PORT ANGELES — In the fastest and biggest Big Hurt since its resurrection, organizers lauded the community support the growing event is receiving.
Nearly 150 total athletes competed overall in this year’s Big Hurt. A total of 42 athletes competed in the Iron Division (33 men and nine women), with 39 able to finish. A total of 28 teams with four separate members also competed.
“Mother Nature cooperated, no wind out on the water. It was all smiles,” said Tim Tucker, one of the organizers. “The craziness of the transfer zone [at Oak Tree Park] was wonderful.”
Tucker said the weather was perfect. It wasn’t rainy, but it had rained earlier in the week, which meant that the mountain biking trails from the hills above Port Angeles into town were neither muddy nor dusty, allowing for some fast times.
The best part of this year’s event, Hunter said, was how much the community and businesses rallied around the event. Even the U.S. Coast Guard had a vessel out in the harbor near the kayaking buoys cheering on the kayakers. Platypus Marine also set up video monitors with cameras along the route so competitors and others could keep on eye on racers out on the roads and trails.
“I want to give them a huge shout out,” Tucker said. One of his favorite stories about the race was a family from Texas that came to the Olympic Peninsula to compete. They weren’t able to finish and were in a restaurant afterward eating and when people heard they were into town for the race, someone bought their meals.
“That’s great PR for the town,” Tucker said.
Tucker said so many participants competed this year that he thinks the race may have to make changes for next year, such as adding more categories to deal with the serious extreme athletes versus not-as-serious.
“I think the difference is we’re starting to get some serious triathletes now” from the region, Tucker said.
The race
Eric Holmlund of Loveland, Colo., posted the best individual time, completing the 52-mile event in 3 hours, 56 minutes, 44 seconds. He is the first athlete to crack the four-hour mark since the event returned in 2015. In fact, he shattered the 2016 best time by nearly 20 full minutes.
As impressive as that was, Holmlund didn’t win the Big Hurt easily. A local competitor, Eric Ellefson of Sequim, nearly cracked four hours himself, finishing in 4:00:25, less than four minutes behind Holmlund.
In fact, the two Erics kind of blew away the rest of the field. The third-place finisher, Joe Turk of Silverdale, finished 17 minutes behind Ellefson.
Holmlund and Ellefson had a tight duel that went on for hours. Ellefson was the first in the Iron Division to finish the mountain bike leg and the kayak leg, with Holmlund just two minutes behind him. Holmlund made up that two-minute gap in the road cycling leg, then beat Ellefson by four minutes in the 10K run for his final victory margin.
Sequim’s Laura Gould won the women’s event with a time of 4:39.51, beating Olivia Haesloop, also of Sequim, by 19 minutes. Gould didn’t do particularly great in the kayaking, but she blew away the rest of the women’s field in the mountain biking, road cycling and 10K run, winning all three legs, the two cycling legs by large margins.
The best team was Sound Bikes & Kayaks of Port Angeles with a time of 3:43:02. They won by six minutes over Adventure Physical Therapy.
The best legs were:
• Mountain Biking — Men’s Iron Division, Eric Ellefson, 1:04.55; Women’s Iron Divison, Laura Gould, 1:14:26; Team Division, Sound Bikes & Kayaks, 1:02:27.
• Kayaking — Men’s Iron Division, Ellefson, 37:13; Women’s Iron Division, Michelle Turner, 0:38:59; Team Division, Rebecca’s Cancer Kickers!, 0:33:40.
• Road cycling — Men’s Iron Division, Eric Holmlund, 1:29:54; Women’s Iron Division, Gould, 1:45:54; Team Division, Sound Bikes & Kayaks, 1:22:26.
• 10K run — Men’s Iron Division, Holmlund, 0:42:43; Women’s Iron Division, Gould, 0:52:41; Team Division, Adventures Through Cycling, 0:37:18.
Big Hurt Results
Iron Man Division
Eric Holmlund, first, 3:56:44; Eric Ellefson, second, 4:00:25; Joe Turk, third, 4:17:11; Jeff Berry, fourth, 4:18:23; Shea Quinn, fifth, 4:24:21; Jacob Linder, sixth, 4:24:34; Chris Morgan, seventh, 4:28:43; Jared Scott, eighth, 4:30:08; Luke Moilanen, ninth; Spencer Larsen, 10th, 4:34:02.
Iron Woman Division
Laura Gould, first, 4:39:51; Olivia Haesleep, second, 4:49:05; Michelle Turner, third, 5:33:21; Jenifer Clark, fourth, 5:45:04; Lori Lynch, fifth, 6:05:34; Jill Anderson, sixth, 6:05:34; Melissa Castor, seventh, 6:26:37; Lisa Stewart, eighth, 6:52:10.
Team Division
Sound Bikes & Kayaks, first, 3:43:02; Adventure Physical Therapy, second, 3:49:24; Cozi Homes, third, 4:13:24; Rebecca’s Cancer Kickers, fourth, 4:13:36; Train-Or-Tri’s Feisty Mamas, fifth, 4:26:21; Adventures Through Kayaking, sixth, 4:35:16; Swains, seventh, 4:37:57; Citrasonics, eighth, 4:38:22; Swamp Donkeys, ninth, 4:39:15; 3 W&M, 10th, 4:39:21.
Mandy Miller of Port Angeles finishes the 10K run of the Big Hurt, the 6 mile run. She was a member of “Kelp Whip,” which came in 20th. (Dave Logan/for Peninsula Daily News)
