Senior Strut and Team Mango's Sprint Triathlon

This past Sunday there was an abundance of races on the Big Island.  On the Hilo side, the Big Island Road Runners hosted the Waikamalo Challenge, a 7-mile and 4-mile run north of Hilo with a course that mimics the beginning of the Big Island International Marathon and Half Marathon.  Results from the 7-mile run are here, and results from the 4-mile run are here.

Then on the Kona side, there were two races - the first ever Senior Strut and Team Mango's Sprint Triathlon.  The Senior Strut was organized by Kelly Hudik of Hawaii County's Elderly Activities Division and was a free 5k and 1-mile run/walk for adults aged 55 and over. Turnout was great for this first year event, which I suspect will definitely grow next year.  Although I don't have the results for this race, there was a nice write-up about the event in West Hawaii Today on Monday.  I also don't have any photos, since I was handling the timing for this event.  Jim Gibbons and Sandy Hild took first place for the men and ladies in the 1-mile distance, while Orestes "Chico" Barrios and Pammer Kidani took men's and women's first place in the 5k.

Finally, the Team Mango Sprint Triathlon took place at the Kailua-Kona Pier.  This event was a shorter distance, perfect for first-timers.  The swim was 1/3 of a mile, the bike was 14 miles and the run was 2 miles.  As always the turnout was great, with lots of families participating, too. Again no photos and no results yet, but I'll try to update this once I get them.

After the morning of races and Jason's long run with the Big Island Chase crew, we headed out to scope out the Hao Street trail.  Although we've been hearing about this trail for two years now, we'd never been there - even though it's only about 5 minutes from our house.  No running this time, just a nice little hike. 

We made it about 1 mile in on the trail and then turned around (I think the total distance is 2 miles each way). I must say, I was a little surprised at how nice it was! Plenty wide, fairly clear, definitely cooler, and not too tough.  Although there are a couple of sections where I'd have to take it pretty slow, overall this could be a nice run. 

Not quite ripe lilikoi.

Jason was determined to find me a ripe lilikoi (my favorite fruit here, which I don't get to have as much since he cut down all the lilikoi vines in our backyard!), but all of the ripe ones were growing way high up in the trees.  Those are the yellow things in the tree below.

He was finally able to find some that were within reach (sort of).  I didn't get a picture of it, but there was some jumping, hat waving, and tree branch pulling before I walked away with 3 ripe lilikoi.  Of course, as soon as we finished our hike, we found the nicest ripe lilikoi of the day laying on the ground right next to the car.

Fiddlehead

Up this weekend is Peaman's Zoomin' Zak Plunge and Plod Biathlon, a 1/2 mile swim and 3.9 mile run. See you there at 8:03 a.m. at the Kailua Pier!