Well,as promised (and as predicted) Macca and Lothar are heading to Penticton for Challenge Penticton next year.To add a little bit of Iron-newbie spice,local triathlon hero Jeff “rhymes with diamonds” Symonds will be part of the fun as well…
www.challenge-penticton.com/macca-supports-challenge-penticton/
He isn’t racing though, sadly.
He isn’t racing though, sadly.
Not the whole thing as yet due to Kona but just you wait,there is an idea or two floating around concerning a team or two.
That would make sense, actually. I just want my picture taken with him. I’m a total fan girl.
Is Peter Reid racing?
Peter is no longer the ambassador for Challenge Penticton (as he told us here a couple of months ago) and is busy doing his thing flying folks around BC.I doubt he will be there racing but you never know.
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Wow, that is great news. Do you know which events they will be racing? Should be exciting to see Symonds racing his first Ironman (I won’t stoop to calling it Iron distance…that’s like calling New York “mara-distance” rather than marathon).
Wow, that is great news. Do you know which events they will be racing? Should be exciting to see Symonds racing his first Ironman (I won’t stoop to calling it Iron distance…that’s like calling New York “mara-distance” rather than marathon).
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I proposed a celebrity team situation where Macca,Lothar and some other Germans would use Challenge Penticton as a training day and do the swim/bike with the run done by an “average Joe” team member to be decided by a competition or lottery.We shall have to wait and see.
You should get Ray Browning, Christian Bustos or Mike McCormack to shred their legs and do the marathon on Team Macca! Come to think of it, getting those three guys to do an early 90’s IMC tag team relay might be pretty fun.
Here is a thought to share with organizers…what about 4 man relays…swimmer, biker and runner leg 1 and runner leg 2. It might be easier to cobble together relay teams where the relay runner does not need to shred his legs on a full marathon (unless they end up with a Boston certified course, and I believe Kona is the only one that is a Boston certified course).
Dev
I think the Penticton course was a BQ a while ago as Steve Brown from Peach City Runners measured it with his Jones Counter and got it certified.It has changed a few times over the years though so i don’t know if it is now.
I’d love to see Ray and a few of the old guys back in town again…I think a few more old timers will roll up in the news over the next few months…
They could have an old timers Aquabike competition. That could get some of the old crew out. I think that has potential from a “celebrity endorsement”/“pre kona” angle. It would be totally ST appoved…an “official race to T2”. No overriding statements around, “There is never a good bike split that is is followed by a bad run”. There would be no run to take away from some blazing bikes. And even if you do that, can anyone break Hellriegel’s 1996 time to T2?
Word on the street in that Jonnyo may be making an appearance as well…