By Cameron Elford
April 1, 2007 -- Although triathlon was born in San Diego and the Ironman began on the island of Oahu, multisport has reached perfection on the Big Island of Hawaii. The Ironman has been a part of the Kona Coast since the early 1980s, when then-race owner Valerie Silk moved the event from Honolulu. But the Ironman is just one key part of the triathlon landscape that has since grown up on the Big Island, with races like Ultraman and Keauhou-Kona -- in addition to myriad training camps (three-time Ironman world champ Peter Reid used to sequester himself in a remote cabin on Hualalai in the weeks before Kona to sharpen his form) all building the region's triathlon pedigree.
For the last 10 years, the Lavaman Triathlon, located in the resort area of Waikoloa, 25 miles north of Kailua-Kona on the Kohala Coast, has been a key pillar of the sport on the Big Island. This year, on April 1, more than 750 athletes -- including the legendary Cowman -- took on the scenic Olympic-distance Lavaman course.
And while the race attracted a few top pros, such as Chris Lieto (racing just the swim as a training session), who finished ninth and top American at the Hawaii Ironman last October, as well as top Canadians Lisa Mensink, Carolyn Murray and Charlene Waldner, the low-key Lavaman is all about the age groupers, with a Team in Training contingent of 250 athletes raising $1.1 million dollars for cancer research.
Although it's just a 40-minute drive from the home of the Ironman, the Kohala Coast is typically less humid than Kona -- and while Lavaman athletes literally run through lava fields and across beach sand, they do not have to contend with the often-suffocatingly hot conditions of Alii Drive, making the Lavaman a top destination event for not only triathlon veterans but also for newbies.
The two-loop swim begins at an idyllic white-sand beach that fringes a protected warm, shallow bay bordered by a lagoon on the inland side. Athletes began the 1.5km swim in two waves, with Honolulu's Ben Collins leading the field out of the bay and onto the 40km bike, which winds through the Waikoloa lava fields and luxury resorts before heading north on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway, which today gave athletes a respite from the tortuous winds that can blast out of the Kohala Mountains. The 10km run includes a mix of hardscrabble lava rock and coral, deep sand plus footpaths through the manicured grounds of the Waikoloa resort.
Despite battling through heavy traffic on the second swim lap, as the quick swimmers plowed through the tail end of the second swim wave, Mensink, from Calgary, Canada, and Tim Marr, the defending Lavaman champ from Honolulu, were well positioned to attack the 40km bike course.
Marr, however, couldn't shake swim leader Collins, from Seattle, Washington, on the bike, and the pair hit T2 within seconds of each other. Collins grabbed the early advantage on the run, leading Marr across the sweeping lava fields by five seconds in the opening kilometers.
"I was worried," said Marr of Collins' concerted challenge. "The bike is my strength, and he hung with me. But in the first mile of the run my legs felt awesome, so I knew it would be my race to lose."
Capitalizing on his race-day form, Marr threw in a surge on a short uphill section after the run turnaround to drop Collins, then continued to build on his advantage through to the finish to take the win in 1:53:00 -- a new course record. Collins faded over the second half of the 10km and gave up more than two minutes to Marr. Still, the speedy Collins held steady and was not challenged for second place, finishing in 1:55:12.
Marr, a second-year pro who finished 10th at the 2006 Ford Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater, Florida, has his sights set on Wildflower, in California, next month, then, if his season unfolds as planned, Kona in October.
Mensink dictates the paceMensink, a 2008 Beijing Olympics hopeful focused on gaining experience on the ITU World Cup circuit this season, arrived on the Big Island last week after a training camp in Australia. And despite a challenge by Slovakia's Magdalena Stovickova on the bike, the Calgarian, who races internationally for the Netherlands, crushed the field on the run and held off a fast-moving Carolyn Murray, of Canada, to take the 2007 Lavaman win after finishing second here last year.
"I just came from a training camp in Australia, so I was a bit fitter this year," explained Mensink after her impressive performance. "It was pretty rough out there, though -- I have a bit of a head cold, and I worked hard."
Shadowed by Stovickova for much of the day, Mensink worked the first half of the run hard to shake her competition before hitting the technical lava rock and crushed coral sections in the final kilometers -- as well as the sandy beach run to the finish, which sapped the leg strength from many competitors including Collins, who collapsed at the finish after pushing hard to the finish in pursuit of Marr.
With an impressive run, Murray moved past Stovickova on the run to take second, while the Slovakian held on for third place among the women's field.
Lavaman TriathlonWaikoloa, HawaiiApril 1, 20071.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km runWomen1. Lisa Mensink (HOL) 2:08:17
2. Carolyn Murray (CAN) 2:11:12
3. Magdalena Stovickova (SLO) 2:11:28
4. Bree Wee (USA) 2:12:06
5. Yasmine White (USA) 2:16:49
Men1. Tim Marr (USA) 1:53:00
2. Ben Collins (USA) 1:55:12
3. Luis de la Torre (USA) 1:59:22
4. Jimmy Davis (USA) 1:59:37
5. Eric Harr (USA) 2:00:48