KOHALA COAST — The hills were steep, the terrain was unforgiving, but the smile on Bree Brown’s face was nearly a constant.
Her demeanor could have served as the theme for the inaugural XTERRA Hawaii Island, which turned out to be a grueling good time for the nearly 100 athletes that took on the half-mile swim, 10-mile mountain bike and 3.1-mile run around the Hapuna area on Sunday morning.
“It was like a playground — mud, dirt, sand, fun and friends,” Brown said. “But honestly, that might have been one of the hardest things I have ever done.”
That’s saying a lot, considering Brown’s lengthy resume, which she added to with her winning time of 1 hour, 45 minutes and 33 seconds on Sunday.
The recently married, former professional triathlete turned teacher — previously known as Bree Wee — has a pair of Ironman titles to her name and has laid claim to top female finisher honors in just about every local race. Lately, she’s taken up a fancy for ultra-marathon events like HURT100 — a 100-mile trail run held on Oahu annually.
So when Brown says it’s tough — you’d better believe it.
“I think because it’s so short, there’s never a chance to catch your breath,” Brown said. “Plus, I’m just not real experienced on the mountain bike. Because of my mindset as a competitor, I just wanted to go fast, but then I’d fall. I had to keep telling myself to slow down.”
It was a similar story for Jose Graca, the top overall male. He was first Big Island finisher at the Ironman World Championship last year in Kona, but taking things off-road on the two-loop mountain bike course was an entirely new experience.
Graca and Brown’s previous XTERRA finishes combined could be counted on one hand.
“It was like skydiving,” said Graca, “I had no expertise, but you get out there and there’s no going back. I rented a bike last week to train, but I really did not have any experience. I learned on the fly.”
For most of the race, Graca was chasing Hawaii County Fireman, Tai Scarbrough. The duo came out of the water at Hapuna neck-and-neck, before Scarbrough gained some distance on the mountain bike heading into the final transition.
“I was trying to build any kind of gap I could on Jose. I knew he would be coming for me on the run,” Scarbrough said. “You want to go as fast as you can, but this course is not like a road race. It’s zig-zagged and you are looking for flags and rocks. It’s a mental challenge to not only keep going, but to see where you need to go.”
As expected, Graca made his move on the first of three laps on the run and cruised to the victory in 1:30:11. Scarbrough wasn’t too far behind, clocking a time of 1:32:46, good for second.
While the technical bike course was the conversation starter, the run portion was no cakewalk, with six segments through the shifty Hapuna sand.
”To get off the bike and run through that deep sand is crazy hard,” Scarbrough said. “Then from the sand you have to climb some rocks. It was beautiful, but such a challenge.”
Oahu’s Andrew McHowell rounded out the male podium, stopping the clock at 1:33:50. Noe McMahon (1:48:50) and Sara Bloom (1:59:29) finished second and third respectively in the female field.
“The race had a laid back feel,” McHowell said. “Everyone was really respectful and wanted to help each other out there. It felt like a close-knit group.”
Helping build an off-road racing community was the objective when Aloha Sports Kona — headed up by the husband-wife duo of Janet Higa-Miller and Grant Miller — jumped on the opportunity to bring XTERRA to the Big Island. Previously, the group staged the Goatman off-road triathlon, which had a smaller field and more of a grassroots feel. This event took a little more manpower to make a reality.
“The community came together to build the bike trail and all the volunteers were unreal,” said Miller, who experienced the race first-hand, finishing the trek in 1:51:19. “It really went off without a hitch. We hope to expand a little next year, refine the run course and take out some pavement on the bike course.”
Questions about the weather were plentiful with Hurricane Lane lingering in the days before the race. But with limited impact in the Waikoloa and Puako areas, it ended up not being an issue. The swim took place on calm water, the bike benefited with the rain settling some dust, and the cloudy afternoon provided some shade for the run.
“The last two weekends doing the trail building was so hot — blazing,” Miller said. “If we would have had that weather, everyone would have been 10 minutes slower.”
Athletes traded stories from the course at the finish line just across from the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort. Anyone who crossed the finish line without some mud on their gear, sand in their shoes or a few scrapes on their body were certainly in the minority.
“It’s so different,” Miller said. “You can’t daydream out there. You are just in the moment so much.”
The race also offered 25 slots to XTERRA World Championship, which will celebrate its 22nd anniversary on Maui on Oct. 29. An opportunity to gain a spot without leaving the island was something not available to Big Island athletes previously.
“It’s better to go to compete than just watch,” Graca said. “I went over the last two years to watch my friends, now I get to compete. I’m excited for it.
“The island needed a race like this,” Graca added.
Brown agreed, citing the fun-factor of the race and doable distances.
“It’s huge for our community,” she said. “I think this is the kind of race that can involve everyone. There’s a relay and now the mountain bikers of the Big Island have something to look forward to. Just grab a runner and a swimmer and you have a team.”