The Squamish Off-Road Triathlon returned this past Father’s Day, June 18, with over 100 individual finishers and 17 relay finishers.
At Alice Lake Provincial Park, the off-road swimming, biking and running event celebrates the life of late triathlete, Bob McIntosh. This year’s event was separated into three categories: championship, sport and relay.
“The weather held out for the race and the sun even came out which was fantastic,” wrote race director, Jessica Walker, in an email to The Squamish Chief. “The feedback from racers was overwhelmingly positive.”
The championship category has a 1,500-metre swim, 25-kilometre bike and 10-kilometre run. The sport category is about half the amount of the championship course, but still a great distance with a 750-metre swim, 12.5-kilometre bike and 5.5-kilometre run.
The top three finishers in the championship category were Nicholas Thomas, Brian O’Rourke and Katie Button.
Thomas finished with a time of 2:39:35, narrowly beating O’Rourke who finished at 2:40:31. Button came in about five minutes later at 2:45:11.
In the sport category, the top three finishers were Tom Patmore, Rick Hunter and Tiera Wilson. Patmore finished at a blazing 1:23:45 and Hunter and Wilson followed with a 1:32:57 and 1:35:07, respectively.
The relay teams run the championship course and can be two or three-person teams and single or mixed-gender.
ISL Canmorons with Vincent Nolet, Kristofer Dahl and Julian Asselstine finished first with a time of 2:39:13. ISL Canmore Leggy Bois with Josephine Lalonde-Bester, Richard Collumbine and Peter Clack finished in second with a time of 2:51:55. Case Bros with Julien Case, Sean Case and Aleksander Case finished third at a time of 2:54:01.
This year’s event marked the return of the race since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event started in 1998 to honour McIntosh after he was killed in December 1997.
The event donates to the Robert W. McIntosh Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Walker said there was a huge number of volunteers for the event and thanked all the sponsors who made this year’s event possible.
“We’ll be back next year,” she said.
Note: A previous headline of this story accidentally stated the incorrect amount of racers at the event. We have since updated to the correct amount. The Squamish Chief apologizes for this error.
