99 Runners Turn Out to Honor Marv

Almost One Hundred runners turned out for what became the Mango Marv Memorial Run, after the death of one of the co-race directors of the Mango Madness on Saturday.   Despite the confusion that seemed to reign on the trail and among the race organizers the race went off well and almost everyone made it back to the Water Tank Park for food and camaraderie.  

Some of the proceeds will be used to place a Marv Mango Memorial Stool to the side of the trail near where Marv had his final encounter with a large Pua'a.   

It was a beautiful day. Matt Stevens came in way ahead of everyone else, but he didn't go the right way so we just laughed at him and told him to go back out. Matt got a prize for being the dumbest of the fastest, which appeared to quite an achievement in this years race.  It is unclear if any of the fastest finishers went the right way, and even when they did, race Marshals were so intimidated by the rather fierce reactions of runners who had climbed Concrete's twice that they didn't utilize the second planned route for the fastest of the race.  I'm told the race marshals themselves became confused and changed ribbons around which added to chaos up on Pu'u Ohia.   (The full list of finisher's will be posted shortly.)   

Speaking for Marv, I'd like to thank Cheryl and Mariann,for the aid stations. I'd like to thank Kat and Harold's son and daughter for helping at the tables. Kat and Mariann also brought some wonderfully special foods. Thanks to Rex, who despite the name of the race, and the dangerous levels of toxic exposure, showed up and took some pictures.  Don, PJ, and John were at the finish line. Thanks to Ernest and Fish for being Race Marshals, and taking all the flack from the pussy fast guys as they hit the top of concretes for ONLY the second time. (I had more in mind for that special group of runners, but Fish went all panau on me and decided a true test of fire was not within reach of even the front runners. 

Of course thanks to Pete Martinez for always being ready to discuss the details of the race at the unofficial race headquarters (Pinky's in Kailua) and for his (endless) hours of helpful (sic) comments. 

Marv would have been quite happy and very honored with the results.