Astronomer believes in reaching for stars
By Trey Garman
Special to The Honolulu Advertiser
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Nick Kaiser, a 55-year-old astronomer at the University of Hawai'i, has perhaps the most ambitious professional and personal to-do list on the planet.
At work, he is tasked with saving the world by "finding killer asteroids before they find us." As the head of the Pan-STARRS project, "Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System", Kaiser and his team at the UH Institute for Astronomy use innovative technology to discover asteroids and comets that might collide with Earth.
At play, he's raced in every major swim, run, and triathlon held in Hawai'i this year, including the HURT 100K, Maui Marathon, Lavaman Triathlon, Honolulu Triathlon, Honu 70.3, Tinman, MountainMan, Kauai Marathon, Ironman and XTERRA World Championships.
He was one of five from Hawai'i to complete the "double" of finishing the Ironman and XTERRA in successive weeks.
Now Kaiser plans to accomplish another double — the XTERRA Trail Running World Championship half-marathon on Dec. 6, followed a week later by the Honolulu Marathon.
Making this all the more fascinating is that he just started racing five years ago.
"I'm an obsessive type," said Kaiser, a Brit who earned his PhD from Cambridge in 1982. "I realized I was quite good at distance and just wanted to see how far I could take it."
So far he has "taken it" to everyone in his age group, winning numerous awards for being the fastest in some of the toughest races. Kaiser also has a sub 3-hour marathon, posting a 2:58:08 at the London Marathon in 2007.
"We like to tease him that he's still running on fresh legs, and that's how he can do all these things," joked one of his ultra-running friends, Bob McAllaster, from HURT (Hawaiian Ultra Running Team). "Seriously though, he's a pretty incredible guy and it seems like he just doesn't stop."
The adventurous XTERRA trail run at Kualoa Ranch will be Kaiser's 20th race this year, and he's done more than 100 endurance races since he started competing in 2004.
How does he do it?
"I get up really early to run most weekdays. I have a pool right by my office I can jump into at lunch time and I bike (and sleep) on the weekends," Kaiser said. "I'm lucky to have a very supportive family that thinks I'm nuts, and a job that involves a lot of thinking. Long training runs are a good time to concentrate."
