Peaman's Thrash and Dash

Peaman has really put a lot of thought into making his yearly schedule.  One of his best ideas is putting the shortest race right after Ironman (1/3 mile swim and 2 mile run).  So many new people were at the event last Sunday! Whether they got inspired by Ironman or just weren't intimidated by the distances, it was a great turnout. Hopefully many of these new peas will keep coming back!

As always, there was a shorter peawee distance, which had some of the usual suspects with their childish enthusiasm.  Just look at them start above! And lots of the moms were there to encourage their kids to the finish:

It was also the last Peaman event before Halloween, so there were several costumes out on the course. Several beautiful butterflies:

Some caped ladies:

 And a masked man:

 

Neither Jason nor I raced this one, since I had done a long run the day before and Jason had another run to get in.  So it was fun to watch and get lots of pictures.  More pictures from the race are available here.

In the full distance race, John Balabuck came in first, followed by Campbell Causey and Karlyn Pipes-Nielsen.  For the peawees, Brett Berges was first in the finned race, with Kainopono Eckart, Logan Eckart and Duke Becker coming in behind.  Full results from all race distances and the relays are available here. 

Up next is the Run for the Dry Forest this Saturday at Pu'u Wa'awa'a.  This event features a trail 5k, 10k and keiki run.  On Sunday, Team Mango hosts their Post-Ironman Sprint Triathlon, with a 1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike and 2 mile run. Happy Halloween!

Ironman Recap

 

So many people have posted pictures and recaps of Ironman week here in Kona, that there's probably not much more I can add. Plus that week was such a blur of activity and was now over a week ago, that I can hardly remember most of it.  But congratulations to all of the athletes who competed and huge mahalo to all of the volunteers, especially those that helped us at our brand new aid stations this year!

For the first time ever in an Ironman event, the professional athletes were offered Pro Fluid Aid Stations.  Starting at 4 a.m. on race morning, pro athletes could drop up off to 5 bottles (one for each of five stations) for their use on the run course. At each of these stations, their bottles were placed on tables so they could grab their specific bottles when they came through.  Here's a shot of one of the aid stations:

 

Jason was actually the coordinator for these aid stations, so we were a little nervous as to how they would work out.  However, everything went really smoothly, mainly because of our awesome volunteers.  Special thanks to Dave and Shirley Pratt and Kevin Prater who were captains of 4 of the 5 locations.  Each location then had an additional 10 or so people who helped make this a great success.  It was great to be able to see the race unfold through the run and also know that we were helping out those pro athletes who were racing as part of their job and as a way to make a living. We're hopeful that we'll get the chance to do this again next year.

Here's some other quick pictures that I took throughout the week and on race day:

A shot of the waves on Alii Drive. A big swell came in the week before the race.

Kawika Singson

Cowman

Ellie Sumic

Our mailman extraordinaire Orlando Rodriquez

Coming down Palani toward the finish line.

26th Annual PATH 5k/10k

Today marked the official kick-off of the Ironman week of activities with the 26th Annual PATH 5k/10k.  This run starts at Hale Halawai and goes south on Alii Drive.  This race is truly an international affair.  Participants come from Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Austria, and all across the U.S. Some of the participants are competing in Ironman next weekend and others are here supporting family and friends who are racing, but want to get their own race in. And of course, plenty of the local runners, too. Since I had a long run yesterday and Jason raced on Friday,we were just volunteers/spectators/photographers at this one. 

Laura Dierenfield from PATH gave announcements and started the runners out on the course. For those who don't know, PATH is the local bike and pedestrian safety and advocacy group on the Big Island and this race is one of their biggest fundraisers each year.  In addition to the race, there was also a silent auction with prizes donated by local businesses.  The silent auction was organized by More Than Sport, Chris Lieto's charity that is raising money to help local kids.  Proceeds from the silent auction will be divided among PATH, Kona Community Hospital, and the YMCA.

Both the 5k and 10k had some really fast times.  In the 5k, the winning time was 16:28, run by Jonathan Roth from Cochrane, Canada.  Second place was Nikolai Frederickson from Kastrup, Denmark in 16:53 and third place was Alexander Lang from Freisburg, Germany in 17:48.  On the ladies' side, three women came in right in a row, led by 11 year old Anna Foreman of Chandler, Arizona in 20:31.  The second place woman was Chrystel Chrystenson from North Salt Lake, Utah in 20:37.  Third place went to Linnea Humphrey of Toronto, Canada with a time of 20:57. Full results from the 5k are here.

Here are some photos of the 5k finishers:

Mercedes DeCarli sprinting to the finish.

Jon Kunitake

Linda Goeth

A keiki coming into the chute

Lee-Ann Heely

Matt Sutherland and Jen McCord

It was about this time that I had to get to work organizing the awards, so I wasn't able to take many more pictures of the 10k. In the 10k, Chris Legh from Lyons, Colorado took first place in a time of 33:16.  He was followed by Alejandro Santamaria from Madrid, Spain with a time of 34:26.  Third place was Ulrich Fluhme from New York, NY in a time of 34:39.

For the ladies, a speedy Julia Grant from Ashburton, New Zealand was first in with a time of 39:09.  Second place went to Natalie Gaskin of Wellington, New Zealand at 41:04.  Third place was Jessica Fleming in 41:42.  Full results of the 10k are here.

I was able to break away before the keiki race and get some pictures of the kids lining up and some of the finish.

The keiki run started on the makai (ocean) side of Hale Halawai and then ran all the way around Hale Halawai, finishing at the finishers chute.  All kids were given bright red shoelaces at the finish.

Congratulations to all the participants and mahalo to all of the volunteers.  Enjoy the festivities in town this week and stay safe on the roads!