The long term stability of the Hilo Marathon might fairly be described as more a marathon than a sprint this year, thanks to a double hit from Pele and new competition from the mainland.
Scheduled for March 17, with its start and finish at the Hilo Bayfront, Big Island International Marathon owner Bob Wedeman got a surprise recently when he learned a downhill marathon — the Revel Kulia Hawaii — had been cleared and also scheduled for March, just a week earlier.
It wasn’t good news for Wedeman, who said his entries got off to a very slow start last summer, apparently because of the Kilauea eruption.
“We’ve never started so slowly and I heard a couple mention the eruptions,” Wedeman said, “so I figured that must be it.”
Running marathons on back-to-back weekends doesn’t often happen, for obvious reasons.
“It’s hurting us this year, for sure,” Wedeman said, “but we’ll get through it.”
The Revel downhill series is run in six states and organizers for this one have plotted a course that goes from the highlands of Mauna Kea to Waikoloa, dropping 4,000 feet in altitude, giving runners a big step to a fast finish.
“Typically, we plan to never be on the same weekend as the local events, or this close to another marathon,” said Cydney Lundahl, vice-president of business development for Revel. “We want to be as far away as we can, but sometimes it’s unavoidable, based on availabilities of all the other stakeholders. Truly, we have zero intention or interest of any kind in cannibalizing others.”
Race director Anna Ryan said March 9 was the date they were given for their first marathon on the Big Island. Next year, Ryan said it looks like they will likely have a weekend date in mid-January but, “I don’t want to say an exact date because nothing has been settled yet and it isn’t up to us to pick a date.”
“It’s only fair that people question us when we come in for the first time,” Lundahl said, “and we certainly understand that. For us, it’s about proving ourselves, proving we know what we’re doing, that we know what the runners need and it’s about working with the local organizers in a way that helps both of us.”
Lundahl added that the Revel marathon has a “pono pledge,” that stands for, ‘Leaving it better than we found it.’
“One thing we are committed to is the cleanup,” she said. “We have people who will literally walk the course on foot after the last runner has come through, picking up every bit of trash, paper cups, whatever. When we are done, it will be cleaner than when we started.”
Saturday Showcase: Big Island rugby teams have been reaching out for more participation and when parents see it isn’t the violent game that it has often been portrayed, they tend to let their young ones go after it.
An up close look is available Saturday at Malama Park when 14-and-under boys and girls teams converge for hours of competition in round-robin play.
The Hilo team is dominant this year, but squads from Kona, Waikoloa and Puna have been trying to catch up.
The 14-and-under girls include teams from all four areas, while Puna has struggled to put together a full 14-and-under boys roster.
Competition starts Saturday at 9 a.m. and should run through to 3 p.m.
Trip of Distinction: Bulgaria might not top your list of places to visit, but it’s back on the travel schedule for Hilo boxing referee Joe Feliciano, selected as the only United States referee to work the first international amateur boxing event of the new year, the Strandja Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria, from Feb. 9-20.
The USA boxing team will be on hand but Feliciano will be the third man in the ring only for bouts not including the USA. In his letter of invitation, the president of the Bulgarian Boxing Federation said Sofia was selected “… due to its great importance as a boxing center of the of the country. It is also the biggest administrative, industrial, cultural and educational center of Bulgaria.”
In amateur boxing circles, this a major event operating for it’s 70th year.
Felciano was most recently there in 2015 when he worked the championship finals that matched a Russian and Pakistani boxer and he may get more championship bouts this time.
Feliciano said it was his “seventh or eighth,” trip to Bulgaria for boxing competitions.
NASCAR Start: Well, that’s a bit of stretch for the Hilo-side contingent of dedicated badminton players, but there is a sliver of connection with the car racing people who annually recognize the Daytona 500 as the biggest race of the year.
It’s also the first big race of the year, in February.
Here, the event is the Hawaii Open Pickleball Championships, at the Holua Tennis and Pickleball Center in Kona, which was contested last weekend.
There were 211 registered players from as far away as New York, Maine, Texas and Canada, with more than $26,000 in prize money awarded.
Hilo players didn’t get a piece of that cash, but Vince Chun and Doug Pang took the gold in men’s 2X (50 and over), Renee Martin and her Kona partner, Pilahi Gregg, took silver in women’s 2X (65 and over).
Other Hilo players were Phyllis Funada, Howard Kamei, Randy and Kiki Kunimoto, Caden Yamamoto and Vasek Slezak.
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