Lucas Punkari
Local athletes may want to circle Sunday, Sept. 8 on their calendar.
That’s when the Rainy Lake Triathlon Club is planning to hold its first-ever aquathlon event at Pither’s Point Park here.
The event, which features two of the three disciplines that make up a triathlon, will consist of a 750-metre swim and a five-km run.
“We will have a beach start from the government dock next to the La Place Rendez-Vous, and the swim will be in a triangle pattern that will see the competitors go past the dock a little bit and head towards the other main beach and back,” explained race organizer Jeff Tilbury.
“After they get back onto the beach, there will be a transitional zone up on the grass before they get into the run, which will start along Lake Road,” he added.
“The competitors will then go over the overpass and along the waterfront path to the Sorting Gap Marina, before they head back the other way to the Rendez-Vous and the finish.”
Preparations for the aquathlon, which will cost $25 per individual and $50 per team to enter, have been talked about for the last couple of months since the Rainy Lake Triathlon Club was formed here.
The more formal organizational stages of the event got underway recently.
“We formed a race committee at our last meeting on Thursday, and each of us have some tasks that we need to do to get things organized,” Tilbury noted.
“This is more like a test event for us as we would love to eventually have a triathlon here, but we want to see the amount of interest that we have,” he added.
“We are hoping to have 40-60 participants,” said Tilbury. “But it is hard to say how many people we will get, so we are just hoping to have some good numbers and build off of that.”
One of the biggest thing organizers are working on right now is to get some sponsorship support from the community, especially when it comes to help to offset the costs for event insurance.
“At first, we were hoping not to have to get a lot of sponsorship and to keep things self-sufficient,” Tilbury remarked.
“But the quote that we got back was higher than what we were first thinking, so we need to get some support in order to cover that main cost,” he stressed.
Another thing the club is looking for are volunteers for the event, especially when it comes to the five-km run.
“We do need a few more people to help us out as course marshals, whether it be someone who hands out water at the water-aid stations or someone that works on the corners to help direct traffic and make sure we don’t have any collisions,” Tilbury said.
“When it comes to the water, we are just looking more for people that can help to spot anyone that is in trouble, as we have trained lifeguards that will be helping us out with that,” he added.
Those looking for more information on the aquathlon can contact Tilbury at 274-6648 or via e-mail at jwtilson@shaw.ca
