The motivators are many and varied for the 600+ hearty souls who assembled this past weekend on the shores of Lake Crowley or at various outposts across Kivi Park.

The end goal, however, is a consistent one: to Conquer the Crater.

Come from near and far they did, the number of participants doubling in size since 2023 for the XTERRA event that featured a dozen or so different offerings.

Tackling the full distance off-road triathlon for the third time at the Sudbury race that is rapidly becoming an engrained mid-July tradition, Hockley Valley resident Heather Pady took top spot among all women, followed once again by local standout Sara McIlraith – quite the accomplishment for the 50+ crowd.

“I had a great race today,” said Pady, her first indoctrination to the world of triathlons dating all the way back to her university days at Western, joining a campus club team at that time. “I feel if I had come in fifth place, I would have said the same thing.”

By 2010, Pady had expanded her sporting repertoire to include mountain biking, catching wind of the XTERRA adventure races just a few years later. “I started pretty much from scratch for cycling and swimming – but I just got to the point where I was never amazing at one thing, but really solid in all three.”

“It’s served me well.”

Rest assured that it’s not just past success that sees the 51 year-old circling this weekend on her calendar every summer. “This is a great course,” said Pady. “Their swim is so beautiful, so calm and pretty with the rocks. The bike course is so different for me than what I have at home. It’s a real mountain biker course.”

“And everyone here is so nice.”

In fact, it is indeed the athletic community in which she is immersed that faciliates the hours and hours that Pady and those of her kind must devote to the training for events like Conquer the Crater. “Training is so much fun because I have other people that do all of these things with me, so I never feel like it’s work,” she said.

“I’m very fortunate.”

That is a sentiment that lives forever in the world of former Sudburian Lindsay Richan, who now calls Val D’Or home. Born in Saskatoon, the 38 year-old who was tackling the 21km trail run for the very first time at Kivi Park grew up an athlete, proudly representing the University of Regina Cougars women’s varsity soccer team.

Moving to Sudbury in 2010, she quickly connected with those involved with the Sudbury Rocks Running Club, developing a true passion for simply lacing up her shoes and exploring the great outdoors.

In October of 2018, however, her world would change forever.

A head-on collision outside of Val D’Or left Richan (a passenger) as the only survivor – as well as a slew of challenges to overcome. “I should not even be walking according to doctors,” said the woman who finds it difficult to pull in the reins and let this process flow at a healthy and reasonable rate.

“My L4 exploded – but somehow did not hit my spine. I broke both my arms, my neck, my face.”

Though she credits the fact that she has absolutely no recollection whatsoever of the accident in terms of assisting her rehabilitation process, those who know her well credit her steely resolve and mindset that accentuates the positive, always.

“I wanted to get back to running, right away,” Richan recalled.

Five weeks in a Montreal hospital would be followed by a year of rehab in Gatineau and then out-patient commitments through to the fall of 2020.

“They told me that running was not a good idea,” she said. “I heard that and appreciated that – but just didn’t listen. I was dead set on running again.”

Her friends in Sudbury had forwarded a pair of shoes, early on, providing whatever encouragement they could, from a distance. She still has those shoes, a reminder of why she perseveres.

“It’s still a learning process,” said Richan. “My mind was ready but my body was not – which is the hardest thing. There were a lot of setbacks and a few more surgeries. But running was everything to me. It was so much part of my life – and not just the running, but the people, the support, just everything.”

A first time participant at the event, Tristan McClay used the standard medium for any self-respecting 22 year old to find out more about the course he was about to tackle Saturday in the Full Distance Off-Road Triathlon: he connected with local athlete Russell Joiner via Instagram.

A hockey player growing up, the native of Long Point (ON – on the shores of Lake Erie, roughly a half-hour west of Port Dover) joined up with the HAX racing team a little over a year ago, a group that is largely focused on preparing athletes for their crack at a Half-Ironman or the full 140.6 mile distance.

“I’ve been kind of looking for something to do the last couple of years,” said McClay. “I felt like I needed that competitive edge again.”

And for as much as his end goal of attempting a full Ironman this fall in either Florida or Arizona is not fully in lockstep with the entity that is adventure racing at Conquer the Crater, McClay has good reason for adding this one to his calendar.

“I just think this is a lot more fun,” he said. “I just love mountain biking. The trail running might not be my thing but I love mountain biking, so overall, it’s pretty enjoyable. And the swimming is pretty similar in that it is just an open water swim.”

Having never visited Sudbury in the summer but familiar with the area thanks to his keen interest in snowmobiling, McClay echoed the pervasive belief as competitor after competitor crossed the finish line over two days of racing.

“It’s just a very friendly community.”

Following are the race winners in some of the individual races and distances:

Full Distance Off-Road Triathlon
Men – Wolfgang Guembel – 2:32.52
Women – Heather Pady – 2:55.10

Short Distance Off-Road Triathlon
Men – Julian Luoma – 1:20.58
Women – Nicole Turk – 1:45.30

42km Trail Run
Men – Maxime Bachelot – 4:19.39
Women – Allison Thompson – 3:59.27

21km Trail Run
Men – Jeffrey Paul – 1:42.01
Women – Lindsay Richan – 1:54.40

10km Trail Run
Men – Aurel Fox-Recollet – 42:57
Women - Kerri Lamarche – 45:50

Full Distance Off-Road Duathlon
Men – Frank Boehm – 2:46.17
Women – Barbara Wolczak – 3:03.48

Short Distance Off-Road Duathlon
Men – Wes Van Ooyen – 1:31.01
Women – Amanda Robitaille – 1:49.32