It’s every walker’s dream. A leisure stroll meandering through beautiful grounds of a luxurious island resort, past award winning golf fairways, shimmering black lava fields — and of course — with Hawaii’s highest peak, Mauna Kea, in all her glory, towering in the backdrop.
It’s every walker’s dream. A leisure stroll meandering through beautiful grounds of a luxurious island resort, past award winning golf fairways, shimmering black lava fields — and of course — with Hawaii’s highest peak, Mauna Kea, in all her glory, towering in the backdrop.
But it’s no dream. The 37th annual Visitor Industry Charity Walk at the Mauna Lani Resort last Saturday featured a 3.1-mile “superwalk” like no other, complete with an open buffet of gourmet foods from island chefs, fun entertainment, and live announcing by popular local comedian, Augie T.
The best part? It’s all for charity.
The statewide annual event held in May occurs on the Big Island, Maui, Oahu, Molokai, and Kauai to help raise funds for island charities. Yet, what sets Big Island apart from the rest of the islands is the fun and often times competitive run portion that was added nearly 15 years ago to help boost participation.
“The goal every year is to raise monies for our island charities,” said race director, Kerstin Busse-Blunt. “The walkers represent about 80 percent of the participation, and we have about 800. This year is really special because although the run part is a really small portion of the overall event, we had over 200 registered runners.”
Busse-Blunt said that every few years, the event moves to a new venue and is adopted by a different hotel for exposure and to encourage more participation from hotel staff and runners alike. For the past two years, the event has been held on the grounds of the Mauna Lani Resort, with the Hilton Waikoloa Village, and venues in Kona and Waimea preceding it.
“It’s really organized by the visitor industry predominately by the hotels who really want to raise funds for charities on their island,” she said. “Donations are collected and the non-profits along the course at the aid stations are the ones who receive some of the money. So overall in a year, about 20 charities get monies from this event. Last year we raised over $200,000 for this island.”
Busse-Blunt believes that one of the event’s main attractions are the numerous food booths donated by the hotels at the finish line.
“We always say that this is the only walk or run that we can gain weight,” laughed Busse-Blunt. “Its just part of the fun to get everyone together to make a contribution for this great event.”
Strong and gusty trade winds caused large coconut palms to bend heavily in one direction, a warning that a challenge awaited those competing in the footrace.
Bolting to the front in the men’s division was Patrick Gosselin, followed by Kyle Gregg and Mikey Brown. For the women, barefoot runner Kendra Ignacio set the pace, with Melanie Aiona and the three wheeling Henderson trio of Cole, T2, and myself in hot pursuit.
With the winds pushing heavily on our backs, the pace was fast and furious until everyone hit the halfway mark. Once on the return, racers now faced strong headwinds that forced the pace to slow drastically along with several lead changes.
Gosselin, who had a well-established cushion from the rest of the men’s field at the halfway mark, began to struggle in the wind leaving him vulnerable to Brown who began to increase his pace.
“I saw him slowing down and fatiguing so I just hung with him,” Brown said. “I just tried to maintain a steady pace and it seemed to work for me. I then started smiling and thought to myself, I think I got this.”
With a half a mile to go, Brown, who is a Hawaii County Fireman stationed in Honokaa, took the lead for good and began sprinting to the finish line to claim victory in a fabulous time of 19 minutes and 25 seconds.
“My thoughts were to stay with the people in the lead and if I had it in the end then I would push it,” the 36-year old said. “It feels awesome to win. I started smiling at the halfway point because I felt really good.”
Gosselin tried to keep it close and finished in second at 19:53, while Gregg followed in third at 20:23.
The women’s race witnessed 13-year old Hawaii Preparatory Academy Middle School student, Emalia Higgins, come from behind to take the lead and eventually win in a stellar time of 21:40.
Higgins was one of 46 HPA middle school aged students who participated in support of the charity event. Yet, finding out that she won came as a big surprise.
“I figured there would be some pretty good runners so I wasn’t expecting anything and so I was just going to run my best and see what it got me,” Higgins said. “I had no idea what position I was in during the race and I had no idea how many people were in front of me.”
Higgins added that she was worried of starting out too fast and decided to pace smartly until she hit the halfway point.
“I kept telling myself, one more straight away, one more straight away until it was the last one,” she said. “Now that I know I won, I feel pretty good and happy.”
