2023 Season Review

As the Human Powered Racing Training and Racing season winds down, it is a great chance to look back on some of the remarkable achievements that were accomplished by our athletes this past year.

Human Powered Racing runs from December through to the end of September, but it seems the racing never really ends with so many of our athletes getting ready for fall marathons, 1/2 marathons and even some 70.3’s that are in December. But back in January we had a number of our athletes kick off the 2023 season with the Island Running Series. Some incredible early season performances were put in and we even had team members place overall in the series with Martina Beck finishing in 2nd place in the women’s 35- 39 and Jordan Lamarche placing 3rd in the 35 – 39 men.

As winter turned to spring and the training ramped up we had a number of our athletes head to Kona for the Lavaman Triathlon. Sandy Wilson placed 2nd overall in the women’s 50-54 and Mike Neill finished first in the men’s 50 – 54 while Erik and Eileen Harper took second overall in the mixed relay.

In May, a group of our athletes made the journey to Mallorca for the 70.3. Diana Thaxter, Sandy Wilson (10th in Women’s 50 – 54), Mike Neill, Gerald and Lisa Kersten all took part and competed hard at this iconic event.

Two big races at the end of May/ start of June had our teams racing season really ramping into high gear. The Victoria 70.3 had our relay team of Erik Harper/ Mike Neill and Christopher Mavrikos placing 3rd.

The week after Victoria was the Oliver race weekend where HPR was very well represented on the podium in many events. On Saturday in the sprint distance event, Mike Neill finished 1st in the men’s 50 – 54, Marsha Petty-Johnson finished 2nd in the women’s 70+ and Martina Beck finished 3rd in the women’s 35 – 39. In the Standard distance event, Gail Guptil finished strong with a 3rd place finish in the 60 – 64 division.

The Half Iron on the Sunday had Sandy Wilson finishing in 2nd place in the 50 – 54, Jess Gorges finishing 3rd in the 35 – 39, Diana Thaxter taking 3rd in the 55-59 and Jenn Campbell winning the 60 – 64 age group!! In the mixed relay the HPR team consisting of Martina Beck, Mike Gregory, Madison Koniuk and Mike Neill placed 3rd overall.

Our first Ironman finisher of the year was Monique Moore who refused to quit and gutted out a very inspired finish at Ironman Couer D’Alene on a very tough day. On that same day, Cordell Lloyd and Madison Koniuk had traveled all the way to Nice, France where they tackled the 70.3 event in brutally hot conditions. The event proved to be the start of a life long journey as they finished together and were engaged soon after :)

Not only was The Cowichan Challenge a HPR Event, but it also proved to be a great race for Martina Beck who finished 2nd in the women’s 35 – 39 Standard race and Gerald Kersten who won the men’s 60 – 64 Sprint race.

In August, The Elk Lake Triathlon saw Carole Richer win the 60 – 64 division of the AquaBike event.

Ironman Tremblant was the big race of the summer for Jess Gorges and Diana Thaxter and they did not disappoint with incredible performances. Jess finished 9th in the 35 – 39 in her first Ironman while Diana got her spot for Kona with a 3rd place finish in the 55-59 division.

The Ironman World Championship for the men had moved to Nice in 2023 and HPR was represented by Mike Gregory who went up against the best in the world on an extremely tough and different course from Kona.

This past weekend, Mike Neill and Jordan Lamarache finished off their seasons at the Maple Valley 70.3 just outside of Seattle where Mike finished 1st in the 50 – 54 division and Jordan had an exceptional race and finished with a great time of 4:49, good enough for 10th in the 35- 39 age group.

Although the official 2023 HPR season is coming to an end, the planning for 2024 has begun. If you are looking for a great team to train and race with drop us an email;