Feb. 23, 2006

By SEAN HORGAN, The Sun News

MYRTLE BEACH - Things were going swimmingly for David Kawa for the first 22 miles of the race. He felt strong, almost too strong, and the weather gods had cooperated with sunny skies, cool temperatures and light winds.

The first inkling that he might be hitting the proverbial wall came at Mile 22.

"I felt something there," said Kawa, a 22-year-old runner from Berry College in Mount Berry, Ga. "Then at [mile] 24, I really started feeling something, and my head started falling back. I had to put my head forward. It felt better when I leaned forward."

Kawa regrouped and sped the last two-plus miles Saturday morning to win the ninth-annual Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon in 2 hours, 32 minutes and 48 seconds.
Not bad for a guy running his first marathon.

Kawa had entered the Myrtle Beach race as part of his preparation for the upcoming cross country season. The last two years, he and many of his track teammates had run the half-marathon on Tybee Island off the coast of Georgia.

"That's a flat course like this one, though there's not as much wind on this course as on Tybee," Kawa said.

Kawa and the rest of the runners caught a break when Saturday morning dawned clear, dry and warmer than the forecasts that had called for a 50 percent chance of showers and temperatures in the upper 40s.

He went into the race hoping to run the 26.2 miles under 2 hours, 37 minutes, which would have required him to run 6-minute miles.

He ended up averaging 5:50 a mile and his last half of the race (1:14:00) which was faster than his first half (1:18:48), for what's known as a negative split.

"Through 10 miles, I was feeling really good," he said. "And then about Mile 15, I dropped my coach."

Kawa and Berry track coach Paul Deaton had hoped to run 23 miles together, but Deaton started to slow his pace and Kawa set out on his own at a faster pace. He accelerated until he was churning out the miles every 5:30.

He was almost going too fast.

Then, around the 18th mile, he ran a blistering 5:27 mile and knew he had to slow down or risk emptying his fuel tank well before the finish line.

He slowed down, running the next two miles at a 5:40 pace. He fought his way through the misery of the last two miles and crossed the finish line 3:24 ahead of second-place finisher Howard Nippert of Fork Union, Va.

And with that, Kawa is undefeated in marathons.

"I didn't really know what to expect," he said. "I had nothing to compare it to. It's tiring. I can tell you that."

Click here to view the original article and complete race results.