Runnin’ with Rani: Henderson, Chen capture Sea To Stars

Saturday’s Sea To Stars cycling hill climb race turned out to be a day filled with exciting drama and awe-inspiring performances, that to describe it as anything other than “epic,” would be a gross understatement.

From the Waikoloa fires that forced race organizers to reroute the course from Waikoloa to Hilo the day before; to the heavy pelting of rain, fog and wintery conditions that completely saturated riders for hours; to the heartbreak of those forced to DNF after months of training and preparation; and for a few, having the breakthrough race of their career, it was truly a race that will be remembered for years to come.

And to top it off, the event marked the 10th anniversary for Sea To Stars.

For Keauhou’s Penn Henderson, nothing could sum up the myriad of emotions he felt upon winning his first Sea To Stars crown in a time of 2 hours, 29 minutes and 8 seconds.

Only an affirmative fist-pump in the air and jubilant smile highlighted the moment — an exclamation mark to what has been years of visualizing how it would feel to capture the overall title.

“This win is especially rewarding for me personally for a lot of reasons,” Henderson said shortly after crossing the finish line. “I’ve had a lot of ups and downs with this race over the years, placing second once with other years dealing with severe cramps and nausea. The last time I did it I had to drop out with two miles to go and an 8 minute lead. Certainly, I had my doubts considering my past struggles and also with the level of competition that showed up. So this is truly the icing on the cake.”

Rerouting the

STS Course

Saturday’s Sea To Stars (STS) Race — a grueling 48-miles starting at sea level in Waikoloa, followed by 9800 feet of climbing with gradients upwards of 17-percent to finish near the Mauna Kea Visitor’s Center — almost didn’t happen due to the Waikoloa fires that began last Wednesday.

Just 24 hours before the start of one of the most talked about cycling hill climb races in the state, no one knew whether the event was still on or not. And that’s because the initial 10-mile ascent happens on Waikoloa Road.

Riders begin the journey from the bottom of Waikoloa Road and climb their way to the top before connecting to Mamalahoa Highway. From there, the course winds through the Old Saddle Road, and then onto the new Daniel Inouye Highway before making a left-hand turn on the Mauna Kea Access Road.

In addition, special duty police officers that would normally assist with traffic control at three different intersections were unavailable due to attending the funeral for Hawaii Police Officer, Bronson Kaliloa.

Thus, it left race director Tom Solis scrambling for options the day before.

However, upon hearing of the fire and road closures, Kailua-Kona’s Gary Shields said he knew the race didn’t have to be canceled.

Shields, who began the Hawaii Cycling Club in 1997 and Sea To Stars in 2006, organized the STS event for seven consecutive years before moving to Thailand. After a three-year hiatus (2013-2015), STS returned in 2016 under the Hawaii Cycling Club and with a new race director, Solis.

Shields said he suggested to Solis of rerouting the course to start from Hilo, where it originated in 2006.

“Instead of seeing the race canceled and knowing how may people were looking forward to it, I suggested that the race start back in Hilo,” Shields said. That seemed to be the best and only option.”

Solis did just that and with his amazing team of volunteers, spent the final 24 hours leading up to the event reorganizing the entire race to start in Hilo.

“It’s been a nightmare,” Solis said with a laugh. “We originally thought that we might have a vog problem a couple months ago. Then on our original course, we have three left turns where we usually would have special duty police officers directing traffic. But because of the funeral for the officer who was recently killed, they were unavailable. And then the fire this week forced us to decide where to go, and we thought about different options until we finally decided that we got to do it from Hilo.

“It was like a ping pong match. Every 15 minutes we would get an email from somebody saying it’s going to be clear and the road is going to be open in an hour. Then we’d get another one that said, it’s getting worse. We were just going back and forth until we decided that we just needed to make the decision and stick with it — the Hilo to Mauna Kea route. It originated in Hilo and Gary Shields, who originated it, is here. It seemed almost predestined that we have the race starting in Hilo.”

The men’s race

With the STS race starting in Hilo, the course registered a shorter 32.5-miles with an elevation gain of 8,734 feet — less than the original 9800 feet, but still deemed a challenging climb or “HC” (Hors Categore), a French term used to rate tough hill climb races and means “beyond categorization.”

And as if climbing up a massive volcano wasn’t hard enough, right on cue, the notorious Hilo skies opened up to a downpour of torrential rain to bless the start of the race.

“It was a horrible start because it was raining so hard,” Solis said. “Riders really need to be commended for riding today because the first 10-12 miles were just wet and horrible.”

A lead pack of men made up of former STS winners, Oahu’s Ray Brust and Jason Smith, along with Penn Henderson and Florida’s Rane Roatta, quickly separated themselves from the field.

