he 2010 Pharmasave Christina Lake Triathlon went June 27 and while it was Kelly Geisheimer’s first time competing in this particular event, she dominated.

Geisheimer not only took first place in the females between 19-39 years of age category, she took first overall.

The Rossland resident was also the first out of the water during the swimming event, first on her bike for the cycling event and the first to hit the running course – she finished with an overall time of 1:13:16

“I had a really good time,” said Geisheimer moments after crossing the finish line.

“It’s a super-fun course; a nice and twisty bike ride and the amount of people out here is just incredible.”

There were some who expressed concern about Christina Lake’s temperature prior to the triathlon’s start but Geisheimer didn’t seem to mind, as she finished the swim split event in 12-minutes flat.

“It wasn’t bad. I’ve swam in Champion Lake this year and I’ve been in Kootenay Lake and this is probably the warmest of them all,” explained the champion.

“With the wetsuit on it’s just your hands and feet that get cold.”

Gray Creek, BC’s Juergen Baetzel finished second overall and first amongst males 19-39 with a time of 1:16:16 and was only three minutes behind Geisheimer.

Baetzel said he started slowly on the swim and while he tried to make up ground during the bike and running portion but he was still happy with his day’s performance.

“I’m feeling pretty good, I think overall, I did pretty good. There was a girl ahead of me (Geisheimer) and I tried to catch up to her on the run and I didn’t quite get her.”

“It’s the third time I’ve been to the race and I’m really happy.”

2010 was the sixth annual running of the triathlon and John Mackey, Grand Forks’ recreation director, says that while the event has grown to accommodate 125 adults and 50 children, numbers were down slightly this year.

“This is only the second year where we haven’t sold out; we’re at 110 adults and 30 kids,” Mackey said.

“But with the way the spring was, a lot of people were probably iffy about coming and we lost seven people to injury over the last two weeks, so they had to withdraw from the event.”

He also says that Christina Lake is the perfect place to hold the event

“It’s a beautiful lake and people were always saying, ‘Geez, you should have a triathlon here some day,’ so we took it to heart and we put this together.”

“You can’t beat the location and Christina Lake has some of the best volunteers around.”

Supporters lined the Christina Lake area to cheer on triathlon participants and one in particular caught the eyes of some of the athletes.

A lady with a boom box played the theme from the movie Rocky, “Gonna Fly Now,” which provided both comic relief and some inspiration.

“Every time a runner came by, she would start up the theme (music) and then she’d stop it and she’d start it again when the next person came, so every time you ran by you’d get the Rocky music pumping,” said Geisheimer with a laugh.

“It was awesome.”

Baetzel also found the horns of the song giving him a boost of adrenaline.

“It pumps you up,” he said.

Baetzel, like Geisheimer, was impressed with the cycling route of the triathlon saying that windy route was exciting to navigate.

Mackey said that people can submit applications for next year’s event in January.