The owners were new, but the overall winner of Saturday’s return of the Santa Barbara Triathlon was a familiar name to the event.
The ownership era of Elizabeth and Gerry Rodigues began with Santa Barbara’s Jon Waltman winning the elite division of the long-course race for the third time. He covered the 1-mile ocean swim, 34-mile bike and 10-mile run in 2 hours, 45 minutes, 10 seconds on a near-perfect day for the 40th anniversary of the endurance event.
There were a lot of smiles at the finish line as a live, in-person triathlon was back after a year’s absence because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Waltman, a professional triathlete and a software engineer, won the long-course title in 2019 and captured his first Santa Barbara crown back in 2011.
The women’s champion on Saturday was a long-course triathlon newcomer. Katie Hahn of Manhattan Beach beat out Santa Barbara’s Sarah Terry for her first long-course victory. Hahn was the first woman out of the water and never gave up the lead, winning in 3 hours, 17 minutes, 45 seconds. Terry was second in at 3:21.18, and Molly Lesser of Carson City, Nevada, placed third with a time of 3:27.20.
“I pretty much started this year,” Hahn said of doing the longer distances. “I’ve been training for a while, and then a pregnancy, a surgery and a pandemic later was why I haven’t really been able to race.”
She admitted being surprised that she came in first place.
“Yeah, for sure. There’s a lot of really great competition here,” said Hahn, who last month finished second in a sprint distance race in Long Beach.
A working mom with two children, Hahn moved from Chicago to Manhattan Beach in February. She thanked her Chicago-based Multi-Sports Mastery Team and BASE Performance Nutrition.
Waltman was obviously happy to repeat as champion, but the victory was a little bittersweet because his friend and training partner, Sean Harrington, suffered some bad luck.
“He would’ve beaten me, but he had several things go wrong,” said Waltman, who was the first out of the water in 19 minutes, 12 seconds, covered the bike course to Carpinteria and back in 1 hour, 28.02 minutes and ran the 10 miles in 56:41.
He explained that Harrington swam to the wrong buoy coming back and went longer than a mile, suffered a bike crash and then had to deal with a brake grab. His swim time was 24:30, and he completed the bike course in 1:38:22. His run time was 54:23.
Undaunted by the mishaps, Harrington still finished third in 2:53.13. Second place went to Ventura’s Vincent Bouillard, who crossed the finish line in 2:49.16 (24:30 swim, 1:50.58 bike, 56:51 run).
Waltman said he expected to beat Harrington in the swim, and he figured Harrington would get the better of him on the bike ride.
“And he runs faster as well,” Waltman said. “A little bit lucky. I raced well for me, so I’m very happy about that. But it’s a little bit of a bummer since we’re training buddies.”
Waltman said it was awesome to have the Santa Barbara Triathlon back.
“In 2019, I led start to finish, and the same thing happened today,” he said. “I’m pretty excited about that. I’m really glad this race was able to happen. I heard a couple other races are starting to get canceled, so I’m really glad that didn’t happen here.”
Santa Barbara’s John Nelson, the first-place finisher in the men’s 65-69 age group, said he was thrilled to be racing in town again.
“It was a wonderful day. It was great to be back out here,” he said. “Joe Coito (who owned and ran the triathlon for 25 years) did a great job every year. I think Elizabeth and Gerry picked up right where he left off. Perfect conditions, just fun all around.”
Nelson was part of a large contingent of competitors from the Santa Barbara Triathlon Club.
“We had a lot of members out today, but it’s just good to have everyone out competing again,” he said.
Asked if he didn’t mind the event going from two days to one, Nelson said he’d prefer two days, “but considering the conditions, COVID pandemic, back after a year, I think they pulled it off with one day. I’m anxious to come back next year with two days and have an even bigger field for the long course.”
The overall field was limited to 1,000 participants.
In the short course event (500-yard swim, 6-mile bike, 2-mile run), Santa Barbara’s Will Keller was the winner after the results were corrected. His time was 39:08. Roberto Altieri of Santa Barbara was second overall in 41:28, and Michael Krauchi of Goleta fnished third in 41:51.
Liz Groome of Santa Barbara was the women’s champion and placed 18th overall in 45.22.
The Women’s Only Division was won by Cara Winnewisser of Santa Barbara in 41:06.
Elizabeth Rodrigues said she was happy how the first Santa Barbara Triathlon under her and her husband’s direction and ownership turned out.
“I had an amazing team to prop me up,” she said. “It’s been a whirlwind of activity, and in the background the whole time was just this notion it could possibly be canceled. You’re putting your heart and soul and everything you have into producing this event so you can bring a race back to people who can have some normalcy back in their lives. But you have this uncertainty playing in the background. It was nerve-racking.”
Rodrigues said she cried when she saw a line of people picking up their race packets on Friday.
“My husband and I just watched ‘Field of Dreams’ a couple of weeks ago, and I had that (‘If-you-build-it-they-will-come’) moment. ‘Oh my God, they came.’ And I started to cry,” she said. “It was just relief, relief that we did it and we’re back, and we’re moving in a direction that we’re doing what we love again. And there’s nothing better than that.”
Race announcer Jim Lubinski, the 2010 winner of the event and a top-three finisher multiple times, said it was great seeing the triathletes come across the finish line with big smiles.
“It’s just totally rewarding to see them put it all out there and cross the finish line. It’s very cool,” he said. “After not having a race last year, it’s brought a different energy this year. People are happy to be here, and they appreciate it that much more.”
Lubinski said the race went off pretty smoothly.
“Every race has hiccups, whether it’s the first time you’re owning a race or not,” he said. “There’s been a few hiccups, but you learn from them and move forward. Overall, it’s been a smooth process, and I’m getting nothing but great feedback from everyone.”
Ginny Turner of Culver City was excited to be back in Santa Barbara for the race. She’s made it an annual trek for five or six years.
“It’s just amazing to be back on the beach and doing the race,” said Turner, who finished fifth in the long-course women’s 50-55 age group. “It’s been a long time. It’s been a year and a half of no racing, so, yeah, it’s fantastic.”
On the race course, Turner said the morning fog made it a little tough to see while swimming, but the water condition was flat.
“The bike was super fun; it’s a technical course, but it was really well supported,” she said. “There were lots of volunteers and police out, so it made it feel safe. And the run, it’s an uphill and downhill, and it’s a fast, flat finish, so it was fun.”
Santa Barbara’s Jim Barrett, fifth in the men’s 60-64 division of the long-course race, said: “It was a great time. I have my family here at the end, so what else could be better?”
Sarah Pillsbury of Venice, winner of the women’s 70-74 category in the short-course triathlon, said she trains with Gerry Rodrigues’ Tower 26 ocean swim group in Venice.
“I started this sport when I was 65,” said Pillsbury, who was returning to the race after five years.
She said the new owners “did a great job,” while pointing out a snafu on the bike turnaround point.
“Given all the things that could go wrong, that was not so bad,” she said. “I felt really well taken care of.”
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.