Defending champion Lanni Marchant brings experience to Honolulu Marathon

Dec. 10—Winter in Colorado provides enough reason for Lanni Marchant to bundle up outdoors. Preparing to defend her Honolulu Marathon women's title prompted her to layer indoors as well.

Winter in Colorado provides enough reason for Lanni Marchant to bundle up outdoors.

Preparing to defend her Honolulu Marathon women's title prompted her to layer indoors as well.

The balmy conditions that typically attract visitors to Hawaii in December also present the greatest challenge for the professional runners entered in Sunday's race as the marathon celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Whether coming from the Rocky Mountains or the hills in Ethiopia, the 26.2-mile sea-level course that starts on Ala Moana Boulevard and winds through East Honolulu before turning back to the finish at Kapiolani Park tests runners accustomed to high-altitude training in dry air.

"Living in Colorado, especially this time of year, it's not like we have humid, hot conditions, " Marchant said while standing on the sand fronting the Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort on Friday. "So I did my best to make myself as hot and sweaty as possible."

To that end, Marchant said she did "a lot of treadmill running with long tights and long sleeves on, just trying to make the best of what I could."

Marchant has the benefit of running in Hawaii, having competed in the Great Aloha Run twice in her comeback from a hip injury in 2018 and finishing first among the women in last year's marathon. She labored through the descent down Diamond Head Road and into Kapiolani Park before crossing the finish line, and those memories directed some of her training in the run-up to her return.

"I tried to make sure I recognized at the end of runs to do a little more downhill running, " she said. "I did find that's what beat me up the most last year."

Marchant, a 2016 Olympian in the 10, 000 meters and marathon competing for Canada, built on her Honolulu victory by starting her 2022 schedule with a runner-up finish in the Vancouver Marathon and a seventh in the Ottawa Marathon in the spring.

A bout with COVID-19 in July stunted her momentum, and having a title defense waiting in Honolulu in December "was a nice little carrot to have dangled out."

"Hawaii has always been a special place for me in terms of my relationship with running, " Marchant said. "And coming back this year just having a new respect for the fact that running is fleeting and it can be taken away from you so quick, just being healthy enough to be back here and be competitive still is something I'll never take for granted."

While Marchant can lean into her island familiarity, the men's race will be led by a pack of newcomers to the event.

Shifera Tamru will make his Honolulu debut on Sunday, and the event provides a contrast to his typical training in Ethiopia, where "there's not humidity, only altitude."

"It's good to run in different conditions, but sometimes it's not easy to run in weather like this, " Tamru said through his coach, Yirefu Birhanu Derb, during Friday's gathering of the elite athletes entered in the marathon and today's Kalakaua Merrie Mile.

Tamru, 24, will be the youngest of the four professionals in the men's elite field, He'll be joined at the front of the pack by countryman Asefa Mengstu, Kenya's Barnabas Kiptum and Taku Harada of Japan.

Tamru has three wins and five podium finishes in his eight marathons since 2018, and began his year with a victory at the Daegu Marathon in Korea on April 3, finishing in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 31 seconds. He posted a fifth-place finish in the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 8, finishing in 2 :07 :53.

Kiptum also has three wins, the last coming in the Sevilla Marathon in 2020. Mengstu had four wins from 2016 to'18 and is coming off of a 10th place showing at the Paris Marathon.

Tamru said his strategy for Honolulu "is a bit different here because of the weather."

A Kenyan has won each of the past 14 Honolulu Marathons, dating back to Ethiopia's Ambesse Tolossa's win in 2006.

Marchant will be joined in the women's field by three Honolulu first-timers in Mai Ito of Japan and Abebech Afework and Bere Ayalew of Ethiopia.

Ayalew, 23, has finished no lower than third in her four marathons, with two wins, and posted a personal best of 2 :22 :52 in a second-place finish in the Eindhoven Marathon on Oct. 9.

For Marchant, being a part of the race's 50th anniversary adds meaning to her start on Sunday, "because so many big events didn't survive the pandemic.

"Not only did this race survive, it gets to see it's 50th anniversary. It's pretty fantastic and it's a testament to everyone who puts the race on—the race directors, the staff, the volunteers—that athletes that are willing to come out this way. ... It shows a lot about this event and being in Hawaii in general."