Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Trashcan Triathlon 2012

As I mentioned last week, this past weekend was Team Mango's trashcan triathlon at the Kailua Pier.  The race started with a 1/2 mile swim, followed by a 10-mile bike down Alii Drive, and a 3-mile run on Alii Drive.  While this can be completed as a regular triathlon, as many people did, the race rewards people for cleaning up the route.  For every piece of trash collected on the swim, a swimmer got 5 minutes deducted from their time.  For every piece of trash collected on the bike, the biker got 3 minutes deducted from their time.  Every piece of trash collected on the run was worth a 1 minute deduction in time.  So in the results from this race, you'll actually see people with negative times!

Pam Miller took the overall title with her massive collection of trash.  She got 2 pieces on the swim, 122 on the bike and 64 on the run.  And she wasn't just picking up cigarette butts. She actually brought in a junk bike on her bike ride and a spare tire on her run.  Her clock finish of 2:37:19 was reduced to negative 6 hours, 52 minutes and 41 seconds.  Congrats to her on a great job cleaning up Alii Drive!

Winner Pam Miller - Photo by Mercedes DeCarli
Bob Smith finished second, bringing in 168 pieces of trash for an adjusted time of negative 3:09:36.  Jim Moore took third with an adjusted time of -1:30:38. 
Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

Albert Martinez was fourth, but won points for creatively hauling back a huge box!

In the ongoing rivalry between Mike DeCarli and Chris Prater, Chris narrowly beat Mike, thanks to some strategic trash pick-up!

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli
Photo by Mercedes DeCarli
Sarah Higgins came prepared with a backpack to tackle the bike ride and hauled in 21 pieces of trash on the bike and 61 on the run!

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli
In addition to bringing back a bagful of trash on the run, Christine DeCarli brought back 3 mascot mangoes! (Her trash pickup isn't actually reflected in the results, but the photo below and I can both vouch for her.)
Photo by Mercedes DeCarli
In the relay portion of the race, the relay team of Luke Toland and Jeff and James Neubauer took first place, thanks to the 113 pieces of trash they collected on the run. 

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli
Jason and I finished in second place after I snagged 57 pieces of trash on the run. Thanks to Christine DeCarli and Chris Prater for dumping some extras in there!

The Chang family finished in third place for the relay teams, with Sarah Chang swimming a blazingly fast 9 minutes and 54 seconds AND picking up 3 pieces of trash!

The youngest competitors also got into the action, with Allyson Prater finishing 8th for the women and Jackie Payne coming in 12th for the women. 


Jackie Payne - Photo by Mercedes DeCarli
Allyson Prater - Photo by Mercedes DeCarli
Huge mahalo to Mercedes DeCarli who took all of the pictures used in this post - both for taking such great shots and letting me use them! 

Up this weekend is the EMS 5k Run and 2 mile Walk in Hilo on Sunday.  The race starts at 8:30 a.m. from Lilioukalani Park. In addition to the great race atmosphere and post-race raffles and awards, there are always plenty of activities for the kids.  So bring out the whole family for an active morning!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Peaman's Red, White and Blue Biathlon

Since our last blog post, we've had several interesting events take place.  On July 4, the Salute to the Veteran's 5k was held in Hilo.  Results are available on Wayne "Big Dog" Joseph's blog

Then on July 7, the annual King's Swim was held at the Kona Pier.  This 1.2 mile swim starts at the pier, goes to the 1.2 mile marker which is the Body Glove boat, makes the turn around the boat and heads back to finish on King Kamehameha beach side of the pier.  Results are available here. This is a fantastic event, with lots of great awards and raffle prizes, plus a great post-race spread.  I finished the King's Swim for the second year in a row, knocking a whopping 10 seconds off my time from last year! 
King's Swim (Photo by Paola Soto)
Paola Soto took tons of photos of the events, so I've attached a couple here.  Thanks Paola! More can be found on the King's Swim's Facebook page.

