Report by Nicolee Martin
The Husky Long Course Triathlon Festival weekend has become an annual pilgrimage for some members of our club, and 2015 was no exception.
This year Atsuko McGowan, Caroline Makin, Nicolee Martin, Leah Newman, Lisa Moore and Dwayne Currie all headed to the coast on the weekend of 20/21/22 February 2015 to enjoy a fabulous weekend of racing.
The 10th anniversary festival kicked off with the 1km ocean swim event on the Friday evening in which Caroline finished second female overall and first in the F40-49 age group in an excellent time of 14.00, despite the quite challenging and choppy conditions where the return to the beach sent the swimmers through the rocky headland at low tide! Leah came a very credible 16th out of a large field of 33 women in the same age group in a time of 18.30.
Saturday morning dawned hot and muggy after the over night rain but this did not deter Caroline who lined up with the other 580 women raring to go in the sprint distance triathlon event (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run). Caroline had another cracking swim (without wetsuit) and was out of the water 3rd in her age group behind two top level female triathletes wearing wetsuits and went on to have a really solid ride and strong run to come home 26th in her age group in 1:30:42 which was an 8 minute PB compared to her race in 2014.
Finally, A
tsuko & Nicolee joined 265 other crazy women alongside Lisa & Dwayne (in a 3 person team with their friend Dave on the bike leg), for the long course triathlon event (2km swim, 83km ride & 20km run) on the Sunday morning. Nicolee’s husband Steve, an experienced endurance triathlete, was also participating as much needed moral support for Nicolee along the course. Atsuko (finishing in a time of 6:10:59 and 45th in the F30-39 age group) and Nicolee (finishing in a time of 6:27:18 and 36th in the F40-49 age group) found the course quite tough, especially in the hot and increasingly windy conditions during the run leg, but they were both happy to finish and were a little teary having achieved such a big goal. Lisa & Dwayne’s team (the “Uber Somethings”) finished the course in a fabulous 5:06:49 with Lisa swimming a terrific first leg in 28:52 and Dwayne completing the run in 2:01:07 to come 28th out of 75 mixed teams!
It was an action packed weekend – well celebrated with lots of beer, wine and champagne across the Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings… think about putting it on your list of must does for 2016 if you fancy a triathlon challenge and a fun weekend away!
