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.