HONOLULU — Throughout Sunday’s 51st Honolulu Marathon, the first such distance race of Cynthia Limo’s career, the Kenyan held true to the words of her late coach and mentor.
Afterward Limo, crowned with the haku lei of a victor, recalled them one more time.
“He promised me that before the year ends, you’re going to run a marathon,” Limo, 33, said afterward of Owen Anderson, who died in November after a battle with cancer. “Since the beginning of this year, he has been looking for marathons for me to make sure that I get a marathon.
“As soon as he was sick in the hospital, he kept on encouraging me and telling me that, ‘Cynthia, you are strong. You are strong. You are going to make it.’ And today, during my debut, I was memorizing what he was telling me and memorizing everything he passed on to me. That allowed me to get strong and to run this Honolulu Marathon … and (it was) the best race for me today.”
On a still, sticky morning of 82% humidity, Paul Lonyangata and Limo claimed the men’s and women’s titles in a sweep for Kenya.
Lonyangata made his move to separate from the event’s rebuilt field of elite runners at about the halfway point of the 26.2-mile course from predawn Downtown Honolulu out to Hawaii Kai, finishing at Kapiolani Park with an official time of 2:15:42 – 21 seconds ahead of runner-up Filmon Ande of Ethiopia.
It was the 30-year-old’s first Honolulu Marathon victory in his second appearance, and fifth overall win of his career, after two in Paris and one each in Shanghai and Taipei, all since 2017.
"This race is, I think, very big for me, because it was the end of the year," Lonyangata said a few minutes after being bestowed a haku lei crown. "(I am) so happy to win this race because I close my year in style."
After Limo won the 2016 World Athletics Half-Marathon silver medal, she took a seven-year break from running to start a family – a period that included the death of one of her three children. This year Limo returned to Lansing, Mich., to train under Anderson and run a series of half-marathons in the U.S. As she was before the hiatus, Limo was dominant. She channeled the memory of Anderson, to a 2:33:01 finish and an emphatic, 2:14 margin from runner-up Sintatehu Getahun of Ethiopia.
"I can say this many (U.S.) races assists me in speed work, and also in Kenya when I go on a lot of long runs," Limo said. "That made me today to come out successful."
Lonyangata and Limo earned $25,000 for their victories, plus solid gold medals valued at $15,000 – a first in the 51 editions of the race that began in 1973.
Conditions were predominantly clear skies and very still air, aside from a 15-mph headwind on Kalanianaole Highway and some drizzle heading out to Hawaii Kai.
Designated pacemaker Dickson Chumba of Kenya set a 2:08 pace in early going, which would’ve threatened the course record, but it proved too ambitious to maintain in the humid air.
Chumba dropped out at about halfway point. That’s when the Nike-sponsored Lonyantaga made his move, going from fourth in the pack to a 22-second lead.
Lonyangata observed Chumba was tiring and the pace was slowing. "I prepared myself so that if this maker finished pacing, I was taking the lead," he said.
He saw that halved by Ande at the 20-mile mark, but Lonyangata recovered in the arduous final trek up and down the slopes of Diamond Head to win going away.
"Strong, more power," Ande said of what he observed of Lonyangata through an interpreter. He noted that he had an issue with his right foot in the final 2 kilometers that slowed Ande up.
Lonyangata finished runner-up here in 2014 with a 2:16:04. His countryman from Kenya who finished in third, Reuben Kiprop Kerio, was competing in Honolulu as an elite for a whopping sixth time, but finished for just the second time. Kerio was the designated pacemaker three times and was forced to drop out early another time with stomach problems.
"If I have a chance next year, I will be here," said Kerio, 29.
Jeremy Morgan, 26, of Kaneohe was the first Hawaii resident to finish with a 2:37:45, ninth among males. Morgan, a former distance runner at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, moved to the Islands for a regulatory specialist job with the Army Corps of Engineers last September and has run a wide variety of local road races.
In his second lifetime marathon, he found himself right behind the lead pack of three elite women within a mile or two of the start and drafted back and forth with them until about the 20-mile mark. For most of that, he was an involuntary pacemaker for the women.
“It just kind of happened. I was hoping to sit behind them, but they were very good about tucking in behind me,” Morgan said with a laugh. “I would slow down a little bit, hoping to get behind them and they would slow down with me. I think it hurt me the last 6 miles, because I was hurting between 14 to 20 or so. But it was a really cool experience getting to do that. It’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my career."
The top female Hawaii finisher was Kaneohe's Emily Reynolds in 3:11:34, good for ninth among women.
Coming in first among kamaaina (Hawaii-born) entrants were Zachary Lee (2:49:30, 19th male) and Kristen Imada (3:21:21).
The wheelchair race winners were both from Japan: Masazumi Soejima in 1:38:46 among five males and Wakako Tsuchida in 2:03:00 among three females.
There were 29,836 entrants spanning the marathon, the Start to Park 10K, and Saturday’s Kalakaua Merrie Mile. Race officials said Sunday afternoon that 22,570 runners appeared at the start line for the combined marathon and 10K.
Local entrants across the three events numbered 11,450, while there were 9,545 runners from Japan. Roughly two-thirds of those were registered for the marathon.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.