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A pair of Kelowna athletes swam, biked and ran their way to lofty placings in a field of nearly 1,400 athletes in Idaho on Sunday at the 14th annual Ironman Coeur d’Alene triathlon.
Cailla Patterson stormed her way through a gruelling three-hour 25-minute marathon to finish second among all women and first among 69 competitors in her 40-44 age group on the challenging 226-kilometre course.
Jake Van Allen finished in a time of 10:15:35 to place 10th in the men’s 25-29 age group and 35th overall.
Patterson, 43, competing in her third Ironman Coeur d’Alene and her 17th career Ironman, finished in a time of 10:32:10, in the process earning a spot at the Ironman World Championships being held Oct. 8 in Kona, Hawaii.
“The day actually turned out really well,” said Patterson, who has been racing triathlons since the age of 19. “By the second loop of the swim, it was pretty rough out there. Anyone who’s done Coeur d’Alene knows it’s always rough on the swim, but it turned out well.
“My goal time was 10:30, so I was off by two minutes, but that’s okay.”
A compact 5-foot-2, 112 pounds, Patterson covered the 3.8-km two-loop Lake Coeur d’Alene course in a respectable time of 1:06:40 and was a steady 5:51 on the 180-km bike course, taming the blustery and challenging conditions as the wind picked up on that leg of the race.
“All week long they had been saying Sunday was going to be windy,” she said. “We got away with the first loop on the bike— it wasn’t too bad — but on the second loop, there was an absolutely brutal wind.”
With winds gusting to an estimated 30-35 km/hr, Patterson held it together in survival mode on the last part of the ride and into the second transition.
It was on the run, though, where Patterson revved up her pace. By her own estimation, she came back into Coeur d’Alene and got off the bike in 13th place — and was determined to make a significant move on the marathon.
“My run is what pulls me through,” she said. “And I knew exactly where I was and that I could pick off people.
Which she did — emphatically.
By the end of the 42.2 km run, Patterson had managed to move through all of her age group competitors while picking up a minute on the women’s overall winner, 28-year-old Morgan Busko of New York (10:24:45).
Patterson, a real state consultant and mother of an eight-year-old girl, has also fought through her share of adversity along the way to her triathlon success.
She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2009 (she just received her five-year all-clear from the doctors); survived a nasty bicycle vs car crash while training a few years ago; and tore her ACL during physical testing to become an RCMP officer shortly after.
But that hasn’t kept her down. Far from it.
She completed her first Ironman on her honeymoon with husband Dale, himself a 23-time Ironman finisher, and he was there to cheer his wife along the way. Patterson acknowledged it’s that kind of emotional support that motivates her to finish strongly in what, for many, would be an almost-insurmountable task.
“In our family, we just include everyone in everything,” she said. “We enjoy it as a family,” she added.
That support, combined with her mental toughness and resiliency allowed her to best all comers in her age group, and finish second on the podium behind Busko on what was an extremely challenging day for all competitors.
“Being 64th overall, including the men, shows how tough a day it was,” said Patterson.
As for Van Allen, competing in only his third Ironman-distance race, he battled a foot injury en route to his top-10 age-group result.
“It all went according to plan,” recounted the 29-year-old. “I had a bad foot going in but it was better than expected. The wind on the bike really caused me to work harder than I wanted, but I was lucky to get out there early and avoid some of the worst of it.”
“I have to admit, Coeur D'Alene put on the absolute best race I’ve been a part of. It was cool to see the whole community (young, old, dudes on choppers, etc.) all helping out.
Van Allen, who said he would be stepping away from triathlon “for a while” in search of new challenges, still was relatively content with his finish.
“(I’m) happy with the 35th overall but it would have been nice to finish higher in AG,” he said. “However, amateur triathlon is all about who shows up and I have been on the other (lucky) side of that coin many times.
“(My) only goal going in was to get back to racing for my own reasons and enjoy it.”
Meanwhile, Patterson earned one of 65 coveted spots available in Coeur d’Alene for the Worlds in Hawaii in October and will make the trip to compete there for a third time. But she, like Van Allen, maintains a healthy perspective on the sport.
“It doesn’t really matter to me what the outcome is,” said Patterson. “As long as I’ve given everything I have out there.”
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