Honolulu, HI. – Over the first five Hapalua Half Marathons, Team Hawaii runners are up 3-2 against the pro chasers. Tomorrow morning, the sixth running, The Chase will on again.
The Chase is the unique racing format designed by Honolulu Marathon President Jim Barahal. 22 local Team Hawaii athletes will be given a series of head starts ranging from six to 22 minutes. Then they try to hold off the four professionals charging from behind. The first runner across the line wins the $5000 first place check, with an additional nine places earning paydays.
Hapalua pro Chasers Abraham Kipyatich and Philip Tarbei with Toya and Team Toya runner Buddy Russell from San Diego
This year’s pro chasers include Kenyans Philip Tarbei and Abraham Kipyatich of Run Czech Racing, along with 61-minute Yuki Yagi of Japan, and 2013 IAAF Women’s World Championships Marathon bronze medalist Kayoko Fukushi also hailing from Japan.
The men will run scratch while Fukushi will light out six minutes in front along with Team Hawaii runner Ben Wilson who finished third in 2015. Last Year Kenya’s Isabella Ochichi had seven minutes in hand and won by 1:01. (more…)
My wife is a coach, and you people are driving her crazy. So pay attention, because your issues tend to fall back on me when she gets home and has to deal with my normal idiot-husband tendencies. And I’m starting to run out of wiggle room.
Coaches are throwbacks, professional nitpickers with hearts of gold and hair-trigger tongues. That’s why they give them a whistle, so they can blow off some of that steam after you rile them up.
David Lloyd (Manchester Wheelers’) and Eddie Soens (National Coach).
Anyway, one such coach I remember well was Eddie Soens, a Runyan-esque character out of Liverpool, England who mentored two-time Boston Marathon champion Geoff Smith, a fellow Liverpudlian who stayed in the U. S. after his career at Providence College.
When I met Soens he was 70, and had decades of experience as a top cycling coach back home. Whenever Eddie would visit New England as Geoff prepped for one of his Boston victories (1984-`85), I recall standing alongside as the old coach just shook his head as he watched American runners cool down after a race or hard workout.
“I cannot believe how they walk around with their legs still bare,” he’d vent in that deep scouse accent. “There’s no attention paid to detail! No attention atall!”
The tough-love spirit of Eddie Soens lives on in Liverpool every March at the Eddie Soens Memorial , a cycling race that is now in its 55th year. But recalling the words of Eddie is like hearing Toya at the end of every workout and race with her Team Toyaor USD charges.
“You might feel warm, but your muscles don’t. The next day when you say, ‘I don’t know why my hamstring or calf feels a little tight, or I feel a little niggle’, well, when you walk around for an hour without covering up after a race or hard workout, that’s the danger.
Where are your sweats?
“The first order of business is to get out of your wet clothes and into some sweats. Do you ever notice how the Ethiopians and Kenyans are always fully clothed when they aren’t competing, even when it’s hot outside? Same with all the sprinters, they aren’t showing off their legs. They keep them covered up. That isn’t modesty, it’s being attentive to the small things that avoid injury and lead to top performance.”
OK, there it is, another prudish prompt from an old-timer. So when Toya and all the other coaches out there say to put on a layer of sweats and not just wear your shorts ‘cause you feel warm, I don’t care what the temperature is, cover up!
Those coaches have spouses and significant others who are making enough mistakes on our own without having to bear the burden of your inattentiveness. So in the name of said spouses, Get on it!
Honolulu, HI. – Over the first five Hapalua Half Marathons, Team Hawaii runners are up 3-2 against the pro chasers. Tomorrow morning, the sixth running, The Chase will on again.
