EMS Run 2012

This year, the organizers of the EMS Run moved the race from Memorial Day weekend to the end of the summer, Sunday, July 29.  But the change in date certainly didn't hurt the turnout, as almost 800 people participated in one of the two events - over 400 in the 5k Run and just under 400 in the 2-mile walk!

As is typical in Hilo, the weather was raining off and on.  It actually made for a pleasant run, with the temperature staying a little cooler, although still humid.  After the race the sun came out and baked everything for a while before it was back to another downpour.

Several Kona runners made the trek over to Hilo for the race, with impressive results.  John Ferdico led the group with a 21:05, good for third place in his age group.  I was next with a 22:57, finishing first in my age group.  Chico wasn't far behind with a 23:17.   Cecilia Woodbury was just behind him with a 23:48, and Lopaka finished in 25:01 to take third in his age group.

John, me and Lopaka with our age group awards.

Overall, Chris Mosch took first place with a time of 17:30, followed by Hiromasa Veno in 17:51 and Nick Muragin in 18:11.  First for the ladies was Molly Schmelzle in 19:42.   A couple of Hilo High School students finished in second and third for the women, with Carmen Garson-Shumway taking second in 21:34 and Mehana Sabado-Halpern in third in 21:40.  Full results from the 5k are available here and results from the 2-mile walk are available here. 

One of the great things about this race is the number of door prizes that are given away.  By the time you're finished with the race, there are about 10 large board on easels with full lists of prizes and their winners.  After spending 15 minutes looking through them, I never saw my name, or John's or Chico's (making me a little suspicious that John didn't put our names in the right bucket!).  But Cecilia won a Mrs. Barry's Kona Cookies gift certificate, so congrats to her! 

Cecilia and Lopaka

It was also great, as always to see some of our Hilo side friends.  Chico played photographer for the day, snapping some post-race photos.

DJ Blinn and Yuka Hagiwara

Lory and Stewart Hunter

Young running stars

DJ and Lopaka accepting their age group awards.

More winners with the race organizer.

We have a busy Sunday this week, with two events going on simultaneously.  First it's the Mana 10s - a 10k and 10-miler on Mana Road in Waimea sponsored by the Big Island Road Runners.  This race starts at 7:30 a.m. and is a beautiful run, with the potential to be a little rainy. 

In Kona, the Pedal Til Ya Puke and Run Til Ya Ralph start at 8:03 a.m. from the bottom of Kaloko Drive and cover the 6.5 mile climb to the top of Hualalai.  As the name suggests, you can either run or bike this event.  If the distance seems a little much for you, you can opt for the Papa Pea Pedal or Plod, which starts approximately 3 miles up Kaloko and climbs to the top.  But beware, it might be shorter, but it definitely covers the steepest part of the course. Finally, the Mad Dog Mile starts at the top of Kaloko and runs an out and back down the hill.

Both of these races are fun, different events, so we encourage you to come out and try one!

Trashcan Triathlon 2012

As I mentioned last week, this past weekend was Team Mango's trashcan triathlon at the Kailua Pier.  The race started with a 1/2 mile swim, followed by a 10-mile bike down Alii Drive, and a 3-mile run on Alii Drive.  While this can be completed as a regular triathlon, as many people did, the race rewards people for cleaning up the route.  For every piece of trash collected on the swim, a swimmer got 5 minutes deducted from their time.  For every piece of trash collected on the bike, the biker got 3 minutes deducted from their time.  Every piece of trash collected on the run was worth a 1 minute deduction in time.  So in the results from this race, you'll actually see people with negative times!

Pam Miller took the overall title with her massive collection of trash.  She got 2 pieces on the swim, 122 on the bike and 64 on the run.  And she wasn't just picking up cigarette butts. She actually brought in a junk bike on her bike ride and a spare tire on her run.  Her clock finish of 2:37:19 was reduced to negative 6 hours, 52 minutes and 41 seconds.  Congrats to her on a great job cleaning up Alii Drive!

Winner Pam Miller - Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

Bob Smith finished second, bringing in 168 pieces of trash for an adjusted time of negative 3:09:36.  Jim Moore took third with an adjusted time of -1:30:38. 

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

Albert Martinez was fourth, but won points for creatively hauling back a huge box!

In the ongoing rivalry between Mike DeCarli and Chris Prater, Chris narrowly beat Mike, thanks to some strategic trash pick-up!

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

Sarah Higgins came prepared with a backpack to tackle the bike ride and hauled in 21 pieces of trash on the bike and 61 on the run!

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

In addition to bringing back a bagful of trash on the run, Christine DeCarli brought back 3 mascot mangoes! (Her trash pickup isn't actually reflected in the results, but the photo below and I can both vouch for her.)

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

In the relay portion of the race, the relay team of Luke Toland and Jeff and James Neubauer took first place, thanks to the 113 pieces of trash they collected on the run. 

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

Jason and I finished in second place after I snagged 57 pieces of trash on the run. Thanks to Christine DeCarli and Chris Prater for dumping some extras in there!

The Chang family finished in third place for the relay teams, with Sarah Chang swimming a blazingly fast 9 minutes and 54 seconds AND picking up 3 pieces of trash!

The youngest competitors also got into the action, with Allyson Prater finishing 8th for the women and Jackie Payne coming in 12th for the women. 

