Ryan McMaster has lots of new friend requests these days.
The Prince George athlete received a cheque for a $1,000 on Sunday as the inaugural winner of the P.G. Ultra Endurance Challenge.
"It might go towards something of the athletic nature, maybe a new wet suit for triathlons next year," said McMaster.
The 40-year-old finished the Mad Moose Marathon in three hours, 42 minutes and 52 seconds, which was three minutes and seven seconds ahead of Brent Maguire - his 26-year-old competitor for the cash prize.
The endurance challenge consisted of times collected in four events - the Prince George Iceman, Prince George Triathlon, Otway Challenge and Mad Moose Marathon. Each athlete needed to complete the full course in the solo category in each event.
"Once I'd done the Iceman and saw the competitors, and when Shayne [Hoehn] and the guys at Stride and Glide offered the challenge - I thought, well, I kind of like to do all sorts of things so this could be a pretty good opportunity to do all things in a competitive setting," said McMaster.
In the Iceman in February, McMaster completed the course in 1:59:20 - 11th for men and 12th overall. He finished the Otway Challenge - the 10 kms run and a minimum four laps on the mountain bike - in 4:08:23.
The Mad Moose was the first full marathon McMaster competed in. In order to prepare he competed in the Labour Day Classic, finishing second in 1:50:37.
He said there are a few more things to worry about in a 42-kilometre race.
"You have to worry about nutrition when you do a marathon so I made sure I had an adequate amount of gel packs," he said. "I felt pretty good at the end; it's not bad for my first one."
In the triathlon on July 17, McMaster finished sixth in the Olympic division in a time of 2:30:25.
There were eight competitors battling for the endurance challenge title, while personal commitments and injuries kept others from entering. Rob Vogt finished third.
Next year, McMaster said it would be nice to see more athletes from the area take part in the challenge.
"I'll try to defend it for sure, hopefully, we'll get some of the other local hard cores into it because, I think, it's a really good composite event with all kinds of disciplines involved."
