If you haven’t seen Kona’s Sean “Peaman” Pagett recently, you may be in for a bit of surprise.
Some call it a throwback to his former surfer look. Others say it’s a start toward a complete health transformation. All will agree, the multisport enthusiast and four-time IRONMAN World Championship finisher is looking better than ever and now, he even has hair.
“I’ve had a shaven, bald head for nearly 30 years and so I decided in January that I was going to grow my hair for six months and not comb it,” laughed Peaman as he ran his fingers through his sun-streaked hair. “I’ve been getting a lot of compliments – people say I look so much better. And so I tell them, it’s only hair.”
But it’s not only just the hair. After struggling with varying health problems for most of his life, Peaman hit an all-time low three years ago when his weight plummeted to 80 pounds on his 6-foot frame. If that wasn’t bad enough, he also suffered with six broken ribs while battling a life threatening MRSA infection and the flu.
It was then that Peaman had a revelation.
“There were a lot of people at that point telling me that I needed to get my affairs in order, that I’m not going to make it, that I don’t have a chance,” Peaman said. “That is something that I’ve been told three other times in my life. So whenever someone tells me that I can’t do something, it becomes the greatest inspiration for me and pushes me towards a whole new goal. So from that day on, it brought on a new determination as I did not want to be in the 70-pound range.”
Now thirty pounds healthier, it’s hard not to notice the extra bounce in his step, a heartier laugh, the flowing energy, and skin radiating with color.
“The extra weight that people see actually took three years for me to gain, and it was a steady weight gain like 10-pounds a year,” Peaman said. “But because I see myself everyday I know it’s been gradual, while everyone else who doesn’t see me as often think that it happened overnight. But there’s still very tough days and it’s been that way since I was 9-years old.”
As Peaman made his way down the cement stairs at Kaiakeakua Beach to begin his monthly biathlon event at Sunday’s Papa Pea’s Sizzling Summer Sprint ½-mile swim and 2-mile run, all eyes were fixated at the big waves crashing upon Kona’s coastline.
Fourteen-year old Silas Wiley, who began participating in Peaman events since his father pushed him in a stroller, said he wasn’t afraid of the pounding white water action happening in front of him and began to formulate his plan of attack.
Being one of the faster swimmers on the island, Wiley quickly propelled himself to the front, leaving a large chase pack in his wake of Aiden Ankrum, Cody Ranfranz, Chris Chang, Luis De La Torre, Sarah Sermons, Danny Becker and his son, Duke.
“My plan was to get out fast so no one would draft off of me,” Wiley said. “So I sprinted to the fifth buoy and then just kept my pace going from there. But it got challenging because I didn’t have anyone in front of me to see where they were going so I had to sight a lot to make sure I was going the right way.”
Once out of the washing machine-like conditions, Wiley’s quick transition had him running barefoot down Alii Drive. His lead would be short lived though, as barreling down after him were teen speedster Ranfranz, and defending champion, De La Torre.
The duo have been neck and neck in Peaman Biathlon events over the last year with each taking wins over the other. On Sunday, spectators were at the edge of their seats on the seawall wondering who would be coming in first.
Within a few minutes, the answer became crystal clear. It was Ranfranz – chest out, arms pumping hard, sprinting toward the finish line with all his might as De La Torre chased hard a few seconds back.
Ranfranz claimed victory in a time of 25 minutes and 30 seconds, with De La Torre in second at 25:38, and Chang rounding out the men’s top three in 27:54.
“The plan was to go fast,” Ranfranz said after the race. “I was thinking about Luis as I knew that he was pretty much the only one here that would be able to just go and catch up. But I was always kind of ahead. When I came around the last corner I just did a quick peek behind and I saw him out of the corner of my eye so I knew that I just had to finish strong.”
Ranfranz added that winning helps his motivation to keep on pushing.
“I know I can tussle with the big guys and I know that I can come out on top,” he said. “So I just got to keep going and keep pushing hard. My goals this year is to do well at cross-country in the beginning (of the school year) then track at the end.”
To further help with his running ambitions, Ranfranz will be attending a three-week high altitude training camp this summer in Gunnison, Colorado.
“We will sleep at around 7,000 or 8,000 feet, but when we run, it’ll be at around 10-12,000 feet elevation,” he said. “It’s gonna be fun.”
On the ladies side, Sarah Sermons led wire-to-wire to claim her third women’s title of the year with an amazing time of 28:52. Just under a minute back was Winona Chen in 29:45, with Mercedes DeCarli finishing in third place at 32:11.
The Ankrum family completely dominated all the other divisions.
Aiden’s fast swim split of 13:57 topped the ½-mile swim division and gave his running relay partner, dad Adam, a huge cushion to claim the Split Peas Relay title in 26:21. Meanwhile, Aiden’s older brother Alec, ripped the Run Peas 2-mile course with his speedy time of 12:57.
In the shorter Pea Wee course of a 200-yard swim and 1-mile run, Layla Gagnon easily won with her time of 18:28. Following Gagnon were Zadie and Danny Bolton in 20:15 and 20:18 respectively.
Eight-year old Chip Nottage transitioned his fancy footwork and speed from the soccer fields to blaze the 1-mile run course in a fabulous time of 8:25. Danny and Zulay Bolton teamed up to take the Pea Wee Split Peas title in 20:17.