Peaman's 300th Race!

Last Sunday was a momentous occasion for the Peaman race series - it was their 300th race!  That's over 20 years of fun, free races in Kona.  And Sean "Peaman" Pagett has put them all on!  His giving spirit to the community is amazing and unexhaustible. Even while battling health issues, he manages to get out there every month and put on these wonderful races for our community, without asking for anything in return. 

In honor of Peaman's 300th race, Papa Pea and Bike Works teamed together to produce these limited edition Peaman #300 shirts.  I know Peaman was blown away when he saw all the people sporting them. 

Peaman supporters wearing their new Peaman shirts

The race itself was one of Peaman's craziest ideas ever - it's a 1/4 mile swim, followed by a 2 mile run, followed by another 1/4 mile swim and another 2 mile run.  I did this event last year and, let me tell you, it is dizzying to go back and forth that many times.  Not to mention all the time you can lose in transition.  This year, Jason and I teamed up to do a relay - I swam and he ran.  Even with my swim slowing us down, we still managed to have a good race, beating out Luis DeLaTorre and Korey Pulluiam to take the split pea title.

A lot of the usual suspects were out participating in this race. Tai Scarborough took first place overall at 36:46, with Chris Lieto crossing the line just behind him.  Rani Tanimoto came in third overall and first for the women. Tim Robinson was the third place male and Sarah Chang and Allison Alterman were the second and third place women.

Papa Pea

Kanaipono Eckart was the top peawee, followed by Jared Barrett and Lawrence Eckart.  In other categories, Penny Pleban and Holualoa Pete took the rolling peas title for doing the run on rollerblades! Talk about a tough transition!  Full results from the race are available here.

Peaman surrounded by the keiki

As usual, the real festivities were post-race, with plenty of giveaways and prizes for the kids and adults. Mahalo to Peaman for everything he has done and continues to do for the community in putting these races together. The excitement these little races bring every month is part of what makes Kona a great place to live. Here's to the next 300!

Keiki dig through Peaman's toy chests