One of my favorite things about our always full calendar of swimming, cycling, running and multisport events is watching our local athletes use the smaller, weekly pea-vents to prepare for the more official, bigger ones. Since 2012 began, it’s been fun to see our regulars and newbies prepare for the 15th annual Lavaman Waikoloa Triathlon.
One of my favorite things about our always full calendar of swimming, cycling, running and multisport events is watching our local athletes use the smaller, weekly pea-vents to prepare for the more official, bigger ones. Since 2012 began, it’s been fun to see our regulars and newbies prepare for the 15th annual Lavaman Waikoloa Triathlon.
The big race on April 1 will be the grand finale of the Lavaman weekend that includes the Sunset 5K on Friday and the always fun Lavakids Beach Dash, Aquathon and Triathlon on Saturday morning.
In January, I noticed a lot of our athletes shaking the cobwebs off at our Peaman Splish-Splash and Superbowl Shuffle Biathlon. Then in February it was a trio of Team Mango Triathlons and our Terrific Turtle Trudge, Dragon Dash and Golden Fox Gallop.
I’ve been able to share the stories of each of these events except for the Team Mango Sprint Triathlon that took place back on Feb. 26. The short distances of the sprint tri attracted many first- time triathletes including Cindy Wild, Shauna Flores, Gabriella Hurtado, Jenny Payne and peawees Audry Nixon and Jackie Payne. All six finished the 400-yard swim, 14-mile bike ride and 2-mile run.
Wild led the way with a 36th-place time of 1:26:09. Flores followed in 39th at 1:36:28. Hurtado clocked in at 1:36:54 for 40th place. Jenny Payne crossed the line next in 41st with her time of 1:54:39. It will be fun to see if the ladies race as individuals or relay teams at the Lavaman.
Our peawees, Audry and Jackie, who placed 44th and 45th in the Mango Sprint with times of 2:01:00 and 2:01:24 will most likely race with the other Lavakids the day before the big event.
Top finishers at the Sprint were Thomas Vonach in 54:07 for the guys and Kym Kiser at 1:05:59 for the gals. Chasing Vonach were Kris Kiser in 1:00:11, Mike DeCarli at 1:01:27, Jeremy Withrow in 1:03:10 and Tim Robinson at 1:03:19.
Kym’s closest pursuers were Gretchen Rose-Wolf at 1:09:50 and Susan Nixon in 1:13:45.
Susan, the Lavakids race director, will be on this weekend’s Emily T. Gail radio show talking about the upcoming race and all of the great stuff going on during the Lavaman extravaganza.
In the relay race, Bella Zambvana teamed up with Vonach to take the title in 54:58. Next in was Doug Leopold who cycled and ran off DeCarli’s swim to take 2nd in 1:00:50. The bronze went to the finned team of Doug (finned swim and bike) and Shirley Pratt (run). Their combined efforts gave them a time of 1:07:09.
I’m still working on getting the details of the Honolulu Marathon Association’s new Hapalua Half-Marathon. Both Jason Braswell and Rani Tanimoto ran in the competitive event. I’m also doing my best to get the results from Saturday’s Big Island Cycling Club’s time trial.
I do know that Penn Henderson, our fastest Big Island cyclist, recorded the quickest time over the 12.2-mile course and I look forward to sharing the rest of the race details as soon as possible.
Last weekend’s other highlight event was the 15th Big Island Marathon over on the Hilo side. Curtis Huffman easily outran the field to finish in 2:39:31. Second-place finisher Andrew Taylor followed a full 15 minutes back. Our top Big Island finisher was Waikoloa’s Jason Thorp with an 11th-place time of 3:17:09.
The women’s crown on the 26.2-mile course went to Mai Fujisawa from Japan. She clocked in at 3:07:25. Runner-up Yuki Masuo finished well back in 3:32. Kailua-Kona’s Elda Carreon led our Big Island ladies with a 3rd-place time of 3:36:53. Volcano’s Martha Caproni and Hilo’s Shalila De Bourmount rounded out the rest of the women’s top five. Complete results from Sunday’s race can be found at westhawaiitoday.com.
The Lavaman prep will continue Sunday with the Queen K Tri Club’s free 10K run at 7 a.m. The race, open to all runners, will start next to the pavilion at the Old Kona Airport Park.