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Wednesday, August 9, 2000 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER C1 LIVE ENTERTAINMENT Every Friday Sweater Puppets Town Centre I DervUftQEW 844-8703 August 11 Holyfield vs. Ruiz Sat. August 12 10 p.m An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: N O R M NELSO N Phone:845-3824, ext 255 Fax:337-5567 E-mail:nnelson@ haltonsearch.com Photos Special to the Beaver CLOCKWISE: Janice Marshall before her swim and on the bike (inset). Marshall King during the marathon. Janice and Marshall with (far left) Marshall's mom, Mikey King, after completing Iron Man U.S.A. Oakville couple completes Iron Man U S A By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR | ouch potatoes they were four years ago. So long long ago it seems like an eternity for this thirty-something Oakville couple -- 35-year-old Marshall King and his 32-year-old wife, Janice King. Now, they've both recently completed Iron Man U.S.A. at Lake Placid, New York. They were nowhere near the top and didn't qualify for the big race, the Hawaiian Iron Man. But that's never usually the point of these stories. The sport is so gruelling that just to com plete it, is usually enough to spark most peo ple's interest. It's not like golf. Tell someone that you completed 18 holes at Glen Abbey golf course and that's just not enough. What did you shoot. But tell someone you just completed a 26mile marathon, and that was after a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride, and they're usually quite impressed without even wanting to know the time. For the record, the Kings were both pleased with their results, in what was both their sec ond attempt at the Iron Man, but especially so for Janice, just because she was able to com plete it this time. Their first ever Iron Man was last year at the same event. Janice completed the swim but didn't make the bike cut-off time, so she had to go to the sidelines to cheer on her hubby who did go on and experience the euphoria of run ning into the packed and appreciative stadium. This year, she also joined that select compa ny. She was able to cut 15 minutes off her 2.4- C mile swim and a whole hour off her 112-mile bike ride, and for that she earned the luxury of moving on to the 26-mile marathon. She entered the run, she said, feeling tired, like she had put in a good day's work, which, of course, she had. But that's the nature of the beast: to test your body's limits of endurance. "I have never been so uncertain of my body," she related. "People were wobbling and weaving all around, and I wasn't sure where my body was at. I did a lot of walking." Even then, with her power walking, she was able to pass people, particularly the wobblers and the weavers. Her uncertainty peaked about a half mile from the end. She had never felt so exhausted and she felt like she was going to be sick to her stomach. But the stadium did finally appear, and it was no mirage, and with it the sickness and the exhaustion were sucked out. As she entered the stadium and received the ovation that all finishers do, she said "it felt like I hadn't done anything that day. The crowd was amazing." Completion time: 16 hours, 16 minutes, 58 seconds. Marshall was among those to greet her, hav ing finished in 13 hours, 29 minutes and 33 seconds. For the record that was about three minutes worse than his time last year which is why he was more pleased with his wife's results than his own. (The top male finisher was American Cameron Widoff in 8:46:05; top female finish er was Canadian Melissa Spooner of Victoria B.C. in 9:45:57.) "We were really happy with Janice's time. The run is incredibly -- / call it exquisitely -- painful. Because it takes long, and your feet, your legs are just killing you. Usually you've got stomach problems. It's quite painful except when you enter the arena to go around the loop, you forget about all of that and you feel fine, and you wonder why you did n 't have the energy before to run like you're running now. · 2X Iron Man Marshall King Mine was the same as last year, so ... Actually, he wasn't really displeased, given that he's a full time student, these days, pursu ing an MBA at Western University in London. Janice is an accountant with TD Waterhouse in Toronto. "Considering I didn't do much training, I'm pretty happy with my time." They practiced together on weekends. On Saturdays at Kelso, they would swim for an hour, do some hill training for a couple of hours and then go for an hour run. On Sundays, they would go for a six or seven hour bike ride. "So those were the heaviest days," said Marshall. Throughout the week, on their own, they put in an hour or two, either biking or running. The fitness bug hit these thirty-somethings rather late in their athletic lives, and ironically was sparked while sitting on the couch watch ing the Hawaiian Iron man on