Ranked fifth in the World Cup ultra women standings, up from 26th last year, Vernon’s Shanda Hill is hardly in break mode.
The 35-year-old extreme athlete just left for Virginia and and a shot at the Virginia Triple Anvil triathlon, held at Lake Anna State Park in Spotsylvania. She was sixth in the 2016 Quintuple triathlon.
The Virgina race consists of a 12-kilometre swim, 54-k cycle and 126-k run. Athletes must be done within 60 hours.
Hill, a landscaper and single mother of a 12-year-old son (Tyrese) when not working for Rancho Vignola, finished the Swiss Deca Ultratriathlon Continuous last month. It’s a race that is the equivalent of 10 Ironman triathlons.
She was the 103rd athlete to finish the Deca since 2006 and only the seventh female ever to complete the torture test. She was the first Canadian female to finish and her time is 64th best.
Hill and others are serious about taking the Swiss Deca to even higher levels.
“Six of us athletes want a double continuous deca,” said the personable Hill. “We have petitioned for that for next year. It’s fun and we wanna do the tough, bigger challenge.”
The younger sister of world-class snowboarder Kevin Hill, Shanda marvels at her ultra opponents who usually become friends. She mentioned a retired teacher who saved all year to compete and pushed hard to finish second overall. Then there was Joey Licther, a young University of Florida professor who got food poisoning but never surrendered despite placing last at 16.
“I do these races to see what I’m made of. Imagine if you had 16 people in a room with all the positive no limits. There isn’t anything in politics that couldn’t be done.”
Hill laughs now about a painful greeting with a stinging nettle, a prolific perennial plant that has hairs called trichomes lining its leaves and stems. As a defence strategy, these hairs act like tiny needles to inject chemicals into invading pests and predators – or your legs as you walk by.
“I was taking a bathroom break off course and for the next two hours it felt like I had a bee sting. What killed me was I didn’t take any pain killers. It was much like childbirth.”
On Day 9, Hill suffered blisters and she took some ibiprofen to make through Day 11. With a 70 per cent humidity, she felt mentally exhausted all the time.
“Jumping 20 feet in the air and knowing you can crack your head open is exciting,” said Hill. “You have 10 days to tackle everything on the course and I did it. There was one guy in a sit bike because of back issues and to me, it makes him a fricking hero.”
Shanda and her 61-year-old machinist father, Don, often “do stupid stuff together. He’s my sports hero.”
They have run marathons side by side and there is always a friendly competition.
Shanda finished the Swiss Deca a few days before the deadline.
“I wanted the vacation days to lay on the beach,” she smiled. “I volunteered in the final days.”