Murchison librarian of 25 years and volunteer ambulance officer, Janne Falkner, has just come back from competing at the World Triathlon Age-Group Championships on the Gold Coast.
After training for a year and overcoming a fear of water, Janne was pleased with her efforts and says she finished the race faster than her original qualifying time.
“I had a wonderful time, the people I raced with were fantastic and I loved every minute of it. I went in with no expectations of a placing, I just didn’t want to be last. It was always just about being a part of the race, for me.”
Janne was pleased with finishing the event “halfway through the pack” after losing two places in the run when she stopped to help an athlete with heat stroke.
Overall, Janne says, she was 10.49 minutes faster than her qualifying race. “8.14 minutes faster on bike, 3.13 faster in swim and .38 secs slower in the run.”
She says she fell in to the sport “by accident”, starting with fun runs. Her coach planted the seed for competing in the triathlon, “he sent me to a swim coach in Nelson where I had a year of lessons. I have been petrified of the water since I was a child.”
But Janne says it was the running section of the race that turned out to be the toughest part, “it was 28.3 degrees, pretty tough for someone from the South who is used to running in the freezing cold.”
Nothing slows Janne down. Just days after the Gold Coast race she completed the Sydney Harbour Bridge Run and the Kings Canyon Rim Walk – meant to be completed in 3 to 4 hours, Janne did it in just over an hour.
Next on the list is the Abel Tasman Trail Run in a few weeks, the Nelson Half Marathon in November, an Iron Man competition in December, a 4.6 km sea swim in Auckland in May, 2019 and then what Janne says is one of the world’s toughest, with over 5000 steps; the Great Wall Marathon, in 2019.
“I just love it, it makes me feel so good now. When I was at school I was embarrassed at always coming last and didn’t I run again for another 50 years!”