The sister of President-elect Barack Obama met with eight Kenyan runners to convey her brother's best wishes before their run in Sunday's 36th Honolulu Marathon.

Maya Soetoro-Ng says Obama is proud of the Kenyans, who come from his father's homeland and have won the third biggest U.S. marathon 17 times since 1985.

Soetoro-Ng, a teacher at La Pietra school, plans to join Mayor Mufi Hannemann and Japan Airlines President Haruka Nishimatsu as co-starters of the early morning race through Honolulu streets. About 60 percent of the 23,000 registered runners are from Japan.

Obama's sister met with the Kenyan runners at a private dinner Thursday evening. She told the runners Obama will be delighted to learn that she met with them.

"He is impressed with the spirit and discipline of the elite runners," Soetoro-Ng said at the dinner. "He is proud of the Kenyan runners."

She greeted each runner, seven men and one woman, with a hug and posed for pictures with them.

"I'm very impressed with everything you do," she said. "I don't have that physical discipline myself."

Soetoro-Ng said she once ran a marathon and finished in six hours. She is not entered in Sunday's race.

Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., who died in 1982, was a member of the Luo tribe of Kenya. Soetoro-Ng's father was from Indonesia. They had the same mother.

Soetoro-Ng asked the Kenyan runners about the difference in training in Honolulu and Kenya.

Jimmy Muindi, six-time Honolulu winner and defending champion, noted that Honolulu is at sea level, while running in Kenya is at higher altitudes and more difficult.

Muindi said everyone in Kenya is talking about Obama and wanted him to win the election.