Recently graduated from high school, Hamilton’s Holly Blackwood looks forward to making this upcoming season her best yet.Recently graduated from high school, Hamilton’s Holly Blackwood looks forward to making this upcoming season her best yet.
Holly was inspired to get into triathlon after watching a friend of hers compete. It looked like fun so she went on to do her first race. While she did not set any speed records at that first race, the experience felt so rewarding to complete something so difficult, that she has been at it ever since.
“My first race was in Milton in the summer of 2004. The race was pretty difficult because my for my first year of racing I had this old Miele, which was a team bike (from Hammerheads) and I just felt like no matter how hard I tried people were just flying by me on the bike.
Those days of being easily passed on the bike are less of an occurrence for the 2007 HSBC GT 12.9 Series Age Group Champion (females under 20), but one just has to watch her race to realize that the swim is clearly her best event.
“My favourite portion of the race is swimming. My swim usually helps me get in the front at the beginning of the race, because in shorter races swimming is usually the more difficult part for some people and I find it the easiest.
Holly’s success in triathlon can be easily attributed to her work ethic and her well-rounded athletic background. In high school she was a two-time athlete of the year playing sports such as volleyball, football, waterpolo, basketball, baseball and soccer. But she also had extensive dance and swim training.
“Before I started triathlon I had been a competitive dancer for almost 10 years. I also took swimming lessons until I was 12, explained Holly. “I joined the Hammer Head triathlon team in 2003 and started racing in 2004. After my first racing season I quit dance and triathlon became my main focus.
This summer, we just might see the best racing from Holly. Up until last year, Holly was training six times a week and for about two hours a day, but scaled back her training to concentrate on school. But now that she has graduated, she’s returned to training hard once again.
“My favourite workouts are bricks because you get to combine different workouts and change things up. They are also killer for training.
On top of regularly competing in the HSBC GT 12.9 series races and defending her series title, she plans on adding a few sprint distance events, with her favourite sites being Lakeside and Welland. After this race season concludes, Holly will begin her University studies with the goal of becoming a physical education teacher.