Hagiwara honorable in Honolulu

Another one of Saipan’s multisport enthusiasts added another notch in her belt a week and a half ago as Akiko Hagiwara recently completed the 33rd Annual Honolulu Marathon in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Hagiwara completed the 26.2-mile journey when she crossed the finish line at the 3:43:39 mark to place her 1,097th overall among the 24,261 finishers, and 178th among the females.

Despite being slowed by the overwhelming numbers of entrants, Hagiwara finished the first 10 kilometers of the race in less than an hour (00:56:53), and reached the midway point in less than two (1:57:01). The former professional runner hit the 30K signpost at 2:41:59, and ran hard the final 12.195 km.

“I had a great time in Honolulu. There were so many people. It was my first time to be in a race like that,” said Hagiwara.

While she never participated in an event on the scale of the Honolulu race, Hagiwara said that she last ran a marathon in Rota some seven years ago. The Pacific Development, Inc. employee also participated in a marathon in Japan, but it was a far cry from Hawaii.

A barrage of fireworks filled the sky as Hagiwara’s journey began at 5:27am on Sunday, Dec. 11, when the gun sounded to start the 2005 Honolulu Marathon, but early on she was unable to escape the grip of the 24,643 of her fellow competitors.

It took Hagiwara 15 minutes to make it to the start line, where she technically started her trek along Ala Moana Boulevard shoulder-to-shoulder with a crowd of new running partners.

Hagiwara said that she expected to take off at her planned 4:30-5-minute-per-km pace right from the start, but she was hampered by a sea of runners with the same goal in mind.

“I wanted to go fast but I couldn’t because there were so many people so I just kept running. We were all together and each kilometer took six minutes—a very slow pace. When I reached the 30km mark I could go fast,”

Unable to take off at her own pace, Hagiwara put on foot in front of the other for the first 30km of the 42.195 km race at a rate of six minutes per kilometer before getting the opportunity to stretch her legs in the closing stages.

With 12km to go, Hagiwara downed the first of her two gel packets for energy, and 5km later she slammed the other one as she prepared for the last 7km stretch of road down Kalakaua Avenue and along the park past Sans Souci Beach and the Waikiki Aquarium to the finish line.

Before she got there, Hagiwara had to negotiate the most difficult part of the race when the course passed by the Diamondhead Crater.

“The whole course is mostly flat, but toward the end they have to climb by Diamondhead crater. It was very difficult,” she said.

Looking back at the ace, Hagiwara said that she was thankful for the slow start because she may not have been able to finish had she taken off as quickly as she originally planned. Be that as it may, she plans to continue to train on the roads of Saipan for next month’s first-ever local marathon.