DVSS athlete Sam Brown has burned through the summer, and swam, biked and ran 61.6 kilometres, and that was just in two weekends.
Brown, 13, competed in his first triathlon on August 20 at the 9th annual Fort Macleod Chiropractic Triathlon. He entered in the Olympic Category which included a 1.5 kilometre swim, a 40 kilometre bike ride and finished off with a 10 kilometre run. He was first in his class, and he was the only one in his class, as he was the youngest competitor in the race.
While even a registrar at the race had their questions about a 13-year-old racing in the Olympic category, as there were shorter races available to enter, he was undaunted. Overall he placed 35th out of all racers in the Olympic category an dhis time was only 48 minutes off the overall winner.
“His goal was to finish it because this was his first one,” his mother Audrey DeBona told inSide Drumheller. She says next year he will be working to be more competitive as he holds himself to very high standards. This is reflected in the Grade 8 student’s success in sports; he skis, plays basketball, volleyball and competes in track, and in school where he is a strong student.
While you would think it would be time to coast after taking on as gruelling a course as a triathlon, he was on the starting line again on August 27, this time at the Taber Corn Fest. He and teacher Ryan Hatch both took on the 10K road race. He competed in the 13-17 age category and won a bronze medal with a time of 47:12. Hatch also did well at the race, finishing at 43:28 and winning bronze in his age category.
This isn’t all for racing this season for Brown. Last year he entered in the 5K run at the Dinosaur Half, as his age precluded him from the half marathon, and won. This year, he is planning on taking on the half, and has run the course already to make sure he could do it.
“He just has a ton of fun at it,” said DeBona.
