Mana Foods: Paia, Maui

From left to right: Adolf Bruce, Greg DiBiase, Anthony Reyes, Allison Dukart, Marie DeJournette, Tara Sellars

There was a last minute change of players on the Mana Ohana Hana Relay team last Saturday but it didn’t stop them from blazing through to the finish line on a blazing hot day. When a team signs up for the race an estimated finish time must be stated so that the wave start can be coordinated. You can’t start 158 teams of 6 runners all at the same time on the tiny, winding Hana Highway. With a staggered start the roads stay fairly sane and the fast and slow teams all get to the party at roughly the same time. If a team finishes the race more than 2 hours faster than their estimated time they are automatically penalized 30 minutes. Much to the team’s surprise they came in under 7 hours after guessing it would take 9 hours!! The official times aren’t in yet but it looks like they might have placed 3rd in their division if they hadn’t been so conservative with their guess. No one was disappointed though. Everyone was so happy to have done so well. The race was great fun, Mana Foods got a lot of supportive encouragement from all the other runners and despite some slight sunburn and sore muscles it was a super fun day for all.