Calvin Steede

Fastest in Bermuda Triangle Challenge

(marathon version)

For 10 years Calvin Steede has been running the Race Weekend Front Street Mile, 10K and Marathon. It has been his own 'triangle challenge.'

This year it was an official event and the ever-competitive Steede was determined to go all out to win the inaugural Bermuda Triangle Challenge.

To do so he would have to complete his 80th full marathon, but with so many under his belt already, the 48-year-old was more taxed about whether to open to run one mile race or two last Friday.

In the end Steede's weekend entailed not three but four races. He had pre-qualified for the KPMG local men's Front Street Mile and was unsure if he needed to run in the separate Triangle Challenge Mile in order to have a time that would count towards any final aggregate.

At this point it should be pointed out organisers treated this year's first Challenge as a non-competitive trial with no prizes other than a special medal and T-shirt for the 49 finishers. However, that will change next year when a prize structure is created.

An indication of how competitors fared against one another was made possible with an aggregate totting up of finishing times in the races. Steede finished more than 48 minutes ahead of his nearest 'full Challenge' rival after winning the Challenge Mile, and being fastest Challenger in both the 10K and full marathon.

Having decided to do two Front Street Miles last Friday evening Steede decided to go flat out in the first - after all it was the Challenge Mile.

"One of my goals was to see if I could win the Challenge, and to do that I knew I would have to do something in the mile. One of the disappointments was that in that first mile race the race clock was not set up, so I didn't know my time. It wasn't until Saturday that someone told me I ran almost identical times in both mile races," he said.

Steede gave a demonstration of front running in the Challenge Mile, leading from gun to tape in five minutes 35 seconds to enjoy a comfortable 80 metres win. When he ran the local men's race about an hour later he was just one second slower.

He admits he hasn't done much track training this year, so his body's ability to recover overnight from the mile exertions before Saturday's 10K was not perfect. A target time of around 40 minutes was on his mind.

"I was feeling a little stiff. When I ran the Fairmont to Fairmont race (two weeks previous) I check what my 10K time is there and that gives me a good indication of how I will run."

Steede ran an even-paced race and dipped under 41 minutes by a single second. He was once again the first Challenger to cross the finish line, this time with a near three-minute advantage.

Two (or in Steede's case three) down and one to go - the marathon.

As a man who runs six or seven marathons every year, the prospect of running 26.2 miles on a Sunday morning was within his capabilities. But still, Steede had to contend with the accumulated tiredness from the previous two days.

He had opted for the full marathon rather than the half-marathon option because it is the race he has done each International Race Weekend for the past 10 years. And, as he previously stated, he wanted to win the now official full triple challenge.

It was his 80th marathon. Reaching the half-marathon point in 1.35, Steede slowed down in the second half of the race, but still comfortably finished ahead of other Challengers in 3.43.32.

He noted a couple of missing water stations on North Shore, but for him the biggest battle was with the shifting wind, which made the North Shore stretch particularly tough.

"I felt wasted at the end. The wind took more out of me than in previous years."

On reflection, he said: "It (the Bermuda Triangle Challenge) is a great idea. The only disappointing thing was to find that there was no real award for it. And it wasn't only me, but also the first woman to finish felt the same way."

Steede intends to compete again and said he hopes that if there are awards in next year's Challenge, and there are perpetual trophies, that they be inscribed also with the names of the 2008 winners.

For now he is turning his sights to the rest of this year's racing schedule and has already marked up four marathons he intends to run, including the prestigious Boston Marathon in April. By the end of the year he aims to have finished another six full marathons, at which point he'll be ready to pull on his running shoes once more for the Bermuda Triangle Challenge 2009.