Update: Hill Near End of Bike Ride

Update Oct 7 12 pm:

Vernon’s Shanda Hill is nearing completion of the 540 km bike ride at the ultra athlete event in Virginia called the Triple Anvil.

She is second among the female contestants.

Hill’s mother Arleigh says Shanda “felt dizzy” during the bike ride and needed to have a short sleep, and is now feeling better.

The final leg of the event is a 126 km run, and Hill’s family is hoping she can be done by Saturday afternoon.

Oct. 5:

Vernon Ultra-Athlete Shanda Hill is off swimming, biking and running again.

Hill, who just completed the marathon Deca Ultra-Triathlon in August, is taking part in a Triple Anvil in Virginia today.

It features a 12 kilometre swim, a 540 kilometre bike ride and a 126 kilometre run – all to be done in 60 hours, leaving little time for sleep.

“If you sleep that puts you pretty close to, you know you don’t want to be on the bubble, you don’t want to be anywhere near that 60 hour hour time limit and there’s so many things in a race that’s that long that can happen.”

Hill says she prepares for that just by trying to keep calm with a positive attitude.

The swim portion began this morning, which isn’t Shanda’s favourite.

“I despise getting into my wet suit early in the morning in a cold lake and I am not a huge fan of swimming so I go out and do it. I don’t worry about my swim time at all and I know that my bike and my run are fairly strong in the whole scheme of things so I just take it easy on the swim.”

Like all her races, Shanda goes in looking for the challenge, but there’s more to it.

“I love the challenge. As much as I love the racing, I love the people. And you can get such an interesting collection of people that come out to these races. It makes it what it is. I believe if it was just the race and we didn’t have the unique people out here I don’t believe it would be half as fun, but yes, you’re right I love the challenge.”

The race began at 4 o’clock our time this morning in Lake Anna State Park in Virginia.