Event day at Honu 70.3

Congrats to Ann, Colleen and Linnea on a successful event!!! You ladies did a great job and should be proud of your day.

Saturday morning started off early for everyone as event day always does. After everyone was fueled up and ready to go, JJ and I chauffeured the girls to Hapuna Beach. What a beautiful morning that offered incredibly calm and flat waters..ideal conditions.

The girls did last minute bike checks and then off to get numbered. Then down to the beach, quick dip in the water and a little conversation before getting ready for the canon to go off. It's almost 7 am and man, I'm already feeling it is warm and thinking it is only going to get warmer as they come out of the water.

JJ and I got some great photos of the swim from up high and attached is a link but the photos are bit at a distance because they are from the iPhone. We have some other shots from the camera and will get those up when I can.

With clients in the water we headed down the road to the bike turnaround and waited for our first photo opp of the girls. Ann, Linnea and then Colleen all came through, looked good and offered smiles.

Now that the girls are on the bike, we have nothing but time, well at least a couple hours before we need to head out to T2/Finish area. First stop, Island Market for some breakfast (loco moco) and then of course, Starbucks. After TriCaddy was fueled up, we were off.

While the day did continued to get warm, the bike was good with minimal winds from what we heard from most folks. We got to T2 early enough to see the leaders come through. I saw my grocery/coffee mate, Belinda Granger, lead the Pro women out. Not far behind her was Sam M and Rae Shaw-local Seattle tri girl who has been crushing it lately at all local bike events.

Also got to see some of the top age group males come through and big shout out to Ben B, VO2, who is local out of Seattle. Nice work dude.

TriCaddy (JJ and I) wandered the golf course a little which was the run course and cheered folks on. We positioned ourselves nicely and got to see Linnea, Col, and Ann all come running by. The ladies looked great and we got a couple of good shots as they ventured out on their run.

The winning male was Aussie, Craig Alexander who is also the Hawaii Ironman World Championship winner for 2008. Chris Lieto who had a SMOKING bike came in second. And by the looks and comments of these two you knew the run course was tough.

Guy Haugi, weather man on the island of Oahu, interviewed Craig after he crossed the finish line. "How was the new run course Craig?" "Pure carnage," he replied. And when Chris came across the line and Guy approached him with the mic, Chris said, and don't quote me on this one, I need some water before I talk to anyone. I was impressed as both those dudes left it on the course. Congrats fellas.

Anyways, back to our girls. at 5 hours 10 minutes, Linnea came through the finish. Then Col at 5 hours 43 minutes and Ann at 6 hours 17 minutes. All the girls look great and really looked like they left it on the course. Nobody seemed beat down, but you could tell they had all pushed themselves on challenging bike course and a brutal run course.

Linnea ended up finishing 5th in her age group and later in the awards ceremony scored big when she got called for a roll down slot to the Ironman World Championship in Kona in October.

On behalf of JJ and myself, who make up TriCaddy, I'd like to congratulate the girls on a GREAT event. You ladies rock!!!!!

Good luck and have fun at your upcoming Ironman events in June:-)

http://picasaweb.google.com/bryrei/KonaTrip09#