Peaman Thrash and Dash Biathlon

This past Sunday was Peaman's post-Ironman biathlon - the Thrash and Dash. A nice short event, with only a 1/3 mile swim and 2 mile run, brought out hundreds of participants. It was another nice, hot, sunny day in Kona. Since Jason was doing his long run that day, I was on my own at the event, so I was expecting no pictures for this post. However, Michelle Whitford has kindly allowed me to use some of her photos from the day. Mahalo, Michelle!

Everyone seemed to be in great spirits at the start of the day. Part of the Big Island Honda crew, Korey Pulluaim and Keola Wimbish got a little swim warmup in before the race. One of these days, I should probably consider warming up, too, instead of just standing around chatting. Maybe next time...


Pretty soon, we were ready for Peaman's instructions followed by the start of the race.

While I enjoy only having to swim a short distance, the bad part about it is that the crowd never thins out. So you end up swimming next to people the entire time, trying to avoid elbowing someone or getting an elbow yourself. At least this time the water wasn't choppy, which made it a lot better than the last 1/3 mile swim we had. This time I came out of the water in about 10 and a half minutes. Not great, but ok considering I hadn't been in the ocean at all since the last Peaman event.

The leaders come in from the swim neck and neck.

That's me in the middle. I only put this picture in because I was excited to see I actually finished with people around me and wasn't completely in the back of the pack! Or at least I wasn't alone in the back of the pack.

Then it was on to the run.

Keola Wimbish heads into transition for the run.

The 2-mile run course goes south on Alii Drive to Kona Reef where it turns right and runs past the Royal Kona Resort and Huggo's before coming back onto Alii Drive to head back to the pier and the finish. So you still have to climb up the hill in front of the Royal Kona, but the run is so short it doesn't seem bad at all.

Sam Corace (above) seemed to be flying in his attempt to catch the leader. He came up a little short, but finished in second place with a time of 19:12. Nicholas Stelfox took the victory in 18:53. Third place was Elliot Boon in 19:43. For the ladies, it was Annamari Fuls finishing first in 23:41, followed by Chenoa Jesser in 24:28 and Kaeti Ecker in 24:29 (a close finish)! It looks like Chenoa (below) had a tight race with Jon Kunitake (in a relay pairing), too! In the relay portion, Madison Hauanio and Waika Koanui took first place with a time of 20:54.
I managed to run 14:10 for the 2 miles, for a total time of 26:14. But I couldn't manage to catch up to Monica Scheel, who was keeping up quite a pace out there! Full results from the race are available here.

As usual, there was also a peawee race, with a shorter swim and a 1-mile run. Kanaipono Eckhart finished in first place in the peawee race, with Alama Kala coming in second. Lauren Jones did the event with her mom and one of our running group members, Kerry Hull, and had an impressive third place showing! She was followed right behind by Duke Becker and his dad, Danny. Chitwin San Tun and his son Aye Chan competed for the first time and seemed to be enjoying themselves.


Following the race, there was the usual awarding of the Perpetual Pea, which had to be returned from Big Island Honda to be passed along to Ironman director Diana Bertsch.

There were also the usual post-race refreshments and prizes, with a new addition being the banana dogs.

The bananas in a bun with peanut butter, chocolate sauce and candy toppings were a huge hit. They even had banana burritos, too! What a great idea!

Congrats to all Peaman participants and thanks as always to Peaman and his loyal core of volunteers who always put on a fantastic event!

Don't forget to mark your calendars for the return of the Miracle Mile Run hosted by Big Island Running Company on Saturday, November 13 at 9:15 a.m. right before the Kona Coffee Festival Parade! Registrations forms are available at the store and will soon be available on our website. We hope you'll join us for this fun 1-mile run!

Ironman Hangover and Bieni Johnson 5k Run/Walk

Our postings in the last few weeks have been shameful (and non-existent). We blame it on the craziness of Ironman, trying to recover from the craziness of Ironman, and the trip to the mainland that I took. But now I'm back and ready to catch up. Here's a brief summary of the rest of Ironman, as well as the Beini Johnson 5k Run/Walk. I'll try to post a Peaman recap tomorrow.

On the Thursday before Ironman race day, everyone in town gathered for the Underpants Run! (Well, maybe not everyone, but there certainly were a lot of scantily clad people there.)

The race started near Pacific Vibrations and ran up and down Alii Drive. It was quite a long procession with lots of interesting sights. Men in bras, women in lingerie, Elvis, tons of dogs, and much more. Someone mentioned there was a male thong sighting, but I must have missed that.

It looked like everyone had a great time, maybe we'll have to participate next year!

