Chepkirui back for more

The influence of Joyce Chepkirui’s success in Honolulu continues to expand back home in Kenya.

A two-time Honolulu Marathon champion, Chepkirui invested her winnings from her first victory in 2014 into building an apartment complex in her hometown of Iten and expressed her affinity for the islands by naming it Aloha Estates. In the years since, the area immediately surrounding the complex has come to commonly be known as “Aloha.”

Chepkirui also became the first Kenyan to win the Honolulu Marathon’s women’s title that year, and the aggressive strategy she adopted in her races also helped make her a trendsetter for those who have followed.

So when asked about her fellow runners in the elite field for Sunday’s Honolulu Marathon — her fourth start in the event — Chepkirui remains her own pacesetter.

“I focus on myself. I run my own race,” she said.

Chepkirui, who once dusted the race’s designated pacesetter by close to 90 seconds through the first 6-plus miles, will be in pursuit of her third Honolulu title on Sunday, which would put her in rare company in the race’s history.

If Chepkirui, 29, can remain a step ahead of the field, she would become the fourth woman to win at least three Honolulu titles and the first since Lyubov Morgunova of Russia claimed three between 2000 and 2004. The distinction of the race’s most successful woman remains well in the distance. Carla Beurskens of the Netherlands won eight Honolulu Marathons between 1985 and 1994.

Chepkirui’s 2014 win came in just her second marathon, and she returned to defend the title in 2015, threatening the course record with a finishing time of 2:28:34.

She skipped Honolulu in a breakout 2016 season highlighted by top-four finishes in New York and Boston. A tendon injury hampered her 2017 results and she closed the year by finishing third in her return to Honolulu with a time of 2:33:18.

She was just over 11 minutes behind fellow-Kenyan Brigid Kosgei, who chopped more than five minutes off the women’s race record at 2:22:15 in claiming her second straight Honolulu title.

Kosgei did not return for a shot at a three-peat and the women’s elite field was thinned when Joyciline Jepkosgei, the world record holder in the half-marathon, withdrew due to injury this week.

Chepkirui, who has 45 career wins at various distances, will be joined on the starting line by fellow Kenyans Vivian Jerono Kiplagat and Sheila Jerotich in the professional field.

Kiplagat has two half-marathon wins this year and won the Buenos Aires Marathon in 2:29:03 in September. She posted her personal best of 2:27:08 in a runner-up finish in the Milano Marathon in April. Jerotich won the 2017 Kosice Marathon in 2:27:34 and placed second in the event this year 2:29:40.

A foot injury has limited Chepkirui’s 2018 schedule to a fourth-place finish in the Istanbul Half Marathon in April. She began training for Honolulu in September and “now everything is OK.”

Chepkirui said running healthy once again has heightened her motivation heading into Sunday’s 5 a.m. start on Ala Moana Boulevard.

By the time she completes the loop through Hawaii Kai and approaches the finish at Kapiolani Park, “I just focus on one step.”

That’s where one of her favorite features of the race — the cheers of the runners heading up Diamond Head — kicks in to boost her toward the finish.