Competing in her first triathlon two weeks ago, Connee Badiuk of here finished seventh overall and topped her age division. And she liked it so much, she’s doing it again this Sunday in Kenora.
To Badiuk, it’s all about fitness.
“I was looking for something to focus on and to stay fit during the summer,” she noted yesterday. “I quite enjoyed [my first race]. I find the training to be as much of a high as the race itself.”
Triathlons have three separate classes–the Ironman, Olympic, and the Sprint. The Kenora race–like the one Badiuk competed in at Buffalo Point, Man. earlier this month–is classified as a sprint (featuring a 750m swim, followed by a 20-km bike ride and a five-km run).
Ironman races are more than triple those distances and Badiuk knows she’s not there yet.
“I think the athletes that do [Ironmans] are at a different level than me,” she conceded. “Maybe someday.”
She spends about seven hours a week training in the pool and on the hilly part of Lake Despair Road. She said her weakest leg is easily the swimming, adding her 10-year-old son, Boyd, a member of the Aquanauts swim team, is giving her some pointers.
“It’s quite humbling learning from a 10-year-old,” she remarked.
If Badiuk gets more serious, she will invest in a new bike–and a wetsuit (noting it was a “chilly” swim in her first race).
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
