Team Mango Captain Cook Challenge

Last Sunday marked the first appearance of the Big Island Running Company's triathlon relay team at Team Mango's Captain Cook Challenge.  The name is pretty accurate as this race was quite the challenge.  We had many people question why we chose this race for our first one, but it was all for fun.  Special thanks to Mercedes DeCarli, Shirley Pratt and the Kiser family for letting me use their photos from the day for this post! (Also, if you haven't checked it out, Mercedes wrote a great article for West Hawaii Today last Friday on the 5k Fun Run and I think is also writing this Friday's article on the Captain Cook Challenge.)

The morning started off early with a pre-race briefing by Carl "Gecko" Koomoa at Kealakekua Bay. 

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

About 30 of us got ready to tackle the crashing waves and swim from the side of the bay above to the Captain Cook Monument about 1 mile away on the other side of the bay.  It's pretty much at the end of the point in the picture below:

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

One of the hardest parts of the day was getting into the water. 

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

We had to climb over rocks, scoot in on our butts and try not to get wiped out by the incoming waves.  Luckily we all made it in and were off.  After the initial swells, the water wasn't too rough.  There wasn't much to see underwater, though, since the ocean is pretty deep where we were.  But there were a pod of dolphins playing in the bay that we swam over about halfway across. I saw about 5 dolphins swim right underneath me, which was certainly a highlight of the day.

At the end of the swim, we climbed up a ladder to get to the Captain Cook Monument where the volunteer team had set up a transition area with our run shoes and gear.

Photo by Shirley Pratt

I was one of the last people out of the water, so the transition area had cleared out quite a bit by the time I made it there.

Photo by Shirley Pratt

After throwing on run shoes and some clothes, it was up a treacherous trail to the top of Napoopoo Road.  The route is approximately 2 miles, with 1500 feet of climbing.  And the footing is very rocky and loose, so that ended up being more of a hike than a run unfortunately. (Although for mountain goats like Billy Barnett, it was no big deal and he ended up setting the trail run record in 15:45.)

Billy Barnett (Photo by the Kisers)

Photo by the Kisers

Photo by the Kisers

The picture below shows some of the trail, although not the steep portions, and a much better way to get to the top!

Photo by Shirley Pratt

After what seemed like forever I finally made it to the top and tagged off to Jason who took off on the bike. Yes, for those who may have seen him or the pictures, that was Jason on a bike! He did pretty well, too, for that being his first time on a bike in 2012.

Photo by Mercedes DeCarli

Photo by the Kisers

The bike course was 1 loop, from the top of Napoopoo Road south on the highway to the 160 junction to Honaunau, then north to Kealekua Bay, all the way up Napoopoo Road again to the top.  Then it was 3/4 of that loop again, stopping at Kealekeua Bay at the bottom of the hill.

Kym Kiser going up the hill (Photo by the Kisers)

Harry Yoshida (Photo by the Kisers)

The final transition area was back at Kealekekua Bay, as we headed back out on another run 2 miles south along the beach road and back. By the time we hit this part of the event, it was about 10 a.m., so the run was pretty toasty.  But there was a great aid station with icy cold water bottles at the turnaround.   

Winner Tai Scarbrough (Photo by Mercedes DeCarli)

Women's Winner Sylvia Ravaglia (Photo by Mercedes DeCarli)

Both Jason and I completed the last run portion, so we actually ended up with two relay teams.  Guess which one won. :) I started my run when Jason came into transition and Jason did his transition and some sort of crazy loser lap in his bike shoes before starting his run.  He caught me about 1 mile into the run.

Jason coming into the finish (Photo by Mercedes DeCarli)

Just a few minutes behind him! (Photo by Mercedes DeCarli)

We did pretty good for our first event (although I may get fired from my swimming leg unless I can get a little faster!)  Our total time was 3:15:31 for Jason (41:10 for the swim/transition; 27:42 for the trail run; 1:38:19 for the bike; 3:28 for the bike/run transition; and 24:52 for the last run) and 3:19:50 for me (all the same splits except 29:11 for the last run).

Sal Salmi finishing the run (Photo by Mercedes DeCarli)

One of the Run Aloha ladies, Shirley Pratt (Photo by Mercedes DeCarli)

The other Run Aloha lady, Becky Prater (Photo by Mercedes DeCarli)

Results for the individuals are here.  Relay results aren't included on that link, but the combo of Tai Scarbrough and Rob Van Geen finished in first place.  Jason running in our relay was second and my run from our relay was third.  Chris Prater and Kevin Prater combined to come in next followed by Dave and Shirley Pratt and then the Chris/Kevin/Becky Prater team.

All in all it was a great day, a beautiful and challenging course, and a fun way to do something different. Who knows whether we'll do another triathlon relay, but it was a great first experience.  Also, congrats to everyone who completed that course solo.  That is one tough race!

And as always, thanks to the volunteers who carried our gear around the course, set up aid stations for us, kept track of the timing and always gave us a smile and a cheer!

Please note there is no Peaman race this weekend (some calendars incorrectly have it on this Sunday).  The next Peaman is on Mother's Day, May 13.  It will be a 3/4 mile swim and 3.1 mile run.