Photo by CraigT. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Tesfaye Bekele was the first to finish
today's Great Aloha run.

The 5-foot-5, 125-pound Bekele won the 8.25-mile race in 40 minutes and 6 seconds - one minute and 56 seconds ahead of 32-year-old two-time defending champion Rachid Tbahi of Morocco.

His time was 58 seconds slower than the 1987 course record set by New Zealand's Rex Wilson. Bekele said he could have finished faster had he been given a vehicle escort to guide him into Aloha Stadium. He said he was somewhat confused about which way to turn in the final mile.

"I know I could have run faster," said Bekele. "I was confused which way to go. I needed somebody to show me the finish."

Bekele won the Stockholm and Ocean City (R.I.) marathons last year before becoming a late entry in December's 24th Honolulu Marathon and finishing eighth (2:17:57).

He said he has lived on his own cash reserve at a hotel on Lemon Road ever since, training on part of the marathon course. He said the Great Aloha Run, as well as a five-miler and a 10-kilometer race he has won locally, are part of his tuneup for the Los Angeles Marathon on March 2.

Hawaii Pacific University's 37-year-old Sylvia Fisher captured the women's race for the first time. Her 48:22 was one minute and 11 seconds ahead of Rachel Graybill.

It was the third second-place finish for Graybill, the 27-year-old University of Hawaii assistant women's cross- country coach.

Fisher's time was 3 minutes off the 1987 course record set by Washington's Gail Kingma.

Fisher said she had problems with bystanders wandering on to the course unchecked.

"I had some problems," she said. "Actually, there was a gentleman running next to me, and I'd like to thank him, because he kept telling people to move out of the way."

There was no way to determine how many actually started the run at 7 a.m. from Aloha Tower, but prerace figures showed 17,311 individual competitors had submitted registrations.

There were also several thousand active-duty military personnel who ran in formation.

Tbahi stayed side by side with Bekele through three miles in 14:32 and managed to pull through four miles in 19:26.

But after that, it was, "hasta la vista, baby."

Under the airport overpass, a quarter mile from Camp Catlin Road, Bekele dropped Tbahi like a rock. By the five-mile mark (24:15), he had 75 meters on his rival.

The first local male finisher was Paul Butterfield (42:53).