In his first-ever Ironman triathlon, Stephen Wheeler surprised himself a bit. After the Whistler athlete completed the enormous challenge of Sunday’s (Aug. 29) Ironman Canada race, he found himself feeling a little surprised at just how well the whole thing went.

“I probably did it better than I thought I was going to do it,” Wheeler mused on Monday (Aug. 30), less than a day after he finished the gruelling Penticton event in 11 hours, 47 minutes and three seconds of swimming, biking and running — breaking the 12-hour mark he had hoped to crack. “I wasn’t sure whether I’d manage that.”

In a long day that’s difficult on the body, Wheeler said he tried to keep all negative thoughts out of his head and persevere through challenges such as cramping and a burst of rainy, windy weather.

“I think I paced myself through it pretty good… I just wanted to keep going,” he said. When the day’s unexpected rain developed, Wheeler said, “I just put my head down and just kept cycling… I just kept going and kept going.”

The Ironman involves a 3.8-kilometre swim to start the journey, followed by 180 kilometres of biking and a marathon-length 42.2-kilometre run to end the epic challenge in downtown Penticton.

Wheeler was one of four Whistler athletes, alongside John Blok, Fero Piliar and Gillian Woodward, to join the record-breaking field of 2,780 athletes who splashed into Okanagan Lake to start the race.

Blok completed the odyssey in 12:12:56, finishing 27th of 123 athletes in his Male 55 to 59 age category. Piliar crossed the line with a time of 14:18:47, for 274th out of the 328 athletes in his Male 35 to 39 division, and Woodward was close behind with a time of 14:20:45 for 112th among the 165 athletes in her Women 35 to 39 category.

Wheeler’s time placed him 97th among the 313 competitors in the Male 45 to 49 division.

Wheeler has been training for nearly a full year with Christine Suter, local multisport coach and Ironman athlete herself, and Woodward started training with Suter in January for her own first Ironman after beginning her training process about a year out from the event.

“They both looked really good. Stephen was just steady, he was steady the whole way,” said Suter, who went to Penticton to cheer on competitors alongside other Whistler triathletes and supporters. And when Woodward started her run, Suter added, “she was just kind of ticking off the people as she went.”

Suter said the event was “amazing, for everybody, and it was not a nice day. It started off really nice and sunny, then on the ride you could see the clouds of rain.” When she was standing at the beginning of the big ride back into Penticton, “people were coming by us and you could hear their teeth chattering,” she said.

For Woodward, the rainy, windy weather was a relief. A veteran of some 30 adventure races and off-road triathlons, she’d been concerned about having to complete the massive task in temperatures near 30 degrees.

“I really got lucky in terms of my ability to handle the weather,” she said.

When Woodward crossed the finish line, her friends and supporters present were marvelling at the enormity of the achievement, Suter said. Woodward said she had been thinking about her friends and family during the race, and all the support they had given her.

“It’s such a huge accomplishment,” Suter said, later adding, “It’s so neat to be a part of their journey, just to know you’ve helped somebody along the way. I’m so proud.”

Wheeler said crossing the finish line is truly an “amazing feeling,” after so much effort and with so many people there cheering on the athletes. He joked that he was thinking, “I’m glad it’s over” — and in some ways, he also still couldn’t believe he’d done it.

After 14 hours of swimming, biking and running alone, Woodward was delighted to encounter the sizeable crowds cheering athletes across the finish line.

“I was blown away at how many people were there, and they’re banging on the banners as you come in,” she said. “I definitely felt elated when I crossed. As a result, my last kilometre was probably my fastest kilometre on the run.”

Suter noted that as a coach she provides guidance and a plan for what the athletes’ training could look like, but they are the ones who decide to dedicate themselves to put in all the hard work, including the many hours of training that have to be squeezed into already full lives. By the time the Ironman was approaching, Wheeler and Woodward were putting in about 15 hours per week around their already active lives, Suter said.

Wheeler has a wife and two children ages three and eight, plus work commitments, and he said it was hard to squeeze in the Ironman training, though he was fortunate to have a bit of time off work that allowed him to get in more training than he expected. But he took up the Ironman challenge thinking “it would be an amazing thing to try and do,” and he simply fit in the training wherever he could.

With full days needed for some of the training, such as bike rides to D’Arcy, “It’s almost like a full-time job to train,” Wheeler said, adding, “You just have to manage your time very well.”

Woodward, too, had to juggle training with her own full-time job, and some important work coming to a pivotal point during her year of preparations.

“Be realistic with yourself (and) be good to yourself,” she said.

Wheeler said he would still recommend the Ironman Canada race experience to anyone, given the uplifting atmosphere with many people lining the finish chute to cheer on competitors, and the excellent organization by race officials and volunteers.

Woodward also recommended focusing on getting through the challenging swim and feeling coherent afterward. As for the bike and run, she said, it’s mainly about pushing through.

Triathletes take bite of Apple

Whistler triathletes also had a successful run at the Pushor Mitchell Apple Triathlon in Kelowna in mid-August, led by the return of David Higgins after two years out of competition.

Racing in the Olympic-distance triathlon at the Aug. 22 event, Higgins captured 10th place in the Male 40 to 44 age category with a time of 2:17:33, and reports from other Whistlerites said it was great to see him back in the game. And Whistler’s Greg Sandkuhl won his Male 65 to 69 age category in yet another event, posting a time of 2:24:19 to defeat the other competitor in the group by 20 minutes.

Also in the Olympic-distance race, Jeremy Sayers sped to sixth place in the Male 45 to 49 category, stopping the clock at 2:11:25, while Whistler’s Adam Ward finished 10th among the 34 athletes in the Male 20 to 24 age group, with a time of 2:14:08.

Cristina McKean matched Ward’s rank in the Female 25 to 29 category with a time of 2:33:36, and Frederic Jardot sped to 21st in the Male 35 to 39 category, posting a time of 2:30:10,

Whistler’s Lynne Venner and Pemberton’s Heather St. Arnaud marked a milestone by completing their first-ever Sprint triathlon. St. Arnaud achieved a time of 2:02:20, racing in the Female 55 to 59 division, and Venner crossed the finish line with a time of 2:10:35 while racing in the Female 60 to 64 age group.

Also in the Sprint event, Iain Adams finished seventh in the Male 50 to 54 category with a time of 1:20:56.

The Kelowna event also included the elite national championship races, won by two-time Olympic medallist Simon Whitfield and rising star Paula Findlay.