[ 2003 HONOLULU MARATHON ]
RONEN ZILBERMAN / RZILBERMAN@STARBULLETIN.COM
Eri Hayakawa became the first Japanese runner to win the Honolulu Marathon with her victory in 2 hours, 31 minutes and 57 seconds yesterday.
Hayakawa, Muindi
take titlesEri Hayakawa, a student
from Tokyo, becomes the first
Japanese runner to win the raceRunner ignores failing kidneys to finish race
Weekend: On your mark ...
Lyau extends his Kamaaina streak
Scoreboard: 2003 Honolulu Marathon
For the past 27 years, runners from Japan have brought money into Hawaii every December.
This year, one is taking some back.
Eri Hayakawa, a student in Tokyo, became the first Japanese runner to win the Honolulu Marathon yesterday, beating Russians Alevtina Ivanova, Albina Ivanova and Olga Romanova.
"From the beginning I was slow and not in good condition," Hayakawa said. "But I turned around with the wind behind me and the Japanese runners were all cheering for me. They, and my new Nike shoes, really helped me."
Among men, Kenyan Jimmy Muindi beat countryman Mbarak Hussein for his third title.
Hayakawa rode the cheers of her mates to a time of 2 hours, 31 minutes and 57 seconds over the windy and hilly 26.2-mile course, earning $18,000 including bonuses in the process. Last year she finished fourth behind three Russians in her first marathon, winning $3,000.
Runners from Japan have made up more than a quarter of the field since 1985 and a study by Hawaii Pacific University estimates that last year's race generated $81 million for the state. Yesterday Japanese runners counted for 63.8 percent of the 22,121 finishers. The total registered field was 25,283.
But the elite running world will only punch one name into computers to find out just who she is and where she came from.
Hayakawa disappeared into the pack from the outset of the race, trailing Albina Ivanova by 55 seconds at the halfway point. But that was in Hawaii Kai, where she turned to face the 15,148 Japanese runners trailing her and put the 25- to 30-mph tradewinds to her back.
She rode those two factors and the discipline to stay on pace despite losing sight of the leaders.
"It seemed like the smartest runners won today rather than the fastest runners," said Jonathan Lyau, a local who has run the race 21 times. "The wind might have been stronger last year, but this year it was windy for more miles."
RONEN ZILBERMAN / RZILBERMAN@STARBULLETIN.COM
Jimmy Muindi beat fellow Kenyan Mbarak Hussein by 2 minutes, 2 seconds yesterday to join Hussein and three others as three-time Honolulu Marathon champions. Muindi's time of 2:12.50 was more than a minute off the course record.
Hayakawa stayed on her pace despite trailing by so much and caught Albina Ivanova, who finished second last year after building up a similarly large lead, at the foot of Diamond Head and Alevtina Ivanova shortly thereafter. The Russians said that Hayakawa passed them so quickly that they had no hope of staying with her.
She tuned her technique for this marathon, but didn't do any special training that would enable her to catch the Russians on the incline.
"I'm not usually strong on the hills," Hayakawa said. "This time I was just lucky."
Hayakawa benefited from the absence of Russians Svetlana Zakharova and Lyubov Morgunova, but even with that she never dreamed of singlehandedly putting an end to the Russians' sweep of the top three spots over the past two years.
"The Japanese girl was stronger today," Albina Ivanova said. "Today was her day and she impressed me."
Hayakawa can expect to meet the Russians again on her home turf, as yesterday's top four finishers plan to run in the Nagano International Marathon in April. It may be the first marathon Hayakawa enters with a thought of winning.
"I just had to try my best, I didn't think about winning," Hayakawa, said. "This is all a surprise."
Muindi beat Hussein, a Honolulu Marathon Hall of Famer, by 2 minutes, 2 seconds, joining Hussein and three others as three-time winners of the event.
Muindi earned $17,000 for the win after missing Ibrahim Hussein's course record by more than a minute with a time of 2:12:59.
Muindi and Hussein have run the race together eight times and are as familiar with each other's strategy as they are with their own. Muindi, who last won in 2000, usually makes his break somewhere around the 20-mile mark. But he threw a change-up at Hussein this time.
"He took over with a hard surge at 18 miles and I couldn't go with him," said Hussein, who was running with a case of the shingles. "It kind of surprised me, usually he goes around mile 20."
Muindi said he intended to surprise Hussein with an earlier break, but not that early. He was forced into the move because Dawit Trfe pressured him a little too much. Muindi tried to escape the Ethiopian from the time the pack ran in single file into the wind on its way to Hawaii Kai.
"From the beginning I was not going to look behind me," Muindi said. "I was listening to my opponents, listening to their breathing and their pace, but I didn't know who was behind me. I knew the Ethiopian was behind me because he kept stepping on my heels so I had to get away from him."
RONEN ZILBERMAN / RZILBERMAN@STARBULLETIN.COM
Eri Hayakawa of Japan (right) passed Alevtina Ivanova of Russia during the last leg of the Honolulu Marathon.
