After eight kilometres of skiing, 15 km of running, five km of skating and an 800 metre swim, James Sader crossed the finish line and the 38th annual Prince George Iceman title was his to claim.
If only he had his timing chip bracelet.
The 28-year-old Sader didn’t realize he was without it until Ben Fandrick, the swim finish volunteer, told him it was the only thing that would stop the clock. Sader realized then he’d taken it off when he arrived at the pool at the end of his five- km run when he stripped off his clothes to jump into the water.
By the time Sader ran across to the other side of the pool to get his bracelet and passed the chip across the sensor, Josiah Wilkinson completed his swim and won the race.
Or so they thought.
As it turned out, the race is manually timed to back up the electronic system in case the computer crashes or someone’s timing chip gets lost or ends up at the bottom of the pool. It was determined that Sader indeed crossed had the finish first and he was declared the winner.
“We had hand-timers as well in case there were any glitches and there was a hand-timer at every station” said Iceman chair Julie Ubdegrove. “Even though James didn’t cross with his chip he still would have been recorded as crossing the finish line before Josiah.”
Sader’s winning time was two hours four minutes 40.8 seconds, while Wilkinson finished in 2:06:35. Conrad Rowlands was third (2:09:39).
“I meant to have the timing chip on there, I guess, but I got out of the pool and didn’t have it and went back to get it and I was second,” said Sader. “I guess I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t have the brain space for that. I’m kicking myself a little bit.”
Thankfully, he didn’t beat himself up too long for his mistake when he was told he did win.
In the swim, each solo competitor swims 16 lengths of the 50-metre pool. There are just eight lanes so that means getting out of the pool after eight lengths and repeating, crossing under the lane dividers after each length. Sader thought he was finished after he completed his first eight lengths and was walking to the finish table on the pool deck when he was told he still had eight lengths to swim. He still had a comfortable lead by the time he was finally done.
As cold as it was Sunday, it was a beautiful calm and sunny day, which took some of the sting out of the air and Sader said he had an enjoyable race, until that bitter end.
“It was nice and sunny, I didn’t cramp in the skate, I’m happy about that, I didn’t get frostbite,” said Sader. “The run was fun, I didn’t seize up too much. The ski was a little slow but we were all in the same boat. I thought the swim went well, until I finished the swim.
“I thought we had to take it off, I didn’t know it was waterproof. I couldn’t remember from last year and just chucked it there.”
Sader finished third in the 2024 Iceman, behind Wilkinson and first-place Alex Nemethy. Nemethy was not back to defend his title in Sunday’s race.
“I didn’t know (Sader) was that close,” said the 18-year-old Wilkinson, close to approaching national-calibre status as a triathlete. “I was running with Conrad (Rowlands), my buddy and we thought we were the ones ahead doing the 5K. I saw him and saw his triple-digit (number written in grease pen written on Sader’s shoulder) and that’s usually a solo number so I tried to pick up the last 50.
“Triathlons probably help me, I swim like every day. I’ve been doing (the Iceman) as part of team since I was 10. I’ve done this every year for a long time.”
The temperature did not rise above -19 C during the race and Wilkinson was not prepared for it during the 10-km run from Otway to the Exhibition Park ice oval.
“It was pretty cold, I was worried about my hands and toes and wasn’t really worried about other parts and it was pretty chilly out there,” he said. “But the sun came out and it got better.”
Juliette Davies, 25, a former University of Toronto track runner, won the Icewoman title, finishing in 2:16:39. Breanne Austin (2:23:02) was second and Cianna Pawluk (2:42:13) was third.
Davies just learned how to skate but she's had the running part down pat for years and that put her in good stead considering more than half the total race distance involves running.
“My roommate’s boyfriend taught me to skate a month ago so I was pretty nervous about getting through the skate but I was feeling confident on the run, that’s my background, and the swim,” said Davies. “So I was just trying to go out there and see what I could do on the ski and the skate and hopefully it would come together and apparently it did.
“I tried to focus on knowing my strengths. I didn’t have a watch on my pace but I felt good through all of it.”
The -21.8 C start temperature was right on the borderline of a forced one-hour delayed start but with the mercury rising as the skiers lined up at Otway Nordic Centre there was no stopping the race for the 448 entrants and it started at 10 a.m. sharp.
The overnight cold that dipped to -26 C crystalized the snow at Otway and that made for tough slogging for most of the skiers and Davies said that the toughest segment for her.
“I didn’t have the technique on some things and that really cost me, I honestly don’t have the experience to know if it was good snow or bad snow, it felt OK for me,” she said. “My lungs at the beginning were pretty reactive to that cold air, so a lot coughing but once I got through the ski it was fine. At the start of the 5K I did (get leg cramps) so I was trying to ease that back and manage it.”
Davies volunteered for the race last year and got turned on to the Iceman vibe and it was obviously a wise decision for her to enter an event that’s like no other in Canada.
“It’s amazing, watching it last year I was so jealous of everyone competing and I was like, I’ve got to (participate) this year,” she said. “I looked at the results from last year and I knew my runs would be competitive but I wasn’t sure what to make of the ski and the skate and didn’t want to put a lot of pressure on because I didn’t want to blow up too early.”
Other solo category winners were: Masters men – Stephen Duck (2:35:05); male grandmasters – Matt Janzen, 2:23:06; female masters – Julianne Kucheran, 2:40:3; female grandmasters – Shelley Martland, 2:54:16.
The race drew 20 solo women and 24 solo men.
Snow Mercy (Noah Gladdish, Bryce Gladdish, Josh Van der Meer, Graeme Moore and Johnny Enemark) set a blistering pace while winning the adult male team relay in 1:53:01.
The fastest women’s relay team was Cold Cleats (Anna Thorsteinson, Boroka Peter, Fia Cameron, Anna deWynter and Kjera Heyman, and they finished in 2:14:11.
In the mixed team relay, Bluer Balls (team member names not available) was the quickest of all the adult teams, clocking 1:49:56.
The junior team winners were as follows: Junior female – Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice (Madilyn Melanson, Skye Cadell, Edie Becker, Madilyn Bauman, Bubba Manning, Bella Manning) 1:45:24.
Junior male: Durpee Slurpees (Gavin Hall, Alistair Bell, Keagan Molendyk, Willem Grose, Owen Leavens, Scott Moore) 1:40:53.
Junior mixed: IceBreakers (Kavita Dhillon, Kohl Hooper, Andre Roberge, Brendan Elwert, Mike Hara, Isabel Simoes) 1:40:59.
