Chasing the Lottery 5k Guest Recap

Thanks to John Ferdico for summarizing this year's Chasing the Lottery 5k:

This year the folks at Ironman decided to start the annual Big Island lottery drawing with a friendly little race, so last Saturday was the debut of the Chasing the Lottery 5K. Ironman recruited help from Dana and Jeff Strang of iWorkouts and Melissa and Jason Braswell of Big Island Running Company. They even convinced Jason to run in costume: he would get a thirty-second head start, and any runner who could catch him would win a prize. Since you can never have too many Ironman bags or water bottles, I figured I would join the fray.

Now, few people around here can beat Jason in a 5K even without giving him a head start, so I hoped this costume would be heavy, hot, and constricting. If it made him look utterly foolish, all the better.

The race began at the King Kamehameha Hotel amidst the cheerful chaos of the Kamehameha Regatta next door. It was a fine morning for racing, both on land and water.

Jason appeared in his costume, a white satin cape emblazoned with the Ironman M-dot logo. Contrary to my hopes he looked rather posh, and not at all slow.

Lottery Rabbit Jason

As he raced off on his 30-second head start, it appeared the cape might actually provide additional speed. Or maybe everyone just looks faster with a cape flowing behind them. In any case, he made the first turn and was completely out of sight when we were finally allowed to pursue.

Two Big Island Running Company training group regulars, James Resor and Brian Pruitt, darted off after their friend and rival. Fresh off a top-100 finish at Ironman Honu last week, Mike DeCarli tucked in behind them, and me behind Mike.

Emerging onto Kuakini after a series of twists and turns, an odd sight spread out before me: in the distance, three large, shirtless men chasing a guy in a flowing white cape. Only in Kona.

Out to the Old Airport, around the loop, and back again. Mike and I kept a 6:20 pace for the first two miles. Still, Jason appeared no closer than he had after the first turn. Clearly, there would be no bottles or bags for us.

Brian, on the other hand, caught Jason around mile two, with James was only a few seconds from doing the same. At that point, Jason tipped his cap to Brian, and settled into a race with James.

Overall Winner Brian Pruitt

It seemed Mike conceded we had little chance of catching the leaders, and let off the gas pedal just a little. Feeling like a sub-twenty minute finish was still a possibility, I held pace and soon glided past Mike. It was exhilarating. And then terrifying. I was in unfamiliar territory, and few have made a move on Mike DeCarli and held on to boast about it.

I would not be one of the few. It was like running in a nightmare, except it wasn't my imagination: I was indeed being chased. Returning to the twists and turns that signaled the last 500 meters of the race, I heard what a cavalry charge must sound like. That one man can evoke a hundred thundering battle horses is a testament to the ferocity of Mike DeCarli. He darted past, legs a blur. While humbling, I could not help but enjoy the sheer majesty of it.

Jason, in his dandy outfit, would also be humbled at the finish. James passed him to join Brian as the only two runners to beat the caped Ironman rabbit.   Now, there are rumors that Jason suffered a mysterious cramp just moments before finishing, hobbling as he relinquished his lead to James, then recovering miraculously. While I didn't see the finish, being a minute behind with troubles of my own, I am certain that the humiliation of running around town in a silly cape took a staggering toll on Jason's physical and emotional reserves.

James outsprinting the lottery rabbit to the finish

James won fair and square, and he would be rewarded for a great run. Perhaps Ironman didn't have any drawstring bags or water bottles handy, because they soon announced that Brian and James had each won a complimentary entry to the 2015 Ironman 70.3 Hawaii. They are bound for Honu. Jason and James can settle the controversy in a 70.3 mile rematch. Brian will have to learn to swim.

There were prizes for Mike and I, and for the first two female finishers as well. The Strangs donated a great iWorkouts package including a fitness evaluation, personal training session and yoga class. Wow! One went to DeCarli and another to the first female finisher, Susannah Roy. As if Mike can get any fitter.

Eve- Marie Quinton, the second female finisher, won a gift bag from the Big Island Running Company which included a running shirt, trucker hat, and water bottle. How do I know? Two reasons: the day before, Melissa called me at the store and asked me to put the gift bags together, and I won one too. Had I known, I would have thrown a few more really expensive things in there.

