Terrific Turtle Trudge, Dragon Dash and Golden Fox Gallop

Last weekend was another fun event in the always crazy Peaman-race series.  Instead of the usual swim/run biathlons, last week was a run-only event.  The twists for this one were that the different distances were measured in inches (332,640 inches, 126,720 inches and 63,360 inches), and the finishers were grouped into weight categories instead of age groups.

In a weather-related twist, it was actually raining at the start of the race! But it was a welcome drizzle that helped keep things cool. Better than the thunder, lightning and six inches of rain that we heard they had on the Hilo side of the island at the same time during Big Dog's Lover's Day 5k. 

Jason and I both ran the Terrific Turtle Trudge, so we weren't able to take any pictures. Special thanks to Jolene Mears for letting me use some of hers!  Also, we think there was an issue with the timing, so the times in the paper's results are about 30 seconds faster than what they actually should have been.  And the paper also ridiculously shows a swimmer coming out of the water, even though there was no swimming in this event...

Jason leading the start of the wet race.

The shortest distance, the Golden Fox Gallop, started at the pier, ran down Alii Drive to Bubba Gump's and then turned around back to the pier.  Ziggy Bartholomy took first place, followed closely by Toby Olney.  Silas Wiley took third place behind them.  It looks like Jackie Payne was the first female to finish the 1-mile distance.

1-mile finisher!

Duke flying down the road.

The Dragon Dash continued past the Golden Fox Gallop turn-around, up the hill by the Royal Kona, turned down past Kona Reef and came back in front of Huggo's before getting back on Alii Drive. Tim Robinson was the first Dragon Dash finisher, followed by Korey Pulluiam and Jim Gibbons.  I'm going to guess that Asia Morris was the first female finisher followed by Raine Kolman and Lori Montgomery - sorry if I got that wrong!

In the Terrific Turtle Trudge, we went all the way down Alii Drive from the pier to Living Stones church before turning around.  On my way out, I got to run with some great pacers - Jon Kunitake and Harry Yoshida.  Harry and I would pull away from Jon a little bit on the uphill, but then he'd come flying by us on the downhills.  Jason passed by us about 1/2 mile before we got to the turnaround.  He was moving pretty good in a quest to break the course record. 

I was feeling pretty good on this run, so actually tried to pick it up a bit on my way back in, instead of dying towards the end like I usually do.  I was actually pretty successful and ran the last mile as fast as my first. Jolene generously provided me with a picture of me coming towards the finish, but since I'm the blogger, I get to decide what gets posted and what doesn't - my appearance in that photo did not make the cut! Despite my sprinting in the end, I didn't manage to make it under 38:00 minutes, coming in at 38:03 by my watch.  However, that was a 30 second improvement over my time from last year, so I was pretty happy.

It took me awhile to find Jason after the race, but I finally found him and heard that he ran 28:31, 8 seconds under the old course record of 28:39 (but unfortunately not the 28:05 that the paper said he ran).  His training partner Sal Salmi came in second in 30:14 (according to Sal's watch).  Third place went to Penny Pleban in the rolling pea category with Jon Jokiel right behind her.  For the women, Rani Tanimoto took first, Val Sell (a runner from California who had joined us on our group run the day before) was second, and I think I was in third.  There were also several other rolling peas in this event, with the Echo City Knockouts roller derby team participating again.  I think their names are pretty obvious in the results!

This weekend is the Team Mango Sprint Triathlon, a .3 mile swim, 14 mile bike and 2 mile run at 7:00 a.m. at the Pier.  There's also a special free run event for seniors age 55 and over.  The first Senior Strut starts at 8:00 a.m. at Hale Halawai and is a 5k and 1 mile run/walk. No registration necessary - just show up!