It happens every time. ADVERTISING It happens every time. Big Islanders line up at the start line preparing for another friendly battle with familiar competition, the race starts, and then, out of nowhere, an unknown, out-of-towner rips to the front
It happens every time.
Big Islanders line up at the start line preparing for another friendly battle with familiar competition, the race starts, and then, out of nowhere, an unknown, out-of-towner rips to the front of the pack – leaving everyone in their dust.
At Sunday’s Carboman 10-Mile Mosey, John Moyher from Haddam, Connecticut did just that — rip it.
“I’m celebrating my wife’s 40th birthday so we came out for a week of R&R and looked online to see if there were any road races here and found this one,” Moyher said. “I saw that it was a 10-miler and since I’m currently training for a marathon I thought this would be perfect.”
The 36-year old Pharmacist, who is gearing up for the upcoming Vermont City Marathon at the end of May, finished the 10-mile out and back course on Alii Drive in 1 hour, 5 minutes and 45 seconds – a full three minutes ahead of the second place runner.
“It’s beautiful here but hot and a lot more humid than I’m used to so it was a bit of a body shock as it’s about 35-degrees in the morning at home,” Moyher said. “My goal was to run my own race because I know not to run someone else’s race because then you get toasted. The goal was to stay 6:30-6:40 pace through the halfway mark and then come back to see what I had left. Looking at my GPS watch I was able to do 6:40 or better every mile so I was really happy with that.”
Tom Davis followed in second place at 1:08:45, with Laupahoehoe’s Alan Ryan right on his heels in third at 1:08:51. Ryan also competed in The Hapalua – Hawaii’s Half Marathon over in Oahu two weeks ago and placed an impressive sixth overall as Hawaii’s top finisher in 1:23:39.
On the women’s side, I moseyed down Alii Drive and back in a time of 1:09:33. Sara Madden followed in second at 1:20:31, and Captain Cook’s Erin Rene rounded out the women’s top three with her time of 1:24:03.
In addition to the Mosey, Sunday’s event featured two other distances with all three races named after Big Island athletes: The Carboman 10-Mile Mosey in honor of Craig Leeper, the Road Runner 3.5-Mile Romp after myself, and the 1-Mile Mighty Mouse Scamper honoring Linda Jane Kelley.
In the Road Runner 3.5-Mile Romp, defending champion and course record holder (21:34), Cody Ranfranz, sprinted straight to the front in hopes of inking yet another Peaman victory to his resume.
But as the 16-year old teen speedster hit the halfway mark the unthinkable happened – he mistakenly kept going – leaving the door wide open for Kailua-Kona’s Tim Robinson who was trailing behind.
Robinson now found himself as the new leader, while Ranfranz, who sprinted past the halfway mark by a good half a mile, put on a hard chase to catch back up to the new leader before running out of real estate at the finish line.
Although Ranfranz made up a lot of ground and was closing in, it would not be enough as Robinson claimed victory with his time of 24:50. Ranfranz finished in second place at 25:03, and Shaun Oflynn placed third with his time of 30:04.
Debbie Wylie topped the women’s field with her time of 30:25, while Lori Montgomery and Rebecca DeWhirst claimed the next two spots with their times of 31:01 and 32:11 respectively.
Fourteen-year old Alec Ankrum once again defended his title in the Mighty Mouse 1-Mile Scamper with his speedy time of 6:01 – an improvement of 20 seconds from last year. Ankrum’s younger brother, 11-year old Aiden, also improved by 23-seconds with his time of 6:36 for second place, and Kyle Ignacio kept it close for third at 6:54.
Xitlalitl Reyes easily won the women’s division with her time of 7:14, with Alexis Leao outpacing Tehani Grace, 8:57 to 8:59 respectively.
“It was wonderful watching the waves crashing on the shore and I thought it was really beautiful,” Moyher said of the course. “I’m shooting for a 3:04 (finish time) at this next marathon so it was nice to be able to do this race. The heat and humidity was definitely a challenge and there were guys on the way out that I was struggling to keep up with, but I kept with the mantra of just running my own race.”
Coming Up
Sunday: Team Mango will host the 34th Annual Captain Cook Challenge featuring a 1-mile swim across Kealakekua Bay, followed by 2.5-mile trail run, a 28-mile hilly bike, and finishing off with a 4-mile run. The event will begin at 7 a.m. at Kealakekua Bay. For more info and registration details visit teammangoraces.com, or contact Carl Koomoa at 324-7252.
