CarboMan 10-Mile Mosey, Dragon 3.5 Mile Dash and 1-mile Golden Fox Gallop

Yesterday was another great Peaman event at Kailua Pier and for once the weather wasn't beautiful! But the cloudy, overcast skies provided perfect running conditions for the 10 mile, 3.5 mile and 1 mile runs - no swimming this time around. We really lucked out because a sunny day could have really cooked everyone.

As usual the turn-out was great. Logistically, things were a little more difficult since there was a bonus cruise ship in town. We probably got in their way and I'm pretty sure people had to run over some cruisers to get to the finish line. But everyone made it work.

Since Jason is running the Country Music Marathon next weekend in Nashville, he sat this race out, but took lots of great pictures. In addition to the ones I've included here, you can check out the entire album here.

For the 1-mile distance, runners went from the pier to Bubba Gump's and back. The top five finishers were Ziggy Bartholomy (6:05), Silas Wiley (7:54), Tim Wiley (8:11), Halle Nottage (9:18), Jamie Yap (9:27). I think some of these youngster's parents must have told them not to run on the road. Because a lot of came towards the finish line on the sea wall, like this:

Once the 1-milers finished, the 3.5 milers started coming in. Their route took them down Alii Drive to the Royal Sea Cliff and back. Warren Hollinger finished first in 27:02, with Jeff Dietrichson (28:15) and Mike Schiff (28:34) following behind for the men. For the women, it was Lisa Bryant leading the way in 29:40, followed by Lori Montgomery in 30:41 and Laverne Curry in 30:46.

3.5 milers near the finish.

The 10-mile race went all the way down Alii Drive to Keauhou, near the Keauhou Beach Resort. At the turnaround, there was a nicely stocked aid station with water, gatorade and gels. In hindsight, I'm glad I grabbed some water, but wish I would have grabbed another gel!

One of the nice things about the out-and-back course was that once people starting coming back the other way, there was always someone to cheer for or yell hello to. It started with Luis De La Torre, the men's winner, and was followed by Justin Butler, Rani Tanimoto, the women's winner, Jeremy Moore, Ray Whitford, Korey Pulluiam, Sarah Higgins, Toni Reynolds, Michelle Whitford, Bobbi Reif-Acheson, Eddie O, Jason Heady, Keola Wimbish and many more. It was great to see so many people out there participating and to realize how many of them we are getting to know! It gave me a little boost in what was otherwise a pretty painful race, so thanks!

Overall Winner Luis De La Torre

Women's Winner Rani Tanimoto

Eddie O

Keola Wimbish beating his goal time by nearly 13 minutes!

Congratulations to all race finishers of every distance! Full results on the races are here. And as always, thanks to Peaman and all the volunteers for another awesome event! Up next is Polar Bear's Pinto Bean and Pinata Biathlon on May 2. That event is only for the keiki and men 20 and over. But women, don't worry - we get our chance the next weekend with Bree Wee's Chickpea Biathlon on May 9, open to keiki and women 20 and over.

Macadamia Nut Pancakes and Mountain Climbs

This past weekend was a busy one for us, even though the store was closed on Sunday for Easter. I had signed up for the Mac-A-Thon 10K on Saturday morning and Jason had to handle the first run for our half marathon training program.

The Mac-A-Thon is the Big Island's longest running race, in its 29th year. The 10K and 5K courses start at the City of Refuge in Honaunau and go north almost to Kealekekua Bay. A rolling course that turned out to be quite a bit more challenging than I expected. Of course I had been warned ahead of time that the course was tough and that I'd be wishing I ran the 5K instead of the 10K. But the big draw is the macadamia nut pancakes after the race, so I figured I should push through the 10K.