Honorable mention to young Cody Ranfranz. While Jason, Brian, James and I skipped Big Island Running Company's scheduled 6:30AM group run to save our legs for the race, Cody showed up and logged 6 or 7 miles, THEN ran down to the start line and raced the 5K. And still finished right behind me, 6th overall.

Cody Ranfranz

In all, 46 runners crossed the line, if you count William Mullahey, age one-and-a-half, who left the tough work to mom, Mary, before disembarking the stroller to cross the finish line in raised-arm glory. Results from the 5k are available here.

Youngest finisher William Mullahey

Then, the real winners were crowned. Following a delicious post-race buffet of breakfast burritos and malasadas, the local directors of Honu had the privilege of announcing the names of 24 Big Islanders who were chosen to participate in the 2014 Ironman World Championships.

2014 Lottery Winner Daniel Piccutta

2014 Lottery Winner Anita Leao

Happy Winner!

Congratulations to all the Kona athletes heading to the big stage in October, and to all the participants of the 5K race. It was racing with Aloha at its finest. Thanks to Ironman, iWorkouts, and Big Island Running Company for hosting a wonderful inaugural race. When word gets out about what you might win if you beat the caped Ironman, next year's Chasing the Lotttery 5K is sure to be the biggest race in town.

Ironman Recap!

Well, Ironman has come and gone and Kona is finally back to normal.  It's amazing how quickly everyone clears out.  It's also amazing how many people pack into Kona for the week of Ironman and how crazy the atmosphere is.  We're lucky enough to be involved in the industry and to see a big sales boost from the event, but that also means we personally get wiped out! So although I took many pictures over the course of the week, I didn't really get a chance to share them until way after the event. And here is my quick rundown of some of the events that went on during that crazy time, with links to results where available!

On the Saturday before the race, there were two swim events on the Kona side.  The ever-popular Kukio Blue Water Swim took place north of town, while Ironman debuted the Ho'ala 2.4 mile swim race on the Ironman course.  Unfortunately we didn't get to participate or attend either event, but you can find the results from the Kukio Blue Water Swim here and the results from the Ho'ala swim here.

The next morning was the annual PATH 5k/10k Run/Walk on Alii Drive.  After helping at registration in the morning, I was able to get a few photos before heading off to work.  Full results from the 5k are available here. 10k results are available here.

Some notable finishers were Luis De La Torre, the first Big Island runner in the 10k:

Bree Wee - first female Big Island finisher:

Rani Tanimoto pushing Cole:

Big Island Running Company employee Maggie McCleery:

Cary Aurand winning an age group award in the 5K:

And Brian Pruitt taking home his age group award as well:

We also managed to snap a couple of photos of the Big Island Ironman athletes before their race:

The next exciting event of the week was the Underpants Run on Thursday morning.  Our special limited edition Run Big undies made quite the appearance!

Along with plenty of other crazy sights!

Finally Saturday morning arrived, nice and clear.  We watched the swim start from behind Kona Inn:

Then it was off to breakfast before catching a little bit of the bike course:

Kristina Sawaya

Cowman

While all the athletes headed out to Hawi, we opened the store for all their supporters back in town. Later in the day, we had the chance to head out to Alii Drive and see some of our local athletes out on the run course:

Mike DeCarli

Sam Brown

Jim Moore

Not a local, but we saw Hines Ward

Jason Heady

Chitwin San Tun with the best photo of the day!

From there we actually had work to do on the run course, so didn't get to see many people cross the finish line.  Although we were able to catch up with some of them on the Queen K, including following some of the last finishers.  But all of our local athletes finished and did great!  Results from the race are available at ironmanlive.com.

It was a fun experience as usual, but we're glad to be getting back to normal!

Honu Wrap-up

Although Honu (Ironman 70.3 Hawaii) was over a week ago now, there are still several things to wrap up about it! From the expo to the race to the Big Island lottery reveal, there's been a lot going on in the past week.

Our experience this year started early in the week, with our first year experiencing the Honu expo.  We partnered with Newton and created some great Run Big/Newton shirts. We still have some of these limited edition shirts available, so make sure to snatch one up now before they're gone!

