Another podium finish, another big cheque for Prince George triathlete Angela Naeth.
The 29-year-old Naeth finished third in the women's pro category, surviving a grueling course to earn $13,000 in the half-Ironman distance Revolution 3 Quassy Triathlon in Middlebury, Conn.
Naeth stopped the clock in four hours 30 minutes 52 seconds,seven minutes behind race winner Julie Dibens of England (4:23:37) and four minutes behind two-time defending race champion Miranda Carfrae of Australia (4:26:24).
"Julie Dibens said it best on the podium, 'This race was like a mini-world championship,'" Naeth said in an email to The Citizen. "It was one of the best-run, hardest half-Ironman courses I've done, with the most competitive field of the year."
The race began with a 1.9 kilometre (1.2-mile) swim in Lake Quassapang in relatively warm 20 C water, which meant no wet suits for the pro athletes. But the 20 C air temperature made for a chilly ride for Naeth, who started the 89.6-kilometre (56-mile) bike trailing the fastest pack of riders.
"Coming out of the water, my legs and body had no feeling," Naeth said. "A few girls had already dropped out. The first half of the bike had me literally convulsing and shivering. My legs would hardly move and the initial descents didn't help at all, when speeds were in excess of 30 [miles per hour], I didn't dare think of the actual windchill. I kept telling myself, 'everyone has to be feeling this way, so keep moving forward.' After an hour or so I was finally able to drink some water. It was a rough bike to say the least.
"I came into [the turnaround point] with the reigning Ironman world champ [Carfrae] who I had caught at mile 48. I didn't have much fight on the bike so I kept it steady and decided to try and ingest the calories I was lacking the last 20 minutes of the ride."
The third leg of the race was a 21 kilometre (13.1-mile) run and Naeth managed to make up ground on some of the early leaders.
"Surprisingly, by the time the run came around I had good legs," said Naeth. "I was able to push every uphill and downhill [basically the whole course]. I had four girls right behind me for most the run, but was able to put the afterburners on late and held on to a podium spot. I was ecstatic and the prize money will go a long ways in helping me continue to live this wonderful lifestyle."
Naeth is off to a blazing start in her third full season as a pro triathlete. Three weeks ago in Las Vegas she won the inaugural Leadman Lifetime Epic 250. She won an Olympic-distance race in Kemah, Texas, then racked up two second-place finishes on the 70.3 Ironman circuit in Texas and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her season began with a fifth-place finish in the Abu Dhabi International.