As the rain continued to lay assault on every rider, Brust became the first victim over the initial miles to a front tire flat – leaving Smith, Henderson and Roatta, as the top male leaders. From there, Smith and Henderson decided to push the pace and left Roatta to fend for himself.

By Mile 11, Henderson was all alone and in the lead.

“It was absolutely dumping rain for almost the entire race – we were literally having to dodge streams of water coming down the highway and debris on shoulder of the road,” the 46-year-old said. “At about 1 hour into the race, I was feeling good and went to the front to take a pull. About five minutes later I looked back and to my surprise, nobody was there.”

Henderson continued to focus on his race and once onto the final climb on the steep Mauna Kea Access Road, he tried to completely block out any negative thoughts on what happened two years before — crippled in pain from cramps, dehydration and nausea with just two miles to go.

But it didn’t happen, and as the skies returned to blue and warm sunshine, it turned out to be the best cycling race of his career.

“Sea to Stars has always been one of the most prestigious cycling events in the state, so winning it is truly special,” Henderson said.

Smith hung onto second place with a time of 2:42:02, with Roatta in third at 2:48:37.

The women’s race

The women’s race featured one of the best fields in the 10-year history of the event.

Pre-race favorite, Tawnie McDonald, returned to defend her title after winning two consecutive STS races and recently making history in June by being the first Big Island woman to win Maui’s Cycle to the Sun race.

Also returning was Ninole’s Jennifer Real, who won the Prologue earlier in the year and is currently one of the top female riders on Zwift, a virtual cycling program using a stationary “smart trainer”.

And making their debut were Kailua-Kona’s Winona Chen, a top female triathlete, and Oahu’s Kristen Osborn, a cycling powerhouse who recently qualified for the Ironman World Championships at June’s Ironman 70.3 Hawaii.

While the men’s STS race was filled with surprises, the women’s race did not disappoint.

Early on, it seemed the top three duking it out for bragging rights would be among McDonald, Real and Osborn. The threesome began pushing a hard pace from the beginning and left Chen on her own, a ways back.

However, McDonald suffered a flat tire that forced her to end the race.

“I really didn’t think about keeping a spare with me,” McDonald said. “I just wasn’t thinking.”

With McDonald out, Real and Osborn were left battling for the lead but both began to feel the effects of going out too hard in the beginning.

Chen, who kept a steady pace, finally caught and pedaled past them.

“I felt like everybody was kind of riding together at first and after one of the inclines, they just kept going and I just did my own thing,” said the soon-to-be 28-year-old. “I thought they would continue that pace the whole way after they gapped me so I just settled into my pace.”

Once she made it onto the Mauna Kea Access Road with a sizeable lead from Osborn and Real, came what Chen described as her most challenging segment.

“The most challenging was probably that last ¾ of a mile before the finish,” Chen said. “It physically felt hard and mentally, I was tired. And I think it was tough because I was going pretty steady for the whole climb and by the time I got to the top, my legs were definitely sore. Mentally I just kept thinking to myself to be patient and then it will be done soon.”

Chen powered through the finish line to claim her first STS victory in a time of 3:18:37.

“It was incredible,” Chen said of how she felt upon crossing the finish line. “I didn’t come to the race thinking that I was going to win.”

Following Chen in the women’s race were Osborn and Real with their times of 3:24:59 and 3:34:36 respectively.

Other impressive finishes were Brust, who borrowed Henderson’s spare wheel after riding 15-minutes on a flat tire to finish 4th overall in 2:53:05; 17-year-old Caleb Barville, who placed 5th overall with a time of 2:53:26; and Johnnie Kaihewalu, who rode on a fixed-gear bike and finished in 4:57:28.

Both Henderson and Chen plan to return to defend their titles next year.

“I’ll definitely be back next year,” Henderson said. “Being able to finally accomplish a goal that has been years in the making wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for those who helped to make this year’s race happen. Many thanks to Tom Solis, all of the amazing volunteers, and the Hawaii Cycling Club.”

Coming Up

Saturday: Big Island Road Runners Club will host the Mana 10s – 10K and 10-Mile on Mana Road in Waimea. Start time for both events is 7:30 a.m. with onsite registration beginning at 6:30 a.m. For more information contact Keith Marrack 895-9793 or visit bigislandroadrunners.org.

Sunday: The 32nd Annual Alii Challenge, a 6-mile open water ocean swim will begin at 7:30 a.m. in Keauhou Bay and finish at Kamakahonu Beach next to the Kailua Pier. Race divisions will include Individual (M/F), 2-person relay teams (M/F/mixed), Youth (under 20 years), Open (20-44 years), and Masters (45-65 years). Onsite registration and check-in time for this free event is 6:30 a.m. For more info contact Tom Sena at tomsena1@gmail.com.