(As a side note, John and Jason have been working on a fantastic pro-level photo studio in a corner of our backroom so we can take impressive photo pictures like the ones above).

Friday of race week was especially busy with the expo, Jason's pre-race meetings and gear check-ins, and an open store on Alii Drive. But we tried to get things wrapped up as early as possible so we could be ready for the early wake-up on Saturday morning - race morning.

It was a nice, clear morning, perfect for some swim, bike, run. The pros started off at 6:50, followed by the men at 6:53 and the women at 7:00 a.m.

Even with the split start times, apparently the swim was very congested.  I guess that's what happens when you try to cram 2,000 people into the water at Hapuna Beach!

Jason had a pretty good swim and came out of the water right around the people we expected him to.  And he made sure to showcase his Run Big tri top as he took off his swim skin. (Thanks to Jenny Argo for capturing that moment!)

After watching most of the swim and seeing everyone heading out on their bikes, we drove back from Hapuna to the Mauna Lani.  We did a little exploring of the finish line area, but headed back out on to the course to see the action.  We saw the first few bikes come into transition, including eventual race winner Craig Alexander (below).

Instead of waiting for Jason to come in on the bike, we headed out to mile 1/mile 8 of the run.  This turned out to be a perfect location because we could see everyone twice. And we didn't have a bad view, either:

After a good swim and a good bike, things didn't go so well for Jason on the run.  Conditions were hot out there and everyone seemed to melting.  But we watched him come past us both times and then headed for the finish line.  We were there when he crossed the finish line for a time of 5:29:11 (the clock was set to the time the pros started, so deduct three minutes from the time below).  Not quite the time he was hoping for, but still great for his first triathlon.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day:

Sam Corace trying to stay cool with an abundance of sponges and water bottles.

Kawika Singson representing in his Run Big hat and kit.

Mercedes DeCarli looking strong on the run (and she just graduated high school the week before the race!)

Orlando Rodriguez taking the time to clown around with us a bit on the course.

More pictures from the race are available here. Results from the race are available here. 

The week after the race was spent recovering and wondering what the next step was for a lot of Big Island residents.  Each year, the Ironman World Championship allots 24 slots to Big Island residents who complete Honu.  The slots are awarded through a lottery, which isn't revealed until the Saturday after the race. This year there were approximately 50 people (including Jason) trying for the 24 slots. At the reveal party, these are a few of the people who received entries to the World Championship in October:

Mike DeCarli

Kristin Drost

Keoni Smith

Dan Gampon

Jim Moore

Kevin Prater

Chitwin San Tun

Kristina Sawaya

The full list is available here.  Jason did not get in, so we'll have to stay tuned to see where his triathlon career leads (if anywhere).  But we're definitely looking forward to training with and cheering on all of our friends who did get in!

Surviving Ironman

Well, here it is almost November and we're just now posting a recap of the craziness that was Ironman.  And embarrassingly this is our first post since August.  Needless to say, Ironman took a lot of time and energy from us.  But it was a fantastic success with some really great moments.  Here's a sample of some of the photos we took over the course of Ironman week.

Bree, Kawika and I modeling Run Big tighty whities for the Underpants Run.

Underwear made out of KT Tape!

Start of the underwear run

Even though she wasn't racing, Chrissie Wellington was still in town and spent some time at the Cannondale tent by the store.

Andy Potts - in the lead after the swim

Amanda Stevens - women's leader after the swim.

Local triathlete Bryan Sawaya finishing the swim well within the cut off time after swimming entirely breaststroke!

Pro Fluids Aid Station

Men's Winner Pete Jacobs with only 2 miles to go

Women's Champion Leanda Cave after taking the lead with 2 miles to go

John Simmerman on the run

Garrett Oka running strong past Humpy's.

Although we didn't make it to the finish line at night, it was great to see so many local triathletes during the course of the race.  Congratulations to all of them on a great job! Also, special thanks to John Ferdico, Alexandra Herd, and Erica and Ryan Speegle for putting in a lot of long hours and hard work over the course of the week to keep the store running and the sales coming.  And thanks to a great crew of volunteers who helped make the Pro Fluids aid stations a success for the second year in a row.

Now the town has quieted down and it's time to get back to normal.  But I'm sure it will be October and Ironman time again before we know it!