Meet the Event Director: Clare Seeger Albino
The Molokai Marathon is organized by people who have been building world-class events on Molokai for more than two decades.
A Lifelong Endurance Athlete
In 1981, at just 15, Clare ran the very first London Marathon despite an age ban that should have kept her off the course. After 3 hours and 49 minutes, she reached the finish line and stopped, knowing she wasn’t officially allowed to cross. As the crowd urged her on, the race organizers and sponsors came over and told her she could finish.
Clare, age 15, running the first London Marathon in 1981.
Afterward, Clare told a reporter it wasn’t fair that girls had to be 21 to run a marathon while boys could be 18. That one comment sparked a national media storm and pushed the athletics association to change its rules, lowering the women’s age limit to match the men’s.
The 1981 headline that helped change the rules for young women runners.
Sponsored by radio station 2CR and its listeners for every mile she ran, a teenage Clare (right) presents the money raised to charity.
Clare went on to a professional windsurfing career spanning more than a decade. She was chosen for the British Olympic Squad, won ten British National Championships, became the US Women’s Slalom National Champion, captured Hawaii State Slalom titles, and in 1985 became the first Briton, male or female, to win a windsurfing world title. She hung up her running shoes, but her heart never left marathon running.
Competing on the professional World Tour in Hawaii.
Why Youth Matter
Behind the titles was a teenager who was largely on her own. By sixteen, Clare was chasing her dreams without a steady mentor to guide her, finding her way through trial, error, and grit. She never forgot what it felt like to go without that support, or what it meant when a few adults believed in her at that London Marathon finish line. Clare believes every professional athlete has a duty to give back, to pass on what the sport gave them, because today’s youth are the next generation of athletes, leaders, and community builders. That belief became her life’s work: to be the mentor she never had.
Building Events with Purpose on Molokai
In 1998, Clare founded Youth in Motion, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to empowering, equipping, educating, challenging, and motivating Molokai youth on the land and in the ocean. Since then, Youth in Motion has engaged more than 1,000 Molokai youth in sports, mentorship, and character building.
To keep Youth in Motion’s programs running, Clare needed a way to cover the organization’s insurance. So in 1998, with a handful of change and a tax return, she started her own business, Molokai Outdoors. Twenty-eight years later, Molokai Outdoors is still going strong, and it remains a big part of how Clare supports the youth programs and community events she believes in.
In 2003, she launched Na ʻŌpio Hana Paʻa, a Celebration of Youth Opportunities, which brought ocean athletes across the channel from Maui to Molokai. That same year, the Council of the County of Maui formally honored Clare for her outstanding dedication and tireless commitment to the youth of Molokai, recognizing the event’s success as the result of her dream, perseverance, and love for the community.
Recognized by the Council of the County of Maui, September 2003.
That event grew into today’s Molokai Holokai Hoʻolauleʻa, featuring the Maui to Molokai Challenge, the Kamalo Downwinder, the Holo Fun Run, cultural workshops, and a full community festival. In 2026, the Holokai welcomed athletes from 17 countries.
Runners from Molokai and around the world at the Molokai Holokai Hoʻolauleʻa.
Today
Clare is a teacher at Molokai High School, the owner of Molokai Outdoors, and a Certified Festival and Events Executive (CFEE). On April 30, 2027, she will graduate from Ohio University with a Master of Science in Athletics Administration. She has coached Molokai youth across some of the world’s toughest ocean channels, including one athlete who won a world title at 17.
The Molokai Marathon brings it all together: a professionally organized race with a purpose, run by a community that knows how to welcome the world.
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