T.V. "I had just started running. I think I had just done my first 10K. I had run during high school but hadn't done much since. And my wife really hadn't done much in the way of physical things for quite a few years. "We almost were couch potatoes. "But we wanted to start getting into shape." They were helped by the fact that North America's largest triathlon series (sponsored by Suburu and formerly by President's Choice) is run right here in southern Ontario, and that they found some kindred souls in the Milton triathlon club. "There's actually a triathlon here every week in Ontario and that's how we got started. I just moved from there to Olympic distances, and then from Olympic distances, the next nat ural progression is an Iron Man so we decided to train for it last year." The ultimate for an Iron Man competitor is Hawaii. "That would be my goal to make it to Hawaii but to be quite honest I won't ever be that good. That is certainly our Holy Grail but I guess we're content enough to watch it on T.V. and appreciate what they go through." The pain of the Iron Man, he related, "does n't really set in until you start the run." "The run is incredibly -- I call it exquisite ly -- painful. Because it takes long, and your feet, your legs are just killing you. Usually you've got stomach problems." Which begs the question of why do it. "It's quite painful except when you enter the arena to go around the loop, you forget about all of that and you feel fine, and you wonder why you didn't have the energy before to run like you're running now. "So yeah, it's quite a feeling, to hear all that crowd cheering and to see the finish line is an incredible feeling." Oakville `little leaguers' nearly pull off miracle comeback at Can-Am tourney When you take an 11-year-old baseball team to a 12-year-old tour nament, you have to expect some tough competition. Oakville's Little League minor team has done this before, winning consolation honours in the Ancaster tourney, and a runner-up position at Battle Creek, M ichigan, both of these events in June. So with lots of practice time since then, the minors journeyed to Syracuse, N.T, for the 10th annual CAN-AM tourney. Oakville won their three prelimi nary round games against New York State com petition -- 6-5 over Cicero, 19-1 over Liverpool and 164 over Mattydale. That earned them a semifinal berth against Syracuse North, who were finalists in the recently con cluded New York State tourney. The minors made it 2-0 in the top o f the second inning as A.J. ¥ O 'Brodovich and Alden Black scored after Patch Channing's sacri fice and Ryan Mallough's fielder's choice. The boys from Syracuse tied it up at 2-2 in their half of the inning, and then built it up to 6-2 after three runs in the third and one in the fifth. That lead was looking pretty good in the bottom of the sixth when it came under surprise attack from, of all places, the bottom of the Oakville batting order. Daniel Keresteci opened the inning with a single to centre field, Alex Carnall walked, and Chris Stewart singled to load the bases. Matt Downer worked a walk to score Keresteci; Roger Lambert was hit by the pitcher, scoring Carnall; and Scott DeGroot singled scoring Stewart. Suddenly, the gap was reduced to 6-5, none out, with the bases still loaded. Syracuse quickly brought in their closer and he got the next two bat ters via the strike-out route, and a fielder's choice ended Oakville's comeback attempt. "That was a great game against a real fine team," said Oakville coach Dave Downer after the game. "To play at their level was a real plus for our boys." In the earlier games, another of New York State's top teams, Cicero, felt the sting of the Oakville Minors in a close one, 6-5. Run scorers were Stewart (2), Downer (2 hits), DeGroot, O'Brodovich (winning run) and Carnall. Other offensive help came from Mallough (double), and singles by Keresteci, Marko Dordevic and Adam Davidson with an important RBI. O'Brodovich was the winning pitcher, Black got the save along with 5 K's. Oakville's second game was an 18-1 win over an overmatched Liverpool team. Stewart, with a single, double and triple and three runs, was the hitting star of the game. Doubles were contributed by Lambert (2) and Channing with singles by Ryan M alhotra (2), Black (2), Sergio Lujan (2), DeGroot, O 'Brodovich, Keresteci and Carnall. Overall, it was a run fest for the whole team. Downer was the win ning pitcher. In the third game Mattydale put the fear into the Minors in the first inning with two home runs and three runs. Oakville tied it up in the second, and then saw Mattydale move ahead 4-3 in the third. Oakville batters made it 5-4 in the fourth, and then with their best inning of the season `mercied' Mattydale with 11 runs for a 16-4 win. Dordevic was the winning pitcher. Chris Stewart was the hitting star for the Oakville minors at the 10th annual Can-Am tourney.