Before the race, I saw a couple of familiar faces: Jolene, Rich and Ryan Mears, Choy Bacor, Steve Pavao, DJ Blinn, and Marie Kuramoto from Hilo and Joe Loschiavo. After a pre-race blessing, we were off. There was a slight hill at the beginning, but once you crested it, the whole course was in front of you. At that point I could see Rani Tanimoto in the lead, followed by a chase pack of 4 guys. On the way out, I kept up a pretty good pace. The way back, however, was a different story. You could see forever and nothing seemed to be getting any closer. I'd climb one hill only to see 4 more in front of me! I thought the 5K turnaround would never get there and I knew I still had about 1.5 miles to go after that! When I finally made it to that turnaround point, I was pretty happy and able to pick it up a little bit for the last mile. Luckily, the last .3 miles or so were all downhill. Even with my slower pace on the back half, I still managed to finish in second place for the women - only a mere 12 minutes behind Rani who won the overall race. Apparently, this is the 12th time in a row she's won the women's race. Very impressive on a tough course!

I forgot my camera again, so here are a couple of pictures from Marie Kuramoto. The first is a picture of the women's 10K top three and the second is the Hilo crew. They all finished either first or second in their respective age groups! Full results are here.



After the race, we had the macadamia nut pancakes as promised and they did not disappoint! They were huge and delicious. There was also a bake sale, farmer's market, silent auction and raffle. Mahalo to the Keoua Honaunau Canoe Club for a great event!

Meanwhile, Jason was busy running with 15-20 of our half marathon training participants. For their first run, the various groups were going anywhere from between 2 and 6 miles. Everyone did really well and seem to be looking forward to the training. And we're still getting interest in the program from new participants everyday. We're really looking forward to watching all these groups progress.

Sunday was a rare day off for us, since we closed down the store for Easter. Since we're open 7 days a week, we don't get as much time to explore the island as we'd like. But we took advantage of that opportunity on Sunday and headed up to Waipio Valley to do some hiking (and a little offroading, too). It's still amazing to me how you can drive an hour or two on this island and be in a completely different climate area. We left sunny, 80 degree Kona to head to rainy, 60 degree Waimea and Waipio Valley.

Even through the misty rain, the views were amazing.


We rode up in Jason's truck, so we were able to drive down to the beach area (4WD required). As we headed down, we took one road that led into the valley. After a bit, we encountered a creek and Jason got ready for a creek crossing by testing out the depth of the water.

It looked passable, so the FJ powered on through. We passed through two more creek crossings until we encountered the rushing river below.

A friendly local advised us not to cross that one. But as we pulled up, a pickup following behind got ready to cross through (to get to a party at someone's house on the other side! I can't imagine having to cross rivers to get to my house!). I didn't manage to get any pictures of them crossing, but they made it, with a couple of anxious seconds. After watching that, we decided we weren't going to risk it and headed back towards the beach.

When we got down to the beach, the sun broke through for a little bit and I managed to get a picture with some blue skies.

Jason still had to do his medium long run for the day, and thought there would be a good trail to do it on the other side of the valley. In order to get there, though, we had to cross through the same river that we didn't cross in the truck. We loaded up our packs and picked our way through the rocks and surf very carefully. It was a long process, but we managed to make it without incident. We thought there had to be an easier way to do it coming back, though.

After the river crossing, we took a good look at the trail Jason wanted to run. Yes, it's that switchback trail up the side of the cliff.
Jason loaded up his FuelBelt and took off. Meanwhile, I started climbing at a much slower pace. I couldn't believe how steep it was and how difficult! I made it up probably about a mile before I caught Jason coming down the other way. Apparently he had made it to the top, but things were too wet to continue safely on. Instead we took some pictures and picked our way down. I think I went even slower that way than on the way up! The picture below shows about how high we climbed and shows the road we took down in the truck.

