VOLCANO – This time, thanks to the Big Island’s long-distance king of the road, the only drama in the annual Hilo-to-Volcano run Saturday was on the stopwatch.
Billy Barnett, the Waiakea Junior High School special education teacher, has entered four of these 31-plus mile events, but Saturday stood out from the rest and not just because it was his fourth win.
Barnett won the event in a record time of 3:46.54, maintaining a 7:14 pace per mile all the way up from the parking lot at Coconut Island to the Cooper Center in Volcano, starting in the pre-dawn darkness and finishing in a light mist that was more than welcome in the last few miles.
“That was great,” a beaming Barnett said moments after his record finish, “it felt right all the way, it was a rush.”
Barnett is well known for the high level of interest he attaches to the joy of running and the relative lack of interest he has in being first.
But Saturday was different. Barnett was close to his grandfather who recently passed away, “and there were some other things going on,” he said. “I just took everything and channeled it into running today and it sort of propelled me.”
Like a jet is propelled from its launch site, Barnett jumped out in front in the first mile and by the time he passed the 10-mile mark, he was all alone.
He hadn’t committed to the run until he signed up “about 10 days ago,” and with the dispiriting family news, he was not sure he would enter the race, then changed his mind Friday.
“Really, just yesterday I decided to do it,” he said, “and I thought I’d see if I could beat the record, so I wanted to just keep a pace going that would get me there.”
And it did, in record fashion.
Noelani McMahon, in her third Hilo-to-Volcano run, got her first win the women’s open category after placing second in her first two attempts.
Her husband, Bill McMahon, joined Todd Marohnic and Marta Caproni to win the mixed masters competition.
“I’ve run faster, but I have absolutely not one thing to complain about,” Noelani said. “My strategy, if that’s what you want to call it, was to stay as comfortable as I could for as long as possible, and then when it got ugly, I just wanted to tough it out, keep going.”
It got ugly at precisely the 24-mile marker, because it is at that point she would turn left onto the road home, where a hot tub awaits, bubbling away.
“Takes a while to get that out of my head,” she said, “I think it about before I get there and a little after, then it’s all good. Besides, I won today, how can I complain about the weather or the hills or anything?”
Joe Barcia, a veteran of these distance challenges, was content with his time of 4:31, even as he shook his head at Barnett’s performance.
“The darkness, then the mist was good,” Barcia said, “because it keeps you in the moment, you’re looking right ahead, you’re not looking at that big next hill, and yeah, I was right there with Billy, for about two-and-a-half miles, then he was gone.
“Once again, he was Billy, he starts off at a pace that encourages you be one with him and then, he picks it up a little, you don’t think it’s too much, but he just keeps pulling away.”
Barnett’s next challenge? He plans to enter the Epic 5 Challenge, in March, an event that includes five island runs in five days, starting on Kauai, each run is 50 miles, or 250 miles in five days.
He is accepting donations for the more than $2,000 dollars he needs to enter. You can donate online to his enrollment fee at you caring.com.