For Tracy Moore, running triathlons is a big part of her life.
She started to train for triathlons in 2004, running her first one, a shorter triathlon, in 2005 and has been attending them ever since, hoping to get the chance to compete at the Iron Man World Championships in Kona, Hawaii, she says. This year she qualified after placing second in her age group at the Iron Man Canada triathlon in Whistler.
The Iron Man Corporation offers races all over the world, but the Iron Man World Championships are always held in Kona and you have to qualify in a different Iron Man race to make it to the World Championships. Moore says that it is very hard to qualify for the championships because there are limited spots.
“I’m so excited. It’s something I have been chasing for years, so I am pretty happy.”
Moore mentions that at the triathlon in Whistler there were only 40 spots and that those are for the entire group, and those spots get divided up between all the age groups.
Moore says last year she came in third in her age group, missing the chance to go to Kona by three and a half minutes, after an 11 hour and 45 minute day of running, swimming, and biking, but took this as a reason to work even harder toward the next year so she would make it to the championships.
“I think life is so full of negatives at times that you just have to see the positive in things.”
Moore has run in other triathlons and marathons across the globe, but she says she enjoys Iron Man triathlons the most, and that she has been lucky enough to represent Canada at the International Triathlon Union (ITU) a few times.
She also says that she has to train hard for all three events of the triathlon: swimming, biking and running. She started training with a group in Kamloops for her triathlons in 2004, and she says she started off with smaller triathlons, and slowly worked her way up to the level she is at today.
“You swim 3.8km, and then you transition from the water to the bike, and you bike 180km, and then you transition from the bike to the run and then you run 42.2km. You have about 17 hours to complete the race or you are not really considered an Iron Man.”
Moore actually raced a fellow member of the training team she joined in Kamloops, in the Iron Man Canada race this year, sadly losing first place to her but she said they both pushed each other to do their best, even though the day of the race was tough because of the conditions.
“I am very thankful that I had a good day and that she had a good day too.”
Moore is excited to go to the championships in October and says, one day she would like to try an Ultra Man triathlon which is a big step up from the Iron Man triathlons.
Moore is a trained physical education and science teacher and will be a PE teacher at Peter Skene Ogden Secondary Secondary School, where she has been teaching science for the last few years.
“I guess for me I just want kids to be active, and to see that you can be active no matter what your age is and it’s not just [being] active when you are a kid.”
“My own personal philosophy is to just get out there and have some fun.”