One of the key allies recruited by Felix Walchshofer in his bid to win the approval of the Penticton Town Council for control of the classic 30-year-old Ironman Canada venue was a the legendary Peter Reid. The three-time Ironman World Champion and two-time Ironman Canada winner retired from the professional side of the sport five years ago and built a fine life as a Bush pilot in the Canadian north. But when Felix Walchshofer called, something about the missing magic of the Penticton race drew him back. Reid's presence on the Challenge side -- he will be the Challenge Penticton Ambassador and adviser -- helped tip the scales with the Penticton Town Council in the Challenge Family favor.
Slowtwitch: What led you to Penticton in the first place?
Peter Reid: Ironman Canada was my introduction to the sport of Ironman. I started triathlon in 1989, and I remember watching Ironman Canada on CTV and all the biggest guys in the sport were there -- Scott Tinley, Ray Brown, Paul Huddle, Paula Newby Fraser. I remember watching and thinking: They are crazy! Who does that distance? That is way hard! Over the years I eventually discovered that my body was suited for racing the long distance events. I made my way here to Ironman Canada in 1996 and had a great race. Broke the course record -- and still got beat by 20 minutes by a really fast Thomas Hellriegel from Germany. Penticton was a beautiful place; and I fell in love with it. So I came back here for many, many training camps and I raced Ironman Canada two more times and won it.
ST: How did you connect with the people of Penticton?
Peter: My partner at the time Lori Bowden raced here. We always came here and lived with the same home stay. We really felt part of the community. We did a lot of training out of Apex where I could live high and train at low altitude. And I always had great success here.
ST: You've been away from the sport for five years. How were you drawn back in?
Peter: When I stopped racing triathlon in 2006, I became a pilot and I was no longer coaching or affiliated with triathlon any more. For a few years I have had very little contact with the sport. About two weeks ago I was approached by Challenge. I had no idea what was going down in Penticton. They just contacted me out of the blue. They said Peter we'd like to get you back into the sport in an advisory role. To get the community and the athlete back into the sport. I thought 'Y'know, I am kinda happy with my life right now. I am not really looking at getting back into the sport particularly. They said 'Well, can you be in Penticton next Thursday?" I said ''Sure, I'll take Skype calls. I'll take a conference call. Sounds good to me.' But this Monday they tracked me down at work and said 'Peter we need you in Penticton. Right away.' I got goose bumps. I asked is what I think it is?' They said, 'We can’t tell you anything. But can you be in Penticton?' I said 'Absolutely. I want to be a part of this. I want to bring back this event to be one of the best events in North America.' We already have the best course. We already have the best volunteers. I want to help make this the race I first saw on TV in 1989. So I came here on my own time. I took a couple of days off to be here. I am very excited about what is happening here in Penticton. This is very good for this event!
ST: What was missing with the WTC stewardship of this race?
Peter: Well, I don’t even know if it one thing. For me, I only have two weeks vacation a year and I was coming here on my vacation days. I volunteered and I cheered my friends and I did local TV station stuff. After a while, I thought, 'I'm not going back. Let's do something else.' I just didn’t feel the energy any more. I don’t know what it was. But I just thought, 'Let's do something else.'
ST: Did you notice any waning of enthusiasm by anyone else?
Peter: A lot of people would come up here to vacation and watch the race. And we kinda noticed we weren't the only ones not showing up any more. So we just stopped doing our yearly thing here. It's a great part of the world. But I just stopped vacationing here. I just found in the last few years here there were a lot of bitter people. When I first started doing this race, nobody was bitter. Everybody loved it. just found it became more and more of a closed community. It was just the athletes and the organizers. It had less to with the community. You'd see the Ironman Village. It was harder to feel part of the community. I think that was one of the reason I didn’t want to come back. I didn’t feel part of it any more. I could have. But then I would have been part of the inner circle and my girlfriend wouldn’t have felt part if it. We have a little boy together now. His name is Weymouth -- an old family name.
ST: What did Challenge bring to it that brings you back?
Peter: Like I said two weeks ago I got a call from a guy I know from PowerBar who does a little bit of work with Challenge. He asked me: 'Do you want to come back?' I said I don’t know if I fit here. I don't really want to travel. I'm happy with what I'm doing now.' And then on Monday I got the call. 'Can you be in Penticton? Can you help us launch this?' Right away I said 'Yeah! I'm there!' I have no contract. Zero. It was just a handshake. So I called up work, got an extra day off. I will have to drive back all night to catch the 9 o'clock ferry to back to the island [Victoria] and get back to work tomorrow morning. So that I still don’t know where I'm going with this. I know few of the Councilors. And it seems like it was pretty important for me to be here.
ST: How important will I be to raise the prestige and get the great triathletes here?
Peter: Well it will get the media back here, it will get guys who were lured elsewhere. If you get someone like Chrissie Wellington -- I'm lobbying hard to get someone like Simon Whitfield who are thinking about going to long distance. All of a sudden you get a good prize purse and they think ';I gotta put it on my calendar.' There are lot of people who could be here and get the media, the TV, the sponsors and the bonus clauses back. And the age groupers will get to mingle with the people they see on TV. Yeah. then you can go to an autograph session and imagine seeing Chrissie Wellington and Mirinda down here and ask them 'How's it going?'; And get people like me back here on my vacation.
ST: You are a fan?
Peter: I've never seen Chrissie race! I want to go watch Chrissie race. And I want to have reason to come here on vacation again. That is kind of where I see this going.
