AGE GROUP PROFILE

Rosemary Wedlake

Fifteen years ago Rosemary Wedlake set a course record at her first Ironman. She rode a second-hand, heavy steel bike and wore a helmet she bought at Canadian Tire. She was, and still is, a humble athlete who doesn’t look for glory, but it manages to find her. In 2019, for the second time, she won her age group at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship.

Competing in the 65 to 69 age group in Nice, France, last year, Wedlake found the championship course to be quite challenging.

“I was surprised when I finished first,” she says. “I don’t race against people, I just race for myself.”

She is not keen on mountain courses and was amazed to watch the European cyclists climb and descend the mountains so smoothly.

Wedlake was pleased when a storm lowered the water temperature enough to allow wetsuits.

“The swim was rather choppy, and there was a bit of a swell, which made it really hard to sight my way back,” she says. “I actually swam 2,038 m instead of 1,900 m – it’s a bad thing that I can’t swim straight.”

Wedlake’s first Ironman 70.3 World Championship win was here in Canada at Mont-Tremblant in 2014 in the 60 to 64 age group. She recalls the swim there was very calm in comparison to Nice.

Wedlake’s path to triathlon began indirectly when she quit smoking at the age of 40 and took up running. After doing well at a local 10 km race, she was hooked. When she was 45, Wedlake qualified for the prestigious Boston Marathon and, after that, ran two marathons a year in addition to 5 and 10 km races local to her in London, Ont.

Several years later, her husband, Morris, passed away. At some point after that, Wedlake began running “excessively,” about 100 km a week. To alleviate running injuries, she switched to triathlon training in 2004 and found “the break up of different routines was a lot better than straight running.”

That same year, Wedlake bought her heavy steel bike and joined the London Centennial Wheelers. She also took swim lessons at the local YMCA because, she declares, “I’m a sinker, not a swimmer.” Open water brought on panic attacks, but she tackled that, too.

“I’ve learned to swim at my own pace and to get out of the crowd,” she says, “away from the thrashing and kicking. It takes me longer in the water than I like, but it means I don’t have a panic attack.”

Wedlake choose Ironman Florida in 2005 as her first race, in part because it was flat. Then she hired coach Sheri Fraser and they worked together for three years.

“Sheri is very experienced in triathlon and was very helpful in helping me put it all together,” she says.

Arriving in Florida and checking out the transition area, Wedlake was amused to see only one bike that was older than hers. She went in with an attitude of “no worries” if her results were poor, but they were great.

“I set a course record for my age group, but I ran the whole run. I was a newbie and I could not ever do that again,” she says.

In total, Wedlake has signed up for 10 Ironman races, but due to an injury, she couldn’t finish one in Cozumel, Mexico. She has qualified for the Ironman World Championship multiple times and competed there twice; first in 2008 when she took her sons and their wives along for a holiday. She returned in 2013 and managed to finish despite a difficult injury. After that race, Wedlake switched her focus to the 70.3 distance.

In 2015, there were more injuries when Wedlake was hit by a car while cycling.

“I incurred a concussion, whiplash, road rash and soft tissue damage. Since then I’m not comfortable riding in groups and having to concentrate on watching the riders in front of me,” she explains.

Wedlake does love her training and jokes about being obsessive-compulsive over it. Leading up to the Nice world championship last year, she was training 21 to 25 hours a week. Since she was still working, looking back she wonders how she fit it all in.

Although the training is important to her, what Wedlake values most about triathlon is the friendships she has made along the way. Able to start a conversation with anyone who makes eye contact, she has easily acquired lots of new friends. Every year, she travels to Europe with like-minded cyclists who balance lots of daily mileage with relaxing evenings and wine.

In 2020, Wedlake was planning on a cycling tour in Tuscany, two half-distance races and possibly the 70.3 worlds in New Zealand. But, for now, like most of the world, her plans are on hold. At some point, she will definitely be on a start line, ready to race against herself yet again.

“I never look to see who is in my age group,” she says. “I check how many are in the group, but I don’t look at the names. I just try to do the best I can for myself.”