KAILUA-KONA — A large and lively crowd congregated at the starting line of the PATH 5K and 10K runs at Hale Halawai on Sunday morning, officially kicking off Ironman World Championship week.
As per usual, the 32nd edition of the popular event had international flair, as athletes and their families from all all over the world hopped on a plain to the Big Island for the Ironman festivities.
A pair of runners from Spain swept the 5K, with Javier Garcia Gotiez crossing the finish line first overall with a time of 15 minutes and 53 seconds. Tanara Sanfabio placed first in the female division and seventh overall at 19:30.
In the 10K, Germany’s Simon Muller paced the field with a first place finishing time of 34:07. Denmark’s Katrine Brock won the female division and placed 12th overall at 38:23.
The PATH race is the first of many events scheduled for Ironman World Championship week leading up to the big show on Saturday. Ironman will host the Heroes of Hawaii talk story on Monday, as well as the Keiki Dip-n-Dash Biathlon and Parade of Nations on Alii Drive on Tuesday. The always entertaining Underpants Run is slated for Thursday and the Ironman Village at Hale Halawai will be open from Tuesday-Saturday.
For Brazil’s Rodrejo Lobo, the PATH Run was just the first of many activities he was looking forward to this week. Lobo is visiting for the third time, having competed in the 140.6-mile race in 2014 and 2016.
But this time he is here to watch, meet up with friends and have a little fun. He hasn’t minded sitting on the sideline so far.
“It is a party,” Lobo said. “A lot of people come to this event just for fun and the vibe is fantastic.
“People are all over, training, running, swimming and biking. This is the best week of the year,” Lobo added. “It is much better being her to watch because you are not so anxious. But just watching is new for me. Maybe I will feel like I should be out there when I am watching on Saturday.”
The PATH event drew a field of 206 runners in the 10K and 227 in the 5K. The fun run is held every year as a fundraiser to help the non-profit group hold bike awareness training classes in elementary schools across the Big Island.
Along with the money made from the race, the Ironman Foundation also donated $1,406 to PATH.
“The cost for each class that we hold is usually around $3,000, so this event is really important to us,” said Tina Clothier, Executive Director of PATH. “It might surprise you how many kids don’t know how to ride a bike in the fourth grade. Our classes allow them to attain that right of passage as well as teach safety in the current environment.”
PATH works with Hawaii state and county, local leaders, and community members to safely connect people and places with bikeways, sidewalks and pathways. It started as Kona Community Safety Lane in 1986 with the purpose of getting bike lines on Alii Drive. Now, 32 years later, the organization has grown by leaps and bounds, both in terms of membership and accomplishments in the community — incuding making headway on its original goal.
“The county has started to stripe the makai side of Alii Drive. It is so exciting,” Clothier said. “Thirty-two years ago we formed this organization and here we go, we finally got bike lanes on Alii.”