Once we made it to the bottom, we thought all the danger was over. The only thing left was to cross the river that we had already crossed once, hopefully in an easier location. We picked a spot that was a little further upriver before the really bad rocks. Jason started in, with me not too far behind him. In the middle of the river, the rain started pounding. Before too long we realized that this was definitely not the best place to cross, since the water was fast-moving and over Jason's head. He got swept downriver with the backpack over his head, for the most part. Unfortunately, I was too close behind him or too stupid to turn around because right after he went down, I went down, too. With the camera bag and car keys! My flip flops flew off, my water bottle went flying and I really thought I was going to be swept out into the ocean. But we were both able to grab onto some rocks. Jason pulled himself out first and then came back to grab the camera bag from me. We were both then able to crawl out over the rocks. Miraculously, we only had some minor scrapes and bruises and only lost my two flip flops and one of Jason's. My cell phone, which was in the backpack, survived after some drying out, as did my camera and all of my lenses. And as you can see, the photos I took that day still came out, too.

So that was our great adventure of the weekend. We made it home and definitely slept soundly that night. I think it'll be awhile before we're looking for another adventure like that!

2010 Lavaman Triathlon!

There's no rest for the weary - at least if you're Jason. After his second-place finish in the Hilo Marathon last weekend, he only had one week to recover before he ran the run leg of a relay team for the Lavaman Triathlon.
The Lavaman Triathlon is held in March every year in Waikoloa and is the start of triathlon season here on the Big Island. Over 1000 participants tackle a 1.5K (.9 mile) swim in Anaeho'omalu Bay, 40K (24.8 mile) bike ride on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway, and finally a 10K (6.2 mile) run over lava fields and around the Waikoloa resort grounds. The field included several pro triathletes, including 2009 Lavaman Winners Chris McCormack and Kona's own Bree Wee, but it was also made up of many Team in Training groups and a large contingent from Alaska.

Jason's relay team, Chain Reaction, was composed of some of those Alaska athletes. David Valdes, a former Kona resident now living in Alaska, convinced Jamie Stull (owner of the Alaska bike shop Chain Reaction) to travel down to Kona for the race. David did the swim, Jamie the bike and Jason the run. They were up against some stiff competition in the Bike Works team composed of high school superstar swimmer Nick Garrett, Bike Works owner Grant Miller, and local runner and coach Eric Neilsen.

Jason and David before the race

One of the relay teams also included tennis superstar Martina Navratilova. She completed the bike portion for Team Navratrilavas. Before the race, I got a quick picture of her from afar. See if you can pick her out - she's in the black shirt and white cap right in the middle of the photo.

Ok, so it's not my best photo ever, but it really is her. Unfortunately, that was all I saw of her all day.

The swim started in several wave starts. The first group to start was the pros and the relay teams, followed a few minutes later by the men 15-39, men 40+, women 15-39, and women 40+.

Swimmers get ready for the start.

And they're off! Pro/relay start at Lavaman.

First out of the water was pro John Flanagan with a swim time of 17:16 (incredible!).

Jason had heard a little bit about his relay teammates before the race, but had never seen either of them in action. So we really had no good idea of when I'd see David leave the water. I was taken a little by surprise when the next group of swimmers out of the water were Nick Garrett, followed closely by Chris McCormack, with David right on his heels! Luckily I recovered quickly and snapped a couple of action shots. That group came out of the water right around 18 minutes - also blazing fast!

Nick Garrett

Chris McCormack and David Valdes

David Valdes

I stuck around the swim transition a little longer and got some pictures of more local athletes before heading over to the bike area to check on Team Chain Reaction.

Bree Wee

Luis De la Torre

Jason was getting warmed up so he'd be ready to go whenever Jamie showed up. Meanwhile, I chatted with Ray Whitford of the Big Island Honda Crew (Mark Curry - swim, Keola Wimbish - bike, and Ray - run) and watched tons of people make their way in from the swim and out on to the bike course. After a little while, they announced that Chris McCormack was in the lead and making his way back to the transition area. If you look closely at the picture below, you can pick out the lead motorcycle and Chris behind it.

A couple more pros started coming in, followed by Luis De La Torre, with Jamie right on his heels. Another fantastic leg for Chain Reaction, with a bike time of 1:02.

