First-time volunteer Brian Espinda watched with amazement as the steady stream of runners crossed the finish line at the 4 1/2-hour mark of yesterday's 33rd Honolulu Marathon, a 26.2-mile jaunt from downtown Honolulu to Hawai'i Kai and back to Kapi'olani Park.

"The will to finish is just amazing," said Espinda, a civilian employee at Hickam Air Force Base. "They show so much inner strength and determination. I saw people gasping for a breath of air and using whatever energy they had left to finish. To run 26 miles, they've got to be special people."

First-time volunteer Brian Espinda watched with amazement as the steady stream of runners crossed the finish line at the 4 1/2-hour mark of yesterday's 33rd Honolulu Marathon, a 26.2-mile jaunt from downtown Honolulu to Hawai'i Kai and back to Kapi'olani Park.

"The will to finish is just amazing," said Espinda, a civilian employee at Hickam Air Force Base. "They show so much inner strength and determination. I saw people gasping for a breath of air and using whatever energy they had left to finish. To run 26 miles, they've got to be special people."

Espinda and another volunteer rushed over to help 58-year-old Masahiro Oga of Saitama, Japan, who collapsed from exhaustion after finishing his sixth Honolulu Marathon. About five minutes later, Oga was feeling better in the first-aid tent. "Very tired but very happy," Oga said.

With the help of an interpreter, Oga noted that he met his wife, also of Japan, in Hawai'i Kai and this year marks their 25th wedding anniversary, so "we wanted a good memory" by doing the marathon together.

The Ogas were among 17,345 visitors from Japan who made up 62 percent of the 28,048 entrants in this year's field. Honolulu Marathon officials said 24,643 started yesterday's marathon, and 24,261 finished.

An additional 5,444 people, nearly 75 percent of them visitors, participated in a 6.2-mile, or 10-kilometer, walk from downtown to Kapi'olani Park.

Some ran the marathon route, some walked, some did it in wheelchairs. Housewives, fashion models, GIs, all kinds of people pushed themselves to make it.

Some members of Team Diabetes of Canada, which raised $1.1 million in Canadian dollars for research, became ill Saturday with stomach problems. Colin Mills of Ottawa said yesterday his wife, Tammy Rayboule, was hospitalized at The Queen's Medical Center with food-poisoning-like symptoms that may have been related to drinking water.

Kelly Webb, Team Diabetes national coordinator, confirmed that two of the 302 people with the team were hospitalized and that 11 others were treated and released for gastrointestinal problems Saturday. Webb did not know what caused the illness. But she said 138 members participated in yesterday's marathon, and 73 in the 10K walk.

Aside from elite runners such as Kenya's Jimmy Muindi, who won his fifth Honolulu Marathon yesterday in two hours and 12 minutes, most people saw just finishing as a meaningful accomplishment.

"This is the best four hours, 33 minutes and 30 seconds of my life," Ryan Moore, 30, of 'Ewa Beach said after finishing his first marathon. Moore had encouragement from his wife, Jeannette, and her friend, Tiffanie Cox, who did the 10K and later ran awhile with him to keep him going over the last six miles.

"It's different from anything I've ever done before," Ryan Moore said. "I just wanted to get that finisher's T-shirt after 24 weeks of training. I'll be back next year."

Construction engineer Carol Bautista, 56, of Pearl City finished her 30th marathon since 1996, and fifth Honolulu Marathon. She crossed the finish line with her niece, Rosie Figueroa, 42. "If you've never done a marathon, you don't know the feeling of empowerment that comes when you cross the finish line. That's why I do it," Bautista said.

Jerry Taniyama, 58, of Makiki finished his 20th Honolulu Marathon, and his reasons for running are rooted with the death of his dad, Michael. "I started when my dad died of a heart attack," he said. "It's a labor of love ... that makes you realize what is important in life. For me, this is an investment in my health."

Army 1st Lt. Andrew Pawling and Maj. Jim Wanovich of the 25th Infantry Division (Light)'s 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment, ran the marathon with 10 others from Schofield Barracks to raise money for a memorial for Ernest Harold Sutphin, who was killed in March 2004 in Iraq.

It's was Pawling's first marathon and Wanovich's sixth.

"It's unique, a great place to start a first marathon," Pawling said. "To be able to run 26 miles and have something to look at like guys surfing is great. It's also cool to be exposed to Japanese people who can't speak my language cheering for me."

Shizue Haruyama, 47, a housewife from Tokyo, completed her fourth Honolulu Marathon in three hours, 17 minutes, and planned to stuff herself with her favorite Island sweets.

"I love sweets and Hawai'i," Haruyama said. "We don't have Cheesecake Factory in Japan and nice beaches, especially like Waikiki and Kahala."

The aloha spirit is a big part of the event.

"You don't know how many people you know until you do this marathon," said 59-year-old Ron Pate. The new Mid-Pacific Institute track coach and three-time national master's age-group steeplechase champion finished his 15th Honolulu Marathon. "I must have heard my name 2,000 times along the way yesterday (from spectators) and it really helps."

Popular Japan fashion model Rie Hasegawa, who finished her sixth Honolulu Marathon, enjoys coming back because "everything is good, the people and views. All the cheering really gives me energy."

John Greer of Kalama Valley, who finished second in the wheelchair competition, enjoyed his second Honolulu Marathon experience more than his first.

"Twenty years ago, the wheelchair race was held on the Saturday before the marathon," said Greer, who retired after the Olympics in Greece as the sixth-ranked wheelchair tennis player in the world. "Now that it's integrated, there's a lot more atmosphere and the feeling we're part of it. I'm going uphill and the runners cheering me on made me feel I could do it."

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.