Director and Founder

Jonathan Lyau began running in 1979 at age 15. He has coached runners of different abilities and ages. He is currently an assistant girl’s cross country coach at Iolani School.  He was the girl’s distance track coach at Kamehameha School for 10 years and the McKinley H.S. boy’s head XC coach for 1 year and also the head coach of Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s marathon training program, “Team N’ Training” (1996-2013).  In 1996 he established Personal Best Training where he trains runners towards personal goals. Jonathan is one of Hawaii’s most accomplished road runners and a Hawaii State high school 3200m track champion (1982). He is a 17x Kamaaina (local-born) Champion in the Honolulu Marathon. He is the 1994 and 2002 Great Aloha Run champion. In 2009, he was inducted into the Honolulu Marathon Hall of Fame.  In 2022, he was inducted in the inaugural Hawaii Running Hall of Fame. In 2022, he became the first person from Hawaii to run a Sub 3 hour marathon in 5 different decades.  Jonathan is the owner of A. C. Lyau Company, Ltd., a candy/snack wholesale distributor.

 
Staff (2026): 

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Noe Lum is an assistant cross country and track coach at Punahou School. She currently works as a structural engineer at MKE Associates. Was born and raised on Oahu. In her free time, enjoys hiking, reading, going fishing, surfing, eating yummy food, and coaching the lovely kids on the Punahou cross country and track & field teams.

She has run times of 1:28:50 in the Half Marathon and 3:07:24 in the Marathon.

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Kristen Imada is the Head Girl's Cross Country Coach at Iolani School.  She actively competes in marathons and has run in the Tokyo, Boston, New York City, Chicago and Honolulu Marathons.  She was the 2023 Honolulu Marathon Kamaaina Champion.

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Missy Kunsch is a graduate of Hawaii Pacific University where she competed on the cross-country team for 4 years and coached as a post grad for 5 years. She currently works full-time at the City and County of Honolulu’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency, and is an assistant cross country and track coach at Punahou School. Missy has competed in 11 marathons including Honolulu, Boston, New York and Berlin. Missy enjoys training with her friends. Her PRs include: 2:54 for marathon and 1:20:22 for half marathon.

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Jacob Melnick is the Director of Clinical Education and Assistant Professor in the DPT program at Hawai'i Pacific University. Prior to HPU, Dr. Melnick practiced as a physical therapist at Tripler Army Medical Center and was the Functional Restoration Program Director in the Interdisciplinary Pain Management Center. He continues to practice locally, with a specific focus on distance runners, triathletes, surfers, and other common orthopedic conditions. He also serves in a consultative and mentorship role at OrhoSport Hawaii. Dr. Melnick has additional training as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, a dry needling practitioner, and as a USA Track and Field Level 1 Coach. He is also a Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Orthopedic Physical Therapy.  In college, he ran at the University of Georgia.

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Jaco Van Delden the founder of JACO Rehab.  Jaco has become known for his progressive approach to orthopedic and sports rehabilitation. Jaco regularly teaches injury prevention clinics at various venues in Honolulu and is an injury consultant for USTA Pacific region, the FC Hawaii Soccer Club and Boca Hawaii multi sport clinics.  Originally from the Netherlands, Jaco considers himself a ‘citizen of the world’ after having lived in the Netherlands Antilles, Great Britain, Israel, and Tanzania, before making Hawaii his home.  If he’s not working or training for the next triathlon, you’ll find him riding a bicycle, surfing, windsurfing, snowboarding, or hiking.

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Shane “Aka” Akamine - Retired XC and Track coach

Paul Oshiro - Kamehameha-Kapalama School assistant XC and Track coach

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Workshop Speakers (2026):​

Jacob Melnick (Dr. of Physical Therapy Director of Clinical Education @HPU)

Missy Kunsch

Noe Lum

Jaco Van Delden 

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Special Guests:

2015
Polina Carlson is Hawaii’s fastest female distance runner. Finding running later than most professional runners, Polina was a competitive tennis player at the University of West Alabama before her coach noticed that she outran everyone in running drills, including the members of the men's team. His encouragement to work out with the cross-country team to simply “stay in shape” for tennis led to her giving up tennis in order to focus solely on running. Since that time, Polina has seen success in her running career, taking victories at the 2014 Great Aloha Run, the 2013 XTERRA World Championship Half-Marathon and finishing 5th in the 2013 Honolulu Marathon. In December of 2014 Polina placed 6th at the California International Marathon with a time of 2:35:15, and has her sights now set on the Olympics.
Sponsored by Brooks Running, Polina currently resides and trains in Hawaii. Her rise has been meteoric and her potential is still untapped. She believes that with God by her side nothing is impossible.



2014, 2016, 2017
Tim Marr is a professional triathlete. He was born and raised in Hawaii. Tim is a 1997 graduate of Mililani High School where he was a standout athlete in cross country, track, and swimming. He currently lives and trains in Hawaii. Tim has won countless triathlons in Hawaii and also competes in triathlons around the world. He has placed as high as 15th in the Ironman World Championships held in Kona.



2013
Gerry Lindgren is widely recognized as having been the best high school long distance runner in the United States. In 1964, in his senior year of high school, he ran 5000 meters (3.1 miles) in 13 minutes and 44 seconds, setting a U.S. high school record for the distance that would remain unbroken for 40 years. Among his other records he established that year was a time of 8:40.0 in an indoor 2-mile race, a mark that he would hold for 49 years until it was broken on February 16, 2013.  

On July 25, 1964, after graduating from high school, Lindgren outran two Russian runners to win the 10,000 meter event a the dual US-USSR Track Meet. Later that summer in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, he finished ninth in the 10,000 meters behind gold medalist Billy Mills after having sprained an ankle during training. In 1965 Lindgren also competed against Mills in the 1965 National Championship meet, where they raced the 6-mile where both were timed in 27:11.6, a new World Record.

Lindgren attended Washington State University. While at Washington State, Lindgren won 11 NCAA Championships. He was one of only two people to ever defeat Steve Prefontaine in an NCAA Championship.
Gerry has lived in Hawaii since the 1980’s. He continues to run regularly and is active in the Hawaii running community.
Gerry has been inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame and is truly one of America’s all-time legends of distance running.
High school personal records (1964)

• 1500 meters - 3:44.6 

• 1-mile - 4:01.5

• 3000 meters - 8:06.3

• 2-mile (3.2 km) - 8:40

• 3 miles (4.8 km) - 13:17

• 5000 meters - 13:44

• 10000 meters - 29:17.6