Running in his second marathon, Daniel Hill won the 4th annual Hawaii Bird Conservation marathon in 2 hours, 24 minutes on Sunday in a 26.2-mile race, which started at Volcano and finished at the Boys Scouts Council on Stainback Highway.
Hill, 50, is an auto mechanic from Waikoloa and has run in a bunch of 50Ks (31 miles).
“I started running about three years ago,” he said. “I’m pretty happy, hurting but happy. It hurts. It’s downhill, and the rain didn’t help. It started with an Ironman thing, and I thought it would be fun to do.”
Cheering him on was his wife, Nina Hill, who is also a marathon runner. She estimated she’s run 15 to 20 marathons.
“I’m an accountant, but I don’t count,” she joked.
Hill separated from runner-up Patrick Stover at mile 23. Stover, 33, finished in 2:43:28 to set a personal record.
“I was going to take it easy for half of the race, but when I got to the downhill I started to go and maintain a pace,” said Stover, who coaches the Makua Lani cross country team. “I got into a comfortable rhythm, and every time I got to a downhill I just kept going. Once I got to the end, I was like, ‘Let’s worry when you get there.’ My legs started to get pretty tight, but I kept moving, keep pushing.
“I kept passing people, one person, one person, and I was, ‘Go get that guy.’ I got to the turn and didn’t realize that was the finish. My PR was totally unexpected. I was coaching the Makua Lani kids and put my running on the back burner. My training mostly consisted of what I was doing with the boys (3.1 miles).”
Stover did the race for two reasons: He’s a friend of race director Alan Ryan, and he wanted to help bird conservation.
Meanwhile, Hill looked like he was in great shape and won by a comfortable margin.
It’s a small field of 58 runners, but Ryan noted that being a marathon winner is no small accomplishment.
“It’s a special thing to win a marathon,” he said. “You’re a champion, and you’ll remember it for the rest of your life.”
Ryan took over the race from founder Bob Kennedy, who’s from New Hampshire. In four years, Ryan noted $13,000 has been donated to bird conservation.
The 2019 featured bird is the Alala or Hawaiian crow.
Bree Wee was the women’s winner in 2:58:41.4.
She appreciated the race and ran in the Honolulu Marathon, where she was fourth in 3:01:31. (On the men’s side in Honolulu, Volcano’s John Benner and Billy Barnett were second and third, respectively).
“It’s an amazing crew. They worked really hard to put this together during a COVID year. The athletes and community were supportive,” she said. “They were cheering for us and not knowing who we were that was beautiful.
“I just finished Honolulu Marathon last weekend so I was pretty tired. My two best friends (Skye Ombac and Makela Ward) from Kona side made a challenge that we would do back-to-back marathons. My friend Dave J came over to Honolulu with us, and we said, ‘Let’s do back to back.’ I don’t like downhill running, but this is my first one. I didn’t get my goal last week of breaking three hours.”
