Kendra's Race

In 2006, after the death of their teammate and friend, Kendra Payne, the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Triathlon Team changed the name of their annual triathlon to Kendra’s Race. The race has been held every year since then and each year the UCSB triathlon team generously donates a portion of the entrance fees to the Kendra Chiota Payne Memorial Fund.

The 2025 Kendra's Race consists a Collegiate Sprint race, Age Group Sprint, 5k Run and Triathlon Relay.

About the course:

The swim will start at Campus Point. Athletes will swim out 200m, take a left, swim for another 400m, take another left, and swim 200m back in. They will head up a flight of wooden steps to the transition area.

Kendra's Race will feature a two loop, 12.7 mile, fast and flat bike course around the Santa Barbara Airport.  Racers will make their way out of transition and head west through the UCSB campus via the bike path, most of which has been recently repaved.  After making their way all the way around the Santa Barbara Airport, cyclists will pass through Goleta Beach and head back onto the bike path towards UCSB.  After completing two loops, racers will then head back into transition.

The run course consists of a 1 loop run over a rolling 5k course. It follows the UCSB lagoon and consists of paved and hard-packed trails. Racers will leave transition and run down to the lagoon. They will run on the trail system on the bluffs before dropping down to the lagoon where they will pass an aid station. Runners will continue along the lagoon to the turn around point. After turning around, runners will follow nearly the same route back before sprinting to the finish in lot 6.