Lionman Triathlon set for this weekend
The Olympic Games in Beijing are over, but in Belize the annual triathlon is about to get underway. The ninth annual Lionman Triathlon and the Corporate Relay which are among the major multi-sporting events in Belize kick off this coming Sunday at Sand Lighters Promenade and will feature swimming, cycling, and running races. News Five got details of the races and how participants are preparing.
David Pollard, Marketing Rep/Webmaster, Belize Nat’l Triathlon Assn
“The Belize National Triathlon Association is the organization that manages triathlon in Belize. It is the official body sanctioned by the International Triathlon Union to oversee triathlon events in Belize. The Lionman triathlon is a multi-sport event which entails swimming, cycling and running. The tri-athletes will have to swim almost a mile, fifteen hundred meters to be exact. They will ride twenty-four point eight miles or forty kilometers. They will run six point two miles which is ten kilometers.”
Duane Moody, Reporting
The Corporate Relay is a fairly new multi-sport within the Lionman triathlon.
David Pollard
“It’s not new; it’s the second year that we’ll be doing it. What it entails is a three person team. So you’ll have one person doing the swim, one person doing the ride and another person doing the run, but each team has to have at least one female. And the Corporate relay will start five minutes after the Lionman event.”
All three races must be done back-to-back in immediate sequence in the order of swim, ride, run and it takes conditioning of the body which Pollard, who is five-time competing tri-athlete, says he started training two months in advance.
David Pollard
“Before the race, one has to eat a lot of carbohydrates to make sure that the body has a lot of energy before the race. In training you have to make sure you get adequate protein for your muscles to recover and build. You have to do quite a good amount of training. Besides the actual endurance, you need to be able to swim, practice the technique. The swimming is very important, which a lot of athletes in Belize have problems with. That’s mainly because of the technical side of the swimming.”
Duane Moody, reporting for News Five.
The event is open to amateur tri-athletes from around Central America. Organisers hope to attract four Corporate Relay teams and a minimum of thirty to thirty-five participants from Belize and Central America. You can check out more and on how to register online at their website www.lionman2008.com or contact office manager, Yvonne Robinson at 207-5677.