After a busy couple of days in town, everything quieted down on Friday night as people started their preparations for the big day. Same for us, as I was volunteering at the pier starting at 4 a.m. and Jason was working the store. Although I definitely saw more of the athletes than Jason did, I didn't have a camera with me. But Jason got some good shots of the pros and some locals on the run course.

Chris Lieto

Craig Alexander

Luis De La Torre

Sam Corace

Bree Wee

Kevin Murar

Jim Ragual

Congratulations to all the Ironman finishers!

The weekend after Ironman was the Bieni Johnson 5k Run/Walk at Hawaii Preparatory Academy. This race was on the HPA's cross country course - the same course where the BIIF (Big Island Interscholastic Federation) Cross Country Championships would be held the following week. It was a great chance for runners to get off the roads and try out a real cross country course. And over 200 people did just that! From what I hear, that made for quite a challenging course.

At the end, Jason came in first in a time of 19:55, followed by Jesse Tarnas in 20:24 and Alan Ryan in 20:42. For the ladies, Ruth Vorlund was the winner in 24:28, with Kim Evans (24:26) and Carmen Garson-Shumway (25:59) taking second and third places. Full results are available here.

Just this past Sunday was another Peaman race and a recap should be coming shortly.

Ironman Parade of Nations

Tuesday afternoon was the Ironman Parade of Nations which kicked off the opening of the Ironman expo. The parade went from the pier to Hale Halawai, the site of the expo. As always, the crowds were out to see the festivities.

Competitors from each of the countries that will be represented on Saturday marched in the event with their flag, a mini version of the Olympic parade. There were large contingents from Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

And then there were the countries that were represented by only one athlete, like Thailand and India. But those representatives still came out proudly with their flags.


Each of the main volunteer departments were out with their crews, too. Below is Aid Station director Joe Loschiavo (working as always), with some of his helpers.

The transition area volunteers were also represented, with all of their interesting signage. (Especially the one that warns against public urination...)


Prior to the parade, there was a mini keiki triathlon and then the participants got to march in the parade.


Finally, the parade wrapped up with the US athletes, followed by the local Kona athletes.


The excitement is certainly being felt in town. Of course, I'm sure the nervous energy will start to pick up today and tomorrow, too.

PATH 5k/10k Run

This is the big week that the triathlon world converges on Kona. The exciting week of events was kicked off on Sunday morning with the PATH (People's Advocacy for Trails Hawaii) 5k/10k Run/Walk. This was the 25th year of the event! A lot of the Ironmen and women and their families came out to participate, so the finisher list was very international. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera this day, so we don't have any pictures of the race. But it was held on Alii Drive, starting at Hale Halawai, so you can imagine lots of sun, ocean and Hawaiian foliage.

Over 100 people were entered in each of the 5k and 10k. The 10k course went south from Hale Halawai to about Magic Sands Beach. For the 10k, Chris Legh of Colorado came in first with a time of 33:37. Kjell Schioberg of Idaho was second in 36:20. The first woman finished in third place overall and was former Ironman champion Heather Fuhr with a time of 37:16. In fourth place was Donovan Watts from Canada (37:39), followed by the first Big Island finisher, Alan Ryan, in a time of 37:43. Second and third place for the ladies were Irene Kinnegim from the Netherlands (42:39) and Cynthia Kidwell from Indiana (44:23). The first Big Island finisher for the ladies was Heather Scarbrough who finished in 45:05. Full results from the race are here.

The 5k course ran the same route as the 10k, but turned around at Casa D'Emdeko instead, making for a fairly hilly 5k course. Finishing first overall was Joshua Sonnet of Belgium in a time of 18:30. He was followed by two local runners - Nathan Grocholski (19:10) and Ziggy Bartholomy (19:28). First place for the women was Catherine Lee of Minnesota in 19:44, followed by Chrystel Christenson of Utah in 21:06. I was able to represent for Kona and finished in third place in 21:21. Full race results for the 5k are available here.

Several of our running group members and customers won age group awards in both the 5k and 10k, including Monica Price, Lisa Bryant, Ellis Andrews, Cliff Acheson, Korey Pulluaim, Scott Wiitala, Rob Van Geen, Marissa Bryant-Manago, and Jon Kunitake. The awards provided by PATH were great Hawaiian umeki bowls, used by Hawaiians for eating poi and other local food.

The event was also accompanied by a silent auction which included jewelry, massages, an entry to Lavaman Waikoloa, and other gift certificates, all to raise money for PATH. PATH is a great local organization that tries to make the roads and community safe for bikers, runners and pedestrians. If you haven't checked them out, go to pathhawaii.org and see all the great things they do!

Today is the Ironman parade and the start of the expo, so we'll try to get some more updates posted throughout the week.