Saturday, May 30 in Hawaii Five-O was the Hawaii 70.3 with 5 hot SB tri members competing!
I was on a friendly Sunday bike ride today when some friends just happened to mention yesterday's Hawaii Half Ironman had some SB finishers. Thankful for the tip I checked out the preliminary results and conditions of this years event. The news reported a beautiful blue ski sunny day with favorable wind and water current conditions. However, the running times were slightly slower this year, as racers maneuvered through a new course even tougher than years past, and did so on a broiling hot day where the only shelter came on the far side of the finish line. One of the pros said "All finishers here today are champions. The course was hot and hard, I was amazed how challenging the race was."
Our first finisher was local champion icon and the younger half of the father-son team, Andrew Maxwell with a 04:47:47 and a third place M20-24. Coming in right behind was father Gary Maxwell with a 05:33:51 and another back-to-back first place M60-64. Gary just recently came off a first place Kona qualifier in Carlsbad, who is this guy? Lee Carter posted a 05:15:12 a nice eighthplace M50-54 and Vick Birtalan clocked a 06:41:52 a respectable seventh place M 65-69. Marc Chung finished with a 07:20:08 in his age group M40-44. SB Tri club, although a small field, had representatives in all age groups.
A big congrats for these guys working hard on the big island roads. Then again, the rest of us deal with June gloom while they suffer the crystal-clear water displaying coral and tropical fish among the beautiful aloha venue. Hmmm, my spouse, Helen just said "lets go there instead of Lake San Antonio!"
Sandy