a ball.

Peaman awarding pier volunteer Brian with the Perpetual Pea.

And the fun continues today with Team Mango's Summer Solstice Run at the Natural Energy Lab (OTEC) at 4:30 p.m. Then this weekend is the Kona Marathon Family Runs. We hope to see everyone out doing one of the distances!

2011 EMS Run

Memorial Day is a special day to honor those who have served our country and have given the ultimate sacrifice. We truly appreciate all that they do to keep us safe and free. On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, we also honored those who serve our community by providing emergency medical services - policemen and women, firemen and women, and other emergency service personnel. The EMS Run is one of the Big Island's largest 5k runs and this weekend's was no exception. Over 700 people came out to run in the 5k or walk the 2-mile route.

One of the great things about this event is that it is truly for the whole family. In addition to the two run/walk distances, there are plenty of fun activities for the kids. This year, People's Advocacy for Trails Hawaii came over from Kona to do a bike rodeo for the kids. There were also bouncy houses and tours of a helicopter! Several vendors were also there to show off the different products and services they offer.

As I remembered from last year, the giveaways were also amazing. What seemed like over 200 people won door prizes donated by various local businesses, including cookies, gas cards and gift certificates. Unfortunately we didn't walk away a winner this year, but we'll be back next year for sure!

As for the actual race, results are available here. The humid weather led to a slower race for Jason and I, with Jason coming in third to Jackson Halford (17:14) and his cousin Brett Shea (17:17) in a time of 17:21. The ladies race was won by Marianne Stone in 21:48, followed by Rosa Erck in 22:20 and Melissa Schad in 22:23. I placed 7th in 23:17.

Ian Smith (19:54) and Lisa Hadway (22:27) took top honors for the public safety division, the second year in a row for both. Ian also was the top runner pushing a baby jogger!

Congratulations to all participants and thanks for supporting the EMS Run!

Scholarship 5K 2011

Big Dog makes announcements at the Scholarship 5K

This past Sunday morning, over 80 people showed up at Coconut Island in Hilo to support two young members of our running community - Hana Scully and RJ Barroga. These two high school seniors are the 2011 recipients of the Big Island Road Runners' $1,000 scholarships. Wayne "Big Dog" Joseph posted a great write-up on these students on his blog. Scully will be graduating from Hawaii Preparatory Academy and heading to University of Hawaii at Manoa. Barroga attends Keaau High School and plans to attend Northern Arizona University. We wish both of these young runners much success and many years of happy running!

RJ Barroga and Marie Kuramoto

Barroga and his coach

Scully and her coach

Members of Keaau's track and cross country teams came out to support RJ Barroga

It was also great to see so many people out supporting the Big Island Road Runners and Big Dog's scholarship efforts. Billy Barnett took first in the 5k with a time of 16:41; Jason finished second in 17:27 and Lyman Perry was third in 18:12. On the ladies' side, I finished first in 22:38, followed by Lory Hunter in 23:16 and Kelly Freitas in 24:39. Full results from the races are here.

Congratulations to Hana and RJ and to all the race participants. Also, big mahalo to Big Island Road Runners and Big Dog for hosting this great event and continuing to encourage running in the younger members of the community!

This weekend in Kona, Queen K Tri Club is offering an assisted high tempo 13.1 mile training run. This run works well for people training for Honu or the Kona Marathon or half marathon, but is open to everyone. The run starts Sunday, May 22 at 7:30 a.m. at Old Airport and runs down Alii Drive. There will be aid stations approximately every 2 miles and the run is FREE! Big Island Running Company will have an aid station out there, so we look forward to seeing everyone Sunday morning!

Polar Bear's Pinto Bean and Pinata Biathlon 2011

A few days after Cinco de Mayo, we did our celebrating at Polar Bear's Pinto Bean and Pinata Biathlon yesterday morning. Of course this race also honored another special group - moms! Happy Mother's Day and congratulations to all the moms who came out to participate in an active Mother's Day event!

The race started off with a 3/4 mile swim. That bright orange buoy was very visible, but also looked very far away. I think most people were a little anxious about this longer swim distance (I know I definitely was). But the nice thing about the longer swim is that everyone spreads out pretty quick, so you're not swimming on top of each other the whole time. I managed to find a couple of feet to swim with and was pretty happy with my swim time (under 28 minutes).

Then it was on to the 3.1 mile run. Pretty standard stuff - everyone out enjoying a nice run on a beautiful Sunday in Kona. Actually, people may have been appreciating it a little more yesterday, since we've had a ton of rain in the last couple of weeks, so a dry, clear morning was something to enjoy. My run came in under 24 minutes, for a total time of 52:29 (about 20 seconds faster than the last time I tried this distance).

Here are some pictures of the moms:

Lee-Ann Heely

Christine DeCarli

A mom pacing her son

Time for dads, too - Peaman and Papa Pea

Kym Kiser and her daughter

Lisa Bryant

A mom pushes her son in the jogger

More photos are available here (not all the photos were of moms!). Special thanks to Nori Becker for taking photos after her swim today. Unfortunately, the camera battery died before the end, so we didn't get everyone!

Full results from the races are available here. In the main distance, Chris Lieto took first in a time of 36:49, followed by Kirk Mitchell in 42:13 and Dale Fediuk in 43:19. Anita Leao was the fourth finisher and first woman in 43:51. Lori Montgomery was second female in 49:36 and Serena Chamberlain was third in 51:06.

For the peawees, it was a close race between Kaiden Leito, Duke Becker and Kanaipono Eckart. Kaiden came in first at 13:54, with Duke and Kanaipono taking second in third in 14:00 each. Must have been a photo finish!

Following the race, the Westfalls passed the Perpetual Pea on to one of the newest, yet most energizing Peaman participants, the Lieto family! Congrats to them! It's great to see a pro triathlete and his family coming out to support the local community events.

Next weekend is the Visitor Industry Charity Walk on Saturday at the Mauna Lani and the Scholarship Run 5K in Hilo on Sunday as we inch closer to Honu and the Kona Marathon!