“It was a weekend when the stars aligned,” says newly crowned Ultraman Canadian champion and world record holder Jen Annett. Annett obliterated the competition and shattered records with a three-day total time of 21:39:32. This was the fastest time ever recorded by a female (breaking Dede Griesbauer’s previous world best of 22:38:41 set at Ultraman Florida in 2020) and one of the fastest overall, regardless of gender.
Annett wasn’t the only female who enjoyed success at Ultraman. Florida’s KC Northup placed second overall with a time of 27:54:35. The 37-year-old owner of an animal shelter says one of her biggest training challenges, coming from Florida, was finding hills to train on. Northup did her best by running intervals on a highway overpass.
As an ultra-runner before getting into triathlon, Northup was no stranger to hard training, but admits that she was surprised with the difficulty of the course. That being said, her run time of just under ten hours was the second fastest of the day.
The top male performance of the weekend belonged to Englishman George Hellyer, who rounded out the podium, posting a three-day time of 29:33:56. The 32-year-old teacher successfully completed his first Ultraman. He did his training where he works in Dubai, so he was well-prepared for the warm conditions of the South Okanagan, but similar to Northup, lacked any hills to train on. Hellyer also admitted that he was somewhat under-prepared for the 10 km swim, as his longest was only 3 km.
5 Questions with Ironman’s fastest women’s cyclist, Jen Annett
Even before landing in Canada, Hellyer and crew had to deal with adversity. After spending hours meticulously mapping out and mixing up his nutritional needs for the event and putting it in a suitcase, his airline made an error and sent the bag to Israel. Hellyer says his crew had to be pragmatic and stocked up for his nutrition at gas stations and WalMart.
In addition to suffering the misfortune with his nutrition, Hellyer and his crew were handed another card of adversity on day two of the event when their support car suffered a punctured tire. That meant he had to rely on the help of the other teams to supply him with nutrition and to monitor his progress.
Misfortune and suffering aside, Hellyer reflects on his first ultra experience positively. What stands out for him the most wasn’t the athletic aspect of the event but just how well he and his crew were able to come together and persevere when they did face challenges. “There were a lot of moments this weekend when we could have become negative or got upset and started arguing or whatever, but we all pulled together.”
As for Hellyer’s status as first place male but third place overall, he has nothing but admiration for Annett and Northup, commenting that the duo just didn’t beat him but they obliterated him. The almost 10-hour gap between him and Annett, underscores his point powerfully.
As powerful as these athletes were over the weekend, the power of nature can make or break an athlete’s or race director’s fortune. Fortunately, Mother Nature dealt a favorable hand to everyone at Ultraman Canada. Co-race directors Sigrid Stefanson and Brad Sawa were pleased with the smooth running of the three-day event, enjoying smoke-free skies and temperatures in the upper 20s. However, they faced some challenges and disappointment when four of the 13 participants were unable to attend.
Stefanson and Sawa have held the Ultraman Canada race license since 2019 and find that organizing the event gets easier as it becomes more established in the community. Despite this, with only nine participants this year, questions about the event’s sustainability arise. However, Sawa remains optimistic.
“I’ve been busy on the racecourse for the past few days, but I know my inbox is full of people interested in doing the race. I believe the future is bright for this race.”
Stay tuned for a follow up interview with Annett on her world-record effort later this week.
The post Jen Annett shatters world-best time and wins Ultraman Canada overall appeared first on Triathlon Magazine Canada.