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Hot sun failed to melt Kids of Steel

Three-year-old Lucy Powell did not need her mom in the pool with her to help her swim 25 metres in the Integris Kids of Steel Triathlon. She had her lifejacket on and plenty of kicking power from her legs to help her go the distance.
Three-year-old Lucy Powell did not need her mom in the pool with her to help her swim 25 metres in the Integris Kids of Steel Triathlon.
She had her lifejacket on and plenty of kicking power from her legs to help her go the distance. After that, her bike was waiting for her, training wheels and all, and she hopped on for a quick one-kilometre tour of Canada Games Plaza, followed by a 250m run to complete the race.
Her five-year-old sister, Avin, had further to go - a 50m swim, 1.5km ride and a 500m run. Both were first-timers giving triathlon a try Sunday morning and their delighted faces as they crossed the finish line indicated it probably won't be their last kick at the can.
"I think they had a lot of fun, the both enjoyed it for sure," said the girls' mother, Rebecca Powell, a triathlete for 12 years. "They swim with me a lot and both of them did the swim on their own. 
"They saw me race one year and had a lot of fun watching me so we thought it would be cool if they got into it. We found out about it last year after it happened and regretted we didn't do it."
Avin is a strong runner and she had her dad Tristan alongside her as they made the final push into the plaza.
"I like the run and the swim was great, it wasn't hard," said Avin. 
Lucy preferred the bike leg of the race. "I did it all by myself," she said. 
Tristan and Rebecca moved to Prince George six years ago and after talking to friends about the 23rd annual race they decided to get their kids involved.
"I think it's a great event for families and to get kids introduced into racing and just fitness all around," said Tristan. "There was little a bit of excitement and nerves and all the stuff that's associated and they had a really good time. 
"These are the things that make Prince George. You meet all the same families at these events like Iceman or at the ski trails at Otway and it's really good for the community. It's a positive thing for Prince George."
The race, under hot sunny conditions, brought out 144 entrants who ranged in age from three to 48. 
Cole Turner, a cross-country ski racer for the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club, racing in his first triathlon, won the male 16-19-year-old category and posted the fastest overall long-course time. He finished the 750m swim, 15km bike and 4.5km run in 55 minutes 53 seconds.
"It was tough, after the swim my legs were jelly, especially going into the run, my legs were tired," said the 15-year-old Turner, who moved to Prince George from Williams Lake last year to ski race.
"I'll definitely be doing more triathlons, this was super-fun. The biking's my favourite, for sure.
"I knew I wouldn't be first out of the pool and I knew I wouldn't be far behind though, so I was going to try to catch everybody on the bike." 
Turner swam competitively for the Williams Lake Bluefins for three years before he moved to Prince George and he's in incredible shape from ski racing, having finished third in the aggregate standings at the cross-country nationals. He regularly commutes on his bike from D.P. Todd to the Canadian Sport School (Engage Sport North) at the Northern Sport Centre at UNBC. That long ride up University Drive five days per week for his afternoon classes paid off in Sunday's race.
"I trained a bit for this the past month and I've been in the pool much more and I always run and bike," he said. "The sport school is such a good program. I do weightlifting or do running on the track, which has really improved my overall fitness." 
Lauryn Marchand, 17, is a competitive club swimmer for the Prince George Barracudas and triathlon is her favourite sport. She's using Sunday' s race as tuneup for sprint and Olympic distances triathlons she plans to enter this summer.
"I've always been a swimmer, for 11 years of my life, so I started biking and got my race bike last year and running came into it as cross-training to get better in swimming," said Marchand, who clocked 1:10:22 as the second-fastest woman on the long course.
"I'd definitely rather doing triathlon than swimming, it's more interesting. You're not just swimming laps back and forth. This is a sprint, it's a race. You don't walk and you don't stop. It's just the starting one for me and you're moving a lot faster." 
Marchand plans to race her next triathon in June in Kamloops. 
"My ultimate goal is to do one Ironman," she said.
Sunday's race was marred by an incident involving 30-year-old Melissa Dymond, one of two racers in the female adult category, who suffered a suspected broken ankle after she was hit by a car while riding her bike on Queensway. She and another cyclist were making the left-hand turn off Queensway onto eastbound 15th Avenue when the incident happened.
Other winners by category and their race times were: 5-and-under male Peter Fruzina, 9:08; 5-and-under female: Lucy Powell, 14:08;  6-7 male: Tavon Peterson, 10:17; 6-7 female: Olivia Medhurst, 10:40; 8-9 male: Oskar Dewar, 14:07; 8-9 female: Isla Cadell, 21:54; 10-11 female: Bailey Yearley, 21:45; 10-11 male: Josiah Wilkinson, 24:00; 12-13 male: Matthew Rice, 32:05; 12-13 female: Grace Turner, 38:18; 14-15 male: Mackenzie Lewington, 39:50; 14-15 female: Claire Brown, 42:52; adult open male: Rob Millar, 58:03; adult open female: Gillian Roberts, 1:03:45.
The team winners were: 9-and-under: Fast and Furious, 16:39; 1011: The Three Kickers, 27:57; 12-13: Triple-T Harwin Warriors, 40:11; 15 years: Thing 1, 2 and 3, 48:10.
Complete results are available on www.strideandglide.ca.