Story & photos by Cameron Elford
May 26, 2007 – 2006 Ironman Canada champion Jasper Blake, from Victoria, British Columbia, and 2005 Ironman U.S. champion Kim Loeffler, from Colchester, Vermont, won the Subaru Victoria International Half Iron today at Shawnigan Lake, a rural resort community an hour north of Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island on Canada’s West Coast.
Over the past decade, as the sport of triathlon has grown worldwide, and fueled in part in Canada by Simon Whitfield’s 2000 gold-medal performance at the Sydney Olympics, Victoria has emerged as a top training destination (the Canadian equivalent of San Diego, Calif., or Boulder, Colo.) and is home to Whitfield as well as two-time Ironman world champion Lori Bowden and, until recently, three-time Ironman world champ Peter Reid.
Area triathletes have long had a choice of top local races here, such as the long-running New Balance Half Iron in June, and this year the event calendar expanded yet again to include the Victoria International Half Iron, one of three races that will make up this summer’s Subaru West Coast Triathlon Series organized by LifeSport, a coaching company founded by Ironman and Olympic coaches Paul Regensburg and Lance Watson.
Kid’s race kicks off the schedule of events
The inaugural Subaru Victoria International Half Iron got an early start with a kids’ running race on Friday evening at the race site before the athletes plunged into Shawnigan Lake this morning to begin the two-lap wetsuit-legal swim for the half Iron – then, an hour later, were followed by the sprint-distance race, which was headlined by two ITU World Cup stars in the hunt to make their respective national Olympic teams for Beijing ’08: Lisa Mensink, racing for Holland, and Brent McMahon (also well known on the XTERRA circuit), of Canada.
After emerging from the swim near the front of the half-Iron field, both Loeffler (pictured at left as she pounds through the 11km mark of the half-marathon on the Trans Canada Trail) and Blake – who was second out the water, in 24:32, behind only a relay team -- dug into the challenging four-loop bike course, which circles the lake and includes a series of short, choppy hills that require repeated bursts of power, which can sap leg strength.
“The bike’s hard,” said Blake of the 88km course that winds through temperate rainforests on nearly carless roads. “There are a lot of momentum killers – it sort of rolls.”
Still, Blake put in a strong bike effort over the nearly windless course under high, broken clouds to post a 2:17:03 split, which put him seconds behind Victoria’s Ben Cotter – who hammered to a race-best 2:15:14 ride to catch Blake on the final lap of the bike course -- into T2.
But despite giving up the lead to Cotter on the bike, Blake used his leg speed to quickly make up ground and open a gap over Cotter on the 21.1km out-and-back run, which takes place entirely on the Trans Canada Trail, a winding dirt and gravel footpath through ancient stands of Douglas Fir and Cedar trees.
“I caught him [Cotter] about 500 meters into the run and tried to just settle into my pace and not get too crazy at the start. It felt pretty good, but it’s a tough run course,” said Blake after crossing the finish line with a 1:24:01 run split to take the win in 4:07:28. “Because it’s all on gravel and it goes up and down a fair bit, it was a tougher course than I thought it would be. I’m pretty wasted right now.”
Blake is coming off a big week of training in Penticton, the home or Ironman Canada, in preparation for Ironman Coeur d’Alene on June 24. “[Coeur d’Alene] should be good; this was a good prep for it,” he added.
With the day’s second-fastest half-marathon, in 1:25:18, Jamie Moracci, from Leamington, Ontario, managed to snatch second place from Cotter, who finished third, just two minutes behind Moracci.
Loeffler runs down Corbin
After heading out onto the bike within seconds of Missoula, Montana’s Linsey Corbin (pictured at left, resplendent in her cowboy hat), Loeffler found herself in a back-and-forth battle with Corbin over the challenging course. “We went back and forth a lot,” said Loeffler. “I came into T2 right behind her [Corbin] – maybe 10 seconds or so. We were pretty close throughout the whole bike.”
But once on the run, Loeffler, a former track and cross-country star at the University of Massachusetts, began to chip away at Corbin’s slim advantage and had grabbed the lead by kilometer four. “On the run, after I passed her . . . I just kept opening the gap,” said Loeffler. “But I know she’s a strong runner so I just had to run pretty hard.”
Loeffler built on her margin with a 1:25:49 run -- the fifth fastest of the day among men and women – to take the win in 4:23:35 for an astounding fourth place overall. Corbin ran 1:32:47 to finish seven minutes back, in second. Victoria’s Cheryl Murphy took third after a strong 1:30:26 half-marathon over the rolling trail.
For complete results, please click here
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Subaru Victoria International Half Iron
Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia, Canada
May 26, 2007
1.9km swim, 88km bike, 21.1km run
Women
1. Kim Loeffler (Colchester, Vermont) 4:23:35
2. Linsey Corbin (Missoula, Mont.) 4:30:18
3. Cheryl Murphy (Victoria, BC) 4:45:45
4. Alldritt Miranda (North Vancouver, BC) 4:51:30
5. Chrystie Hjeltness (Post Falls, Idaho) 5:04:11
Men
1. Jasper Blake (Victoria, BC) 4:07:28
2. Jamie Moracci (Leamington, Ont.) 4:13:41
3. Ben Cotter (Victoria, BC) 4:15:56
4. Scott McMillan (Fairmont, BC) 4:25:00
5. Corey Borolien (Saskatoon, Sask.) 4:26:45