It was smoking hot yesterday afternoon, but conditions were cooler and generally ideal in the early morning for the running of Penticton's 37th annual Peach Classic Triathlon.
And Grande Prairie, Alberta's Joe Radench, one of 366 competitors to sign up for the event, took advantage. His finishing time of 2:10:11 in the "Standard" Olympic-distance race not only won the Men's 50 to 54 age category, but the overall title too. Vanessa Tilson of Kelowna finished seventh overall and won the women's division with a time of 2:21:45.
Kelowna's Cameron McInnis won the "Sprint" distance event - precisely half the length of the Standard race - in 1:12:27, followed a minute and a half later by women's division champ and second-place overall finisher Chelsea Raymond of West Vancouver at 1:13:51.
In Aqua/Bike action, where competitors swim and bike Olympic distances but forego the run, Revelstoke's Alex Szirmai in the 60-64 age group won the overall title at 1:30:27, while Victoria's Samantha Hoft finished third overall and took the women's division at 1:33.59.
Penticton's lone podium came courtesy of Adrianne Dargie, who was the second woman to cross the line in the Sprint.
Race director Steve Brown says the Peach Classic is BC's longest-running individual triathlon, and there's little wonder why. Penticton's been an endurance sport hub for decades, and the event's course, which starts on the Okanagan Lake waterfront and then winds its way through the Naramata Bench - first on the roadways then on the KVR Trail - is nothing short of spectacular.
It's no real surprise then that there are so many returnees. And stories.
Take Penticton's Joanne Montgomery. At 64 years young, Montgomery finished first yesterday in her 65-69 category and 61st overall in the Sprint. Not bad, right?
But the real news is far more interesting than that. In the very first year of the event, 37 years ago, Montgomery won the women's division.
"It was called the Peach Festival Triathlon back then," she said after picking up her medal yesterday. "The swim was from the Sicamous to the Peach, the run went up (the brutally steep) Sage Mesa hill, and the bike turn-around was at Robinson in Naramata. I think it ended up being a one kilometer swim, a 26k bike, and a 12k run. There was no such thing as 'standard' distances back then."
In those days, even the term "triathlon" was new. "When I wrote the cheque to enter, I didn't even know how to spell the word."
But, said Montgomery, there was a group of people in the Penticton area that regularly practiced triathlon-style disciplines. "There was no Internet or cell phones then, but somehow the word would get out that we were going swimming at whatever beach at so and so time Saturday. And Jack Kelly's Coffee would bring us coffee while we were training."
But jumping into a real triathlon was something else altogether. "I'd never done a running race. I swam for exercise, and I'd been on a bike tour in Europe for five months the year before, so that helped."
"There were no wetsuits, and we didn't have heart rate monitors or sports bars. And belts for carrying water hadn't been invented yet, so we'd go out the night before and hide bottles of water along the course."
Incredibly, this was Montgomery's 34th Peach Classic - a heck of a lot more than virtually everyone there, including a fellow by the name of Jonathan Caron.
Caron didn't compete yesterday, but a lot of his students did. Caron, you see is a coach. He coaches triathlons. And he too has quite a history.
"When I was 18," he said, "I came here from Quebec to do my first ever triathlon. And then I moved a few years later to Victoria and was part of the National team on the World Cup circuit. I raced ten to 15 years as a pro."
"Towards the end of my career, I moved to Ironman so I came back here and started racing. I finished second here at the Ironman in 2007."
When Caron wound down his career, he acted on a desire he'd always had - to work with and coach other athletes. And he established Jonnyo Coaching.
"It's fun to see them on the podium, and watch their journeys. I'm having too much fun supporting them to even think about competing again. I had several finishers in the top today. I'm just loving it."
Another coach of sorts is Penticton's Rhys Spencer. Spencer, 48, took part in Sunday's race and finished a very respectable 9th overall. It was his fourth Peach Classic.
"Can't complain for 48," he said afterward. "We have a great group that swims in the lake three times a week at 6 in the morning. And I've always ridden my bike. And I have some friends out of Kelowna where we share war stories during our marathon run training. So that keeps me honest."
But like Caron, Spencer is all about seeing others succeed. He's the president of the Penticton Triathlon Club.
"We have 65 members," he said Sunday. "And this summer 20 of them went to Germany to do Challenge Roth, an iron distance race. It's the largest in the world, 5500 racers. Next year we'll probably have eight to 12 members participate in Ironman Canada when it returns to Penticton."
Spencer sees good things in the Peach Classic's future too. "I think next year with Ironman coming back, I bet there'll be twice as many people here to do this race, as a training camp."
Sitting on the Rotary Park grass not far from Spencer was Coquitlam's Mario D'Angelo. D'Angelo did the Standard distance race Sunday and finished mid-pack in 94th place. And he wore a shirt emblazoned with profanity.
D'Angelo's shirt said "F*** Cancer." Actually, the "u" was a stylized butterfly and skull. But everyone got the message.
In 2013, D'Angelo was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. He's since undergone all the hardcore treatments for it. And two years later, he was diagnosed with a far rarer form of cancer - neuroendochrine tumor.
"So now I've got two cancers," he said while hanging out with his wife Pam and good friend Jerry Mitchell of Penticton. The first is currently in remission, but he's fighting the second one hard. "It's a devastating diagnosis," he said. "Not just for the individual, but for all the people who are around them."
As if that wasn't enough, D'Angelo was hit by a car last year while riding his bike. He was doing his usual commute from Coquitlam to Vancouver, which is a heck of a long ride for anyone, never mind a guy trying to put the smackdown on two cancers, when the car hit him "in broad daylight."
D'Angelo's backpack and helmet helped cushion the blow, but he still incurred some injuries, including a broken hand. "It was a really serious hit," he said.
Considering all of the above, competing in and completing this year's Peach Classic was a seriously big deal for the 58-year-old veteran of five full Ironmans. "Cancer's very impactful of what I can do," he said, "and I can't get back to the Ironmans right now. But today was wonderful. It's such a fantastic area and the people are so great."
Indeed, this whole triathlon thing has been good for D'Angelo in other ways too. Several years ago while readying for his very first Ironman, he worked with a City of Coquitlam personal trainer. After the event, he asked the trainer if she'd sign up with him for the following year's Ironman. The trainer said yes.
A year later, Mario D'Angelo and Pam Keefe did the Whistler Ironman together. And at the finish line, he proposed. She happily accepted.
Yesterday, Pam joined Mario on his journey through the Peach Classic. When they get home to Coquitlam, they'll say hello to their new puppy "Ironman." And then they'll work together to help Mario f*** cancer.
