The chase was on.

For the first 8 miles of Sunday’s Honolulu Marathon, Joyce Chepkirui chased the race leader. But once Chepkirui took over and built her lead, the rest of the field couldn’t chase her down. In fact, the rest of the field couldn’t be seen.

Chepkirui, 26, became the first Kenyan woman to win the Honolulu Marathon, finishing the 26.2-mile race in 2 hours, 30 minutes, 23 seconds. Croatia’s Lisa Stublic-Nemec finished second in 2:31:35 and Kenya’s Isabelle Ochichi was third in 2:32:22. Defending champion Ehitu Kiros finished sixth in 2:36:57.

“I feel very happy,” said Chepkirui, who averaged a 5:45 mile. “It was my best time.”

Chepkirui took the lead 9 miles into the race and built a big gap over the rest of the field. She never looked back, because her husband and coach, Erick Kibet, did so for her.

Kibet, who was entered in the men’s race, ran with Chepkirui until he dropped off at mile 22. They traded words along the way, as he checked her status and ran in front of her during a strong headwind and rain that battered runners through the latter half of the race. Occasionally, Kibet glanced back, but the rest of the women’s field was nowhere in sight. Kibet finished 10th in 2:34:20.

“The first half was fast and the second half was very tough,” Chepkirui said.

Before Chepkirui built her lead, she was chasing race leader Sarah Kiptoo of Kenya.

Kiptoo ran off in the men’s lead pack off the start instead of staying in the women’s pack. She led by as much as 40 seconds over the women’s field before Chepkirui and Isabella Ochichi caught up by mile 8 on Diamond Head Road. Chepkirui said she wasn’t worried about Kiptoo’s early lead. Kiptoo finished eighth in 2:43:51.

Starting at 5 a.m. and running before the sun came out, Stublic-Nemec knew there was a pack in front of her but didn’t realize there was a woman in there.

“The gap didn’t bother me, because marathon is pretty long, anything can happen,” Stublic-Nemec said.

Chepkirui led Ochichi by 46 seconds at the halfway mark. She looked comfortable heading into the turnaround in Hawaii Kai. Her pace dropped slightly around miles 18 and 19 as rain came down harder on Kalanianaole Highway.

“A lot of wind and rain,” Chepkirui said.

Added Ochichi: “The conditions, it was challenging.”

As Chepkirui extended her lead, the rest of the race was still up for grabs with a field that was spreading out. The top five finishers earned prize money.

Stublic-Nemec moved up to second after passing Ochichi after the 30-kilometer mark. She had no idea what place she was in until someone told her late in the race that she was second.

“I didn’t know what to really expect,” said Stublic-Nemec, who grew up in Connecticut and was an All-American at Columbia University before moving to Croatia. Her father was born in Croatia. “I was thinking on the first half to run on feeling and second half pick people off.”

The win capped off an impressive year for Chepkirui. She won gold in the 10,000-meter run at this year’s Commonwealth Games and African Championships, then spent the latter half of the year focusing on marathon running. She placed fourth at an October half-marathon in Spain and second in a November one in Kenya. She surrounded those races with long training runs of 18 to 21 miles.

“I was prepared for this race,” Chepkirui said.

She said part of her $40,000 prize money will go toward her farm.

She grows maize and raises cows, chickens and sheep.