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Mieko finishes second in Kaike Triathlon
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Posted on Jul 17 2011
Mieko Carey recorded her best finish in the Kaike Triathlon yesterday after placing second in the women’s division of the weekend race in Tottori, Japan.
Carey completed the grueling event in nine hours, 50 minutes, and 49 seconds, more than 30 minutes behind women’s champion Sha Li Dasong (9:20:13). Her time in the Saturday race was better than last year’s (9:56:38) where she finished third in the women’s division. The CNMI triathlete also surpassed her overall ranking in 2010 (43rd), coming in at 36th overall yesterday.
The 33-year-old triathlete posted 47:54 in the 3-kilometer swim and was the third woman out of the water behind Dasong (43:40) and Chi Ohara (46:48).
Behind by less than five minutes, going into the lung-busting 145-km bike race, Carey caught up with Dasong and took the lead. Carey submitted 5:30:37 in the bike race, the best among the female riders and 17th overall, while Dasong was more than nine minutes behind (5:39:43).
However, Carey failed to sustain her momentum in the final leg of the race—a 42.195-km full marathon race—after clocking in at 3:32:18 (unofficial). Dasong finished the last leg of the event in less than three hours to grab the top honors.
According to Carey’s friend and fellow runner Mamiko Oshima-Berger, the former got dehydrated midway in the marathon race and lost precious time to Dasong.
Despite failing to top the women’s division, Carey’s runner-finish was still a big one because as of 8pm last night (Saipan time), only nine female triathletes completed the race. Carey was also one of the only two female participants to finish the long race in less than 10 hours.
The event started at 6:30am with Shingo Tani claiming first place overall with a time of 8:26:20. Completing the Top 3 in the men’s division were Hiroshi Fujiwara (8:29:53) and Yoichiro Hata (8:42:28). Yesterday’s race drew about 900 individual participants, but only 150 have checked in at the finish line 12 hours after the event kicked off.
