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!