Solid day

Yesterday I had the first race of the season in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. It was the 11th annual Lavaman triathlon and was one of the first triathlons I ever won!
This race has grown from a small local race with 300 athletes to 800 plus this year. It is a beautiful race held up north on the hilton wikola grounds and attracts a quality field of Hawaii's best (Tim Marr, John Flanagan, Bree Wee, Luis D, McCarey) along with strong a Canadian squad with the presence of the Lifesport team.

I had the pleasure of being racked near superstar Bree Wee from Kona, and Tim Marr from Honolulu. Both dominate the Hawaii race scene. Bree just returned from a training camp down in Australia with a bunch of gals from Lifesport and was looking really good and her results showed the form she is in.

The swim was solid, but not fast at all as I sat on Tim's feet and he sat on Jessica Kirkwood's feet. Tim and I were very lazy and this really stood out on the result sheet as we were down by two minutes on John Flangan who had started in a wave five minutes behind us! Once on the bike Tim pushed the pace and I only managed to close the gap up some 5 miles out from the finish. It was the bike were we made up from our less then stellar swim time. Once on the run I started to pull away from Mr. Marr as he has been training for Ironman China which is in two weeks. I was the one with the faster leg turn over on race day and managed to open up a three minute gap and cruise home the last mile to take the win.

Huge thanks to Gerry Rott, Laura D, and Lindsay Cotter for putting on a great race! With all the problems they faced in the days leading up to the race, with ATA (official sponsor) and Aloha going under and numerous other issues, they sure turned problems into success yesterday. I am very glad to be an athlete as being a director takes so much more work then most athletes will realize.

Next up will be the Wildflower triathlon in May. I will have to bump up my biking endurance for this race and I have been having some trouble with rides over two hours!

Off to enjoy my last day in Hawaii before i head back to reality.