Zoomin Zak Plunge & Plod Biathlon

Things have been so busy lately that I haven't been really timely in getting blog posts up.  Which makes me forget a lot of what I was going to say about the day - so I apologize both for the tardiness and potential boringness!

Super Volunteer Doug Henbest

Last Sunday, there was a great turnout at Peaman's Zoomin' Zak Plunge and Plod Biathlon. This race was a 1/2 mile swim and a 3.9 mile run, along with the usual peawee courses.  Jason was feeling a little bit under the weather, so he wasn't there to take pictures this week.  But luckily Lexi DeCarli filled in and I think she got some of my favorite shots ever.  Thank you, Lexi!

The swim was relatively calm, but still cold. And it was definitely clear. I saw a couple of huge schools of fish out there, but no sharks or dolphins thankfully.  Lately I've been able to work in a couple more ocean swims per week, so I was hoping that would pay off in the race.  And I don't know if it was that or the major draft I caught off of Kevin Prater (thanks, Kevin - sorry for repeatedly hitting you!), but I had my best swim ever for that distance, finishing in 19:42.  Still quite a bit behind the main pack, but getting better! 

After about a minute and a half transition, I was out on to the run.  The last Peaman event that I participated in back in December was this same distance, so I checked my time beforehand and set two goals - beat that time (51:36) and get under 30:00 for the run.  I was actually feeling really good on Sunday and kept moving up.  All the cheers and encouragement I got along the way definitely helped, too.  When I hit the turnaround, I saw that I was at about 14:30 for my run portion.  At that point, I started thinking that maybe I could make it back under 50:00 minutes total.  So I kept up the pace and crossed the finish line (officially) in 49:59 (my watch said 49:56, but I'll take it either way!) after a 28:44 run.  That's over a minute and a half off of my time from the last race.  Needless to say, I was super excited - and completely exhausted.

After catching my breath, I went back to chat with our photographer Lexi and cheer on the rest of the runners.  Here are some more of the great pics she got:

Lexi's dad, Mike

I love this picture! This is how happy kids should always be at Peaman races!

Dad and son

Peaman himself!

Rose Lorica-Ombac finishing the husband/wife relay.

More pictures from the race are available here.  Results from the race are available here.  In the full distance, Tai Scarbrough finished first in 39:22. Rani Tanimoto was second and first for the ladies with a time of 40:19. Young Chris Prater just keeps moving up in the standings, finishing 3rd overall with a time of 42:45. For the peawees, it was Silas Wiley taking first in 11:24, followed by Karl Nichols in 11:42 and Olivia Nichols in 12:49.

After the race, the perpetual pea was passed along from one member of the newlywed couple of Annamarie and Jeff Dietrichson to the other! Congratulations to them and thanks for helping with the signouts!

Up this weekend is the Run for Hops 5k &10k on Saturday at 7:30 a.m.  We hope to see many of you out there.  Then we head off to Oahu for The Hapalua.  I got free entry into this race by winning that Facebook contest back before the Honolulu Marathon and Jason was one of the 12 local men selected to run in the Chase. For those who haven't heard, 12 local men and 12 local women were chosen to start the race a little earlier (18 minutes for the ladies and 9 minutes for the men).  Their main goal is to be the first person to cross the finish line, ahead of current marathon champion Nicholas Chelimo and former champion Jimmy Muindi, who will be starting with the rest of the race participants.  Out of those 26 people, whoever crosses the finish line first wins $5,000. I really wish I wasn't running the race so I could watch it! It's guaranteed to be exciting.  Good luck to Jason, Bree Wee and Rani Tanimoto who are representing the Big Island in Honolulu!