Meet Your Race Team!
Race Director:
Jon Harmse is an endurance racing enthusiast. Growing up swimming and playing water polo, in 2008, while attending Cal Poly, he was talked into racing the triathlon at Wildflower and never stopped. He raced collegiately for a couple of years and post college went on to get his USAT coaching certification. He coached the Cal Poly Triathlon team for four years, culminating in a collegiate conference championship in 2018. He has raced all distances from sprint to full Ironman and has raced and podiumed in a lot of the local races, including Scott Tinley’s, SLO Tri and the Morro Bay Tri. In 2015 he joined the Port San Luis Harbor District Lifeguarding team and in 2018 started working as an instructor with the Avila Beach Junior Lifeguard Program.
When not on the beach or coaching young aspiring triathletes, he can usually be found with his wife riding their horses, camping with their dogs, or just enjoying the amazing food and wine we have here on the central coast.
Assistant Race Director: Sponsorships, Vendors, & Festival
Arianne is a former athlete who found her passion for event logistics while attending Cal Poly. When she wasn’t training Cal Poly Orientation Leaders or studying, she was organizing Wildflower Triathlon emergency communication volunteers or riding as motorcycle chase for the olympic race. Despite race logistics not being her full-time job, she’s helped with event logistics for several destination races, including the 2022 USARA’s 30 Hour National Championship in Bishop, California, and several Adventure Races on Catalina Island as helicopter supervisor and sharps safety instructor (it involved throwing knives and axes). Arianne has happily been part of the Morro Bay Tri team since 2021, where she gets to continue her passion for putting on incredible races.
When she’s not organizing races or working, you can find her on the beach with her husband and German Shepherd, fostering shelter dogs, riding her motorcycle, reading fiction, or enjoying a drink at her favorite cocktail lounge.
