Paul Regensburg couldn’t have asked for better weather.
A director with Life Support Coaching and Events, Regensburg is a former Olympic coach who was in Banff on Saturday (Sept. 10) to oversee the second annual Subaru Western Triathlon.
“It’s pretty wonderful,” he said, speaking following the race. “The weather’s been incredible this week, because last year the race was quite cold and this morning at Two Jack, as each bus of athletes pulled up, there was a collective gasp of how beautiful it looked with the sun coming up on the mountain there.”
The race began with a swim at Two Jack Lake, followed by cycling around Minnewanka loop and from there to the downtown core, ending with a run through the downtown core.
“The water temperature was 14 degrees, which is still cool, but surprisingly warmer than we thought it would be,” said Regensburg. “It was a great day and everybody was safe.
“People loved the bike, doing the Minnewanka loop. It’s so incredible to be able to run around the Bow River and to finish down Banff Avenue like that is a memory of a lifetime for some of these competitors.”
There were three categories for length: super sprint (300 metre swim, 12 kilometre bike, 5 km run), sprint (500 m swim, 25 km bike, 5 km run) and Olympic (1,500 m swim, 38 km bike, 10 km run), with the super sprint being new for this year.
There were also relay participants, in which teams of three people raced in the different segments, and children’s races.
First to cross the finish line was Nel Anton of Okotoks, in the super sprint category.
“It’s nice to be out on the bike, it’s a beautiful course out from the lake, and the run area was beautiful, well organized and a very nice run,” he said, shortly after crossing the line.
“This is fantastic, I must say the whole setup is wonderful, the spectators are great, the venue is just fantastic, and we’re so grateful to Banff they’re able to close down Main Street and allow us to come into the town,” said Anton. “It’s a great experience and I will definitely do it again.”
Anton finished second overall in the sprint category last year. Close behind him, in second place, was Chris Bolivar, of Edmonton.
“It was a lot warmer than last year, and the bike was solid, I just couldn’t catch up to him on the run, but a great day here,” he said. “There’s some hills on the bike, gorgeous run, the swim was pretty smooth today, so it’s a really nice course here.
“The feeling you get coming across the finish line, you don’t get that anywhere else. Great people and a great group to train with, and it’s just all around a great sport.”
The top three finishers in the super sprint had times of 45:01 for Anton, 50:02 for Bolivar and 51:16 for Ruan Zwanepoel of Dewinton, AB. The top Bow Valley finisher was Aran Dvernychuk in seventh place with a time of 56:27
Alex Dieleman of St. Albert, at 16-year-old, was the youngest participant in the triathlon. He finished in sixth place in the super sprint.
“It’s one of the last races of the triathlon season and I wanted to get it done. I’m with a club in St. Albert,” he said. “I really like sports and it’s a good variety.
“It was a good course, very scenic, so I think I’ll do this again next year.”
While many of the participants were from elsewhere in Alberta, a large number were from the local area as well, including Sarah Graham of Banff.
“It’s a great event, and it turned out to be a really great day,” she said It’s really well organized and a lot of fun. Good atmosphere.
“This is my seventh triathlon, but my first in Banff. I like the competition, but it’s a really great environment, you meet a lot of nice people and it’s a lot of fun.”
The top three sprint category finishers were Bo Simpson of Calgary (1:09:41), Jon Arne Enevoldsen of Canmore (1:10:08) and Shawn Vording of Chestermere (1:12:12).
The top female finisher in that category was Sarah MacArthur of Calgary.
“It was good, I haven’t done a sprint all year,” she said. “And the weather’s phenomenal – the water was bloody cold!”
MacArthur has been participating in triathlons for about a year.
“I just started doing them last year and training this year, so we’ll see where it takes us,” she said. “It’s really gorgeous. That’s something they say when you register, and it actually is, and it’s so neat because there’s so many tourists in Banff, so there’s so many people everywhere.”
The top three Olympic category finishers were Grant Burwash of Calgary (1:51:44), Scott Neyedli of Kelowna (1:56:06) and Trev Williams of Calgary (1:58:02). The top Bow Valley finisher was Canmore’s John Monk in 11th place (2:14:10).
The decision to hold this race in Banff came at the urging of an athlete, said Regensburg.
“There was a local athlete who we coached – Mike Mendelman – who kept asking us to come do a race in Banff,” he said. “We love Banff, but hadn’t been here for a while and that’s part of the point – we want to get people coming back to Banff.”
As for numbers, this year’s event was on par with last year.
“We had about the same level of participants as last year, so we had in the vicinity of 750 registrants and then a number of relay teams,” said Regensburg. “And then we had the kids event as well, so all told we had about a thousand people participating in the events this weekend.”
The event has a strong economic impact on the town, he said.
“Last year when we did our economic data afterward, most people stayed an average of two to three days and most brought an average of three people with them, which is much higher than our other events, he said.
“So we may have brought 5,000 people into the region for the event all told, which is a pretty nice reason to have the event.”
