TINMAN TRIATHLON
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Mililani resident Timothy Marr dashed out of the bike transition during the Tinman Triathlon yesterday. Marr finished in first place to defend his title.
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Marr defends Tinman title; Wee is first female
By Kyle Galdeira / Special to the Star-Bulletin
While most of Hawaii was still sleeping, Timothy Marr was hard at work yesterday morning in Waikiki defending his Tinman Triathlon title before the sun even cracked the horizon.
The 28-year-old professional triathlete from Mililani won his second consecutive Tinman, finishing the 27th annual event in 1 hour, 44 minutes and 49.5 seconds. Despite finishing well ahead of his closest competitors -- Mark Geoghegan (1:51:18.7) and Eduardo Sa (1:52:46.8) -- Marr came up just more than 2 minutes short of improving on last year's mark, a task made difficult by a combination of strong trade winds and scattered showers.
"I just came back from a long trip in Europe, so I was excited to race back in the islands, and it was really fun out there," said Marr, ranked No. 11 in the world among long-distance runners. "This is a prestigious race, and I come here to win. It was pretty windy out there, but it was a neat race. It's the only place where you get to run around a volcano."
Participants completed the grueling course, which included an 800-meter rough water swim at Queen's Beach, a 40-km bike ride from Kapiolani Park to Hawaii Kai and back, and a 10-km run around Diamond Head, into Kahala, and finally finishing just ahead of the Kapiolani Park bandstand. Marr led the race from start to finish, escorted by police along the course.
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Candes Gentry finished first among women ages 30 to 34 in yesterday's Tinman Triathlon.
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"That's always something I try to do, to try and go as hard as I can from the gun," said Marr, who tentatively plans to participate in an Ironman Triathlon in six weeks at either Korea or Wisconsin. "The competition's always tough and I have to give respect to the other guys. But I race more on a worldwide stage, so it's a little harder for them to race me because I have that experience."
Bree Wee of Kona was the first female to cross the finish line, completing the race in 1:54:59. Defending champion Rachel Ross of Honolulu finished a close second (1:56:12.2), while Sandra Ferreira pulled in the bronze more than 10 minutes later (2:07:34.1).
While Wee led the entire way, her road to victory was a bit bumpier than Marr's. After a rain shower made the roadways slick, Wee wiped out during the bike ride, causing a large scrape on the back of her leg, and nearly allowing Ross to take the lead.
"My friend Rachel and I were really equal in the bike and run, so my goal was to charge on the bike and I went down on one of the hills and slid across the road," Wee said. "I got back up and she was there, and my leg wasn't too sore, so I knew I had to charge on the run after that. So the whole thing was kind of like running from the tiger because I knew she was coming. I had a blast."
The Tinman is Hawaii's longest-running triathlon, and featured 432 male and 236 female competitors ranging in age from 15 to 80-and-over.
The athletes were timed with a computer chip attached to a Velcro ankle bracelet. In addition to tracking finishing times, participants received time splits tracked by the chip at the various transition points along the course.