Team Mango Races continued its year-round triathlon series with Sunday’s Summer Sprint Triathlon featuring a 1/2-mile swim in Kailua Bay, followed by a 24-mile hilly bike that took competitors up the Bypass Road, and finished off with a two-mile sprint on Alii Drive.
Race organizer Carl Koomoa said it was the perfect way to get athletes back into action after a short hiatus from his last event in May, the Trashcan Triathlon, and before September’s Pre-Ironman Triathlon Challenge. And despite the lower than usual turnout, Koomoa felt the competitiveness was as fierce as ever.
“It was definitely another strong showing for Peaman as he ended up in second place,” Koomoa said. “But he didn’t go out without a fight. He and Mike DeCarli were going back and forth, with Peaman coming out of the water with at least a minute cushion. But Mike just blistered on the bike course — like a 42 or something — so he got a really big gap from Pea by at least five minutes at the end of the bike.”
With DeCarli also having the fastest run split of the morning (17:40), the 43-year old Kailua-Kona resident found himself all alone when he crossed the finish line in a brazen time of 1 hour, 9-minutes and 40-seconds.
Peaman was next to stop the clock at 1:25:48, with Kailua-Kona’s Barbie Nakamura finishing in third overall and first in the women’s division at 1:33:24.
The next eight spots went to the following competitors: Jeff Fischer (1:36:15), Lori Montgomery (1:42:20), Francis Hechanova (1:46:10), Peter Bresciani (1:47:35), Mike Hamilton (1:50:30), Bill Culhane (1:52:10), Gerald Gruber (2:12:27), and Chad Stephens (2:13:25).
And according to Koomoa, having a lower turnout than usual didn’t mean the event was any less popular than it was two decades ago. It had a lot to do with timing of the event and how athletes now approach training and racing.
“I think with the day before having the Volcano Runs a lot of people decided to do that and maybe why less people showed up to Team Mango,” Koomoa said. “Another thing I’ve noticed, and Peaman agrees, is you have a lot of people on so-called ‘training schedules.’ So they are not participating in a lot of these fun events because it’s not on their schedules.
“I remember back in our day, it seemed that we had a lot more fun and motivation to racing. Of course we all wanted to do good and perform our best, but we always had this camaraderie going on instead of being so performance oriented as it is now. Athletes now have coaches, rigid training schedules and don’t really like to deviate from that. I’m not saying people don’t have fun now, but back then, it was a different degree of fun. But one thing is for sure, my love for racing and organizing events will never change. I just love it.”
Next up for Team Mango Races is the popular Pre-Ironman Triathlon Challenge on Sept. 29 that will feature a 1.2-mile swim, 15-mile hilly bike, followed by a six-mile run.
For more information visit teammango.org.