Yet, running is not new to Higgins as her father, Kimo, is the current Girls Cross County coach and the overall track coach for HPA.
“He’s given me advice before, but when your dad’s the coach you feel like you want to do your best all the time. I’ve always run because I like running and I can’t wait to run for him when I go to high school next year.”
Following Higgins in second was Ignacio in 21:54, and Alicia Greenwell in third at 21:57. The winning hotel teams for the fastest three male and female runners was awarded to the Fairmont Orchid.
“It’s a fun run,” said Busse-Blunt. “And each year the distance can vary, the location can vary, but what never changes is we give the money or proceeds to charities and that’s why I continue to do it.”
Mom’s celebrate at Peaman Biathlon event
On a day that has become a global holiday in honoring all mothers around the world, here on the white sands of Kaiakeakua Beach, Kona moms celebrated their morning by participating in Peaman’s Pinto Bean and Pinata Biathlon.
From baby strollers, to infant carriers, to husbands holding their little ones and cheering from the sidelines, all would agree that mothers and their young ones highlighted the ¾-mile swim in Kailua Bay and 3.1-mile run on Alii Drive.
For 29-year old Sarah Sermons, a triathlete, runner, and mom to 11-month old son Colby, returning to the racing scene was harder than she expected.
“It’s been a lot longer getting back to where I thought I would be,” Sermons said of racing and training. “But now that I’ve been doing it a few times it’s getting better.
Sermons said she began walking and running four weeks after having her son last June, and slowly increased her training to participate in March’s Lavaman Waikoloa.
“Swimming was definitely the easiest, but the bike was the hardest to get used to with all of the sitting and getting the different muscles back into shape,” the Kailua-Kona resident said. “But I love being a mom, it’s so worth it.”
The choppier than normal swim conditions didn’t seem to faze Kealakekua’s Tori Oshiro as she was the first to run up the beach in the swim only division in a time of 18:49.
In the long course individual race for first, Kona’s Luis De La Torre exited the water as the men’s leader and was closely followed by teen speedster, Cody Ranfranz, and the top women, Sermons and Anita Leao.
Out on the steamy 3.1-mile run course on Alii Drive, De La Torre continued to extend his lead all the way to the Peaman finish line banner, to win in a superb time of 38:52. Ranfranz followed in second place at 40:28, with Adam Ankrum rounding out the men’s top three in 44:25.
On the women’s side, Sermons led wire-to-wire to win in a fantastic time of 45:13.
“It was so exciting just seeing my son smiling when I woke up this morning,” she said. “I definitely appreciate my mother so much more now after going through almost a whole year with him. It’s so much work but it’s so rewarding.”
Leao, a mother of two, pushed her 2-year-old daughter Ava in a stroller, finishing in second at 45:31. Winona Chen finished right on her heels just one second back at 45:32.
The Split Peas relay division went to Kona moms, Aimee Kolman (swim), and the Henderson trio of Cole, T2, and myself (baby stroller) in a combined time of 43:31. Xitlalitl Reyes topped the 3.1-mile run division in 27:58.
In the Pea Wee race for first, Lilo Fyrileiv quickly exited the waters of the 200-yard swim to start the 1-mile run in first place. Yet out on Alii Drive, Bryce Hollis was able to catch up to Fyrileiv, and the duo began a hard sprint to the finish.
Though Hollis was able to finish just in front of Fyrileiv, both were given the same time of 10:44, and were the top male and female winners respectively. Third overall went to Elijah Hall in a great time of 11:52.
The Pea Wee Split Peas relay division went to Jim McCleery (swim) and his grandson, Conlan Okagi (run), in a time of 29:58. Brandon Lacuesta topped the 200-yard swim in 9:24, with Ciara Blaber whipping through the 1-mile run in 7:17.
At the end of the morning, the Perpetual Pea – an honor bestowed on individuals or families that epitomizes love, family, friendships, and the spirit of aloha for the Big Island community – was passed onto a local icon, Grandma Lee. Lee recently passed away at the age of 97.
Coming Up
Sunday: The Queen Kaahumanu Triathlon Club presents the Annual Half Marathon & 10K runs at the Old Airport Park Pavilion. Start time for the free event is 7 AM with both courses starting and finishing at the pavilion. For more information contact Daniel Hodel at daniel.hodel@earthlink.net.