Athletes competing in Sunday’s inaugural Challenge St. Andrews triathlon woke up to blue skies and beautiful conditions despite the area being struck hard by Hurricane Arthur on Saturday morning.
Race organizers and community volunteers worked straight through the night to clean up from this major storm and set up for Sunday morning’s event. Once the race got under way, Timothy O’Donnell quickly took the lead in the swim and held it through the rolling bike course and plowed through the remaining wind gusts for a 2:12 bike split. O’Donnell then moved on to a 1:13 run clocking over the seaside run course, which features stunning views of the Bay of Fundy and surrounding islands. O’Donnell’s final time was 3:53:03 at the finish.
In the women’s event, it came as no surprise that Mirinda “Rinny” Carfrae took over the lead early on in the day and went on to ride a 2:27 bike split on a course that features astounding views of historic St. Croix island and across the inlet at the State of Maine. Carfrae cruised to a 1:19 run and finished up with a 4:18:35 finish time to cap off this husband and wife double win.
In the men’s race the top 5 overall were:
1. Timothy O’Donnell
2. Cody Beals
3. Nathan Buttrick
4. Jordan Bryden
5. Zev Myerowitz Jr.
In the women’s race the top five were:
1. Mirinda Carfrae
2. Charisa Wernick
3. Annie Gervais
4. Angela Quick
5. Karen Smyers
This race will be a memorable one; despite power outages and extensive damages in the community, race organizer managed to keep the EXPO going throughout the weekend. Athletes had the opportunity to mingle with Canadian Olympic Gold Medalist, Simon Whitfield, former Olympian, Sharon Donnelly and former Hawaii Champion and 3 X ITU World Champion, Karen Smyers. For more information on how to register for next year’s Challenge St. Andrews, log onto the website at www.challenge-family.com or on Facebook and see all of the Challenge Family events at www.challenge-family.com .