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Saturday, April 15, 2000

Hawaii has
33 entered in
Boston Marathon

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

There will be 33 Hawaii entries queuing up for the 104th Boston Marathon on Monday in Hopkinton, Mass.

That's the largest Hawaii contingent since 32 entered the 100th anniversary of the world's oldest footrace in 1996.

There were 24 Hawaii runners in the 1999 race and 13 in the 1998 race.

Hawaii runners will continue their tradition of gathering long before the noon start of the race at the Greek Revival-style white mansion on Main Street in Hopkinton that houses an engineering firm owned by Peter Thalman.

Thalman, who has never lived here, flies the Hawaii state flag over his portal so that island runners can easily find him. He started inviting Hawaii runners in for breakfast five years ago to honor his late wife who loved visiting the isles.

Ten of the Hawaii runners are 50-and-over, 15 are in their 40s, six are in their 30s, and two are 30-and-under.

The youngest runners are Shelly Schimpf, 27, of Lahaina, Maui, and Mina Casey, 26, of Mililani.

The oldest is Christopher Smith, 65, of Honolulu.

John Smith, a University of Hawaii oceanographer, ran the best Hawaii time (2:37:05) in the 103rd Boston Marathon, followed by McKinley High alumnus Jonathan Lyau (2:43:37).

Neither is entered this year.

The 26.2-mile point-to-point course starts in Hopkinton at the town green and ends at Copley Square in downtown Boston.

Live updates of the race can be found at http://www.bostonmarathon.org on the Internet, starting at 6 a.m. Hawaii time.