Not even a loose shoelace for the majority of yesterday's 22nd Great Aloha Run could slow Colorado's Ryan Padilla.

Padilla, visiting O'ahu on a business trip, ignored the untied lace the final 6 miles of the 8.15-mile race and surged ahead of two runners in the final two miles to win in 44 minutes, 17 seconds.

Hawai'i Pacific University senior Marie-Louise Brasen coasted to victory on the women's side in 51:09, more than a minute faster than her nearest competitor.

The race started at Aloha Tower in wet conditions, but by the time runners reached the finish at Aloha Stadium, the weather had cleared. Approximately 22,300 registered for the race.

Casper Dahl, 24, of Honolulu, placed second in 44:53, while Jake Puzey, 23, of La'ie, led for three quarters of the race before finishing third in 45:06.

Rani Tanimoto, 30, of Kealakekua, placed second among the women in 52:22 and Susie Rutherford, of Honolulu, finished third in 52:39.

Padilla, a competitive runner in his hometown of Boulder, had been here for a week when he saw an ad for the run in Friday's newspaper. He felt he had nothing to lose.

"No pressure," said Padilla, 28, a business consultant. "I had fun with it, and it's a beautiful day. I surely didn't expect there to be a race this big out here (while I was visiting). It worked out perfectly. In the next couple weeks if there's another race, I'd love to jump in it."

Padilla felt he couldn't spare precious seconds to tie his laces, and since he was behind the leaders for most of the race, he chose to run on.

Brasen, 24, a member of HPU's cross country team, said the win was her biggest since she came to Hawai'i last fall, and that it eclipsed victories in her native Denmark.

"I expected to be one of the (top) people but I didn't expect to win," Brasen said. "I practiced hard the last two months to try to do good in this race. I'm surprised and excited."

She added that winning by a large margin offers a challenge.

"I noticed they (the other women runners) were far (behind), so I tried to relax a little bit," Brasen said. "I think it is hard because if they had been close to me in the beginning, it would have been a lot easier because you can just try to keep up the pace. I didn't know where they were at any time."

John Greer and wife Christine Greer captured the men's and women's wheelchair race with times of 36:37 and 41:51, respectively. They have been waiting a long time to win at the same event — even though it wasn't in their primary sport of tennis.

"It was always our dream to win a singles title at the same tournament," said John Greer, 41, of Honolulu. "It never happened, so this is the first time that we did an event together that we both won. It feels really good."

"It's kind of freaky that something we trained so hard for in tennis didn't come true, but this did," Christine Greer, 32, said with a laugh.

Chris Larson, 32, of Wheeler Air Force Base, was the top male military finisher in 46:24. Christy Prichard, 28, of Honolulu claimed the women's military honor in 53:53.