Two hours before the first runner turned down Wright Road in Volcano, headed toward the finish line at the Cooper Center, an unmistakable feeling of commitment and advocacy for the events about to unfold was already emerging.
For the support staff, this is a little like coming home again. Familiar settings, friends who share a core interest, faces from the past that cross the finish line five, six or seven hours after they started, elated to be there.
As best as anyone can recall — record keeping in the early years left something to be desired — Saturday’s renewal organized by the Big Island Road Runners, was about the 30th Hilo-to-Volcano ultra marathon, a little more than 31 miles from Coconut Island in Hilo Bay to the finish line up the hill, almost next door to the living, breathing volcano Kilauea at about 3,800 feet.