It happens every year, he lures them in and manages to hook a couple into his grand scheme.
And today is the smart time to save yourself $5, and generate the proper mental motivation to strive to make yourself a long distance runner.
The smart way to train for a marathon, like the 2020 Big Island marathon is Hilo on March 15, is to work your way up to it, and for those ready to challenge themselves, the steps are all laid out for you.
First things first. Friday midnight is the last chance to register for a 10K race ($30), the price goes up by $5 Saturday and another $5 if you wait until the day of the race. The stair-stepped runs, 10K, 20K and 30K, followed by the marathon in March, is the pathway to completing the first marathon for many.
“Every year we get a few who do it all the way through and complete their first marathon,” said race owner Bob Wedeman, “I’d say we average around three a year.
“Most of them are the ones who say, ‘Oh, I can run a 5K no problem, but a marathon? No way. And then, a couple try it and they do it.”
Yes, the marathon is a long ways away, more than seven months, or, if you prefer, 233 days, which is enough time, if you really want to complete a marathon, to get the work in. If you know you can run a 5K, you are in position to give it serious consideration.
Remember, there are no rules about walking a half-mile or mile every once in a while during a marathon. Long distance runners will tell you if you can run three miles or so without great difficulty, you can complete a marathon.
“The series,” Wedeman said, “is a long term investment and if someone runs the 10K, 20K and 30K, they certainly will be able to complete the marathon, but maybe they only want to run a half marathon? That’s fine, go for it.”
The 10K goes off Aug. 25, so you have a month to build up some miles, then the 20K ($45) is set for Oct. 20 and the 30K goes on Jan. 26. All three start at 7 a.m. at the Bayfront and head up the coast.
For further information, go to hilomarathon.org.
Rock Solid Postponement
While the forces of science and religion continue their stare down at the Saddle Road entrance to Mauna Kea, those who want to prevent construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope had a big-timer join their movement this week when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who grew up wanting to be a pro wrestler in his home state of Pennsylvania, stopped by the protest site.
Is there a better or more well-known pop culture stare than the one The Rock can send out, with the raised eyebrow?
Johnson, whose father was a pro wrestler, was eventually recruited to the University of Miami on a football scholarship by then-head coach Dennis Erickson, but he had trouble getting a lot of playing time behind guys who became All-Americans and NFL draft choices.
But wrestling and movies turned out to be a decent career path for him after all.
One early casualty created by the protests was the cancellation of Sea to Stars, the big cycling event of the year and the most demanding challenge on the Big Island, organized by the Hawaii Cycling Club.
Scheduled for Aug. 3, the club had to scramble to make alternate plans for this year’s event, and while it will still involve bicycles and riders, that’s about the only aspect that will link it with the past Sea to Stars events.
Instead, HCC’s regular Saturday ride will depart from Bike Works Beach and Sport in Queens Marketplace, Waikoloa, at 7:30 am, Aug. 3. HCC board members will be in the parking lot behind Bike Works to start the ride.
“What can we do?” said Franz Weber of the club, recalling the moment last week when they decided there’s no feasible way to hold the event this year. “You know, going from the ocean to 9,200-foot level was pretty different, a real challenge, but over the years we have started it at Kona, at Hilo, we’ve moved it around some here and there, so we just dealt with reality and did what we needed to do.”
Weber said even if they had a fully realized new course laid out somewhere with a big climb, securing police officers to be on hand to work the intersections along the way for safety was going to be out of the question.
“So, we’ll have a ride, or a couple of rides,” he said. “It won’t be the serious competitive kind of thing, but it will be a bunch of people on their bikes, and it will be fun.”
One route will be 27 miles, from Waikoloa Road out and back — approximately 12 miles of climbing out with a fast descent back; the other is 55 miles from Waikoloa Road/Old Saddle/Saddle loop, that includes 28 miles of climbing out with a fast, return trip.
100 Miles of Hurt
Speaking of deadlines, you only have until the 31st to do something you may have always wanted to do — spend $300 to run a 100-mile race.
No? Not a major running goal for you? Never wanted to spend a day or more doing nothing but running?
Perhaps, the Hurt 100, on Oahu isn’t for everyone. OK, it’s not, it is only for the hardest of hard core trail runners who are willing to spend that much and also donate eight hours of volunteer trail maintenance in order to qualify.
What happens is you register, then you follow the instructions to properly do your trail maintenance, and if everything is done right, you can qualify for this grueling assignment.
It goes around a five-lap course with three refreshment stops on each loop and it includes a 24,500-foot gain by the time you finish.
The run goes on Jan. 18, the 20th anniversary, and yes, there’s interest all over the state in this event, including right here.
Hilo-area runners signed up for the Hurt 100 include Chris Seymour, Griffith Yamaguchi, James Twigg-Smith, Mark Lewis, Jessica Hartong, Reed Akashi, Daniel Hartong, Jason Shimazu, Rachel Sheehan and Matthias Kusch.
There may be more by the time registration closes, and once all of that is done, we’ll be telling you more about the Hilo people who are excited about the chance to run 100 miles.
Let’s be honest, there aren’t a lot of these people anywhere.
Send notes and names of locals to barttribuneherald@gmail.com
