Just two weeks out from Hawaii’s IRONMAN 70.3 triathlon event locally known as Honu, Queen Kaahumanu Triathlon Club’s race director Daniel Hodel knows just the remedy to get local competitors fired up and race ready for the big event.
Sunday’s sixth annual Half Marathon and 10K runs along beautiful Alii Drive gave athletes the perfect opportunity to test their nutrition, hydration and race pace for what is notoriously a brutal 13.1-mile Honu run course — the third leg after completing a 1.2-mile swim and 56-mile bike.
“It was instigated to give people a chance to get their run together before the Honu triathlon and also if people were getting ready for the Kona Marathon it was a nice little target along the way in their training build up,” Hodel said.
Hodel added that his events came after realizing there was a shortage of running races in Kona after Lanihau Shopping Center’s popular 10K &5K series that occurred three times a year suddenly came to an end.
“We suddenly had fewer runs than we used to and I just thought that there was a gap to fill,” he said.
Hodel then joked, “I like to see people suffer and it was a good chance to see people suffer. It’s just a fun thing to do. I like running and I think there is a core of die hard runners of varying talents who like to go out and just test themselves once in awhile. I just make sure that every year there’s a bunch of chances to do that.”
Starting at 7 a.m. in the morning, the powerful rays of the Hawaiian sun were already shinning brightly upon the field – setting the stage of what would no doubt become a heat infused sauna on Alii Drive.
In the 10K race for first, Jordan Pechie claimed top honors with his time of 43 minutes and 41 seconds. Former Kona resident Tobias Olney, who now lives in Berlin and visiting for three weeks, followed in second at 46:39. Rob Murray claimed the third spot in 52:28.
For the women, Cole, T2 and myself baby jogged our way into first with our time of 48:39. Next was Kari Filan in 53:37, with Donna Jones in third at 53:42.
Immediately forming the lead pack in the 13.1-mile event were Kailua-Kona’s Patrick Stover, Chris White, Adam Ankrum, and Jon Jokiel. Trailing further behind were Lapahoehoe’s Alan Ryan, Kona’s David Wild, John Ferdico, Hodel and the top women.
The women’s race for first was a close one between Kailua-Kona’s Elda Carreon and Cecilia Woodbury. Carreon was able to outpace Woodbury 2:02:04 to 2:02:11, respectively. Rounding out the women’s top three was Gina Villalobos with her time of 2:12:01.
While in the men’s division, Stover, who seemed to be on a mission to maintain a steady 6:43 pace per mile, finished strong in a great time of 1:27:57. Not too far back was Wild, who surprised all as he came from behind the field to take second in a fabulous time of 1:29:06.
“I went out pretty slow and did a negative split on the second half at a 6:10 pace (per mile),” Wild said. “This is definitely good training for Honu.”
Rounding out the men’s top three was the always-consistent Jokiel in 1:30:07.
“I felt really strong and consistent today,” Jokiel said. “This year I turned 50 and I’m trying to continue in being a strong runner as all of my training this year seems to be paying off. I’m looking forward to Honu in two weeks.”
With IRONMAN’s decision not allowing professional triathletes to participate in this year’s Honu triathlon, both Jokiel and Jeremy Withrow, who have completed the event three times, felt indifferent to the changes and more focused on personal goals.
“It doesn’t really matter to me,” said Jokiel, a Park Ranger at Kaloko-Honokohau National Park. “It’s all about a personal goal of being consistent and strong in my 50s and I always enjoy doing the race. It actually makes it more exciting because there are more of us (age groupers) where we can all compete among ourselves. It may be a little disappointing in not seeing the top pros out there but I think it’s still going to be everybody’s own race and everyone will still try to have their best day.”
Withrow added, “What makes the difference to me is my own personal time so I’m not really watching what the other athletes are doing. I finished all three (Honu events) in around six hours and I was self-trained. This year I have a coach and so the goal is to get 5 1/2 hours. My focus is on the run, where I mainly loose a lot of time. I have a good feeling about this year.”
While Ferdico, who finished Sunday’s event in 1:41:28, is looking forward to competing in his first IRONMAN 70.3 event on May 30.
“I actually felt really good today,” he said. “I did a long bike yesterday and it was interesting to see how I would feel on a long run after that. My legs were really tired today but my energy was good, my head was really clear and I didn’t dehydrate so that was really promising.
Honu’s reputation in being a brutally tough course has got Ferdico to reevaluate some of his early goals as now he will be content just to finish.
“I heard that both the bike and run were very challenging courses — by which I mean horrible — and so I’m actually a little intimated by that,” he said. “When I first thought about doing this, I thought about the times I could do in each event (leg) and I felt like I could really do it in about a 5:45. But now that I’ve been doing the long bike training, I’m realizing how hard it is to do a hard run after that kind of bike ride. So if I can just finish doing this thing then I will be pretty happy.”
While putting on a free training event is not always easy, Hodel’s yearly events to help local athletes train for upcoming races has consistently been first class from start to finish.
“I want to thank all of the wonderful volunteers who manifest themselves out on the course,” he said. “It’s just astounding every year people step up so we have some wonderful aid stations. That’s what makes it possible for me to be able to do it for free.”
