Chinook Triathlon returns to Jarvis Bay

It’s time for some elite athletes to go the distance in Jarvis Bay.

On Saturday, July 30 – Jarvis Bay and the Town of Sylvan Lake will play host to the 2016 Chinook Triathlon. The event, which is set for their second year in Sylvan Lake and 12^th overall,returns after a very successful inaugural year and was exactly what organizer Jordan Bryden was looking for.

“It has a cool community feel to it,” he said. “We like to think of ourselves as a little less serious but still competitive race. A grassroots feel is really important to us.”

The event, which lost its pro race this year due to timing constraints of the World Championship Qualifiers, will be considered the Alberta Provincial Championship – which Bryden hopes will bring good exposure to the event.

“Hopefully this will give us a good launching platform for future years of the race,” he said. “We think this community can support 500-1000 athletes.

He added that this race does feature “very high end athletes” including a former Olympian.

The event will be broke up into three distances: the first being the standard, which is on Olympic length triathlon; the second being the half-iron distance; and the third being the aqua-bike – which is good for athletes that have lower leg injuries which are very common among triathletes.

The first wave of runners will start around 7 a.m., and the second wave will leave around 8 a.m., which the entire event culminating around 2 p.m. at the finish line. Participants and winners will be awarded with “really cool medals and awards,” according to Bryden.

“We have a great festival atmosphere this year because of the long weekend,” Bryden said, adding that the support of residents of Jarvis Bay last year was incredible with people having their sprinklers on for the runners and cheering them along the way.

Bryden and the event organizers are still looking for around 10 volunteers to help the day run smoothly in Jarvis Bay.

“If there is anyone in the community that is bored on a Saturday, we could use the help,” Bryden said. “We try to take of them (the volunteers) as much as possible. They get a cool swag bag and a t-shirt.”

Bryden hopes that participants this year have the same positive reaction as last year to Sylvan Lake.

“The majority of people had not seen Sylvan Lake in 10 years,” he said. “They came out here and thought ‘wow they have done so much good work’.”

If you would like more information about the triathlon, you can go to chinooktriathlon.com

reporter@sylvanlakenews.com