Keegan Pacchioni

The Holomua Speed Project is a local running group that aims at bringing healthy lifestyle education to the community. Through evidence-based training activities, we aim to promote athletic longevity through safe running practices encouraging a wider community participation. Our long-term goal is to allow all East Hawaiian communities a safe place to exercise and learn about fitness. We also strive to provide our local runners with advanced training through professional healthcare guidance and run coaching. In Hilo, finding a track to utilize is a big deal for our local runners and it will come at a financial cost. Despite this, it should not be observed as a luxury, but rather a necessary step in helping out our running community stride towards their higher goals. Even though there will be effort to obtain use, the payoff will be worth it. A track provides a safe, reliable, flat, and perfectly measured place to do our speed workouts and promotes improvement. On top of that, having a track will open a group of primarily road runners up to the diversity of runners in the community that we have yet to meet. We're mostly long-distance runners now, but this would bring in sprinters and middle-distance runners, making our club bigger and more welcoming to all kinds of athletes. Furthermore, this gives an avenue for current track athletes to transition towards group road running once they have integrated with their local running community. There are only benefits to be had; but not just for individual runners, but for the community to have another option to train their running. This fund would allow our team to secure insurance for our running group, achieve coaching certifications, and the ability to purchase the necessary injury prevention and first aid gear necessary to host weekly training events at either Waiākea, Hilo, and/or Kea'au High Schools