Of the 16,000 people that finished the Great Aloha Run, held on Monday Feb. 17, BYU-Hawaii alumnus, Thomas Puzey came in first place. Puzey competed in the 8.15-mile race held in Honolulu in years past and placed in the top five. What makes this year special is that he not only won, but also beat out the second place finisher by over a whole minute, according to bestroadraces.com. Even with the unusual amount of rain present at the 30th Annual Great Aloha Run, Puzey was able to win with a time of 43.02.“I’ve never met someone who was so focused on accomplishing something. He knows what he wants, he knows what it takes to do it, and he does it,” said Kevin Schlag, the men’s cross country coach. “He’s one of those guys you might read about in Outside Magazine and just think, ‘I wish I could do all of that kind of stuff,”’ said Riley Moffat, head of reference in the Joseph F. Smith Library. “He’s probably not going to make a lot of money but he’s going to have a lot of fun.” According to Puzey, who goes by the name “Rivers” is a sponsored athlete. Puzey ran on the cross-country team here at BYUH and afterwards went onto excel athletically. He has run many marathons, and also competes in Ironman races, notably rounding out the top 25 at the Ironman 70.3 Hawaii on June 1st 2013, which qualified him for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, where he competed in Oct. 13 2013, according to sportstats.com. “Most of us run and train after college for fun, but he has been able to turn it into his life,” said Jon Hooke, a junior from Ventura California studying Business Finance who is on the BYU-Hawaii Cross Country team. Hooke ran with Puzey on the cross-country team during his freshman year. Hooke also said, “He’s just a really awesome guy. I loved running with him because he always made it fun. He was hilarious and always had the best jokes.”“I think it’s great what Rivers (Thomas) has done,” said Besser Davila, a center-mid on the men’s soccer team, and undeclared sophomore from Orem, Utah. “It takes hours and hours of training, and to see all that work finally pay off is great to see.”
Writer: Braden Wood ~ Multimedia Journalist
