March Madness was a two stage race of 62.4 miles, consisting of the Run to the Sun on March 15, 2008, 36.2 miles from Kahului, Maui to the top of Haleakala, and the Big Island International Marathon in Hilo on March 16, 2008.

Run to the Sun results

Big Island International Marathon results

March Madness 2008

Name Age Run to the SunBIIMTotal Time
Johnny Landeza 45 7:46:09 3:29:32 11:15:41
Jeff Fong 35 8:01:53 3:44:20 11:46:13
Carole Higa 45 8:21:27 4:15:22 12:36:49
Les Omura 51 8:09:45 4:31:35 12:41:20
Tom Craven 61 8:17:50 4:27:39 12:45:29
Michael Higa 48 9:13:29 4:49:47 14:03:16
Wily Woo 28 9:32:32 5:01:32 14:34:04
Heather McCafferty 38 9:53:40 5:01:30 14:55:10
Alfredo Aromin 55 10:14:20 5:12:06 15:26:26
Karl Wirtl 60 10:31:27 6:19:49 16:51:16

Click to enlarge pictures
Sugar Cane Fire
Sugar Cane Fire 		Looking back
Looking back 		Haleakala NP
Haleakala NP
To summit
To summit 		Run to the Sun Finish
Run to the Sun Finish 		Group photo in Hilo
Group photo in Hilo

March Madness Story

A group of 9 set off from Oahu for an adventure, to consist of Run to the Sun, the 36 mile race from Kahului to Haleakala, a climb of 10023 feet, followed by the Big Island International Marathon in Hilo the next day. Much planning went into the logistics. It required coordinating the arrivals and departures and housing of nine people flying to Maui Friday, to Hilo Saturday and then home when they wanted. The only flight with all of us aboard was the hop from Maui to the Big Island on Saturday.

Only two of us had experience with back-to-back long runs. For some, Run to the Sun was their first ultra marathon. For seven, it was their chance to qualify for 4 star status in Marathon Maniacs. There was a lot of excitement at facing the unknown with questions like: Just how much can my body accomplish? How fast should I be going and still be able to run tomorrow? Can I avoid injury? Three decided to take the early start in Run to the Sun at 3:30AM. Times in the first race for our group ranged from 7:46 (with hypoxia) to 10:14 (with bad blisters and the early start). There are nine individual stories of the experience, but most importantly, everyone finished that first day. One spectacular sight before daylight was a burning cane field that we passed about 1/4 mile from the road. Thankfully, most of the smoke missed the runners, but the crackling sounds could be heard from far away in the still morning air and the flames were quite evident when we were closer. It was a rush to get to the airport by the time we got everyone together at the end. Special thanks go to Laura Kloepper who provided support for us with a van; she is healing from injuries and will soon be doing these crazy things with us.

We had dinner in Hilo, a brief celebration of our first accomplishment (three of us had even won age group awards) and then to bed for a short sleep before a mere marathon. While no one had doubted that they could do a slow climb to the top of Haleakala, most were quite unsure of what to expect trying run a marathon less than 24 hours later. Again, the weather was pretty cooperative and we each finished a marathon, though not without some difficulty and pain and more slowly than usual. Thanks to it being a small marathon, we actually picked up a couple more age group awards!

Karl Wirtl, from Maui, did both races also and joined us for lunch and a group picture after the Hilo marathon.