Lead Men (Photo by Paola Soto)
1st Place Woman Leahi Camacho (Photo by Paola Soto)
The oldest competitor - a true inspiration (Photo by Paola Soto)
Then this past weekend, we all gathered on Sunday for Peaman's red, white and blue biathlon. Unfortunately, Jason and I have taken over the timing for the races, so we aren't able to take nearly as many photos (truthfully, I took two!).  I borrowed a couple, though from Kawika Singson, who got some great underwater shots. Thanks, Kawika!

Photo by Kawika Singson

Photo by Kawika Singson
Photo by Kawika Singson
The usual suspects took control of this race early, with Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen coming out of the water first, with Bree Wee hot on her heels.  Bree caught Karlyn on the run for a 1-2 finish for the pair.  Finishing third was new local racer James Resor. Jon Jokiel took fourth place and (friendly) rivals Chris Prater and Mike DeCarli battled for the next two spots with Chris taking the upper hand in this one.  Full results are available here. After a so-so swim (20 mins.), I finished in 49:14.

The top three Peawees at this race were Kanaipono Eckhart in 12:11, Jackie Payne in 12:17 and Zackary Shepard in 12:21 - a pretty tight race for those kids!


One of my two photos - certainly not the greatest!
Up this weekend is a race that's great for the aina - Team Mango's Trashcan Triathlon!  This race is a 1/2 mile swim, 10 mile bike and 3 mile run.  But the twist is that you can deduct seconds and sometimes minutes off your time for each piece of trash you collect on the course.   So come out and get some exercise while also helping keep Alii Drive Clean! The race starts at 7 a.m. Sunday, July 22 at the Kailua Pier.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Kona Marathon Runs 2012

Another successful Kona Marathon is in the books! For the third year in a row, Big Island Running Company's training group was well-represented in all race distances from the 5k to the full marathon.  And the weather could not have been any better - after downpours the night before, it was nice and cool and, most importantly, overcast.

We have tons of pictures from these races, since Jason wasn't able to run. There are going to be a lot in this post, but more photos are available here. Full results from the races are available here. Also, special thanks to Mizuno for donating the race shirts for our group and to Dominos' in Kona for donating some pizzas for our post-race party.

The full marathoners headed off at 5:30 a.m., just as the sun was starting to rise.  The course runs along Alii Drive, out to Kona Commons, onto the Queen Kaahumanu Highway, down to the Natural Energy Lab and back.  Here are a couple of training partners as the headed in to the finish - all with great times!

Don Kirby
Leonard Torricer
Danny Jesser
At 6:00 a.m., it was time for the half marathoners to take to the road.  Their course was the same as the full, but turned around at Kona Commons and headed back to Keauhou.


Here are some shots of our group members in action:

Mike DeCarli and Chris Prater
John Ferdico
Chico
Abra Pintor
Gabby Hurtado
Gemma Pytel
Nori and Danny Becker
Kym Tagawa, Jen McCord, and Matt Sutherland

Lee-Ann Heely and Christine DeCarli

Diane Quitiquit
Laura Bollman

Chitwin San Tun and Me
Ali Steiner
Jenny Payne
Kevin Prater - with the Perpetual Pea!
The 10k took off at 6:45 a.m. and the 5k followed at 6:50 a.m.  We were able to get some pictures of the 10k finishers, but not the 5k.
Maggie Leite
Becky Prater
Paul Incardona
Andrea Cobb
Congratulations to all of the finishers! After the race, it was time for a little relaxing party at Kahaluu Beach.  We had tons of great food and got to award some prizes to our group members.  Before the race, each group member was invited to guess their finish time and the person who got the closest to their time won a prize.  And the winners were:

Marathon - Leonard Torricer (guessed 3:50 and finished in 3:54:11)
Half Marathon - Orestes Barrios (guessed 1:37:00 and finished in 1:36:39)
10K - Mercedes DeCarli (guessed 49:45 and finished in 49:59)
5K - Makena Becker (guessed 35:00 and finished in 33:06)

We hope everyone keeps up with the running! Our group runs will continue, with the next big race being the Volcano Rain Forest Runs.  See you out on the roads!