When it comes to the Hilo Triathlon, Bob Wedeman acts as the spokesman for his brother and race director Joe Wedemann, who never has enough time in the day, running here and there on endless errands. ADVERTISING When it comes
When it comes to the Hilo Triathlon, Bob Wedeman acts as the spokesman for his brother and race director Joe Wedemann, who never has enough time in the day, running here and there on endless errands.
It’s the same deal with the Big Island International Marathon, which will mark its 20th anniversary in March 2017, as Bob is the busy race director, and Joe is the assistant/gofer/PR maven.
The BIIM or Hilo marathon is best known for bringing in runners from all over the world. But for the local running community, everyone knows about the Final Four (David Hammes, DJ Blinn, Marie Kuramoto and Cowman), who have completed all 19 editions.
In the word association game, such as Hilo and rain, or Kona and hot, triathlon is always followed by Ironman World Championship.
The Hilo Triathlon is quickly picking up its own tagline. You can vote for one on the race’s website: A. Good fun, B. Community support, or C. Keaukaha pride.
The race starts and finishes at James Kealoha Park and highlights the beauty of 4-Miles, the stretch of road down Kalanianaole Avenue.
Because it’s fairly new, the Hilo Triathlon is still growing.
“We have just over 200 signed up this year, compared to 138 last year,” Joe said.
For those interested in having their name live in eternity, the Hilo Triathlon course record is a pretty low bar.
Last year, Kailua-Kona’s Luis De La Torre set the record in 2:06:39 to edge Konawaena math teacher David Wild’s 2:08:00.
For unrealistic comparison’s sake, in 1996, British pro Simon Lessing broke the Olympic-distance triathlon world record with a time of 1:39:50.
“Both are doing the race this year again. It should be a close race,” said Joe, who’s a Hawaii county fire fighter.
That’s a reason the Hilo Triathlon supports The Greg Cameron Firemen’s Fund. Cameron was a fire fighter and competed in the Ironman World Championship.
He died from cancer in 2012. Cameron was 52. His fund page address is www.tgcff.org.
Due to an old family technicality, Joe’s last name was blessed with an extra N. Despite their surname differences, they get along even if one is serving as the other’s gofer.
Aloha policy
Bob moved to Hilo from Chicago in October 2012. After local running icon Wayne “Big Dog” Joseph died from brain cancer in January 2013, Bob and Joe began running the BIIM.
Bob and Joe made big strides in improving the Hilo marathon and are close to reaching Big Dog’s goal of 1,000 participants. (Last year, there were 828 for the marathon, half-marathon and 5 kilometers.)
They adopted an Aloha good neighbor policy. They changed the marathon starting point from Pepeekeo, where late sleepers were bothered, to Hilo Bay, also the convenient finishing line.
Even better, they put different color tag numbers for each race. No longer was a half-marathon turtle confused for a marathon record-setter or a rabbit marathon winner running back to his hotel unannounced.
Bob is from the Windy City, so he’s naturally charming. It doesn’t even bother him when people poke him in the ribs about the Cubs not winning a World Series since 1908. Besides, he’s more a NASCAR guy and even tapes races.
“In three years with the Hilo Triathlon, we have not had any problems with the neighbors or anything like that,” Charming Bob said. “The good thing is people down there in the Keaukaha community really seem to like it. We’re trying to promote the area. We’re trying really hard to get along with everybody. So far, everything seems to be going really good that way.”
Well, what’s not to like for the Keaukaha locals?
When the Hilo Triathlon is finished, people can visit Hilo Homemade Ice Cream Café or the Keaukaha General Store, known for its broke-da-mouth plate lunches.
Mayoral support
Last year, one of the competitors was Billy Kenoi, who finished in 4:23:52, good for 103rd place, ahead of only three others.
Even the mayor enjoyed himself as everyone ran past him and yelled, “Run faster, braddah.” Out of breath, the mayor smiled as he finished last in his 45-49 age group.
Then he probably realized that the Hilo Triathlon is all about: A. Good fun, B. Community support, and C. Keaukaha pride.
Alas, the Hilo Triathlon is different from the BIIM, which is a non-profit and foots its own large bills.
“As much as Joe and I are the faces of the Hilo Triathlon, Joe for the most part, it’s still a county event,” Bob said. “We’re just helping to put it on.
“We can’t promote it until we know if the new mayor will support it. For instance, as soon as the Hilo marathon is finished, the next day we’re promoting it.”
However, Bob probably didn’t realize he has a strong constituency, and he’s not even a mayoral candidate.
Who wants to be known as the mayor who killed the Hilo Triathlon?
It’s a good bet that the competitors and Keaukaha locals would love to shake the new mayor’s hand at the 2017 Hilo Triathlon.
“We’re very, very thankful for the county’s support,” Bob said. “I don’t see any way we could continue without it, unless we find a real big sponsor. We’d have to get our numbers up to 1,000 to be self-sufficient.”
Then the former Chicago guy explained what makes Hilo so special.
“We have to stop traffic on the bridge to make one lane open for the bicycles. Coming from Chicago, that kind of support is unheard of,” Bob said. “Here for the local community it makes sense. We’re all working together. What we’re doing takes a lot of support. That’s another reason why I’m amazed how nice the people are here.”
