Ask most triathletes how they'll spend their winnings and a new helmet, pair of shoes or the entry fee on the next big race will usually be the answer.
But Carolyn Bax has a different plan for the $250 she earned Saturday as the fastest woman in the Mackenzie sprint triathlon.
She'll be depositing the cheque in a bank account opened for Brenn Smith, a five-year-old Prince George girl currently in Vancouver going through the first round of treatment for leukemia.
She's also asking other local triathletes and other distance athletes to do the same this season. Brenn's mother, Christine, and father Scott, an avid runner, are also in Vancouver which means added expenses for the family.
The seeds of Bax's idea began to sprout two Sundays ago when Bax was running in the 21-kilometre Family Y half-marathon and was having such a miserable time that she was ready to quit the entire run.
"But I said to myself that the pain I am feeling is nothing compared to what this little girl and family are going through and I knew I just couldn't quit," said Bax, a 40-year-old English instructor at College of New Caledonia and mother of two young boys.
See Monday's Citizen for more.
