Report by Caroline Makin, Club Captain
Some Vikings masters swimmers don’t just swim hard in the pool, they “Tri” hard too!
We have had a history of club members taking part in triathlons over the recent years and especially the Big Husky Triathlon Festival every February. This year, Caz Makin was the lone Viking who headed to Huskisson for the weekend of 17-19 February 2017 for this huge annual event.
Caz had big plans for the weekend, taking part in 3 events over 3 days and also caught up with a number of friends from Vikings Tri club during the weekend of sport and socialising.
The kick off event was the 1k Ocean Swim on the Friday evening. Caz took on the field in the 2-lap course in overcast but relatively calm conditions compared to previous years, and crossed the finish line in a time of 14 minutes 51 seconds finishing in 1st place in her F40-49 age group from 26 swimmers and placing 7th fastest female from 125 behind all the youngsters!
The next morning it was the Sprint Triathlon event consisting of a 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run. Caz came out of the water in 1st position almost 50 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor in the F45-49 age group. Heavy rain started to come down for the bike leg with the skies then clearing for the 5k run leg. Caz placed 22nd from 66 competitors in the F45-49 age group in a overall time of 1:28:13 – 2 seconds quicker than in 2016.
The finale event for the weekend is always the Long Course Triathlon (2k swim, 83k bike, 20k run) on the Sunday morning. Team SPINSTARS comprised Caz in the swim leg, Caz’s hubby Scott in the bike leg and PRM friend, Wes in the run leg. The SPINSTARS put on a great performance finishing in 12th place from 74 Mixed Teams, and 25th overall place from 147 Teams.
This is a great event for swimmers as well as triathletes, so if you have mates who can cycle or run, you should think about putting a team together for the Sprint Triathlon or the Long Course Triathlon events and come and experience the Big Husky in 2018!