Jaime Stull

Swapping chips for the relay

After Jason got the chip from Jamie, he was off on the run. I waited a little bit longer to check on the progress of the Bike Works relay, which came into the transition about 4 minutes after Chain Reaction. Once I saw that, I headed to the finish line to catch the pro finish.

As you can see, the run ended with a beautiful, but brutal, stretch along the beach. Although from what I hear, the rest of the run over lava isn't much easier. Chris McCormack managed to hold on to his lead and was the 2010 Lavaman champion. He was followed thirty seconds later by Tyler Butterfield. Here are some photos of the top finishers:

Chris McCormack

Tyler Butterfield

Timothy Marr

John Flanagan

Luis De La Torre

Pretty soon, I started expecting Jason. He was planning around 36 minutes for his run. When it got to 37 minutes, I started wondering where he was. About that time, he finally appeared and finished his run with a time of 38:18.

I left my post at the finish line to find Jason and hear what happend. Once I found him, the first thing I heard was "I ran off the course." Apparently, he came to an unmarked fork in the lava and made a wrong turn. After he ran down that path for about a minute it ended, so he ran back and took the other turn, costing him a couple of minutes. Luckily it didn't cost the team, since Jamie had built up such a great lead on the bike. Congrats to Chain Reaction!

Congrats to all of the participants and thanks to all of the volunteers! It was a first-class event and another great way to spend a Sunday. Here are some more finish pictures of some of our customers and friends. (Sorry if we missed you, I had to scoot to get back and open up the store!)

Rani Tanimoto

Korey Pulluiam of Big Island Honda - his first Lavaman!

John Simmerman

Ray Whitford - Big Island Honda Relay

Bobbi Reif-Acheson

Lesley Cens-McDowell

Jon Kunitake

Hilo Marathon Recap Part II - Expo and Race!

Saturday

Saturday morning of race weekend started off calmly enough. After a brief run for Jason and Erica, we drove the back half of the marathon course and grabbed some breakfast at Ken's House of Pancakes. We filled up on pancakes because we figured we might not get a chance to eat lunch. It's a good thing we did, because about the only thing I managed to eat between breakfast and dinner was some pretzels around 5 p.m.

The doors to the expo opened up for set-up at 11 a.m. and the expo was supposed to begin at noon. Unfortunately, the hotel front desk started telling people the expo started at 11, so people started coming through pretty early. We only had a little over an hour to set everything up and it was quite an undertaking. Jason took care of the computer and cash register, I tried to set up shoes, Jason's dad brought loads and loads in from the van, while his sister and mom set up the apparel and everything else that we brought.

Even with all the help, we still didn't have everything set up by noon. And little did we know that everyone would decide to come to the expo between noon and one and our booth was right next to the door where everyone stopped first.

So the first hour of the expo is a complete blur in my mind. We were still throwing things on the table for people to buy; the credit card processing wasn't working, so Jason's dad and I started taking cash and trying to keep track of what people bought; Erica tried to help people with shoes. It was completely chaotic. But thankfully everyone was very patient with us - people are always in such an understanding mood in Hawaii! :)

After the first hour, things slowed down a little bit and we had some time to catch our breath, but we were still busy all throughout the day. People seemed to really like the "Run Big" and Big Island Running Company shirts and hats.

Others needed to stock up on their nutritional products or get a FuelBelt for the race. We started packing up a little before six and were able to have the van completely packed by 6:55. By then we were all exhausted (and stinky) and ready to put our feet up for awhile before grabbing another pre-race pasta dinner.

Overall, the expo was a great experience. We learned a lot and hopefully will be a little more efficient if we get the chance to do it again next year.

Sunday

Race morning started nice and early. Since the course started outside of town, we had to leave around 5:15 a.m. to drive to the start. Jason's parents dropped us off and snapped some pictures of the starting area, before beginning their ride around the course.

As you can see, the race started in the dark, so those glimmers of light in the last photo are all the reflective gear on the runners! The sun started coming up shortly after the start, so we didn't have to run too long in the dark. And after all our worries about the weather, the morning was perfect for running! A little overcast, cool and no rain early in the day, although there were some showers about two hours into the race.

