Patrick Bruno has competed in all 9 Kauai Marathons and is running again on Sunday

Patrick Bruno has competed in all nine Kauai Marathons, and next Sunday will be number 10. But there is one Kauai Marathon that keeps him from saying he’s officially completed them all — even though he did, albeit a day late. “I was killing it,” he said of that second year he ran the full marathon in 2010. At the 24-mile marker, his time was about 3 hours, 30 minutes. He was on pace to shatter the four-hour barrier. And then, he wasn’t. “I hit that proverbial wall kind of thing,” he said. Bruno reached that point, no matter how much he tried to will his body to keep pushing toward the finish line, it wanted to stop. He dropped out. “I just couldn’t keep going,” he said. But the Lihue man wasn’t at peace with it. The next morning, at 5, he returned to that spot where he dropped out, and ran the last 2.2 miles. Twenty-four hours later, he finished that marathon as his daughter, Cinzia, cheered him on. “It was good but it was a let-down,” he said. “You know how we kick ourselves so badly for that kind of stuff.” Patrick Bruno does not let disappointments and setbacks keep him down. He has since finished each marathon, and at 53 years old he vows to keep finishing them just as long as his legs will carry him the daunting distance. “I’m just trying not to get old,” he said. “We only have so many good years left, so I just need to make sure to do what I can to stay as mobile and able to do things as I can.”

posted Monday August 27th