Polar Bear's Pinto Bean and Pinata Biathlon AND Sinko De Mayo Swim

Jon Kunitake salutes all the Peas!

Today there were a couple different Peaman events for people in Kona to choose from. The first was Polar Bear's Pinto Bean and Pinata Biathlon, a 1/2 mile swim and 3.1 mile run. This event was open to men 20+ and keiki 19 and under. The next event was open to all participants and was either a 1/2 mile or 1 mile swim. Numbers were a little bit down from other Peaman events (probably because over the half the field is usually women), but the two different races made for an interesting finish line!

Everyone started out in the water after getting instructions from Peaman. The swim course was out to the 1/2 mile buoy and back, although those completing the one-mile swim had to do the course twice. From post-race reports, the ocean was a little rough today, creating some nice chop for the swimmers to deal with.

While waiting for the swimmers to come out of the water, members of Team Big Island Honda prepped for their big grudge match. Always looking to add some additional excitement to race day, there was a friendly bet between Korey Pulluiam and Tennessee Ray and Keola Wimbish and Luis De La Torre. As anyone who reads these posts or comes to these events knows, Luis is an amazing athlete and is always one of the first people out of the water (and usually the eventual winner, too). So the plan was to give Keola a head start by tagging off of Luis's swim. Ray would tag off of Korey's swim and the race would be on to see whether Ray could catch Keola.

As expected, Luis was one of the first ones done with the swim. Korey was a few minutes behind, so Keola got his head start. But it wasn't enough, as Ray turned in a fast run time of just over 22 minutes. It wasn't a loss for Keola/Luis, though, as Keola beat his previous 5K time by over 6 minutes, with a 29:40. Congrats to both teams for great races!

Back on the swim, the 1-mile course was dominated, as always, by those blazing fast high school girls. I was signing people out today and had to ask them if they used fins. Someone nearby commented that they were born with fins and didn't need artificial ones. I believe him - those girls are amazing! The top three swimmers in the 1-mile event were Madison Hauanio in 25:58, Alyssa Foo in 26:00, and Sonny Hapgood in 26:15.

While I was signing people out of the race, Jason was taking pictures of the end of the run course. Here are some of them, including a couple of members of our half marathon training group. More pictures can be found here.

Peaman

Michael Traub

Peter Ballerini

Papa Pea

Randy Wrighthouse

Full results of the events are listed here. Luis DeLaTorre finished in first place in the full event at 31:39, Geoff Whitener came in second at 35:32, and Todd Wanke was third in 36:01. In the Peawee event, Weylin Foo was first at 13:20, Kanaipono Eckart was second in 14:29, and Lawrence Eckart was third in 14:30.

Although I didn't see any Pinto Beans at this event, there was actually a pinata for the keiki. The line for kids to take their turn was huge! Everyone got in some good swings.

I didn't catch the final blow that broke the pinata, but I think the picture below is right before that last swing. You can see the kids inching into the foreground to be the first to grab some candy.

The pinata finally split open and the kids attacked.

We all mentioned we actually felt sorry for the kid that broke it open, because as you can see, he was still removing the blindfold when all the other kids had descended on the loot. I think he made out ok, though.

Congratulations to all participants in today's events! Up next week is Bree Wee's Chickpea Biathlon, another 1/2 mile swim and 3.1 mile run. This one is only for the ladies, though (and the keiki).