The annual Subaru Ironman Canada took place on Aug. 25 in Whistler. To appreciate the scope of what it takes to even complete, one must understand the insanity of the Ironman triathlon: It involves a 3.8 km swim, a 180 km cycle, and a 42.2 km marathon-length run.
Amongst those (insane) numbers was Sooke’s own Owen Stampflee, who we at the Sooke News Mirror have been following throughout the season.
In his category (males between the ages of 25 and 29), Stampflee ranked an impressive 25 out of 76 who finished.
Stampflee completed with the following timelines: 1 hour, 13 minutes for the swim, 5 hours and 38 minutes for the cycle, and 4 hours and 38 minutes for the run. In total, he was in involved in high-intensity physical engagement for 11 hours and 36 minutes.
The average finish time for the Whistler event was 12 hours and 52 minutes.
“I had a decent swim, a good bike, and an awful marathon where some stomach issues developed two miles in resulting in a run close to an hour slower than expected. My overall time was 11:36:03.”
Considering the gruelling nature of the run, one can only wonder, “Why do it?” So we put that question to Stampflee.
“I’m your typical type-A, very competitive personality (like nearly every other long distance triathlete), always striving to improve,” Stampflee wrote in an email on Aug 29. “I’m back training already. There is also the incredible energy at events and a huge sense of community and camaraderie amongst triathletes. It doesn’t hurt that I enjoy the process and the training, you don’t spend 20+ hours a week swimming/biking/running if you don’t like it, although the six hour workouts did get to be tiring.”
The annual Ironman saw 2,600 athletes compete in the event, supported by close to 3,000 volunteers.