When Running Becomes A Sport

As many of you know I was once a young star athlete with plenty of promise.

I could have gone pro in Football, Baseball, Shot-Put or Badminton but sadly a career ending injury causing weak ankles combined with packing on about 200 pounds of "Molson Muscle" brought an end to that dream.

So it always does my heart good to hear of other young Canadians who are excelling at their chosen sport. It could be Sidney Crosby in Hockey, Cindy Klassen in Speed Skating or Jason Bay in Baseball.

Now I don't mind admitting that I don't think "running" is much of a sport. I understand that you have to be in great physical shape to be a runner of both short and long distances but lets be serious...you're only running. It's like walking, only faster.

However, if you were to combine the running activity to something else, then you might have something. In fact, they already have something and it's called a Triathlon. This combines three events; swimming, biking and running. It takes a well conditioned athlete to compete in this competition where three disciplines are involved. For all those people who just run, try running 10-thousand metres after you've completed a 1500 metre swim and a 40 kilometre bike ride.

On May 13, 18-year-old Kirsten Sweetland became the youngest Canadian to win a triathlon World Cup race by capturing the women's event in Richards Bay, South Africa. The win moved her into 3rd place in the world rankings.

Sweetland's time of two hours, three minutes, 32 seconds put her 15 seconds ahead of Olympic bronze medallist Magali Di Marco Messmer of Switzerland. Christiane Pilz of Germany was third.

As a 15-year-old from Victoria she showed her determination to compete. After taking a spill during a bike leg in 2004, she slid her face along the asphalt transforming it into a bloody mess. She didn't quit but instead picked up her bike and continued on. Her father asked her if she wanted to call it a day prior to the run but bleeding profusely she refused and showed her true Canadian grit and determination.

She managed to climb all the way back into fourth place and after she crossed the finish line she proceeded to pass out.

Congratulations Kirsten! You have given us yet another reason to be proud to be Canadian.