Professional triathlete Bree Wee was the first Big Island representative across the finish line, and Keish Doi followed as the top Hawaii Island amateur at the Ironman World Championship on Saturday.
Wee finished in 9 hours, 34 minutes and 37 seconds, good for 16th in the female pro division and beating her personal best on the Kona world championship course by more than 13 minutes. She set the course amateur record in 2007 with her previous best of 9:47:40.
Doi has more than a handful of Kona finishes on his resume and added another with his 10:13:49 finish Saturday.
After Wee and Doi, the Big Island finishers trickled in throughout the day.
The main topic of conversation was the strong winds on the bike portion of the race.
“It was like an evil trick,” said Grant Miller, who was racing after a 20-year Ironman World Championship absence. “I had never seen the wind like that before. We battled the wind all the way out there and thought we would get a nice tailwind coming back in, but no. It was a double headwind.”
Miller came into the race with the ambitious goal of beating his time from 1994, and the veteran came in at 12:04:32, beating his two-decade-old time by 15 minutes.
“Well, I guess it says I’m a little smarter than I was 20 years ago because I don’t think I’m any stronger,” Miller said with a chuckle. “Twenty years ago we didn’t know anything about doing this race. I think that was the difference today.”
Ryan Lopossa, a Hawaii Island fireman, completed his inaugural running of the race in 12:02:47.
“It was hard,” Lopossa said. “Lucky for us, we have the opportunity to do that bike course all the time, but I’ve only had wind like that once. Usually when you see wind like that it’s a turn around training day. You start to feel it and say ‘I’m not going to train in this stuff. It’s too gnarly.’ I’ve done that before.”
Both Lopossa and Miller credited the aid stations for their outstanding service and keeping them hydrated and healthy on the course.
“They went above and beyond,” Lopossa said.
A few other notable finishes were Andrea Bess at 11:38:30 and Kristin Drost at 12:20:55.
Mayor Billy Kenoi was still on the course as of press time.
More than 2,000 athletes representing more than 68 countries and 49 states started the 2014 Ironman World Championship. The diverse field of competitors included eight-time Olympic medalist in short-track speedskating Apolo Ohno who finished with a time of 9:52:27; Italian open-wheel racing legend and Paralympic handcycle champion Alex Zanardi who finished in 9:47:14; NASA and European Space Agency astronauts Chris Cassidy and Luca Parmitano, who finished in 10:15:11 and 12:33:42, respectively; and former NFL defensive tackle Don Davey with a time of 13:54:57.