Leiataua Isikuki Punivalu ran his first Half Marathon last Saturday, 21 long kms of road running, in the Heat of the day.
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He was participating in the Warrior Race Half Ironman distance in a team with two others, Peter Harvey from Perth who did the 2km swim, and Ollie Faaeafaga from NZ who did the 90km bike ride. Harvey and Fa’aeafaga did excellent work in the first two legs – then came the Epic effort from Kuki.
Kuki’s 21km run started at 11am on Saturday morning and finished 2hrs 55mins later shortly before 2pm in the afternoon.
It was six long laps of the entire length of the Mulinu’u Peninsula.
At the start Kuki ran on his own.
In the third lap he was joined by Muliagatele Brian Lima and others who ran beside him to encourage him along to the finish.
It was quite a sight, more and more of his friends came along to support him. Each ran at least 10kms themselves, or walked in this case, to support the Warrior-effort by their friend.
It was a fantastic display of true determination by the 52 year old.
At the finish, he crossed the finish line triumphant in the most amazing achievement of the day.
Kuki spoke of his relief at finishing the run, the hardest thing he has ever done.
He paid tribute to his friends who joined him in the run. In particular he was full of gratitude to his training partner Daniel Afoa, who himself competed in the individual Warrior race.
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