Everybody in the Cariboo knows Bob Simpson.
But, they know him in a suit standing in the legislative assembly, not sweating in spandex on a bike or ploughing through water with a huge group of athletes, churning it into a froth.
But Simpson has known as much success as a triathlete and saw it again at the Stanley Park Worlds Qualifier at the beginning of the month after a long break from the sport.
“It was testing: did I have another Worlds in this aging body of mine?” Simpson said.
The test turned out to be more positive than he had expected; he won his age group by three minutes and took sixth overall out of the 72 men in the 40+.
The win was not only a resounding confirmation that he could still make it up in the rarified air of international competition, but a surprise for Simpson.
“As I said to my friends, I was going for a ‘non-embarrassing’ result,” Simpson said.
To add to the drama of Simpson’s re-entry into the triathlete world, mother nature decided to up the ante, adding lightning to the swimming round, causing officials to call everyone out of the water.
“Because of lightning during our swim, we were turned back to shore at the one km mark,” he said.
The male 40+ group then had to start over, but only do a sprint distance event – half of the 1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run Olympic distance.
The triathlon was meant initially to be a foot in the door of Nationals, which is in Edmonton next year.
Because the Worlds are hosted in Canada extra berths are open to the Canadian triathletes, leading to laxer entry requirements. So Simpson set out to meet those requirements, which include being a member in good standing at his local association and having raced during the year.
After 11 years out of the sport, running across the Edmonton Worlds was a bit of serendipity for the ex-politician.
Competing on a global scale can get to be an expensive proposition, with competitions happening all over the world. But when Simpson was looking at getting back into the game he Googled the Worlds competition out of curiosity and found it happening figuratively in his back yard and gained a goal to train towards.
Simpson only had a summer to get himself back into shape for his re-entrance into the tri world.
“I had to lose a bunch of weight – my political fat,” he said.
The first bit of training, after years in which he failed to keep up his fitness, was painful, he said. But chipping away the body politic to get at his athletic body, he started to feel good.
The training did more than just hone his body, is helped him hone his swimming stroke.
“Swimming is all about skill. You can be strong as an ox but it won’t help you swim faster,” he said.
Now he’s looking forward to a season of training to get him back in top form for the Worlds, including a run at the Triathlon Race Series.
Before racing was edged out of his life by growing commitments at work and starting a masters, followed by his run in politics which, he said, doesn’t offer a lot of time for extra-curricular activities, Simpson had taken on the world in Cancun which was a hellish 40 degrees with 98 per cent humidity.
The heat and switch from a cold Cariboo left him feeling like he had more to give.
“I felt I didn’t give 100 per cent,” he said.
After a good swim and a fantastic ride, Simpson dialled it back too far during the run. This left him with a nagging desire to go back.
He wants to make up for that mistake this time so he can know he’s gone as far as he can on the big stage.
Nevertheless he was named B.C.’s male triathlete of the year by triathlon B.C. for the third place and for winning provincials and nationals in his age group (45-49).
Simpson is headed to Edmonton for the Worlds competition, early September next year – running the same course he won on at the Nationals in 2002.
This time he knows both the course and that he will give it his all.
“I just want to know when I put my foot on the finish line I’ve given it 100 per cent.”
