Greenwood Triathlon/duathlon

Before we get onto a report from the 14 Wing Greenwood Tri, this would to be an appropriate time to revisit the "are the Piggott brothers unstoppable?". Firstly, a little aside about an upcoming change of name. At the Ricoh Awards the MC seemed slightly linguistically challenged as she pronounced Piggott Piggeau. This wasn't prententious Frenchification as she pronouned Gaudet Gaudette later that evening. Everyone at the TNS table was taken with the new pronounciation, s0 Piggeau it is. Besides, being twins, it lends itself nicely to the plural Piggeaux.

So, are the Piggeaux unstoppable we asked?

The results were evenly distributed between the three answers; 30% thought the Piggeaux were merely mortal (in triathlon terms) whilst 35% thought, quite practically, they couldn't win in the 40-44 age-group so what did it matter. However, seeing as they have now won three of the four TNS events this year (Brad DIFS and Greenwood, Matt- Navy) and didn't go to the fourth (Cyclesmith) then would seem that the hard data agrees with 30% of you and yes, they are unstoppable.

That said Greenwood did not all go the Piggeaux way and that just made it more exciting. Matt led two-time G'wood winner Parker Vaughan and brother Brad out of the pool. All three were under nine minutes. Business as usual then. The Piggeaux may have had the lead coming out of TZ but Parker had them squarely in his sights and had chased them both down by the end of their first lap of three on the bike-course. Brad and Parker stayed pretty much glued together, albeit the required 10m apart, for the next 15 kms, with Matt a few hundred metres adrift in third.

The bike was changed from last year; gone was the chicane and in it's place a long, straight course which was universally liked by the athletes able to compare the two courses. It was pretty flat too, a gradual downhill of only a few metres to the turn, and the corresponding "climb" back "up". We all should say thank-you not only to RD Denis Choquette but also Eric Travis as well as the base staff who allowed us to use this road, which paralleled the runway and as such was on the operational side of the base. We think an Aurora may even have taken off during the race! Vroom vroom!!

The CP-140 Aurora; does the 10m draft-zone start at the end of the tail or the end of the boom?

Anyway, back the race, where Brad and Parker came into TZ almost together and headed out on R2; Brad on Parker's heels. The run course was also changed from last year and now took in most of last years bike-course, a straight shot through the PMQ to Greenwood Mall and back, to be done twice.

They were running 3:30 kilometers, or about 17kph, matching each other stride for stride, and this was after the swim and bike At 3.7 kms, Parker put in a little dig and momentarily dropped Brad, but the latter came back onto his heels. The pace didn't drop, instead it increased to almost 3:15 in the final kilometer. Finally, with about 200m to go, Brad put in his first burst of the run and got a miniscule gap on Parker, which he maintained to the line, to win by seconds. A thrilling race to watch to be sure, and also a tactically astute race by Brad, by "sitting in" (as much as you can in a non-draft event) for as long as possible and making his only big kick when it counted and making it stick. Both Brad and Parker were under the hour, 59 minutes. This was (or course) a course record (it being a new course) but an event record too.

For the record, Matt came in third and first "regular person" was Tyrone "now known for reasons of national security as" Grande, followed by multi-Investors Group winner Andrew MacDonald and Eric Travis.

In the ladies race, Laura Keefe, the winner of the Bluenose Half-marathon a month ago was the ladies winner. Her time of 1:10 was two minutes shy of Emily Wood's event record in 2008 but it is still the second fastest ladies time at Greenwood in the three years of the event. Junior-team athlete Marie Soehl was second and Janelle Knickle was third.

Moka Case was there, gonging up in her age-group for the second race in a row. We have to admit, TZ is always a little it sunnier and a there's always a whole lot more laughter around when Moka's racking.

Denis decided to spice up the Greenwood event this year by putting up some prize-money in the form of the "beat Parker" prime. Simply put, beat Parker Vaughan, the only overall winner for the event ever, and win $200. No wonder Brad was going so hard. The ladies race was handicapped, so that they also stood to win $200 if they came within 10 minutes of Parker's time. It was a chase-format in other words. We'd hummed and ahhed over the handicap time but in the end the handicapping was perfect. It came down to the wire but Parker didn't get girled, but only by the thinnest of margins, 48". Perhaps a real chase format, where the ladies started 10 minutes ahead of the men would have yielded a different results; do you really think Laura wouldn't have dug in a little harder if she'd spotted the Brad/Parker tandem behind her? Other RDs take note - it would be an exciting race.

In the accompanying supersprint, Kali Caulier and Liam Patterson took top honors. It won't be long before they're kicking our arses too!

There was also a 5120/5 duathlon. This saw Alan Miner out in another strong performance which puts him in a commanding position in the duasthlon points series after three races; Shawn Amirualt will have to win Riverport in October to take the series we think! Kurt Stevenson was second, back on his bike and racing well after that crash two months ago. Ian Loughead was a third. For the ladies, Alexa Vodicka

It was not a day without challenges for those in reflective vests either, and congratulations to all involved for rising to, meeting and defeating the challenges sent their way. As you are by now aware, the event was not chip-timed (more on this later but it wasn't an Atlantic Chip problem) and Daivd (sorry we did not get your full name) spent and hour in the sun deciphering scrawls on finish-line sheets and doing math to provide full results for everybody within an hour of the last finisher. Also, a job-well-done pat on the back to all of those volunteers who thought they'd be standing on a corner and instead ended up staffing a stop-watch; a position of infinately more responsibility.

Of course, a huge felicitations et un grand merci to Denis Cnoequette and his team for putting on a great race and also, after two years of wind and rain, the event was finally blessed with sun and warm. Another thank-you to the base-commanders for allowing us to use a road on the operational side of the base, the new ride totally rocked!

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Photos from Laura Keefe and Norma Patterson.