Muindi had the energy to run away from his competitors because he was taking it easy all the way through, though not by choice. Even pace-setter Peter Tanui was too slow for him, forcing Muindi to tell him mid-race to either pick it up or get out of the way.
"From 15k on, the pace went down very much and I didn't want it to go down," said Muindi, who ran five consecutive sub-5 minute miles after shedding Tanui. "I told him to move or push harder, I can't do it alone."
Muindi joined Hussein, Benson Masya, Duncan Macdonald and Ibrahim Hussein as three-time winners of the event. Mbarak Hussein and Muindi will return to try to break the tie next year.
"I will always run here," Muindi said. "It is like my second home, and these runners are my family."
Even though he could not catch Muindi and knew he couldn't win, Mbarak Hussein had another important thing to worry about. But he couldn't do anything about it until he crossed the finish line in second place for the first time, because it concerned his brother Ibrahim's course record instead of his time.
"The first thing I asked when I finished was 'Did he (Muindi) break the record?'" Hussein said.
Hell on wheels: The best race of the Honolulu Marathon was completed before the sun came up.
Krige Schabort won his sixth straight Honolulu Marathon wheelchair championship, wheeling through the course in 1 hour, 32 minutes and 52 seconds.
He missed his course record by a minute, but Kelly Smith kept his mind off the record. After working with Smith to get the record, Schabort had his hands full fending off his friend. Schabort beat Smith by less than a second.
"I thought he was going to get me," Schabort said about the final sprint. "I looked back and pushed as hard as I could but I couldn't get any speed."
The teammates agreed to work together but abandoned the plan when they approached Diamond Head. Schabort took off and left a gap between him and Smith, but Smith closed it when both riders hit the flat home stretch. If the race is 26.25 miles, Smith is the winner.
"I didn't feel so good in the flats," Schabort said. "And I thought he wouldn't be so good at the steepest part of Diamond Head so if I don't attack there I don't think I would win. But that is an important thing for me, that it is over and I won."
Wakako Tsuchida made it a Japanese sweep in the three women's races, taking the women's wheelchair edition in 1:53:49 to finish seventh overall.
BACK TO TOP |
Lyau extends his
Kamaaina streakThe 39-year-old wins his 12th
straight award with his 23rd-place
finish in the Honolulu Marathon
Lyau went for his annual 26.2-mile run yesterday and picked up his 12th straight Kamaaina award in the process.
"I've got to protect the streak," Lyau said. "Its a challenge -- the older I get the tougher it is. Winning each year is more than I ever expect, it's a bonus."
Lyau finished 23rd overall with a time of 2:41:34, more than four minutes behind his time last year.
Don't begin to think that the 39-year-old is starting to lose it, though. He had a tougher wind and unreliable shoelace to contend with.
Lyau's shoe came untied in the first mile, forcing him to stop. He recovered in time to beat Karl Honma of Kamuela by more than six minutes.
Lyau has become accustomed to not only winning the Kamaaina title for the fastest runner born in Hawaii, but being the fastest resident of the state as well. He may have finally met his match in that category.
Robert Dickey, who calls Kailua home and serves in the Air Force, cracked the top 20 and took the prize as the fastest local resident.
Dickey ran a 2:35:22 in his first time officially on the course. He prepared for Honolulu by running the course on the weekends, and has run the Boston and Marine Corps marathons.
"Strangely enough I felt really good," Dickey said. "I haven't been able to put in a full dose of training, but my game plan went off perfect today."
He says that even though he usually shares the course with 17,000 cars rather than 17,000 people, the little course knowledge he was able to pick up helped him immensely.
"It makes a huge difference to know where you are going," Dickey said. "When you hit the turn-off point, you get a surge of adrenaline and think, 'I have to hurry back to get my massage.' "
One runner who knows about the course is Cynthia Schnack.
Schnack, 40, won her 10th Kamaaina award with an 11th place finish overall and broke the three-hour barrier for the fourth straight year with a time of 2:58:27.
"(The Kamaaina award) means everything to me. I have three goals every year: To make sure I'm not entered in the marathon, to win the Kamaaina award and to come in under three hours," Schnack said. "Two out of three isn't bad."
While Eri Hayakawa won the women's overall title, she seemed to pull the rest of the Japanese women along with her. Five of the top 10 women were Japanese, including HPU graduate student Sayuri Kusutani.
Kusutani, 44, was the fastest local female resident for the second straight year, finishing seventh overall at 2:52:18, one spot off Olympic legend Joan Benoit Samuelson, 46.
"I am so glad to be the No. 1 local resident again," Kusutani said. "The Honolulu Marathon is a pretty big race in the world."
It was almost the only race for Kusutani, who tore a muscle in April and missed the Maui Marathon in September when she had to return to Japan to take care of a family emergency. She graduates in May, so if she can't find a job in Hawaii she will miss next year's Honolulu Marathon.
But for all she has done in her 40s, Hayakawa stole the show. And that is fine with Kusutani.
"I wasn't surprised; she was one of the favorites," Kusutani said. "She will have to go back to Japan and be a celebrity, though."
