TINMAN TRIATHLON
MIKE BURLEY / MBURLEY@STARBULLETIN.COM
Tim Marr ran the last 100 yards to the finish line in Waikiki to complete his third straight Tinman Triathlon championship yesterday.
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Third Tinman title is Marr-velous
It was a three-peat at the Tinman for Tim Marr.
The Kapahulu resident captured his third straight men's title in the 28th Tinman Triathlon yesterday, turning the course - a 750-meter (0.47 mile) swim, 40-km (24.8-mile) bike leg, and 10-km (6.2 mile) run - in 1 hour, 45 minutes and 44 seconds.
Alexander Eiler finished second in 1:46:22, less than a minute behind Marr, and Mark Geoghegan was third at 1:50:09.
MIKE BURLEY / MBURLEY@STARBULLETIN.COM
Tai Blechta sprinted out of the water to prepare for the bike leg en route to a seventh-place finish.
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Marr, 29, a pro triathlete who returned to Hawaii on Tuesday after competing in two half-Ironman events in Rhode Island and Seattle on consecutive weekends, admitted to feeling fatigued.
"It was tough after all that travel and all that racing," Marr said.
Marr trailed John Flanagan by a few seconds after the swim leg but sped past him in the swim-to-bike transition and held onto the lead for the rest of the race.
"When I got off the bike, my legs weren't really ready to run, so I really kinda struggled for the first few miles," Marr said. "I definitely was struggling a bit to get over that hump. I just held the pace ... and (thought), 'Just run steady and run for the win.' "
MIKE BURLEY / MBURLEY@STARBULLETIN.COM
Colin Kuster transitioned from the bike to the run on the way to a 31st-place finish.
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Eiler, of Kaneohe, emerged from the water near the Queen's Beach bulkhead in the middle of the pack but made up time on the bike leg, which took competitors from Kapiolani Park to Hawaii Kai and back.
"Heartbreak Hill (up Diamond Head) was pretty hard, but I'm from Austria, so I look forward to the hills," he said. "I had a great bike and a great run. Maybe next time I can catch (Tim)."
The event's 533 finishers were spared from the intermittent heavy showers that doused the island over the weekend.
"There wasn't a drop of rain out there," said Marr, who described the race conditions as "spectacular."
"It's a lot better than racing in Seattle or Rhode Island, that's for sure," he said.
Marion Summerer, 26, finished first among the women (and 15th overall) in 1:58:33, beating second-place finisher Katherine Nichols (1:59:10) to the finish line at Kapiolani Park. Gabriele Goodman took third in 2:02:24.
Summerer and Nichols emerged from the water within seconds of each other, but the 26-year-old pro off-road triathlon specialist was quicker to jump on her bike and took off from there.
"Marion out-transitioned me," Nichols said. "That's where I lost contact."
But the bike section was not all smooth sailing for Summerer.
"On a mountain bike, you just have to balance and concentrate," she explained. "(In road racing), you just power, which is good but also dangerous because you're prone to go all out in the beginning and bonk in the end. I think that happened a little bit today."
Nevertheless, Summerer extended her lead on the bike leg.
"(Marion) kinda pulled away in the second half of the bike," said Nichols. "I think she saw me at the turnaround (in Hawaii Kai) and put the pedal to the medal a little bit."
Then Summerer, a German national whose running regimen usually consists of clambering up and down the hills of St. Louis Heights or Maunawili, had to adapt to pounding the pavement on the run around Diamond Head.
"I just tried to keep the pace on the run, and it was just endless," she said. "I didn't know that Diamond Head was just so long."
Nichols, 42, who won back-to-back women's Tinman titles in 1997 and 1998, didn't lose any more time to her younger rival on the run but couldn't quite chase down Summerer.
"Marion (was) up there, and I (could) kinda see the police escort, but I couldn't quite close the gap," she said. "I'm thrilled to be up there in the mix with someone who's in her 20s and racing pro."
Though inspired by the Ironman Triathlon in Kona, the Tinman is more a celebration of fun and fitness for amateur triathletes, including the many newcomers to the sport.
"It's real friendly competition," said Lauren Watanabe, a Kalani High School junior-to-be and cross-country runner who took first in her 15-to-19 female age division in her second triathlon with a time of 2:39:47. "Everyone supports each other out there."
For Donohue Fujii, the event is an annual ritual.
"For me, it's just my yearly exercise," said the 45-year-old civil engineer, who finished in 2:34:24. "It keeps me young. I just want to do it to keep myself going and stay young for my kids."
Fujii is one of three stalwarts - the others are Linda Kaiser (3:09:42) and Leland How (3:55:20) - to complete all 28 Tinman events.