Scott Forrest is defying Father Time.
He seems to get better with age.
Now in his first year in the 55-60 age bracket, Forrest blazed a trail to a second-place finish Sunday at the Oliver Half-Ironman triathlon, becoming the first Prince George athlete to make the medal podium since the event began in 2004.
Competing on a hot day Sunday in calm conditions, Forrest posted a personal-best time, stopping the clock in five hours 10 minutes 53 seconds. The race began with a two-kilometre swim in Tuc-El-Nuit Lake, followed by a 93km bike ride and a 21km run. Forrest finished second out of 43 competitors in his age class and 68th overall.
"It went pretty good but the usual story, it's always tough at the end on the run," said Forrest, still feeling the pain in his legs Wednesday as he made his rounds through the bush as a forestry consultant. "It took a lot of digging just to finish and I just about got caught -- the [third-place] guy in my age group was 20 seconds behind me.
"It's a nice bike route, not too tough, just a nice ride. But it was hot on the run and you kind of melt."
Forrest was coming off a first-place result in his age class at the Honolulu International Triathlon on May 15.
"That was shorter [Olympic distance] so you could keep the hammer down and keep your speed up," Forrest said.
In other Prince George results, Rob Hardy just missed a medal in the men's 44-49-year-old men's race, finishing fourth in 5:00:51 one minute off the medal podium with the 44th best time out of 456 male triathletes.
"I was very content with my effort, with an ailing hamstring almost keeping me out of the race," Hardy said. "The final 7km of the run was a shuffle, as it became aggravated, and thus instead of attacking I had to revert to survival mode."
James Betts finished 38th out of 72 with a time of 6:25:02 in the 50-54 male class and was 293rd overall.
In the women's race, which drew 327 entrants, Joanne Morgan clocked 6:43:14, finishing 19th out of 49 in the 50-54 female class and 185th overall. Karen Hall was 39th out of 61 in the 45-49 female class in 6:57:39 and 215th overall, while Leanne Garrison placed 29th out of 37 in the 25-29 female category in 7:04:39, 229th overall.
Jonathon Caron of Penticton (4:19:32) and Karen Thibodeau of Langley (4:46:03) were the respective male and female overall champions.
Forrest plans to enter the Prince George Citizen Triathlon, set for Sunday, July 17 at West Lake provincial park. For more information go to the website www.pgtriathlon.ca. Also on the local race calendar this month is the Beat the Bugs trail run, Friday, June 17 at 6 p.m. at Otway Nordic Centre. To register, go to www.strideandglide.ca.
Forrest will team up with Pat Turner of Prince George in the six-hour Pedal by the Puddle mountain bike enduro race Sunday in Williams Lake. Several other Prince George riders, including Phil Evanson, Cheryl Moors, Merle Tutte, Nathan Blok, Kris Yip, Mike Smith and defending men's champion Brent Maguire are among 89 riders entered.