Jackie Payne - Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

Allyson Prater - Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

Huge mahalo to Mercedes DeCarli who took all of the pictures used in this post - both for taking such great shots and letting me use them! 

Up this weekend is the EMS 5k Run and 2 mile Walk in Hilo on Sunday.  The race starts at 8:30 a.m. from Lilioukalani Park. In addition to the great race atmosphere and post-race raffles and awards, there are always plenty of activities for the kids.  So bring out the whole family for an active morning!

Peaman's Red, White and Blue Biathlon

Since our last blog post, we've had several interesting events take place.  On July 4, the Salute to the Veteran's 5k was held in Hilo.  Results are available on Wayne "Big Dog" Joseph's blog. 

Then on July 7, the annual King's Swim was held at the Kona Pier.  This 1.2 mile swim starts at the pier, goes to the 1.2 mile marker which is the Body Glove boat, makes the turn around the boat and heads back to finish on King Kamehameha beach side of the pier.  Results are available here. This is a fantastic event, with lots of great awards and raffle prizes, plus a great post-race spread.  I finished the King's Swim for the second year in a row, knocking a whopping 10 seconds off my time from last year! 

King's Swim (Photo by Paola Soto)

Paola Soto took tons of photos of the events, so I've attached a couple here.  Thanks Paola! More can be found on the King's Swim's Facebook page.

Lead Men (Photo by Paola Soto)

1st Place Woman Leahi Camacho (Photo by Paola Soto)

The oldest competitor - a true inspiration (Photo by Paola Soto)

Then this past weekend, we all gathered on Sunday for Peaman's red, white and blue biathlon. Unfortunately, Jason and I have taken over the timing for the races, so we aren't able to take nearly as many photos (truthfully, I took two!).  I borrowed a couple, though from Kawika Singson, who got some great underwater shots. Thanks, Kawika!

Photo by Kawika Singson

Photo by Kawika Singson

Photo by Kawika Singson

The usual suspects took control of this race early, with Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen coming out of the water first, with Bree Wee hot on her heels.  Bree caught Karlyn on the run for a 1-2 finish for the pair.  Finishing third was new local racer James Resor. Jon Jokiel took fourth place and (friendly) rivals Chris Prater and Mike DeCarli battled for the next two spots with Chris taking the upper hand in this one.  Full results are available here. After a so-so swim (20 mins.), I finished in 49:14.

The top three Peawees at this race were Kanaipono Eckhart in 12:11, Jackie Payne in 12:17 and Zackary Shepard in 12:21 - a pretty tight race for those kids!

One of my two photos - certainly not the greatest!

Up this weekend is a race that's great for the aina - Team Mango's Trashcan Triathlon!  This race is a 1/2 mile swim, 10 mile bike and 3 mile run.  But the twist is that you can deduct seconds and sometimes minutes off your time for each piece of trash you collect on the course.   So come out and get some exercise while also helping keep Alii Drive Clean! The race starts at 7 a.m. Sunday, July 22 at the Kailua Pier.

Kona Marathon Runs 2012

Another successful Kona Marathon is in the books! For the third year in a row, Big Island Running Company's training group was well-represented in all race distances from the 5k to the full marathon.  And the weather could not have been any better - after downpours the night before, it was nice and cool and, most importantly, overcast.

We have tons of pictures from these races, since Jason wasn't able to run. There are going to be a lot in this post, but more photos are available here. Full results from the races are available here. Also, special thanks to Mizuno for donating the race shirts for our group and to Dominos' in Kona for donating some pizzas for our post-race party.

The full marathoners headed off at 5:30 a.m., just as the sun was starting to rise.  The course runs along Alii Drive, out to Kona Commons, onto the Queen Kaahumanu Highway, down to the Natural Energy Lab and back.  Here are a couple of training partners as the headed in to the finish - all with great times!

Don Kirby

Leonard Torricer

Danny Jesser

At 6:00 a.m., it was time for the half marathoners to take to the road.  Their course was the same as the full, but turned around at Kona Commons and headed back to Keauhou.

Here are some shots of our group members in action:

Mike DeCarli and Chris Prater

John Ferdico

Chico

Abra Pintor

Gabby Hurtado

Gemma Pytel

Nori and Danny Becker

Kym Tagawa, Jen McCord, and Matt Sutherland

Lee-Ann Heely and Christine DeCarli

Diane Quitiquit

Laura Bollman

Chitwin San Tun and Me

Ali Steiner

Jenny Payne

Kevin Prater - with the Perpetual Pea!

The 10k took off at 6:45 a.m. and the 5k followed at 6:50 a.m.  We were able to get some pictures of the 10k finishers, but not the 5k.

Maggie Leite

Becky Prater

Paul Incardona

Andrea Cobb

Congratulations to all of the finishers! After the race, it was time for a little relaxing party at Kahaluu Beach.  We had tons of great food and got to award some prizes to our group members.  Before the race, each group member was invited to guess their finish time and the person who got the closest to their time won a prize.  And the winners were:

Marathon - Leonard Torricer (guessed 3:50 and finished in 3:54:11)
Half Marathon - Orestes Barrios (guessed 1:37:00 and finished in 1:36:39)
10K - Mercedes DeCarli (guessed 49:45 and finished in 49:59)
5K - Makena Becker (guessed 35:00 and finished in 33:06)

We hope everyone keeps up with the running! Our group runs will continue, with the next big race being the Volcano Rain Forest Runs.  See you out on the roads!

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!