As I mentioned yesterday, the first 8 miles were beautiful and hilly. Since I was running just a *tad* bit slower than Jason, I didn't get to see much of his race, so anything I can include here I heard from others. Apparently eventual marathon winner Billy Barnett got off to a really fast start during those hilly miles. Jason tried to stay controlled on the hills and save up some energy for the flat portions through Hilo, so he didn't see Billy for a long time. But he did run a good portion of the race with third-place finisher Andrew Taylor.

Cemetery around mile 8

I was quite a bit further back running my own race and trying to enjoy the scenery, which is a lot harder than it sounds. At one point I noticed that the guy in front of me had turned his head towards the ocean and I had to remind myself to look around then, too. As far as my time, I realized that the first portion of the course would be very inconsistent as far as times went. And it was true - my splits in those miles ranged from 7:20 to 9:00. But once we got out of the major hilly sections, I was able to hold onto a pretty consistent pace. I think this was where all my training really paid off. This was the first time I've run a half marathon where my times didn't completely die towards the end.

The course crosses past the finish line around mile 11 and then heads out on Banyan Drive for a loop before heading back to the finish again. The picture above was taken on my first pass through the finish area. I'm glad I knew about the last loop because it would take quite a toll on you if you weren't expecting it! Even knowing about it, the last half mile stretched on forever. As I was heading into the finish, I knew that I was a bit slower than I was hoping for, but also still in a good PR range, so I wasn't paying too much attention to my actual time. However, as I got closer, I saw that the clock was rapidly approaching 1:46 and a sprint just might get me under it. Unfortunately I made that decision about 2 seconds too late and ended up finishing at 1:46:01 - a little frustrating, but still a PR by almost two minutes. In the end I was very happy with my performance.

Then it was time to wait for Jason to come through the finish. Jason's parents were there at the finish line when I crossed, but then Jason's dad and Erica headed back out on the course to watch the end of his race. Unfortunately they took off before I could really talk to them, so I had no good idea of how his race was shaking out. At one point, Billy was about 4 minutes up on Jason, but eventually began slowing down. Jason stayed strong through about mile 20, including holding off a surge by Andrew Taylor, but said the pounding on his legs from the early hills began to take its toll. His last few miles were also a little slower than the early miles, but he was still gaining on Billy.

I camped out about 1/2 mile from the finish, not knowing who was going to be first one coming through. Some of the half marathoners were still finishing, so I had to keep my eyes peeled for someone passing those runners. Eventually I saw Billy coming over the hill by the Suisan bridge. Jason followed a little way behind him. I hurried back to the finish line and saw Billy cross in 2:50:20. Jason had made up some time and came in at 2:51:29, still looking pretty good:

Jason and Billy talking to Randee Joseph

Jason and Erica post-race

After Jason got some fluids and finished an interview with the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, it was time for the half marathon awards ceremony. I finished second in my age group and got to go up on the podium!

After the half marathon awards, we all got showers and headed to Ken's House of Pancakes (again) before the marathon awards. After a delicious breakfast, we headed back to the finish area to watch some of the later finishers come in. We got some great pictures of Jason's mom with Team B*tch (or the men in pink skirts) and of Marie Kuramoto finishing with her grandchildren.

In the women's race, Reka Batai of Hungary finished in first place in a time of 2:53:13, breaking the old course record. Yoko Yamazawa of Japan finished second with a time of 3:18:01 and Akemi Ueda of Honolulu was third in 3:23:06.

And for the men, Billy Barnett was first in 2:50:20, Jason second at 2:51:29 and Andrew Taylor of Honolulu was third in 2:52:49. Full results from all races are available here.

All in all, it was a fantastic race. The crowd support and volunteers were amazing. All of the activities ran smoothly and everyone had a great time. Mahalo again to Wayne Joseph, the Braswells, and all the volunteers who made this such a wonderful race!