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In Penticton, endurance fitness is where it's at.
Swimmers here aren’t satisfied with a few laps at the local pool, they paddle multiple kilometers across lakes. Runners aren’t happy with five-kilometer jogs, they disappear for an hour or two. Cyclists don’t do mere routes around town, they crack off 50k or more, hurdling ridiculous obstacles like "The Wall" in the process.
Granted, not everyone wields that level of athletic prowess. But a shocking number, of seemingly every age bracket, do.
Little wonder then that we've become a hotspot for endurance sport competitions. The Granfondo. The Skaha Lake Ultra Swim. Ironman Canada. The Peach Classic Triathlon.
But beyond all those are the region's two wildest, two most hardcore events -- Ultraman Canada and Ultra520K Canada.
Both send competitors on seemingly impossible three-day journeys where they swim ten kilometers and bike nearly 150 on just the first day! They then ride another 275 on the second, and finish off with a brain-melting 84.4-kilometer run on the third.
The similarities don’t end there. Both events attract deeply committed, deeply international fields. Both demand that each competitor brings a "crew" on the route with them.
And both are expensive. Entrants in the former hand over $1,800. Entrants in the latter cough up $2,400. And that just gets them in the race. It doesn't include stuff like air fare, accommodation, food and crew costs.
And finally, both occur right about now. Ultraman Canada, won by a woman in 2022 (Canada's Amy Robitaille) and sporting four females on the top five finishers, unfolded last weekend. Ultra520K Canada, with no less than three competiors over the age of 60, starts Saturday morning and finishes Monday.
How we got into the position of having two-nearly identical "Ultra" events that run at virtually the same time is a subject for another story. But the big news now is that one of them is closing up shop.
And it's not Ultraman. So by process of elimination, it's this weekend's event, the Ultra520.
But it's not going away without something new and potentially more appealing -- and certainly more forgiving -- appearing in its wake.
We chatted last week with endurance sports guru Steve Brown to get the straight goods. Brown, now 71 and a five-time Ironman competitor himself in his (slightly) younger days, runs both the outgoing and probable incoming events, and has had his hands in most other local endurance events over the course of the past few decades.
And now he feels it's time for a change. A couple weeks ago right here, he announced he was looking for new ownership for longtime Penticton staple Peach Classic Triathlon. Now he's signaling the end of Ultra520K Canada.
"One, it's a very long event," he said of the three-day torture test. "Every day is 12 hours just for the athletic portion. And that means our volunteers are working a minimum of 15-hour days. And we're all getting old."
It's also, as we pointed out earlier, expensive. And that $2,400 entry fee is just the start.
"You have to bring your crew in," said Brown, "and then you've got five to seven days of hotel rooms, five to seven days of car rentals, you've got food and all of your travel expenses, and your entry into the event and all that kind of stuff.
"Put it all together and you're looking at 12 to 15 grand for the average person to do an UItra race."
But there's something else too. Brown says the event, and others just like it, have been attracting fewer competitors in recent years. And he's not sure if those numbers will swing back around.
"Prior to COVID, we were getting 40," he said. "But now (this year) I'm down to 16. It's unlikely it'll come back. The other races that are exactly the same around the world, everyone's getting 15 to 22."
So the Ultra520K is definitely, absolutely going away after this weekend's finale. But its replacement, a Brown concept from a few years ago, is on the way.
Maybe. Only if enough people indicate they're interested. Otherwise, laughed Brown, he'll "go sip margaritas on the beach with everybody else."
It's called Ultra355 Canada and it's no newbie. Brown came up with the idea and then teamed with an Australian partner who immediately put together two events that have already been tried and tested.
"We're got one in Cozumel," said Brown, "and we have one in Hervey Bay, Australia. Canada will be the third one, and we're working on a couple of others -- one in South America and another in Europe.
"This will be the third year for Cozumel and Australia's been going for two years. So we've run them in other countries and we know they’re popular and we know they work."
Ultra355 Canada is, essentially, a scaled back Ultra520 (355 kilometers total distance versus 520) that costs a lot less to enter and put on and isn't nearly so demanding.
Instead of a 10k swim and a 175k run on Day One, Ultra355 athletes do 5k in the water and 125 on the bike. Day Two is 175k on the bike versus 275, while the Day Three run drops to 50k from a nightmarish 85.
According to Brown, the 12-hour athlete days and 15-hour volunteer days will shorten to eight and ten respectively. And competitors won’t need a human crew following them around in a chase vehicle. Instead, they'll stow nutrients and supplies in advance on the course.
Furthermore, the entry fee is a whopping $900 cheaper at $1,500.
As for the course, it's shorter and a bit less adventurous too. Whereas Ultra520K (and Ultraman, for that matter) covers ground from Penticton to the border to Princeton to Summerland, Ultra355 would do away with the Princeton and Summerland bits and stay comparatively tight to its designated home base of Okanagan Falls.
Day One will feature two 2.5-kilometer swim loops of southern Skaha Lake, each emanating from OK Falls, then a 125k bike ride through Richter Pass and back. The Day Two bike segment takes competitors to Osoyoos, with a double-loop of the gorgeous Black Sage Road along the way, then sticks them on a circular route through OK Falls and up "The Wall," then past Willowbrook, White Lake and Twin Lakes before coming home again to OK Falls.
The third and final day trades in the tradition (and the hardships) of the remote, dusty Princeton Summerland Road in favour of two 25k loops of a circuit that circumnavigates OK Falls and takes athletes past numerous wineries and along scenic McLean Creek Road in the process.
A substantial bonus to ditching the Ultra520 format is that entrants are no longer compelled to find a second hotel room near Princeton for the second night. They can do the entire event without switching out accommodations.
Brown said he's already "spoken with the RDOS in OK Falls" (essentially the governing body in the absence of a mayor and council), and assures us they're psyched about the idea.
"Whatever they spin from it beyond that is up to them," he added.
In the meantime, he waits for those expressions of interest. And he seems fully at peace with his decision to shelve the idea if he doesn't get the number he wants.
"We're past the stage where we're going to put on events for 15 or 20 athletes," he said.
"It's really simple. For almost 35 years I haven’t been getting a paycheque doing these things. So that's over. Now it's time for me to get paid for what I do."
Fortunately, interest thus far is apparently high.
Brown's cut-off number is 50. And as of July 28, just three weeks since he put the word out and two days before the 2022 Ultra520K Canada, he's already received 35. That puts him well ahead of where he thought he'd be at this point.
"I've looked through it and I know a lot of the names on the list," he said. "A lot of them are people who've done the Ultra520 and are saying 'That's cool, I'd like to come back.'
"But an expression of interest is way different than an application with $1,500. If this keeps on building, then we send out the applications and find out how many of them come back. That'll be the real test."
Today, Brown is thoroughly engaged in last-minute logistics for this weekend's Ultra520K. The course, he said, has been modified for 2022 "as a precursor to the 355 to check if there are any issues with the course" and "so we don’t put any additional strains on Princeton (which flooded in late 2021)."
It'll start at 6:30 am Saturday at Okanagan Falls' Christie Beach and finish Monday afternoon at Okanagan Falls' Kenyon Park. For more info on the event and the best places/times to take it in, head here.
"I'm excited about the 355," said Brown. "Just because it is new. I've been doing the 520 and the Peach Classic for a bunch of years. I started Ultraman Canada here in Penticton in 1993. And now we’re at 2022. So, 30 years.
"It's been a long time."
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